Software Development for Business Applications in a Nutshell by Tugrul Esendal De Montfort University for 2 nd and final year project students

Are you starting a software development project, where the end-product is a business application? Then, you may find the following useful …

 Problem Domain Describe what the product is going to do, and the business environment in which it going to run, in your own words, using non-technical terms A picture is worth how many words? A rich picture is a good tool to use for this purpose. The final version of your rich picture should give you a firm basis on which to carry out problem analysis

 Tasks Identify the tasks you need to carry out to develop the product For software development projects, the tasks are activities like:  Problem Analysis (using the rich picture)  Identification of actors  Functionality requirements  Design  Implementation  Documentation  Product demonstration

 Deadlines Identify all deadlines (interim and/or final) you need to meet

 Draw a Gannt Chart of tasks to perform against time, highlighting all deadlines. Use “weeks” as unit of time.  Do a risk analysis Threat to successful completionMeasures against threat Poor time management? Unfamiliar technology? Unexpected loss of code/data/doc? What else do you this is a treat??

CompetitorStrengthsWeaknessesComments It is important to know what competitors your product will have How would you use these findings in your own design?

 Identify your actors  For each actor, compile a list of their functionality requirements; use verbs & keywords  For each functionality requirement, compile a list of its data requirements (specifying the name and data type of each data item, like in a data dictionary. You could also identify each data item as being either input or output)

 Identify and name the tables you need  Identify and name the fields in each table  Finalize the data type of each data item  Establish the relationships between tables  Determine what test data you need in the database, to test and demonstrate the product

 Create the database you have designed in your chosen environment, which is SQL-Server, unless specified otherwise  Place in each table the test data you need

 Create the web forms you need to process the data in the chosen environment, which is.NET, unless specified otherwise  Establish the navigational requirements

 Write the code to bring the prototype to life  Test the product  Document the product

And that’s all there is to it