UNIT II

REQUIREMENTS GATHERING AND ANALYSIS

The analyst starts requirement gathering activity by collecting all information that could be useful to develop
system.
In practice it is very difficult to gather all the necessary information from a large number of people and
documents and to form a clear understanding of a problem.
Availability of working model helps in gathering the requirement.
Studying the existing documentation
Analyst studies existing documents regarding system to be developed before visiting the customer site.
These documents are about the basic purpose, the stakeholders etc.
Interview
All different categories of users are interviewed to gather different functionalities required by them.
For example, to perform the requirements analysis of library automation software, the analyst might interview
the library members, the librarian, and the accountants.
Task analysis
The users usually view software as a black box that provides a set of service is also called a task. For each
identified task, the analyst tries to create the different steps necessary to the service in guidance with the users.
For example, for the issue book service, the steps may be: authenticate user, check the number of books
issued to the customer and determine if the maximum number of books that this member can borrow has been
reached, check whether the book has been reserved, post the book issue details in the member’s record, and
finally print out a book issue slip that can be presented at the security counter to take out the book.
Scenario analysis
A task can have many scenarios of operation. The different scenarios of a task can occur when the task is
invoked under different situations.
For different types of scenarios of a task, the behavior of the system can be different.
For example, the different scenarios for the book issue task of a library automation software may be:
✓ Book issue service is satisfactorily performed and the book issue slip is printed.
✓ The book is reserved and cannot be issued to the member.
✓ The maximum number of books that can be issued by the member is exceeded, and the book cannot be
issued to the member.
Form analysis
It is a tool designed for sites that actively use fill-in forms.
Brainstorming
It is a group activity technique by which efforts are made to find construction for a specific problem by
gathering a list of ideas contributed by its members.
Questionnaires
It means a set of printed or written questions with a choice of answers, devised for the purposes of a survey
or statistical study.

REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
After requirements gathering is completed the analyst analyzes the gathered requirements to clearly
understand the exact customer requirements.
IEEE defines requirement analysis as
 [1] The process of studying user needs to arrive at a definition of system, hardware or software
requirements.
[2] The process of studying and refining system, hardware or software requirements.

The main purpose of the requirement analysis activity is to analyze the collected information to obtain a clear
understanding of the product to be developed, with a view to removing all ambiguities, incompleteness and
inconsistencies.
The following basic questions should be clearly understood by the analyst:
✓ What is the problem?
✓ Why is it important to solve the problem?
✓ What are the possible solutions to the problem?
✓ What exactly are the data input to the system and what exactly are the data output by the system?
✓ What are the complexities that might arise while solving the problem?
✓ If there are external software or hardware with which the developed software has to interface, then
what exactly would the data interchange formats with the external system be?
When the analyst detects any inconsistencies, anomalies or incompleteness in the gathered requirements,
he resolves them by carrying out further discussions with the customers.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION

After the analyst has gathered all the required information regarding the software to be developed and has
remove all incompleteness, inconsistencies, and anomalies from the specification he starts to systematically
organize the requirements in the form of an SRS document.
SRS document contains all the user requirements.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SRS DOCUMENT
The important properties of a good SRS document are the following:
Correct
An SRS is correct if every requirement included in the SRS, required in the final system. Correctness ensures
that what is specified is done correctly.
Unambiguous
An SRS is unambiguous if and only if every requirement stated has one and only one interpretation.
Requirements are often written in natural language.
Complete
The SRS is complete if, and only if, it includes the following elements:
✓ All requirements, whether relating to functionality, performance, design constraints, attributes, or external
interfaces.
Definition of the response of the software in all situations. Note that it is important to specify the
response to both valid and invalid input values.
Consistent
A consistent requirement does not conflict with other requirements in the requirement specification.
It does not duplicate.
Ranked for importance
The SRS is ranked for importance if, and only if, has an identifier to indicate the importance of the
particular requirement. Typically, all of the requirements that relate to a software product are not equally
important. Some requirements may be essential, especially, while others may be desirable. Each requirement
in the SRS should be identified to make these differences clear and explicit.
 Verifiable
A requirement is verifiable if, and only if, there exists some process with which a person or machine can
check that the software product meets the requirement.
Modifiable
The SRS is modifiable if, and only if, its structure and style are such that any changes to the requirement
can be made easily, completely, and consistently.
Structured
The SRS is structured if, and only if, it is moduled, and easy to understand and modify. Over the time customer
requirements changes, requirement specification also changes. In order to make modification to SRS it is
necessary that SRS should be well structured.
Traceable
A traceable requirement has a unique identity or number.
Content of SRS

