A comprehensive documentation for a Personal Financial Tracking System

would follow a structured approach, covering various aspects from the initial
project proposal to system deployment and maintenance.

Chapter 1.0: Project Proposal

This chapter would lay the groundwork for the Personal Financial Tracking Sys-
tem.

· 1.1 Background of the study: Discuss the increasing need for individuals to
manage their finances effectively and the challenges they face without proper
tools.
· 1.2 Introduction: Briefly introduce the concept of a personal financial tracking
system and its general purpose.
· 1.3 Problem statement: Clearly articulate the problems the system aims to
solve, such as difficulty in tracking expenses, budgeting, or understanding
spending habits.
· 1.4 Proposed solution: Present the Personal Financial Tracking System as the
solution to the identified problems.
· 1.5 Project objectives:
· 1.5.1 General objectives: Outline broad goals like empowering users to gain
control over their finances.
· 1.5.2 SMART objectives: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and
time-bound objectives, e.g., "Develop a system that allows users to track daily
expenses with 95% accuracy within three months."
· 1.6 Project Scope:
· 1.6.1 Inclusions: Specify what the system will cover, e.g., expense tracking, in-
come logging, budget creation.
· 1.6.2 Exclusions: Clearly state what the system will NOT cover, e.g., investment
management, tax filing.
· 1.6.3 Constraints: Identify limitations such as budget, time, or available re-
sources.
· 1.7 Project justification: Explain why this project is necessary and its potential
benefits to users.
· 1.8 Assumption and Dependencies: List any assumptions made during planning
and external factors the project depends on.
· 1.9 Key deliverables: Enumerate the main outputs of the project, such as a
functional web application, mobile app, or reports.

Chapter 2.0: Literature Review

This chapter would explore existing knowledge and similar systems.

· 2.1 Introduction: Provide an overview of the literature review's purpose.

· 2.2 Related work: Analyze existing personal financial tracking software, finan-
cial management principles, and relevant technologies.
· 2.3 Research gaps: Identify areas where current solutions fall short and how the
proposed system can fill those gaps.
· 2.4 Summary and Conclusions: Synthesize the findings from the literature re-
view and draw conclusions relevant to the Personal Financial Tracking System.

Chapter 3: Feasibility Study

This chapter assesses the viability of the project from various angles.

· 3.1 Technical feasibility:

· 3.1.1 Hardware and software requirements: Specify the necessary infrastruc-
ture and tools for development and deployment.
· 3.1.2 Technical expertise: Evaluate the availability of skilled personnel for de-
velopment and maintenance.
· 3.1.3 Technical risks: Identify potential technical challenges and propose miti-
gation strategies.
· 3.2 Economic feasibility:
· 3.2.1 Development costs: Estimate expenses related to design, coding, and
testing.
· 3.2.2 Maintenance costs: Project ongoing costs for updates, bug fixes, and sup-
port.
· 3.2.3 Benefits: Quantify or describe the financial and non-financial benefits of
the system.
· 3.3 Schedule feasibility:
· 3.3.1 Project complexity: Assess the difficulty and scope of the project.
· 3.3.2 Team size and experience: Consider the impact of the development
team's composition.
· 3.3.3 Resource availability: Evaluate the readiness of necessary resources (hu-
man, financial, technological).
· 3.3.4 External factors: Account for any external influences that might affect the
timeline.
· 3.4 Organizational feasibility:
· 3.4.1 Organizational Culture: Consider how the system aligns with the organiza-
tion's (or target users' habits) culture.
· 3.4.2 Organizational resources: Assess if the organization can provide the nec-
essary resources for the project.
· 3.4.3 Organizational commitment: Determine the level of commitment from
stakeholders.
· 3.5 Operational feasibility:
· 3.5.1 User acceptance: Evaluate the likelihood of users adopting and embracing
the system.
· 3.5.2 Organizational change: Consider any changes in processes or workflows
required for the system's integration.
· 3.5.3 Operational risks: Identify potential risks to daily operations once the sys-
tem is deployed.
· 3.6 Legal feasibility:
· 3.6.1 Data privacy laws: Ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR or local
data protection acts.
· 3.6.2 Intellectual property laws: Address ownership of the system's code and
design.
· 3.6.3 Other applicable laws and regulations: Include any other relevant legal
considerations.
· 3.7 Conclusion: Summarize the overall feasibility of the project.

Chapter 4: System Development Methodology

This chapter details the approach to building the system.

