Requirement Gathering
a) For the initial state of the project, identify ONE method of information gathering (investigation or requirement gathering) that you would use for this system. Discuss the benefits and setbacks method chosen. You are advised to use different methods among group members.
b) Explain the conduct of the investigation method including how it will be carried-out, target users, location, etc. Create a set of questions that you can use for your investigation. Display the questions only related the system development project.
System: Fast Speed Maths Center
Method of Information Gathering: Direct and Indirect Observation
I'm completely out of idea how to start, what to write inside the documentation, and what's the format.
a) Benefits of using OBSERVATION as method of information gathering.
exp: Very direct method for collecting data or information – best for the study of human behavior.
b) Visit any maths center, observe what are the people are doing, and set questions that you can use throughout the observation.
Related
According to "Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design", Complex projects involves first finding a feature list -> drawing use case diagrams -> breaking into smaller modules before implementing object oriented design (requirements gathering -> use cases -> OO -> design patterns etc.)
I want to understand, what is the criteria for the size of project when feature lists and use case diagrams should be implemented before finding requirements and writing use cases?
I am particularly interested in how can this knowledge be applied to my real wold problems
Example, I am working on a UI that send instrument commands to the server and displays the response back from the server. I know from customer feedback that the UI should have the following things:
It should be able to let the user select an instrument from available list and send any custom command and display the result
It should be able to let the user select an instrument and a command from available list and display the result (create commands using drag and drops from given lists)
It should be able to have capability of creating macros
Is this UI project small enough to not have steps for gathering features and drawing use case diagrams? Do we go straight to categorizing the asks as requirements and start gathering requirements and writing use cases?
How would one go about breaking down project of this nature to deduce it to its appropriate class diagrams?
I have tried considering the above mentioned asks as features and then tried creating requirements, mainly on the different states that one could have during the life cycle of the UI application but I am still not sure and unable to comprehend the teachings of the books on this project.
I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure what the author(s) of the book really wanted to emphasize here. But I assume that you misinterpreted it.
Without knowing the requirements there is no feature list. If you don't know what is needed then you can't say anything about the system's capabilities.
Gathering requirements is an iterative process. First you gather the high-level requirements in order to be able to start building a mental model about the system. This can help you to start think about the supported features. By sharing your mental model and the exposed feature set of the system with the stakeholder, it initiates the next iteration.
Here you can start talking about actors, user journeys, use cases, etc. These are mainly focusing on the happy paths. As you have more and more iterations you will reach a point where you can start talking about edge and corner cases: What suboptimal cases can we foreseen? What can we do (prevention, detection, mitigation)? How does it affect the system/actors/journeys?...
The better you understand the needs and circumstances, the better the design and implementation of the system could be.
UPDATE #1
Will we always have high-level and low-level (edge cases and detailed use cases) requirements i.e. we will first need to make use case diagrams and then write individual detailed use cases?
There are a lot of factors which can influence this. Just to name a few:
Is it a system, submodule, or component design?
Is it a green or a brownfield project?
Is the stakeholder experienced enough to know which information matters and which doesn't from the IT project perspecitive?
Does the architect / system designer have previous experience with the same domain?
Does wireframe or mockup exist at project kick-off?
Should the project satisfy special security, legal or governmental regulations?
etc...
In short, yes there can be circumstances where you don't need several iterations, but based on my experiences that's quite rare.
Intro
The company I work in (it is an intern-like position though, until I am done with university) recently implemented an automated warehouse solution, where goods are transported by means of autonomous shuttles. The basic functions of the shuttles are controlled by onboard electronics (microcontroller), routing through the warehouse racking is done by software solution which in turn communicates with our ERP solution. Effectively the ERP solution handles the whole warehousing.
Task
There are well documented processes for every of the four layers (operator who loads the the shuttles, shuttle itself, routing, ERP) individually. But since we kind of puzzled all four of them together to one solution (which was kind of new to all of the participating companies), there are only vague, on-the-flyish process descriptions involving all four layers available.
Now I have been tasked to come up with a solution to illustrate the processes at work.
Example
ERP signals goods in demand at assembly station A1
Warehouse operator looks at screen and starts loading boxes to be picked up by
shuttle
Warehouse operator puts in details into ERP, such as count/weight, box number,
...
Warehouse operator clears boxes for pick-up (by confirming inputs in ERP)
ERP generates transport order
ERP sends transport order to routing software
Routing software sends telegram to shuttle control
Shuttle control turns wheels and asks for directions to pick up boxes
...
