Development Of A Web-Based Student Graduation Information System For Vocational High Schools Using The Waterfall Method

Advances in information technology have driven digital transformation across many sectors, including education. One administrative service that is still largely handled conventionally is the announcement of student graduation results and the distribution of Graduation Certificates (Surat Keterangan Lulus/SKL), which makes the delivery of information relatively inefficient. This study aims to build a web-based Student Graduation Information System for vocational high schools (SMK) that simplifies graduation-data management for school administrators and gives students online access to their graduation information. The system was built using the Waterfall method, covering requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance, and was implemented with the Laravel framework, the PHP programming language, a MySQL database, and a Bootstrap interface. It serves two types of users: administrators, who manage graduation data, and students, who can check their graduation status without logging in by entering their National Student Identification Number (NISN). Students who pass can download their SKL directly in PDF format. The system was evaluated through Black Box Testing and the System Usability Scale (SUS). Testing showed that every system function operated as intended, while the usability evaluation returned an average SUS score of 84.5, placing it in the Excellent (Grade A) category. Overall, the system improves the efficiency of school administration, speeds up the delivery of graduation information, and supports the broader digitalization of educational services.