International Journal of Computer and Information Technology (ISSN: 2279 – 0764) Volume 05 – Issue 06, November 2016 www.ijcit.com 556 Design and Implementation of Students' Information System (SIS) for Mulungushi University Based on Spring Framework Douglas Kunda School of Science, Engineering and Technology Mulungushi University Kabwe, Zambia Email: dkunda [AT] mu.ac.zm Victoria Chama School of Science, Engineering and Technology Mulungushi University Kabwe, Zambia Abstract—Student Information Systems (SISs) are computer software applications for learning and education institution to manage student records such as registering courses, assessment monitoring, storing examination results and managing many other student-related information needs in a school, college or university. This paper reviews three popular SISs namely OPENSIS, Fedena and OPUS. Among these SISs, there are many common features, as well as distinct features. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a student information system for Mulungushi University based these reviewed system and their unique requirements. The SIS for Mulungushi University supports the management of student information through key business activities such as admission, registration, invoicing, accommodation, progression and graduation using the spring framework with MySQL as a database and incremental developmental approach. The paper presents the design and implementation of the system and the challenges in developing the system and the tests conducted as well as the lessons learnt. Keywords-Student Information Systems; Spring Framework; MySQL database; Model View Controller (MVC) I. INTRODUCTION Learning institutions such as universities and colleges use student information systems for the management of student records. There are a number of different student information systems that exist some are proprietary and others are open source. With the constant development of countrywide higher education, in order to resolve the trouble of "Information Island", the teaching branch of many universities established correspondingly a series of information system to manage teaching and administration better, and so on [1]. According to [2] “issues related to student academic record managing include improper course registration, delayed publication of students’ exam results, inaccuracy due to manual and tedious computation of fees and retrieval of information problems and inefficiencies” .She goes on to add that there are a wide collection of existing information systems that have been developed to address these problems but vary in implementation, target group, level of integration and customizations capabilities. Such systems are referred by many names however have a common goal which is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in which universities deliver its services to students or how management performs administrative tasks. Names of these systems include Campus Information System (CIS), Student Information System (SIS), Student Administration System (SAS), University Classroom Management Information System, Education Management Information System (EMIS) and Student Information Management System (SIMS) According to [3] student information management system should be able to offer users with satisfactory information and efficient query tool. For existing systems and system review, this paper focuses on three examples of student information systems. These are OPUS, OPENSIS and Fedena. OPUS-College is a free and open source information system for the registration and management of student, staff and course data within a university or other institute of higher learning. OpenSIS is a free, open-source platform designed for K- 12, regardless of if they are charter, private, or state-run schools. Fedena is “open Source Software” for school management. The technology behind the development of Fedena is Ruby on Rails, a powerful web application development framework. Reference [4] defines incremental development as “developing systems through incremental releases, first providing essential operating functions, then providing system users with improved and more capable versions of a system at regular intervals. For the design and implementation of the student information system first identification of the core modules to be developed will be done in the initial phase. There after a general over view of how these modules are expected to work together in the system to provide certain functionality. Next priority is assigned to each module which will give the order in which the increments will be developed. System testing is intended to ensure that the implementation of the system is indeed as the user wants. To achieve this, the designed system was tested in three