Exercises Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Requirements Analysis

Exercises

A. Review the Amazon.com Web site. Develop the requirements definition for the
site. Create a list of functional business requirements that the system meets. What
different kinds of nonfunctional business requirements does the system meet?
Provide examples for each kind.

System requirements:

Functional:
1. Online Store
1.1 Store product information
1.2 Allow customers to search and view products
1.3 Allow customers to place products in shopping cart
2. Ordering
2.1 Allow customers to purchase products
2.2 Facilitate customer payment
2.3 Relay customer order to vendors
3. Customer Information Management
3.1 Manage customer information database
3.2 Tailor advertisements to customer profile
3.3 Provide customer service interface
4. Vendor Management
4.1 Provide real-time inventory management
4.2 Track service performance of customer
4.3 Manage advertisements

Nonfunctional:
1. Operational
1.1 The system will operate on Windows and Mac environments, and all Internet
browsers.
1.2 The system will be connected to vendors to provide real-time product information
2. Performance
2.1 The product database must be updated in real time
2.2 The system must provide results to user queries in less than 5 seconds
3. Security
3.1 High-level security must be available for customer financial transactions
3.2 Special security must protect the system against unauthorized entry
4. Cultural and political
4.1 The system should be available in various languages
4.2 The system should tailor product offerings and advertisements to the region and
customer
4.3 The system should maintain features to recognize and obey various laws indifferent

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regions regarding taxation, shipping, and product approval

B. Suppose that you are going to build a new system that automates or improves the
interview process for the Career Services Department of your school. Develop a
requirements definition for the new system. Include both functional and
nonfunctional system requirements. Pretend you will release the system in three
different versions. Prioritize the requirements accordingly.

Functional: (priority)
1. Company Interface
1.1 Store company information (high)
1.2 Allow companies to search and view resumes (high)
1.3 Allow companies to select students to interview (high)
1.4 Allow companies to select dates and times to interview (high)
1.5 Allow companies to view student profiles (medium)
1.6 Allow companies to access student personal homepages (low)
1.7 Allow companies to submit information regarding hiring and salaries (low)

2. Student Interface
2.1 Store student information and resumes (high)
2.2 Allow students to select interview date and time slots (high)
2.3 Allow students to search and view company profile (medium)
2.4 Allow students to access company website locations (low)
2.5 Store student home page locations (low)

3. Database Management
3.1 Manage company and student information (high)
3.2 Provide statistical analysis of hiring trends of companies (medium)
3.3 Provide statistical analysis of salaries offered to students (low)

4. Communication Management
4.1 Allow companies to contact students (high)
4.2 Allow students to communicate with companies for follow up (medium)
4.3 Allow online discussion groups for companies and students (low)
4.4 Allow system feedback to be submitted by companies and students (low)

Nonfunctional: (priority)
1. Operational
1.1 The system will operate on Windows and Mac environments, and all Internet
browsers (high)
1.2 The system will be available to all users on the school website (high)
1.2 The system will be accessible to companies via secure password protected external
site
(medium)

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1.3 The system will be accessible to students via secure password protected external site
(low)
2. Performance
2.1 The database must be updated weekly (high)
2.2 The database must be updated daily (medium)
2.3 The database must be real-time (low)
2.4 The system must provide results to user queries in less than 20 seconds (high)
2.5 The system must provide results to user queries in less than 10 seconds (medium)
2.6 The system must provide results to user queries in less than 5 seconds (low)
3. Security
3.1 Security will be provided within the existing architecture (high)
3.2 Security will be extended to protect external access sites (medium)
3.3 Cultural and political
3.4 The system will identify students work eligibility status (medium)
3.5 The system will provide a framework for processing foreign work permits (low)

C. Describe in very general terms the as-is business process for registering for
classes at your university. What BPA technique would you use to identify
improvements? With whom would you use the BPA technique? What requirements-
gathering technique would help you apply the BPA technique? List some example
improvements that would you expect to find.

The as-is process for class registration is currently a highly automated process. First,
students financial accounts are verified to insure there are no outstanding payables. After
the students financial status is verified a password is emailed to them, and they can then
access an automated web-base system to select classes. At this point the student must be
knowledgeable of two things; the current course listings, and the unfulfilled requirements
for their degree. This information is available throughout the school website, or on hard
copy from the school administration, however it is not conveniently part of the
registration program. After the students identify the availability of classes they must
manually arrange the classes in a manner to avoid time conflicts. This is usually done on
scratch paper and can be very complicated. After the students build their schedule, they
manually enter it into the system for validation. The system then generates class lists, for
distribution to the professors.
I would use the BPA technique to improve the way that students arrange their
schedule after they choose the courses they desire. This procedure is currently performed
manually by the student, and could be replaced by a computer program that could arrange
course times, and optimize the schedule. This BPA technique would be driven by student
feedback, and implemented through the school’s IT development team with cooperation
and feedback from the registrars office. Feedback can be acquired directly from students
through interviews, focus groups, surveys, questionnaires, and JAD sessions.