Benefits of SRS
1. SRS provides foundation for design work because it works as a input to the design phase.
2. It enhances communication between customer and developer.
3. Developers can get the idea what exactly the customer’s want.
4. It enables project planning and helps in verification and validation process.
5. High quality SRS reduces the development cost and time efforts.
6. As it is working as an agreement between user and developer, we can get the partial satisfaction of the end
user for the final product.
7. SRS is also useful during the maintenance phase.
REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION TYPES
Requirement specification activity is translating the gathered information during the analysis phase into a
document that defines a set of requirements. Two types of requirements may be included in this document:
1. Customer Requirement
2. System Requirement
✓ System Requirements are further classified into more two types.
i. Functional requirements
ii. Nonfunctional requirements

CUSTOMER (USER) REQUIREMENT

Customer requirements are high level abstract statements of the system requirement for the customer and end
user of the system.
These statements are in a natural language. It describes what services the system is expected to provide to
customer and the situation under which it must operate.
The customer requirement is quite general and simple.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
System requirements are a more detailed description of the functionality to be provided. It describes what the
system should do. The system requirements document should define exactly what is to be implemented. The
system requirements provide more specific information about the services and function of the system.

Functional Requirements
The functional requirements discuss the functionalities expected from the system. These are statements
of services that provide how the system should react to particular inputs and how the system should behave
in particular situation. It describes the relationship between input and output. It also state what the system
should do if any situation occurs.
The system is considered to perform a set of high level functions. Each function of the system can be
considered as a transformation of set of input data to the corresponding set of output data. The user can get
some meaningful pieces of work done using a high level function.

Select withdraw cash

Display ac-
count type
options

Enter option

Prompt for
amount to be
withdrawn

Enter amount

Enter Print Insufficie-

amount in receipt nt balance
multiple in account
of 100

Document the functional requirements of a system it is necessary to first learn to identify the high level function
of the system.
The high level function would be split into smaller sub requirement.
A high level function is one using which the user can get some useful piece of work done.
For example, the receipt printing work during withdrawal of money from an ATM is called a useful
piece of work? Receipt printing should not be considered a high-level requirement, because the user does not
specifically request for this activity. The receipt gets printed automatically as part of the withdraw money
function.
In a library automation software a high level functional requirement might be search-book. This function
involves accepting a book name or a set of keywords from the user running a matching algorithm on the
book list and finally outputting the matched books. The generated system response can be in several form e.g.
display on the terminal, a print out or transferred to the other system.
 High level function usually involves a series of interactions between the system and one or more users.
For example as shown in figure user inputs have been represented by rectangles and the response produced by
the system by circles.
In figure the different scenarios occur depending on the amount entered for withdrawal. Different behavior
for different scenarios of the system for the same high level functions.
Nonfunctional requirements
Nonfunctional requirements deal with the characteristics of the system which cannot be expressed as functions -
such as the maintainability of the system, portability of the system, usability of the system, maximum number
of current users etc.
Nonfunctional requirements may include:
✓ reliability issues
✓ accuracy of results
✓ Constraints on the system implementation, etc.
Example of a non functional requirement can be that the user interface of software should be usable by factory
shop floor worker who may not even have a high school degree.

DESIGN PROCESS
The design process is a sequence of steps that enable the designer to describe all aspects of the software to
be built. It describes how the system will be implemented and how it will work.
Software design deals with transforming the customer requirements, as described in the SRS document,
into appropriate form that is suitable for implementation in a programming language.

The activities in the design process vary depending on the type of system being developed. The below
figure suggest that the stage of the design process are sequential. Design process can be classified as:
Architectural design, where you identify the overall structure of the system, the principal components
(sometimes called sub-systems or modules), and their relationships and how they are distributed. It can be
derived from DFD.
Interface design, where you define the interfaces between system components. It describes how system
communicate itself and with the user. It can be derived from DFD and state transition diagram.
Component design, where you take each system component and design how it will operate. This is defined
the expected functionality to be implemented. It can be derived from state transition diagram.
Database design, where you design the system data structures and how these are to be represented in a
database. The data objects and relationships defined in the ER diagram and the detailed data content
 illustrated in the data dictionary. It can be derived from ER diagram.
CLASSIFICATION OF DESIGN METHODOLOGIES
A design methodology can be simply defined as a set of design procedure that one follows from the beginning
to the completion of the software development process.
The nature of the methodology is dependent on a number of factors including type of the software being
developed, requirements of the users, qualification and training of software development team, available
hardware and software resources.
There are fundamentally two different approaches:
1. Function oriented design: it can be further divided in two category
I. Structured Analysis
II. Structured Design
2. Object oriented design