· 4.1 Introduction: Introduce the importance of a structured development

methodology.
· 4.2 Overview of system development methodologies: Briefly describe various
methodologies like Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, etc..
· 4.3 Chosen system development methodology: State the specific methodology
selected for the Personal Financial Tracking System (e.g., Agile Scrum).
· 4.4 Rationale for chosen system development methodology: Justify why the se-
lected methodology is best suited for this project.
· 4.5 Describe the chosen system development methodology or methodologies
describing it or their stages using diagrams where appropriate, E.g.:
· 4.5.1 Requirements gathering: Detail how user needs and system functionali-
ties will be collected.
· 4.5.2 System design: Explain the process of designing the system architecture,
user interface, and database.
· 4.5.3 System implementation: Describe the coding and development phase.
· 4.5.4 System testing: Outline the different types of testing to be performed.
· 4.5.5 System deployments: Explain the process of releasing the system to
users.

Chapter 5.0: System Requirements Specification

This chapter outlines the detailed requirements for the system.

· 5.1 Introduction: Provide an overview of the system requirements.

· 5.2 Functional requirements: Specify what the system must do.
· 5.2.1 Use cases: Describe typical interactions users will have with the system
(e.g., "User tracks an expense," "User creates a budget").
· 5.2.2 User stories: Present requirements from the user's perspective (e.g., "As a
user, I want to categorize my expenses so I can see where my money goes").
· 5.2.3 Functional Requirements Specifications (FRSs): Detailed descriptions of
each function.
· 5.2.4 Functional Decomposition Diagrams (FDDs): Visual representations break-
ing down functions into sub-functions.
· 5.3 Acceptance criteria: Define the conditions that must be met for a require-
ment to be considered complete and acceptable.
· 5.4 Non-functional requirements: Specify qualities of the system, rather than
specific functions.
· 5.4.1 Performance requirements: How fast and responsive the system should
be (e.g., "Expense logging should take less than 2 seconds").
· 5.4.2 Security requirements: How the system will protect user data (e.g., "All
user data must be encrypted at rest and in transit").
· 5.4.3 Scalability requirements: The system's ability to handle increasing num-
bers of users or data.
· 5.4.4 Usability requirements: How easy and intuitive the system is to use.
· 5.5 External Interface Requirements: Describe how the system will interact with
other systems (e.g., banking APIs for transaction imports).
· 5.6 Assumptions and Dependencies: List any assumptions made about the re-
quirements and external dependencies.
· 5.7 Glossary: Define key terms used in the documentation.

Chapter 6.0: System Design and Development

This chapter details the architectural and implementation aspects.

· 6.1 Introduction: Provide an overview of the system design and development

process.
· 6.2 System architecture:
· 6.2.1 System components: Identify the main building blocks of the system (e.g.,
front-end, back-end, database).
· 6.2.2 System interfaces: Describe how different components interact with each
other and with external systems.
· 6.3 System design:
· 6.3.1 System modules: Break down the system into smaller, manageable mod-
ules.
· 6.3.2 Data model: Illustrate the relationships between different data entities
(e.g., users, transactions, categories).
· 6.3.3 Database design: Detail the structure of the database, including tables,
fields, and relationships.
· 6.4 System implementation:
· 6.4.1 Programming languages and tools: Specify the technologies used for de-
velopment (e.g., Python for backend, React for frontend).
· 6.4.2 Coding standards: Define guidelines for writing consistent and maintain-
able code.
· 6.4.3 Unit testing: Describe the process of testing individual components of the
code.

Chapter 7.0: System Testing and Deployment

This chapter focuses on ensuring the system's quality and making it available
to users.

· 7.1 System testing:

· 7.1.1 Integration testing: Verify that different modules work together correctly.
· 7.1.2 System testing: Test the entire system as a whole to ensure it meets all
specified requirements.
· 7.1.3 Acceptance testing: Involve end-users to validate if the system meets
their needs and expectations.
· 7.2 System deployment:
· 7.2.1 Deployment plan: Outline the steps involved in releasing the system to
the production environment.
· 7.2.2 User training: Describe how users will be educated on how to use the sys-
tem effectively.
· 7.2.3 Post-deployment support: Detail the support mechanisms available to
users after the system is live.
· 7.3 System maintenance and support: Describe ongoing activities to ensure the
system remains functional, secure, and up-to-date (e.g., bug fixes, enhance-
ments, performance monitoring).