D. Describe in very general terms the as-is business process for registering for
classes at your university. What BPI technique would you use to identify

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improvements? With whom would you use the BPI technique? What requirements-
gathering technique would help you apply the BPI technique? List some example
improvements that you would expect to find.

I would use the BPI technique to address certain areas of improvement in the current
automated system. This technique would focus on improving the system through
interaction with the schools IT department, and registrars office. Student use cases would
drive the necessary changes. This would include redesigning the application to better
help students access information about course listings, and required courses, as well as
provide a process for automated building of schedules. I would use interviews with
students, questionnaires, observation, joint application development (JAD), and
document analysis to identify how the process could be improved.

E. Describe in very general terms the as-is business process for registering for
classes at your university. What BPR technique would you use to identify
improvements? With whom would you use the BPR technique? What requirements-
gathering technique would help you apply the BPR technique? List some example
improvements that would you expect to find.

BPR involves major revisions to the basic business processes, potentially making
complete changes to the way the work is performed in the organization. In this case it
would be necessary to have significant project funding, and involve a wider scope of
participants to conduct this project. This would include the school administration,
management, registrar office employees, IT personnel, students, and possibly outside
vendors. Most likely, higher level requirements gathering techniques would be used such
as JAD, however lower level methods could also be useful in collecting necessary
information. An example of how BPR could be used to modify the current registration
system may be to completely redesign the entire school record system and implement all
records into a common database that manages functions across several domains such as
registration, financial aid, accounting, professor-student communication, and student
computer applications.

F. Suppose your university is having a dramatic increase in enrollment and is

having difficulty finding enough seats in courses for students. Perform a technology
analysis to identify new ways to help students complete their studies and graduate.

• Double class capacities by putting half the course on-line and attending face-to-
face on alternate weeks
• Rent space off campus and video broadcasting lecture material; organizing self
study groups and independent studies
• Outsource courses to other institutions, and deliver instruction to students under
your school’s name

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G. Suppose you are the analyst charged with developing a new system for the
university bookstore with which students can order books online and have them
delivered to their dorms and off-campus housing. What requirements-gathering
techniques will you use? Describe in detail how you would apply the techniques.

I would create surveys to gather information about students such as:

• percentage of students who buy books through the bookstore

• percentage of students who buy books online or elsewhere
• reason for choosing vendor
• value of delivery service
• value of speed of product delivery

I would send online surveys to students, ask students to answer the survey as they wait or
checkout in the bookstore, and via campus post. I would also arrange for a marketing
research class to allow students to perform interviews, and focus groups with other
students to give them practical experience as well as generate requirement information
for the bookstore.

H. Suppose you are the analyst charged with developing a new system to help
senior managers make better strategic decisions. What requirements-gathering
techniques will you use? Describe in detail how you would apply the techniques.

The structure of this task is much more complex than the previous two exercises. The
results of this system design will have significant impact on the organization, so quality
of requirement-gathering technique is paramount to cost. A JAD technique may be
effective in this situation. In this case we should include all senior managers who will
use the system, senior IT managers who will manage it, as well as significant technical
representation, and anyone else who can contribute to the success of the project. It is
important that the managers and other members of the JAD team are committed to the
time and efforts required for this method.

I. Find a partner and interview each other about what tasks you/they did in the last
job held (full-time, part-time, past or current). If you haven’t worked before, then
assume your job is being a student. Before you do this, develop a brief interview
plan. After your partner interviews you, identify the type of interview, interview
approach, and types of questions used.

Interview Plan:

Select Interviewee – I’d pick an industry I’m interested in learning about and then choose
a partner (interviewee) who has experience in the industry

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Design Interview Questions – Initially, I’d start with open-ended questions to get a
general idea of the persons responsibilities and position in the past job. Then I would use
probing-questions to direct the interview in a fashion that provided information about
areas I want to learn more about. If it seems appropriate at the time I’ll ask closed ended
questions about the position such as salary and travel time required. It will be a fairly
unstructured, top-down interview.

Prepare for the interview – Before the interview I’d discuss the purpose of the interview
with the interviewee, so he or she could think about it and prepare.

Conduct the Interview –

• Open ended questions
• Probing questions
• Close-ended questions

Post-Interview Follow Up – Take notes in an interview report for future reference

My partner utilized a structured, bottom-up interview, with closed ended, probing, and
open-ended questions.

J. Find a group of students and run a sixty-minute JAD session on improving

alumni relations at your university. Develop a brief JAD plan, select two techniques
that will help identify improvements, and then develop an agenda. Conduct the
session using the agenda, and write your postsession report.

JAD Plan

Select participants – I’d choose students who can effectively contribute to alumni
relations development. First I’d seek ones actively involved in alumni relationships
through student government and other campus organizations. Then I’d seek
interested students such as those close to graduation who have a strong interest in
improving alumni relationships for networking. It’s important that the students are
committed to meeting the time and effort requirements of the session.

Design the Session – Since students are fairly busy, I’d try to limit the JAD to one or two
sessions. I’d also prepare the structure of the session and then determine the
necessary requirements.

Prepare for the session – I’d give participants notice of the agenda of the session so they
could prepare to contribute.