Function oriented design (Top-Down approach)

A function oriented design is viewed as something that performs a set of functions.
Starting at this high-level view of the system, each function is successively refined into more detailed
functions. Each of these sub-functions may be split into more detailed sub-functions and so on.
It can be further divided in two categories.
Structured Analysis
It is used to transform a textual problem description into graphical form.
It examines the detail structure of the system.
It defines the processes and data flow among these processes.
In structured analysis functional requirements specified in SRS are decomposed and analysis of data flow is
represented diagrammatically by DFD.
Structured Design
During Structured design all functions identified during analysis mapped to module structure and that is useful
for implementation.
The aim of structured design is to transform the results of the structured analysis (i.e. DFD) into a structure
chart. The structure chart is tree like diagram a popular way to represent the control hierarchy in a high
level design.
Object oriented design
In the Object oriented design approach the system is viewed as collection of objects (i.e. entities).
Object Oriented Design supports following object oriented concepts such as Abstraction, Information Hiding,
 Functional Independence, and Modularity.
Design is the initial step in moving towards from the problem domain to the solution domain. A
detailed design includes specification of all the classes with its attributes, detailed interface. The purpose
of design is to specify a working solution that can be easily translated into a programming language code.
UML modeling and Use Case are used in object oriented designing.
Advantages of object oriented design-
i. Reduce maintenance
ii. Provide code reusability, reliability, modeling and flexibility
iii. Provide robustness to the system.
iv. It provides roadmap for reusing objects in new software.
v. The OO design process is consistent from analysis, through design to coding.

COHESION
Cohesion means the measure of the strength of function relatedness of elements within a module.
Elements include instructions, groups of instructions, data definition, and call of another module.
Cohesion means how closely the elements of a module are related to each other.
It represents how tightly bound the internal elements of the module are to one another.

Coincidental cohesion
It is the lowest cohesion. A module is said to have coincidental cohesion, if it performs a set of tasks that relate
to each other very loosely. Means the module contains a random collection of functions.
For example, in a transaction processing system (TPS), the get-input, print-error, and summarize- members
functions are grouped into one module. The grouping does not have any relevance to the structure of the
problem.
Logical cohesion
A module is said to be logically cohesive, if all elements of the module perform similar operations.
An example of logical cohesion is the case where a set of print functions generating different output reports
are arranged into a single module.
Temporal cohesion
When a module contains functions that are related by the fact that all the functions must be executed in the
same time span, the module is said to temporal cohesion.
The set of functions for start-up, shutdown of some process, etc. exhibit temporal cohesion.
Procedural cohesion
 A module is said to possess procedural cohesion, if the set of functions of the module are all part of a procedure
(algorithm) in which certain sequence of steps have to be carried out for achieving an objective, e.g. the
algorithm for decoding a message.
Communicational cohesion
A module is said to have communicational cohesion, if all functions of the module refer to or update the same
data structure, e.g. the set of functions defined on an array or a stack.
Sequential cohesion
A module is said to possess sequential cohesion, if the elements of a module form the parts of sequence,
where the output from one element of the sequence is input to the next.
For example, in a TPS, the get-input, validate-input, sort-input functions are grouped into one module.
Functional cohesion
It is the strongest cohesion.
Functional cohesion is said to exist, if all the elements of a module are related to perform a single task.
All the elements are achieving a single goal of a module.
For example, sort the array are examples of these module.

