Transcript Gathering Information and Use Case Scenarios

Gathering Information and
Use Case Scenarios
Choices to get information
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Need to understand the current (“as is”)
system, identify improvements, and develop
the to-be system.
How?
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Interviews
Joint Application Design – “JAD”
Questionnaires
Secondary Sources (document analysis)
Observations
Interviews -- Five Basic Steps
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Selecting Interviewees
Designing Interview Questions
Preparing for the Interview
Conducting the Interview
Post-Interview Follow-up
Interview Preparation Steps
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Prepare General Interview Plan
 List of Question
 Anticipated Answers and Follow-Ups
Confirm Areas of Knowledge
Set Priorities in Case of Time Shortage
Prepare the Interviewee
 Schedule
 Inform of Reason for Interview
 Inform of Areas of Discussion
Conducting the Interview
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Appear professional and unbiased
Record all information
Check on organizational policy regarding tape
recording
Be sure you understand all issues and terms
Separate facts from opinions
Give interviewee time to ask questions
Be sure to thank the interviewee
End on time
JAD Key Ideas
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Allows project managers, users, and
developers to work together
May reduce scope creep by 50%
Avoids requirements being too specific
or too vague
The JAD Session
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Tend to last 5 to 10 days over a three week period
Prepare questions as with interviews
Formal agenda and groundrules
Facilitator activities
 Keep session on track
 Help with technical terms and jargon
 Record group input
 Help resolve issues
Post-session follow-up
Questionnaire Steps
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Selecting participants
 Using samples of the population
Designing the questionnaire
 Careful question selection
Administering the questionnaire
 Working to get good response rate
Questionnaire follow-up
 Send results to participants
Good Questionnaire Design
Begin with non-threatening and interesting questions
Group items into logically coherent sections
Do not put important items at the very end of the questionnaire
Do not crowd a page with too many items
Avoid abbreviations
Avoid biased or suggestive items or terms
Number questions to avoid confusion
Pretest the questionnaire to identify confusing questions
Provide anonymity to respondents
Document Analysis
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Provides clues about existing “as-is” system
Typical documents
 Forms
 Reports
 Policy manuals
Look for user additions to forms
Look for unused form elements
Observation
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Users/managers often don’t remember everything
they do
Checks validity of information gathered other ways
Behaviors change when people are watched
Careful not to ignore periodic activities
 Weekly … Monthly … Annual
Selecting the Appropriate
Techniques
Interviews
JAD
Questionnaires
Document
Analysis
Observation
Type of
Information
As-Is
Improve.
To-Be
As-Is
As-Is
Improve. Improve.
To-Be
As-Is
Depth of
Information
High
High
Medium
Low
Low
Breadth of
Information
Low
Medium
High
High
Low
Integration
of Info.
Low
High
Low
Low
Low
User
Medium
Involvement
High
Low
Low
Low
Cost
LowMedium
Medium
Low
Low
As-Is
LowMedium
Creating Use Cases
Elements of a Use Case
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Trigger -- event that causes the scenario to
begin
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External trigger
Temporal trigger
All possible inputs and outputs
Individual steps
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Show sequential order
Show conditional steps
Steps for building Use Cases
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Identify the use cases (think “3 to 9”).
Identify the major steps within each use
case (think “3 to 9”).
Identify elements within steps.
Confirm the use case.
Ex.: on-line university registration
(exercise D, pg. 167)
The system should enable the staff of each academic department to
examine the course offered by their department, add and remove
course, and change the information about them (e.g., the maximum
number of students). It should permit students to examine currently
available courses, add and drop courses to and from their schedules,
and examine the course for which they are enrolled. Department staff
should be able to print a variety of reports about the courses and the
students enrolled in them. They system should ensure that no student
takes too many course and that students who have any unpaid fees
are not permitted to register. (Assume that a fees data store is
maintained by the university's financial office that the registration
system accesses but does not change.)
Use Case Name: Maintain department course offerings
ID Number: _1_
Short Description: This describes how department staff reviews course offerings, adds new courses, deletes existing courses or changes
existing course information.
Trigger: Departments must prepare upcoming course offerings.