Conduct the session –

• Ensure the group sticks to the agenda
• Help the group understand any technical issues or terms used in the session
• Record the groups input on a public display and organize ideas

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Post JAD follow-up – prepare and distribute the postsession report to participants

Techniques to help improvement

One technique to help improve the alumni relations is to build a database to manage
alumni information. Another technique is to develop an interactive IT application that
allows students to locate alumni by industry, and obtain advice regarding certain careers.

Agenda
Introduction to school alumni relations
Identify problems with current system
Discuss improvement ideas for alumni relations
Present Database Management system
Identify user requirements
- Break
Present student alumni interactive application
Identify system requirements
Conclusions and summary of Discussions

Postsession Report approved by: Ron Johnes

Session members:
Darren Gersch, Campus Alumni Activity Director
Bill Jameson, Student Government President
Alex Tourkin, VP Alumni Relations, Student Government
Chris Leduc, student Scribe
Aruna Singh, student
Joel Robinsom, student
Paul Niebauer, student
Andreas Holst, student
Adam Shanks, student

Facilitator, Ron Johnes

Purpose of JAD Sessions:

• Understand the current alumni relations system
• Discuss possible system improvements
• Discuss specific techniques to help improve the system

Summary of Session
• The Power Point presentation to outline the current alumni relations system is attached to this
report
• The two biggest problems with the current system are:
o Ineffective organization of alumni records, and information
o No channel for student/alumni interaction
• User requirements defined and listed in attached file for:
o Alumni relations database
o Student/alumni interactive application

Open Items:
Research ready-built alumni relations programs and costs
Analyze in-house costs to build system from scratch

Detailed Notes: See attached transcript

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K. Find a questionnaire on the Web that has been created to capture customer
information. Describe the purpose of the survey, the way questions are worded, and
how the questions have been organized. How can it be improved? How will the
responses be analyzed?

The purpose of the survey I found was to collect marketing information about customer
perceptions of 3 major consumer electronic brands. There were about 7 types of questions
throughout the survey regarding:

• Company brand logo recognition

• Perception of brand quality
• Awareness of brands’ products
• Brand products owned by survey participant
• Brand preference for new products
• Spend patterns for same product of different brands

The questions were organized with the brand logo recognition questions at the beginning
of the survey. This worked well since the person completing the survey had no previous
knowledge of what the survey would be about specifically. The consumer electronic
company logos were included among other “dummy” logos so as not to immediately
allow the participant to realize the survey was about that specific industry. Next the
survey focused on closed ended questions by asking participants to chooses a level of
quality perception for the various brands, as well as price willing to pay for each. The
survey ended with more open questions asking the participant to list products they knew
each company produced, as well as products they currently own for each brand.
I did notice one significant way the survey could be improved. The survey
allowed participants to go back to change answers, however it didn’t save answers in real
time, so the questions following the one changed had to be answered again thus requiring
significant time. The survey would be much better if answerers were saved after each
question, and held in memory to speed the process.
The responses will be aggregated and analyzed into valuable data regarding
participants’ perceptions of the three major consumer electronic companies.

L. Develop a questionnaire that will help gather information regarding processes at

a popular restaurant, or the college cafeteria (e.g., ordering, customer service). Give
the questionnaire to ten to fifteen students, analyze the responses, and write a brief
report that describes the results.

Please rate the following questions about our school cafeteria on a scale of 1 – 5 with 1
being least satisfied and 5 being most satisfied.

1. Overall, How satisfied are you with the school cafeteria?

2. If not satisfied, please explain why:
3. How satisfied are you with the cafeteria staff?
4. If not satisfied, please explain why:

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5. How satisfied are you with the cafeteria order placement method?
6. If not satisfied, please explain why:
7. How satisfied with the order wait time?
8. If not satisfied, please explain why:
9. How satisfied are you with the checkout procedure?
10. If not satisfied, please explain why:
11. How satisfied are you with the checkout time?
12. If not satisfied, please explain why:
13. How satisfied are you with the food availability?
14. If not satisfied, please explain why:

The results show that overall students are satisfied with the school cafeteria. Students
were most satisfied with the cafeteria staff, and availability of food. The most significant
dissatisfaction is in regards to order wait time and checkout time during peak demand
times during the day. As a result, the cafeteria may want to consider redesigning the
order preparation process and checkout procedure to better handle the increased volume.
Additionally, the school may also consider the possibilities of staggering class times so
that students are more likely to visit the cafeteria at different times thus smoothing the
peak demand time.

M. Contact the Career Services Department at your university and find all the
pertinent documents designed to help students find permanent and/or part-time
jobs. Analyze the documents and write a brief report.

An analysis of the career services documents reveals a well-documented system.

However, one significant possibility for improvement lies in the report of job application
status. Most often, when students apply for jobs or internships they will either be
accepted for the position, rejected, or must await further review. This is noted in the
documentation as application accepted, rejected, or pending. Nearly all applications go
into the pending status, however only 20% of them are further labeled accepted or
rejected. This is due to student, recruiter, and the career service department’s lack of
follow up on the issue. The documentation can be improved with measures to more
accurately record the true status of applications, thus providing accurate and valuable
data to the career services department.

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