COUPLING
Coupling between two modules is a measure of the degree of interdependence or interaction between the two
modules.
It refers to the strengths of relationship between modules in a system. It indicates how closely two modules
interact and how they are independent.
As modules become more independent the coupling increases and loose coupling minimize
interdependency that is better for any system development.
If two modules interchange large amount of data then they are highly interdependent.
High coupling between modules make the system difficult to understand and increase the development
efforts. So low coupling is the best.
 Data coupling
Two modules are data coupled, if they communicate through a parameter. An example is an elementary
data item passed as a parameter between two modules, e.g. an integer, a float, a character, etc.
It is lowest coupling and best for the software development.
Stamp coupling
Two modules are stamp coupled, if they communicate using a composite data item such as a record in PASCAL
or a structure in C.
Control coupling
Control coupling exists between two modules, if data from one module is used to direct the order of
instructions execution in another.
An example of control coupling is a flag set in one module and tested in another module.
Common coupling
Two modules are common coupled, if they share data through some global data items.
Content coupling
Content coupling exists between two modules, if they share code. That is a jump from one module into the code
of another module can occur. E.g. a branch from one module into another module.
DATA MODELING CONCEPTS
ER diagram represent a set of real-world entities and the logical relationships among them. This diagram
depicts entities, the relationships between them, and the attributes pictorially in order to provide a high-
level description of conceptual data models.
Once an ER diagram is created, the information represented by it is stored in the database. The
information depicted in an ER diagram is independent of the type of database and can later be used to create
database of any kind such as relational database, network database, or hierarchical database.
ER diagram includes data objects and entities, data attributes, relationships, cardinality and modality.
Data object
A data object is a real world entity or things.
Data object is a representation of composite information used by software.
Composite information refers to different features or attributes of a data object and this object can be in any of
the following forms: External entity, Event or Place etc.
An entity is the data that stores information about the system in a database. Examples of an entity is student,
department etc.
Data attributes
Data attributes describe the properties or characteristics of a data object.
Attributes that identify entities are known as key attributes. On the other hand, attributes that describe
an entity are known as non-key attributes.
Data attribute is used to perform the following functions: Naming an instance of data object, Description
of the instance, making reference to another instance in another table.
For example, attributes of 'account' entity are 'number', 'balance', and so on.
 Similarly, attributes of 'user' entity are 'name', 'address', and 'age'.

Entities are represented by rectangles, attributes are represented by ellipses, and relationships are represented
by diamond symbols. A key attribute is also depicted by an ellipse but with a line below it.
Relationships
Entities are linked to each other in different ways. This link or connection of data objects or entities with
each other is known as relationship. Note that there should be at least two entities to establish a relationship
between them.
Once the entities are identified, the development team checks whether a relationship exists between them.
Relationship is represented using diamond shape symbol with joined relationship name.
Cardinality
Cardinality specifies the number of occurrences (instances) of one data object or entity that relates to the
number of occurrence of another data object or entity. It also specifies the number of entities that are included
in a relationship.
Different cardinalities are explained below:
✓ One-to-one (1:1): Indicates that one instance of an entity is related only to one instance of another entity. For
example, in a bank, each user is related to only one account number.
✓ One-to-many (1: M): Indicates that one instance of an entity is related to several instances of another
entity. For example, one user can have many accounts in different banks.
✓ Many-to-many (M: M): Indicates that many instances of entities are related to several instances of another
entity. For example, many users can have their accounts in many banks.
Modality
• Modality describes the possibility whether a relationship between two or more entities and data objects is
required. The modality of a relationship is 0 if the relationship is optional. However, the modality is 1 if an
occurrence of the relationship is essential.
 • For example, Customer entity is related to order entity. Here, cardinality for 'customer' entity indicates that the
customer places an order whereas modality for 'customer' entity indicates that it is necessary for a customer to
place an order.
Cardinality for 'order' indicates that a single user can place many orders whereas modality for 'order' entity
indicates that a user can arrive without any 'order'.
DATA FLOW DIAGRAM (DFD)
The DFD (also known as a bubble chart) is a hierarchical graphical model of a system that shows the different
processing activities or functions that the system performs and the data interchange among these functions.
Each function is considered as a processing station (or process) that consumes some input data and produces
some output data. The system is represented in terms of the input data to the system, various processing
carried out on these data, and the output data generated by the system.
PRIMITIVE SYMBOLS OF DFD
A DFD model uses a very limited number of primitive symbols as shown in figure to represent the
functions performed by a system and the data flow among these functions.
External entity: The external entities are those physical entities external to the software system which interact
with the system by inputting data to the system or by consuming the data produce by the system. External
entity is represented by a rectangle. For example librarian, library member.

