Introduction
The essence of this report is feedback to the manager who wanted a system analyst to shade more light on agile or adaptive software development methodologies. The report discusses adaptive software development and introduces the various methodologies related to it. It further expounds on scrum and extreme programming agile methodology giving a recommendation to Pty Ltd on the methodology that is best suited for the implementation of Pty Ltd new online oredering information system.
Adaptive software development methodologies as the name suggests is change adhering in nature, in that, they accommodate the software’s requirements as the development process progresses (Highsmith, 2013). Adaptive software methodologies offer a window for incrementing features or functions of the software that were initially left out or whose significance was realized in the various releases made by the development team. For instance in the schools supply Pty Ltd information system, the need to implement the stock control, quick books interconnection and online payment for books may arise later during development or after a release. Adaptive software development methodology will make sure, these functions are incrementally accommodated in the new information system for Pty Limited.
It is simple, to develop software using adaptive software development methodology, the team of developers start developing the software using the available requirements specified.
Compatibility, its adaptive nature makes it compatible to new requirements and technologies. The team of developers will always implement the user stories they get from the stakeholders and users after the release.
Disadvantages of adaptive software development methodology
It is expensive to implement the new information system for Pty Limited using adaptive software development methodology because it requires a team of developers that are highly skilled.
There is no proper design, requirement specification and documentation when developing software using adaptive software development methodology. This is difficult for a team of developers to complete a project that they did not start because of lack of proper documentation.
Indefinite scope, the end of the development of the new Pty information system is not established. This is because requirements for the information system will keep evolving.
There are many adaptive software development methodologies; Scrum, Extreme programming, Unified process and Rational unified Process. Pty Ltd should focus on two of the most commonly used agile software development methodology Scrum and Extreme programming in order to produce software of good quality.
Scrum Adaptive software development methodology
Scrum is an agile software development methodology that is based on iterative, incremental sprints (Dingsøyr et.al 2012). The sprints are the modules implemented to form the whole project. Therefore, the whole development process of the new information system for Pty Ltd is divided into sprints. Sprints in the new Pty Ltd information system will be; the online ordering system, stock control and the online payment module. Before each sprint, there is sprint planning where, the team of developers meet to set the goals and objectives for the development of the sprint. After the sprint is developed the team of developers meet for the sprint review where, the achievements of the sprint are cross checked with the objectives set during the sprint planning session. At this point is when the scrum master presents the release to the stakeholders. There is also a sprint retrospective that helps to identify the flaws experienced in that sprint and how to avoid such in the next sprint.
When the team of experts developing the new Pty Ltd software is geographically located at one place.
When there is no external module that the new Pty Ltd ne information system is dependent on (Dingsøyr et.al 2012). This is because the outsourced module’s delivery may delay, delaying the whole development process.
Advantages of Scrum
Using Scrum to develop the new information system for Pty Ltd will be fast and easy due to the division of the whole software into sprints which take less time to implement.
The daily scrum meeting where the progress of each expert in the development team is checked ensures that every expert is responsible and accountable throughout the development process.
Scrum adheres to change by implementing the evolving requirements for the new information system for Pty Ltd.
Disadvantages of Scrum
The implementation of the new Pty Ltd information system using scrum will be time consuming because the scope of the system will not be definite (Devedzic, 2011).
Scrum requires a team of highly skilled developers to implement the new information system for Pty Ltd
Extreme programming
Extreme programming is an agile software development methodology that utilizes the agility of adaptive methodologies and majors on coding rather than the design part which is considered by many as the backbone of software (Devedzic, 2011). As the name suggests Extreme programming revolves around coding and testing of the code. With extreme programming, the whole development process will be broken down into units. After each unit is coded, the team of developers perform testing on the system before releasing it to the users. After all the units are implemented, then acceptance testing is done on the whole project before the release. Circumstances under which extreme programming is used
When the team of programmers consists of two to twelve members and not more than twelve (Wang, Conboy and Cawley, 2012)
When there is a high risk of developing the new Pty Ltd online ordering system, XP comes in to reduce the risks involved.