Type: External / Temporal
Major Inputs:
Description
Course offering changes
Course offerings
___________________________
___________________________
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Source
Department Staff
Course offering file
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___________
Major Outputs:
Description
Destination
Updates course offerings Course offering file
Course offering list
Department staff
________________
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________________
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________________
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________________
_________
Major Steps Performed
1. Department staff requests course offering list for the department. List of course
offerings is generated.
Information for Steps
Course offering list request
Department identifier
2. New course information is entered.
New course information
Course offering file
3. Courses to delete are entered.
Course number to delete
Course offering file
4. Course modifications are entered.
Course number to modify
Course changes
Course offering file
Use Case Name: Maintain student enrollments
ID Number: _2_
Short Description: This describes how students review listing of courses available for enrollment, add and remove courses from their
schedules, and review their schedules.
Trigger: Student needs to enroll in courses.
Type: External / Temporal
Major Inputs:
Description
Available course request
Available courses
Course enrollment request
Fee payment status
___________________________
___________________________
Source
Student
Available course file
Student
Fees file
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Major Outputs:
Description
Destination
Available course list
Student enrollment
Student schedule
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________________
Student
Enrollment file
Student
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Major Steps Performed
1. Student requests list of available courses. List of available courses is generated.
Information for Steps
Available course request
Available course list
2. Student adds course to current schedule. Fee payment status is checked and
total hours is checked. If OK, course is added to student schedule.
Course ID
Enrollment file
Fees file
Available course file
3. Student removes course from schedule.
Course ID
Enrollment file
Available course file
4. Student reviews current scheduled courses.
Enrollment file
Use Case Name: Course enrollment reports
ID Number: _3_
Short Description: This describes how department staff prints various reports on courses and enrollments.
Trigger: Department staff needs information on courses and course enrollments.
Type: External / Temporal
Major Inputs:
Description
Report request
Course information
Enrollment information
___________________________
___________________________
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Source
Staff
Course offerings
Enrollments
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Major Outputs:
Description
Destination
Report requested
________________
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________________
Staff
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Major Steps Performed
1. Staff enters report request.
Information for Steps
Report type
2. Requested report is generated.
Course offerings
Enrollments
Ex.: real estate (exercise E, pg. 167)
A Real Estate Inc. (AREI) sells houses. People who want to sell their
houses sign a contract with AREI and provide information on their house.
This information is kept in a database by AREI and a subset of this
information is sent to the citywide multiple-listing service used by all real
estate agents. AREI works with two types of potential buyers. Some
buyers have an interest in one specific house. In this case, AREI prints
information from its database, which the real estate agent uses to help
show the house to the buyer (a process beyond the scope of the system
to be modeled). Other buyers seek AREI’s advice in finding a house that
meets their needs. In this case, the buyer completes a buyer information
form that is entered into a buyer database, and AREI real estate agents
use its information to search AREI’s database and the multiple-listing
service for houses that meet their needs. The results of these searches
are printed and used to help the real estate agent show houses to the
buyer.
Use Case Name: Maintain house seller information
ID Number: _1_
Short Description: This describes how house sellers enter into contract to sell and provide information on house to sell.
Trigger: House seller wishes to sell house.
Type: External / Temporal
Major Inputs:
Description
Sales Contract
House information
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Source
Seller
Seller
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Major Outputs:
Description
Sales Contract
House information
House information
________________
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________________
Major Steps Performed
1. Seller signs contract and provides house information.
Information for Steps
Sales contract
House information
2. Offered House database is updated with new listing information.
House information
Offered houses file
3. Data on new listing is transmitted to Multiple Listings file.
Offered houses file
Destination
Contract file
Offered Houses file
Multiple listings file
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Use Case Name: Provide buyers required information
ID Number: _2_
Short Description: This describes how buyers request and receive information on offered houses.
Trigger: Buyers request information on available houses.
Type: External / Temporal
Major Inputs:
Description
Major Outputs:
Description
Destination
Buyer
Buyer
Offered houses file
Multiple listings file
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House information
Buyer information
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Buyer
Buyer file
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Major Steps Performed
1. If buyer requests information on a specific house, retrieve that information from the offered
house file.
Information for Steps
Offered house file
2. If buyer wants to search for several prospective houses, obtain a buyer information form
from buyer. Search offered houses file and Multiple Listing file for houses matching buyers
specifications and provide house information to buyer.
Buyer information form
Buyer file
Offered houses file
Multiple listings file
Buyer information form
House information request
House information
House information
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Source