REQUIREMENTS PLANNING AND ELICITATION

 
Case 3 focuses on capturing system requirements, an important component of any model of the software development process. It is important to remember that the purpose of requirements is to specify the problem that the system is intended to solve, leaving the details of the solution to the system designers. Formulating a useful set of requirements will require working closely with the following stakeholders.

Customers and users, so that everyone understands the requirements and their goals
Designers, so that they can construct a good design from the requirements specification
Testers, so that they can write test scripts to evaluate whether the implementation meets the requirements
Documentation writers, so that they can write user manuals from the specifications

Case Assignment Deliverables and Questions
Module 3 overview gives specifications to identify the functional, data, and performance requirements and how these are components of the requirements document. Use those guidelines in Table 3-3 in the Module Overview as a checklist to write a set of requirements for the Millennial Library. Write 3-5 requirements in short sentences for each of the functional, data, and performance requirements. In addition, answer the following Case questions. Write 3-4 pages excluding cover and reference pages to document the Millennial Library requirements and questions for the Case.
The Millennial Library Case
The Millennial Library (Schwalbe, 2014) is an application typical to information systems. Software is required to maintain information about books held in a library. The system is intended for use by the library staff. The software must run on standard networked PCs. (Note: This exercise was extracted from Schwalbe (2014) textbook, but there is no need to look for the textbook as the assignment and questions are given here.)

There may be up to 20 PCs on the library network. For each book, the following information is held in the computer:

 title
 author
 ISBN
 year
 borrower identification (if on loan)
 date of issue (if on loan).

The computer should be able to store information on up to 100,000 books.
The computer system should provide facilities to:

 issue a book to a borrower
 receive a book returned by a borrower
 create information about a newly acquired book
 display a list of the books on loan to a particular borrower.

The facilities should be accessible via a GUI.
The computer must respond within one second to any request.
The system should provide a search facility to find out whether the library possesses a particular book.
With suitable security precautions, the system will initialize the library information so that it contains zero books.
When a book becomes overdue, the system should display appropriate information.
The system should provide secure access by only the library staff.
The software must be delivered by such-and-such a date and cost no more than $100,000. It must be fully documented and easy to maintain.

Who are the stakeholders in determining system requirements, and how does their viewpoint influence the process?
How are non-technical factors such as political, social, and organizational issues taken into account?