Advantages of extreme programming
The testing levels unit and acceptance testing ensure that error propagation during development of the new Pty Ltd information system
It is simple (Wang, Conboy and Cawley, 2012), to develop software using adaptive software development methodology, the team of developers start developing the software using the available requirements specified.
Disadvantages of Extreme programming
Extreme programming is more focused on the coding of the project rather than the design of the software. A good software design leads to a good software implementation.
There is no proper design, requirement specification and documentation when developing software using adaptive software development methodology. This is difficult for a team of developers to complete a project that they did not start because of lack of proper documentation.
Pty Ltd should consider using extreme programming to implement their new information system. Extreme programming offers extreme coding where the team of developers will be busy implementing the code part of the system. The codes are then subjected for testing in every unit before doing an acceptance test. This ensures that there is little or no error propagation throughout the development process for the new information system for Pty Ltd.
There are many design approaches to implementing human computer interface for online back to school ordering system. However this memo focuses on three best and commonly used design approaches; the user centered design, the value sensitive design and the user interface principles.
User centered design, normally abbreviated as UCD, is a design practice that focuses on the users of the online back to school ordering system (Miaskiewicz, and Kozar, 2011). This design practice is supported by the adaptive software development methodologies expounded in the report on adaptive methodologies where the users of the system are so much involved during the design and implementation of the human computer interface. The parents, teachers, Pty Ltd management and owner using the system will work closely with the designers and developers of the online back to school ordering system to ensure that the system is usable, user-friendly and enhances rendering of online ordering services for books. This design approach focuses on making the user experience with the online back to school ordering system by identifying the various activities in the system that interact with the users of the system. After identifying the activities, like prompting the system for ordering platform, the design focuses on making the system usable and user-friendly.
Value sensitive design, which puts into consideration the values, principles, policies and regulations put in place by Schools supplies Pty Ltd during the design and development of the online back to school ordering system. The design approach also puts takes into account the values of the customers and clients of Schools supplies Pty Ltd. These values taken into account, affects the stakeholders and the clients either directly or indirectly. Value sensitive design is implemented incrementally in a series of analysis. First there is the analysis of the various stakeholders of the new online book ordering system, the parents, teachers, students, management and owner of Pty Ltd, to identify what values they value. The values identified are then analyzed to establish whether they conflict at any given point, the values that are conflicting are rectified to suit every stakeholders need. The final consideration is what impact the new online book ordering system will have on the values of the various stakeholders of Schools Supply Pty Ltd. The new information system should impact positively on the values of the stakeholders by upholding and strengthening the values, if there is a negative impact it should be minimal.
The third way to approach the design of the online book ordering system is by taking into account the user interface design principles. These principles are the uncompoundness of the design, the usability of the design, the degree of which various components on the interface are seen, the ability of the users to afford to use the system and the quality of the feedback users get from the system (Rautaray and Agrawal 2015). When the design of the online book ordering system takes into account the above principles then the human computer interface is complete as the users will comfortably be enabled to use the system.
Recommendation
It is advisable that Schools supply Pty Ltd takes into consideration all the three design approaches when implementing the new online book ordering system. The combination of the three design approaches; user centered design, where the users are involved throughout the design and development process for the online book ordering system, value sensitive design, where all the values of the stakeholders of Schools Supply Pty Ltd are taken into account and ensure the deployment of the human computer interface mainly uphold and strengthen their values and the design approach follows the design principles of user interfaces.
Conclusion
The combination of the three design approaches, will enhance the implementation of both functional and non-functional requirements of the online book ordering system. With the user centered design the functional requirements of the online book ordering system will be implemented whereas with the user interface design principles approach and value sensitive design approach the non-functional requirements of the system like functionality where the system will be performing all the specified functions it was meant for, usability where the users of online book ordering system will comfortably use the system, reliability where it is expected that all the values of the stakeholders of Schools supply Pty Ltd will be upheld and supported by the system, performance where it is expected that the system will be effective and efficient in performing the ordering functions and security where the system is expected to secure data, information and values of the stakeholders of Schools supply Pty Ltd.
