Part 1 of 6: Milestones 1 & 2 (80 pts.) – Due Week 2
Be sure to read the Project area of each Assignment section, as they talk directly to the milestone tasks. Also, for review purposes, note that typical milestone solutions will be posted on Wednesday morning of the following week. This is necessary as it is important.
Deliverables:
Request for System Services form
Problem Statement Matrix
Context Diagram
Problems, Opportunities, Objectives, and Constraints Matrix
Tentative List of Functional and Non-Functional Requirements
Review all of the Milestone project steps below. Post questions in the CTTS Milestone discussion area.
Milestone 1
The purpose of the preliminary investigation phase is threefold. First, it answers the question, “Is this project worth looking at?” To answer this question, this phase must define the scope of the project and the perceived problems, opportunities, and directives that triggered the project.
In this milestone, you will prepare a Request for System Services, which is the trigger for the preliminary investigation phase. Also, you will use fact-finding techniques to extract and analyze information from an interview to determine project scope, level of management commitment, and project feasibility for the Client Technology Tracking System (CTTS). With these facts and facts obtained from the Case Background, you will have the necessary information to complete the Problem Statement Matrix.
Milestone 1 Instructions
For this milestone, you will be using the following templates/resources:
Click here for Template A
Click here for Template B
IS581 Milestone 3&4 Case study Coastline Systems Consulting
There’s an old saying that suggests, “Don’t try to fix it unless you understand it.” With those words of wisdom, the next milestone of our project is to study and analyze the existing system. There is always an existing business system, regardless of whether it currently uses a computer. The problem analysis phase provides the project team with a more thorough understanding of the problems, opportunities, and/or directives that triggered the project. Indeed, the analyst frequently uncovers new problems and opportunities. The problem analysis phase may answer the questions, “Are the problems worth solving?” and “Is a new system worth building?”
The purpose of the problem analysis phase is threefold. First and foremost, the project team must gain an appropriate understanding of the business problem domain. Second, we need to answer the question, “Are these problems (opportunities and directives) worth solving?” Finally, we need to determine if the system is worth developing. The problem analysis phase provides the systems analyst and project team with a more thorough understanding of the problems, opportunities, and/or directives that triggered the project. In the process, they frequently uncover new problems and opportunities.
In this milestone you will perform a cause-effect analysis on the Client Technology Tracking System (CTTS) and document your findings using the Problems, Opportunities, Objectives, and Constraints Matrix. The PIECES framework, originally developed by James Wetherbe and then adapted by the authors, can serve as a useful tool to classify the various problems, opportunities, and directives identified in Milestone 1.
Milestone 2 Instructions
For this milestone, you will be using the following templates/resources:
Click here for Template C
IS581 Milestone 5&6 Case study Coastline Systems Consulting
Be sure to read the Project area of each Assignment section, as they talk directly to the milestone tasks. Also, for review purposes, note that typical milestone solutions will be posted on Wednesday morning of the following week. This is necessary as it is important.
Deliverables:
Use-Case Glossary
Use-Case Model Diagram
Use-Case Narrative
Entity Definition Matrix
Context Data Model
Key-Based Data Model
Fully Attributed Data Model
Review all of the milestone project steps below. Post questions in the Milestone Virtual Lab Forum discussion area.
Milestone 3
Use-case modeling has gained popularity as a technique for expressing system requirements for two reasons: (1) it facilitates user-centered development, which often leads to building systems that better satisfy user needs, and (2) use cases diagrams and narratives are easy for users to understand.
In this milestone, you will first uncover the actors, use cases, and relationships that define the requirements for the proposed system and document that information in a Use-Case Glossary. You will use that to build a Use-Case Model Diagram for the system and a Use-Case Narrative for one use case.
Milestone 3 Instructions
IS581 Milestone 7&8 Case study Coastline Systems Consulting
The requirements analysis phase answers the question, “What does the user need and want from a new system?” The requirements analysis phase is critical to the success of any new information system! In this milestone, we need to identify what information systems requirements need to be defined from the system users’ perspectives and draw graphical, logical models to document the data requirements for a new and improved system.
Data modeling is a technique for organizing and documenting a system’s data. Data modeling is sometimes called database modeling because a data model is usually implemented as a database. Data is viewed as a resource to be shared by as many processes as possible. As a result, data must be organized in a way that is flexible and adaptable to unanticipated business requirements—and that is the purpose of data modeling.
In this milestone, you will first discover those entities in the system that are or might be described by data. Then we will define each entity we identify in respect to the business. Then we will construct a Context Data Model that graphically depicts each of the entities and their relationships with each other. Next, we will refine the context data model to include primary and foreign keys. The resulting model is called a Key-Based Data Model. Finally, we refine the key-based data model to include any hierarchies and attributes, and this model is referred to as the Fully Attributed Data Model.
Milestone 4 Instructions
For this milestone, you will be using the following templates/resources:
Entity Definition Matrix – create using Word or Excel (see Table 8-5)
Context Data Model – create using Visio or other drawing tool
Key-Based Data Model – create using Visio or other drawing tool
Fully Attributed Data Model – create using Visio or other drawing tool
IS581 Milestone 9&10 Case study Coastline Systems Consulting
Be sure to read the Project area of each Assignment section, as they talk directly to the milestone tasks. Also, for review purposes, note that typical milestone solutions will be posted on Wednesday morning of the following week. This is necessary as it is important.
Deliverables:
Entity Relationship Diagram in Third Normal Form
Context Diagram
Event Decomposition Diagram
Four Event Diagrams of Your Choosing
System Diagram
Primitive Data Flow Diagram
Review all of the milestone project steps below. Post questions in the Milestone Virtual Lab Forum discussion area.
Milestone 5
The purpose of this milestone is to normalize the data model created in Milestone 4, along with additional data requirements, to be in third normal form. This work has already been completed for you and you should have accessed the deliverable and include as part of your Milestone 3. Note that there are no points for this milestone.
Milestone 5 Instructions
IS581 Milestone 11&12 Case study Coastline Systems Consulting
Process modeling is a technique for organizing and documenting the structure and flow of data through a system’s processes and/or the logic, policies, and procedures to be implemented by a system’s processes. In this milestone, we focus on using and constructing data flow diagrams (DFDs) and decomposition diagrams to perform process modeling. Data flow diagrams are tools that depict the flow of data through a system and the work or processing performed by that system. A decomposition diagram is a DFD planning tool that shows the top-down functional decomposition and structure of a system. During this milestone, you will first construct a context diagram to establish project scope and boundaries. Secondly, you will draw an event decomposition diagram to partition the system into logical subsystems and/or functions. Thirdly, you will draw event diagrams to model individual processes. Finally, you will construct a system data flow diagram that shows the big picture of the system, and a primitive data flow diagram for a single event process.
Milestone 6 Instructions
For this milestone, you will be using the following templates/resources:
Context Diagram – create using Visio or other drawing tool
Event Decomposition Diagram – create using Visio or other drawing tool
Event Diagrams – create using Visio or other drawing tool
System Diagram – create using Visio or other drawing tool
Primitive Data Flow Diagram – create using Visio or other drawing tool
