Gathering Information and Use Case Scenarios

Choices to get information Need to understand the current (“as is”)

system, identify improvements, and develop the to-be system.

How? Interviews Joint Application Design – “JAD” Questionnaires Secondary Sources (document analysis) Observations

Interviews -- Five Basic Steps Selecting Interviewees Designing Interview Questions Preparing for the Interview Conducting the Interview Post-Interview Follow-up

Interview Preparation Steps 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

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 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

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

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

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

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 Observation Analysis

Type of As-Is As-Is As-Is As-Is As-IsInformation Improve. Improve. Improve. To-Be To-Be

Depth of High High Medium Low LowInformation

Breadth of Low Medium High High LowInformation

Integration Low High Low Low Lowof Info.

User Medium High Low Low LowInvolvement

Cost Medium Low- Low Low Low- Medium Medium

Creating Use Cases

Elements of a Use Case Trigger -- event that causes the

scenario to begin External trigger Temporal trigger

All possible inputs and outputs Individual steps

Show sequential order Show conditional steps

Steps for building Use Cases 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 Source  Course offering changes Department StaffCourse offerings Course offering file___________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ___________ 

Major Outputs:Description Destination  Updates course offerings Course offering fileCourse offering list Department staff________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________ 

Major Steps Performed 1. Department staff requests course offering list for the department. List of course offerings is generated.  2. New course information is entered.  3. Courses to delete are entered.  4. Course modifications are entered. 

Information for StepsCourse offering list requestDepartment identifier  New course informationCourse offering file Course number to deleteCourse offering file Course number to modifyCourse changesCourse 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 Source  Available course request Student Available courses Available course file Course enrollment request Student Fee payment status Fees file___________________________ ______________________________________ ___________ 

Major Outputs:Description Destination  Available course list Student Student enrollment Enrollment fileStudent schedule Student ________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________ 

Major Steps Performed 1. Student requests list of available courses. List of available courses is generated.  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.   3. Student removes course from schedule.   4. Student reviews current scheduled courses. 

Information for StepsAvailable course requestAvailable course list Course IDEnrollment fileFees fileAvailable course file Course IDEnrollment fileAvailable course file 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 Source  Report request Staff Course information Course offerings Enrollment information Enrollments ___________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ___________ 

Major Outputs:Description Destination  Report requested Staff ________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________ 

Major Steps Performed 1. Staff enters report request. 2. Requested report is generated.   

Information for StepsReport type Course offeringsEnrollments          

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 Source  Sales Contract Seller House information Seller ___________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ___________ 

Major Outputs:Description Destination  Sales Contract Contract file House information Offered Houses fileHouse information Multiple listings file ________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________ 

Major Steps Performed 1. Seller signs contract and provides house information.  2. Offered House database is updated with new listing information.  3. Data on new listing is transmitted to Multiple Listings file.  

Information for StepsSales contractHouse information House informationOffered houses file Offered houses file         

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 Source  Buyer information form Buyer House information request Buyer House information Offered houses file House information Multiple listings file ___________________________ ______________________________________ ___________ 

Major Outputs:Description Destination  House information Buyer Buyer information Buyer file ________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________ 

Major Steps Performed 1. If buyer requests information on a specific house, retrieve that information from the 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.   

Information for StepsOffered house file  Buyer information formBuyer fileOffered houses fileMultiple listings file