Question
As mentioned, I have to graphically represent the kind of processes similar to the one shown in the (easy and not complete) example above. I need to incorporate the operator's actions as well as basic communication between shuttle, routing software and ERP.
Since I attended a course on BPMN at university it came to mind immediately. But now, after immersing myself into information about BPMN for several hours I still can't conclusively tell if BPMN helps my efforts or just further complicates the whole thing.
Is BPMN the right tool for my purpose?
Disclaimer
I am not a Business Analyst. I have looked at alternatives to BPMN (simple flowcharts, activity diagrams, ...) but they don't seem to fit.
Just putting together the existing processes for every respective layer yields no result, owing to the different and sometimes too detailed process descriptions.
Edit
The ERP is SAP ERP 6.0 EHP7 with integrated WMS component.
TL;DR: use the notation you would be implement process in, i.e. choose BPMS, not BPMN.
The notation itself means nothing unless it has proper tool for modelling and further process implementation aka BPMS. You can find dozens of comparisons (e.g. BPMN vs EPC or BPMN vs BPEL), however they won't help you unless you have clear understanding where and how you will be implement you modeled process.
Generally speaking, EPC is used for more high-level view of the process, whereas BPMN is utilized for more fine-grained view, where all technical details of communications between peers can be described. However, it depends.
I also recommend you to review this table
and answer the question to yourself whether your process changes (in)frequently or not, and whether you need separate BPM tool.
How I see it from your description: you have four participants (four layers), which are four lanes in BPMN terms, and they are collaborating/communicating with each other during the process. Generally speaking, this fits to BPMN application area, but personally I feel that you should stick your ERP tooling. I don't know which ERP you use, but every serious ERP solution includes tool for process customization. For example, SAP has Workflow,
which can widely enhance and extend existing processes within SAP. Probably, your ERP have it too.
Again, it's not clear which warehouse management system you use and if it is integrated to your ERP. It seems to be not, and it seems to be some old legacy system, because of which you start re-modelling the stuff. In this particular case it might me wiser to acquire special advanced warehouse management package (take a look at SAP's EWM features as an example) which can cover most of your requirements.
We have a number of processes that rely on interactions between two people/groups. I am trying to figure out the best way to illustrate this in BPMN.
CONSIDER:
Using the example of a pizza order, I call a pizzeria to order, an order-taker answers the phone and then we discuss my order. I am trying to accurately capture the "we discuss the order" portion of the process. Here is how I envision the diagram playing out. I call, they answer, then there's branching for a simultaneous exchange, which converges at the end of the call and my order is finished. Is this illustrated correctly? or are there better ways to show that two different entities communicating with each other at the same time to accomplish a task?
The moment you want to show interaction in greater detail than high level bird view, you typically run into troubles when remaining within the paradigm of using "one pool with several lanes". In such a case you need to draw a so called "collaboration diagram", which means you make use of several pools and hence several process definitions interacting with each other by means of message exchange. I give you an example here:
You may use those envelope symbols attached to the message flows, but you don't need to.
The big advantage of that approach is that you can now show that those processes are dependent on each other, yes, but each participant also wants to remain in drivers seat of his/her own process, e.g. by deciding what to do if the other side doesn't provide the desired answer, doesn't do anything within a reasonable time and so on. Furthermore you can look at that diagram from both perspectives and people will actually see "their own process" - and not something mixed with the concerns of others involved.
For that same reason BPMN also offers the concept of "collapsed pools" to be able to look just at the communication from one side and treat the internal details of the other side as a kind of "black box":
This question is related to diagraming a software process. As an electrical engineer, much of the software I do is for embedded micro-controllers. In school, we learned to illustrate our algorithm using a flowchart. However, nowadays, many of my embedded projects are heavily interrupt-driven where the main process runs some basic algorithm a variety of interrupt sources provide its stimulus. So, my question is, what are some diagramming techniques that I can use to illustrate my process such that future developers can understand what I am doing easily and get involved in development?
Here are some key features that I am looking for:
Shows data structures and how data is passed between processes & interrupts
Shows conditions that cause each interrupt
Shows how data is gathered and passed through a downlink
Shows how command messages are received, parsed, and executed
Ideally is well suited for hierarchical breakdown into smaller processes with greater levels of detail
I've always seen interrupt timing drawn as follows:
Or inline line so:
But I prefer the former as it gives more room for annotation.
