Database Reference
In-Depth Information
You are not generally concerned with the application structure. Review the appli-
cations not for functions, but for data requirements.
Review of applications consists of examining the following for data content and
relationships:
•
Input screens
•
Screens only for display of information
•
Reports
•
Business rules covering relationships among business objects
•
Edit rules for individual fields
Study of Documents
Again, this is another step to confirm the requirements gathered through interviews.
For the interviews you need the involvement and participation of the user groups.
You have to work around their daily responsibilities and to schedule time for the
interviews. However, you can study existing documents without too much involve-
ment from the users. Scheduling the study of documents involves only the analysts
performing the activities of the requirements definition phase.
Documentation from User Groups
What information can you obtain from the
existing documents? In many organizations with old computer systems, not much
documentation is readily available. You will have to piece together several individ-
ual documents to the complete the picture. If you have documents recording the
screen formats and report layouts, study those in detail. These documents will com-
plete the information about the data currently used by the various departments. If
you have additional documents on the rules and edits, go through those as well.
Documentation from IT
Go to the people in IT responsible for maintaining the
files of the current applications. These are the technical support persons who are
responsible for backing up the files and expand space for files, and so on. Collect
the layouts of all the files. Study of the layouts will yield valuable information about
the data that support the current applications. In IT, programmers and systems ana-
lysts are assigned to support specific applications. If you have an order processing
application, find the analysts and programmers supporting this application. Obtain
all relevant documents for your study.
Consolidating Information Requirements
We have reviewed a few methods for collecting and confirming data requirements
for the proposed database system. You understand that interviewing users and IT
professionals is still the best method for gathering requirements. Now we are at the
stage of consolidating everything that has been collected and formalizing the data
requirements. In a large project in which many analysts are working on the activi-
ties of the requirements definition phase, they would have accumulated many pieces
of information. How do you aggregate and make sense of everything that has been
collected?
Search WWH ::
Custom Search