Diggin - the Diggin Software System (DSS)

About Diggin

Diggin is a start-up website on which users will be able exchange questions and answers about gardening. Users will need to register before they can ask and answer questions. They will need to entera display name, email address, and a password which they will need to re-enter. They will then be sent an email message with a link which they must click to verify their email address within 24 hours in order to complete the registration process.

Once registered, a user will be able to ask questions and to answer questions asked by other users. They will be able to add comments about an existing answer, and upvote or downvote it. Each user will have a member profile that records the date when they joined, the number of questions they have asked and the number they have answered, together with a reputation, which is calculated from their participation and the number of votes up or down their answers have received.

Questions will be organised into various pre-set categories (e.g. ‘hardy perennials’), and the asker can also add optional tags (e.g. ‘acid soil’) that others can search on.

Members of the public will be able to visit the website, read and search all questions and answers and view the profiles of those who have posted them, but not contribute to the website, unless they have registered.

In this question you are asked to complete selected sections of the Volere template for the DSS.

The full template is very long, and it would not be practical to complete it all, which is why we only want you to fill in the parts we have indicated in the simplified version below.

1. Purpose of the product: how will the new system help Diggin?
2. Stakeholders: who are the stakeholders?
3. Users of the product: who are the users?
4. Naming conventions and definitions: discuss whether any terms from the description above need to be added to the project glossary.
5. Scope of the product: what are the boundaries of the system? (You only need to say what the product will deal with and who will interact with its interfaces. You are not expected to produce a use case diagram.)
6. Functional requirements: identify three functional requirements for the DSS.

Non-functional requirements: invent an example of a non-functional requirement that might be associated with one of the functional requirements you identified in (f) above. For this example:

• State the requirement.
• Say what category of non-functional requirement it belongs to.
• Provide a suitable fit criterion for the requirement.

In this question you will develop a use case model for the DSS based on the description of the new system.

1. List the different actors, choosing appropriate role names for them.
2. List the use cases, again choosing suitable names.
3. Draw your corresponding use case model. Use a graphics package of your choice, the drawing tools provided in a word-processor, or hand draw your diagram and scan or photograph it.

Your diagram should include all the actors and use cases you identified in (a) and (b) above. It should also show their associations. You may need to identify relationships between use cases and/or between actors.

1. Suppose the DSS is to be developed incrementally, starting with a functioning core and adding a further two reasonably independent ‘chunks’. Suggest what, in your opinion, should form the core, what other increments should follow, and in what order. Give brief reasons for your answers.
2. Consider the development of the DSS by an agile approach team.

Suggest two user stories likely to be of high priority for the team and briefly explain why they would be high priority.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development sets out four values:

• individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• working software over comprehensive documentation
• customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• responding to change over following a plan.

Choose an agile development method for discussion.

Agile development method will be – SCRUM

Using each of the Manifesto values listed above as a heading, explain how your chosen method

SCRUM demonstrates each of these values.

Your answer must be mainly in your own words, with any quotations from third-party sources (including the one given above) clearly indicated by quotation marks and an appropriate reference.

Your answer should not exceed 500 words in total, excluding headings and references but including quotations and citations.