External entity Process Output

Data flow Data s tore

Function: A function is represented using a circle. This symbol is called a process or a bubble.
Data flow: A directed arc or an arrow is used as a data flow symbol. A data flow represents the data flow
occurring between two processes or between an external entity and a process in the direction of the data flow
arrow.
Data store: A data store is represented using two parallel lines. It represents a logical file. It represents data
structure or a physical file on disk. Each data store is connected to a process. The direction of the data flow
 arrows shows whether data is being read from or written into a data store.
Output: The output symbol is as shown in figure. The output symbol is used when a hard copy is
produced.
DEVELOP DFD MODEL OF SYSTEM
A DFD model of a system graphically depicts the transformation of the data input to the system to the final
result through a hierarchy of levels.
The top level DFD is called the level 0 DFD or the context diagram.
A DFD starts with the most abstract definition of the system (lowest level) and at each higher level DFD,
more details are successively introduced.
To develop a higher-level DFD model, processes are decomposed into their sub-processes and the data flow among
these sub-processes is identified.
To develop the data flow model of a system, first the most abstract representation of the problem is to be worked
out. The most abstract representation of the problem is also called the context diagram. After, developing the
context diagram, the higher-level DFDs have to be developed.
Context Diagram (Level0)
The context diagram is the most abstract data flow representation of a system. It represents the entire system as a
single bubble. This bubble is labeled according to the main function of the system.
The various external entities with which the system interacts and the data flow occurring between the system
and the external entities are also represented. The data input to the system and the data output from the
system are represented as incoming and outgoing arrows. These data flow arrows should be annotated with
the corresponding data names.
`The context diagram is also called as the level 0 DFD.
 Include all entities and data stores that are directly connected by data flow to the one process you are breaking
down.
Show all other data stores that are shared by the processes in this breakdown.
Decomposition at further level 1 DFD have processes with label 1.0, 2.0, 3.0,… and so on.

Advantages of Data Flow Diagram

Shortcoming (Disadvantage) of DFD Model

DFDs for large system can be become complex, difficult to understand and time consuming.
Data flow can become confusing to programmer if it is not well defined.
DFD does not specify exactly in which order processes are executed. There are multiple possible ways to execute
processes. So several alternate presentations can be possible.
In DFD which inputs are consumed and which outputs are produced are not specified.
DFD does not provide clear view about decomposition of any process to its sub-process.
SCENARIO BASED MODELING
• Scenario describes a set of actions that are performed to achieve some specific condition and this set is
specified as a sequence.
• Each step in scenario is a logically complete action performed either by the actor or by the system.
 UNIFIED MODELING LANGUAGE (UML)
UML, as the name implies, is a modeling language.
It provides a set of notations (e.g. rectangles, lines, ellipses) to create a visual model of the system.
UML has its own syntax (symbols and sentence formation rules) and semantics (meanings of symbols and
sentences).
WRITING USE CASES
While developing software, it is essential for the development team to consider user satisfaction as a top priority
to make the software successful. For this, the development team needs to understand how users will interact
with the system.
This information helps the team to carefully identify each user requirements and then create a
meaningful and relevant analysis model and design model. For this, the software engineer creates scenarios
in the form of use-cases to describe the system from the users' view.
Use cases describe the tasks in which the users will use the software under a specific set of conditions.
Each use-case provides one or more scenarios in order to understand how a system should interact with
another system. Use cases do not provide descriptions about the implementation of software.
Use-cases are represented with the help of a use-case diagram, which indicate the relationships among actors and
use cases within a system.
A use-case diagram describes what exists outside the system (actors) and what should be performed by the
system (use-cases). The notations used to represent a use-case diagram are listed in Table.
Components Of USE-CASE Diagram

Name Description
Actor Actors are different kinds of users who use the system in various ways. For example,
one actor can be a library user whereas another user can be part of the library staff.
Use-case Describes a specific instance of a system function.
Relationship Actor are connected to the use case with which they interact by a line which represent a
relationship between the actors and the use case.
Association Indicates the interaction between the actor and the system.
Include Relationship It involves one use case including the behavior of another use case.
Extend Relationship It allows you to show optional behavior of the system.
 Customer (actor) uses bank ATM to check balances of his/her bank accounts, deposit funds, withdraw cash and
transfer funds (use cases). ATM Technician provides maintenance and repairs. All these use cases also involve
Bank actor whether it is related to customer transactions or to the ATM servicing.
Generalization
Use case generalization can be used when one use case that is similar to another, but does something slightly
differently or something more.
The child use case inherits the behavior and meaning of the parent use case.
The notation for generalization is as shown in figure.

Pay membership
fee

Pay through Pay through

credit card library pay card

Includes
The includes relationship involves one use case including the behavior of another use case.
The includes relationship occurs when a part of behavior that is similar across a number of use cases.
The factoring of such behavior will help in not repeating the specification and implementation across different
use cases.
It is represented using a predefined stereotype <<include>>.
 Deposit <<include>>
Funds
Customer
Authentication

Withdraw
cash <<include>>

Applications of Use Case

Requirement analysis
Reverse Engineering
Forward Engineering

ACTIVITY DIAGRAM
An activity diagram illustrates the dynamic nature of a system by modeling the flow of control from activity
to activity. An activity represents an operation on some class in the system that results in a change in the
state of the system.
Typically, activity diagrams are used to model workflow or business processes and internal operation.
.
Example – Activity Diagram for ATM process-