PART B Modeling and diagramming
- Event table
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Event
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Event Type
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Trigger
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Source
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Activity/Use case
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System response/ Output
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Destination
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Account creation
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External
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A parent or a school prompts the system for account registration
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Parent/ School
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A parent or a school representative prompts the system for account registration.
The system provides a menu to choose from as either school or parent. The user chooses an option. The system provides registration form. The user enters the details. The system saves and displays a success or failure message.
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Registered successfully or registration failure
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Parent or School
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Login to the system
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External
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A user wants to log into the account
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User, either parent or school
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User prompts the system for login form, the system avails the login form. The user enters username and password. The system authenticates the system details. If the credentials are right the system logs the user to his or her account, if the credentials are wrong the system displays a wrong credentials message.
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The system logs in the user or displays a wrong credentials message.
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User account
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Ordering of book packs
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internal
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A logged in user prompts the user for book ordering platform
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Logged in user
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A logged in user prompts the system for book pack ordering platform. The system provides the book pack ordering platform. The user chooses the students, book pack level and submits the order. The user then pays for the orders manually and chooses either delivery or pickup service. The system records order details
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Outputs either order success message and records the order details or failure message
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System
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Delivery
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Internal
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The system informs the user on delivery of book packs ordered
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System
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System sends a delivery details to the user
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Sends delivery message in the user’s account
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User
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Pickup
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Internal
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They system wants to inform the user that the ordered book packs have matured for pickup
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System
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The system generates message for pickup
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Displays pickup details to the user
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The user
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Invoice generation
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internal
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The system generates the cost of the book packs ordered
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System
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After the user has ordered the book packs, the system generates what he or she is supposed to pay for the book packs
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Displays the cost of the book packs ordered.
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The user
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- Use case Diagram (Satzinger, Jackson and Burd 2011) and (Hernández, Rodríguez and Martin 2010, October)
- Use case description
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Use case name
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Create online account
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Scenario
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Online account creation
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Triggering event
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A school or parent prompts the system for account registration
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Brief description
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The user prompts the system for account creation platform, the system provides the registration form and prompts the user to enter details. The user enters details and clicks register. The system saves the account details and displays success or failure message regarding registration
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Actor
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School or Parent
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Stakeholders
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Pty Ltd, Schools, parents
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Preconditions
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The user should not have any other account with Schools Supply Pty Ltd
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Post-conditions
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The user must enter details like name , username, password, email address and the students
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Bibliography
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Hernández, U.I., Rodríguez, F.J.Á. and Martin, M.V., 2010, October. Use processes—modeling requirements based on elements of BPMN and UML Use Case Diagrams.[online]. In Software Technology and Engineering (ICSTE), 2010 2nd International Conference on (Vol. 2, pp. V2-36). San Juan. IEEE. Available from: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5608758 [Accessed 03 October 2018]
Highsmith, J.R., 2013. Adaptive software development: a collaborative approach to managing complex systems. pp. 84-92. United States. Addison-Wesley.
Miaskiewicz, T. and Kozar, K.A., 2011. Personas and user-centered design: How can personas benefit product design processes?.[online]. Design Studies, 32(5), pp.417-430. Lisbon. Elsevier. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142694X11000275 [Accessed 03 October 2018]
Rautaray, S.S. and Agrawal, A., 2015. Vision based hand gesture recognition for human computer interaction: a survey.[online]. Artificial Intelligence Review, 43(1), pp.1-54. Sydney. Elsevier. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121212000404 [Accessed 03 October 2018]
Satzinger, J.W., Jackson, R.B. and Burd, S.D., (2011). Systems analysis and design in a changing world [online]. 1st November 2011. Cengage Learning. Pp.244. Available from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eRQKAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=Satzinger,+J.W.,+Jackson,+R.B.+and+Burd,+S.D.,+2011&ots=ssBzwMrmqW&sig=V8oDy2zbDpXzTdySmbkB565nmsw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 03 October 2018]
Wang, X., Conboy, K. and Cawley, O., 2012. “Leagile” software development: An experience report analysis of the application of lean approaches in agile software development. [online]. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(6), pp.1287-1299. Sydney. Elsevier. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121212000404 [Accessed 03 October 2018]