In response to your comment, perhaps a UML state machine diagram (with some adaptation) may be closer suited to your purpose:
There are many of interesting approaches you can find in diagram drawing. I will post a few here. You will find a lot of Operation System and Architecture scpecific names in there such as register , event, function names and etc. It is more for representation so far, right? So he we are.
Use UML class diagrams for showing data structures. Use sequence diagrams to show interactions between classes and interrupt service routines (showing function calls only). Use activity diagrams to show how interrupts interact with processes (signals are good for this). An activity diagram can also be used to show the process of receiving data, parsing it, and dispatching it. This can also be represented in a static view by a package diagram where the command handler is in one package and the command parser is in another, connected by a dependency line. Use cases are good for a high level view of functionality.
The main point is that UML supports many different views (static, dynamic, logical, deployment) into your system. Don't try to express everything at once.
The diagram below shows an example of an interrupt to a process.
Are use cases just multiple user stories??
What are the benefits of using user stories over use cases.. and vice-versa... When to use one over other...
Does all agile methodologies uses user stories??
Actually, the original use cases (see Jacobson's OOSE) were pretty lightweight, much as user stories are now. Over time, they evolved until a common format for "use cases" now is a complicated document with inputs, outputs, inheritance, uses relationships, pseudocode, etc. Programmers, in general, try to convert everything into programming.
In any case, the attempt to defined what distinguishes a "use case" from a "user story" fro a "scenario" is pretty futile, as it's hard to find two authorities who agree.\
Personally, I find the pattern "[Actor] [verbs] [noun] to get [business value]" helpful. If it gets over about a paragraph of text, it may be too big.
When it comes down to it "agile" is just a label, and people disagree over exactly what it means. Similarly people call very different things "use cases."
In my experience the primary difference between the two is that a user story is focused on the user, and is usually shorter and less formal - ideally, it should easily fit on a postcard. It probably doesn't give details of error handling etc.
Use cases can be much more formal (although some people write them informally too) - they focus on every interaction with the system, and may well go into more detail about several different systems/actors/etc within the same use case.
That's just my experience though - chances are everyone will have used these tools in different ways. I wouldn't get too hung up about labels - just use what works for your project.
Use cases aren't compilations of user stories.
User stories are generally much simpler than use cases. I think use cases try to cover absolutely everything to do with the behaviour of some aspect of the system. That is, all behaviours, all error paths and all exception handling.
The recommended template for a user is:
As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit)
(Thanks Mike Cohn for providing this simple template)
Descriptions of behaviour expressed like this are more agile.
This sort of template lets you describe behaviour using different levels of detail. For example:
for those stories being implemented in a much later sprint, you can describe behaviour in a high level sort of way, e.g. as an ops team member I want to monitor the system remotely so that I can determine system health while on the road.
for those stories being implemented in the next sprint, you can describe behaviour is a slightly more detailed way, e.g. as an ops team member I want to have a dedicated ops only login so that I can check system health.
for those stories being implemented in the current sprint, you can describe behaviour in a highly detailed way, e.g. as an ops team member I want to have a web interface so that I can check current status of the ingest ftp server.
IMHO Use cases are much more carved in stone! And hence can be a problem to update after the initial version.
HTH
cheers,
Rob
In one word, no.
Use Cases are typically detailed specifications laying out how some particular piece of functionality is going to work, or how a specific user is going to utilize the system. It typically is in the voice of a specific user (or Actor) and is fairly self-contained.
A user story on the other hand is "an invitation for discussion". It is typically one or two sentences. Here is one good resource for that. And Mike Cohn's User Stories Applied is well worth it.
The typical syntax is "As a <user> I need <functionality> to achieve <business value>", or "To achieve <business value> as a <user> I need <functionality>" which drives home the value of the story.
User stories are not meant to be stand-alone, but meant to invite discussion of the story between the developer and the customer (or customer proxy).
You can think of a usecase as a user story, but not the other way around. A usecase will cover multiple "endings" to the story, special requirements (e.g. form fields must be entered in format xyz, and show error message 123 if the user enters a field in the wrong format). Also, a usecase can include additional references to external documents, such as security guidelines.
User Stories is a tool used in Agile development to make sure you create the product your user really needs.
It describes rather why you should make this or that feature instead of HOW or WHAT feature.
From my personal experience, it's a great way to balance the client's and developer's vision to create a better product.
Unlike US aUse Case focuses on WHO uses your product. Here is the difference.
I'd say there is no other such instrument for an Agile developer as User Stories. If you want to learn how to write them successfully, check out this post.