1. Gathering Information and Use Case Scenarios

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Selecting the Appropriate Techniques
Interviews JAD Questionnaires Document Observation
Analysis
Type of As-Is As-Is As-Is As-Is As-Is
Information Improve Improve. Improve.
To-Be To-Be
Depth of High High Medium Low Low
Information
Breadth of Low Medium High High Low
Integration Low High Low Low Low
of Info.
User Medium High Low Low Low
Involvement
Cost Medium Low Low Low Low-
Medium Medium

13. Creating Use Cases

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.)

17. 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 Staff
Course offerings Course offering file
___________________________ ___________
Major Outputs:
Description Destination
Updates course offerings Course offering file
Course 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 Steps
Course offering list request
Department identifier
New course information
Course offering file
Course number to delete
Course number to modify
Course changes

18. 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 file
Student 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 Steps
Available course request
Available course list
Course ID
Enrollment file
Fees file
Available course file

19. 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 Steps
Report type
Course offerings
Enrollments

20. 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.

21. 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 file
House 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 Steps
Sales contract
House information
Offered houses file

22. 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 Steps
Offered house file
Buyer information form
Buyer file
Offered houses file
Multiple listings file