Course:COMP1446 2008/09 Coursework ID: Contribution:

Business Analysis 151962 100% of course

Coordinator: Release Date: Deadline Date: Return Date:

Mr Yasser Ades Friday Tuesday Wednesday
7/04/2009 05/05/2009 27/05/2009

This coursework should take an average student who is up-to-date with tutorial
work approximately 36 hours

Learning Outcomes: A, B, C, D

Plagiarism is presenting somebody else's work as your own. It includes:

copying information directly from the Web or books without referencing the
material; submitting joint coursework as an individual effort; copying
another student's coursework; stealing coursework from another student
and submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be
investigated and if found to have occurred will be dealt with according to
the procedures set down by the University. Please see your student
handbook for further details of what is / isn't plagiarism. Details are also on
the CMS Student Intranet.

All material copied or amended from any source (e.g. internet,

books) must be placed in quotation marks and in italics, with a full
reference to the source directly underneath the material.

Your work will be submitted for plagiarism checking. Any attempt

to bypass our plagiarism detection systems will be treated as a
severe Assessment Offence.

Coursework Submission Requirements

An electronic copy of your work for this coursework should be fully uploaded by midnight
on the Deadline Date of Tuesday 05/05/2009 using the link on the coursework
Teachmat page for COMP1446.
Work will be accepted without penalty up to 3 hours after midnight and the last version
you upload will be the one that is marked.
For this coursework you must submit a single Acrobat PDF document.
In general, any text in the document must not be an image (ie must not be scanned)
 and would normally be generated from other documents (eg MS Office 2007 using
"Save As .. PDF"). More details are on the CMS IT Support pages
There are limits on the file size (current values are on the CMS Student Intranet).
Make sure that any files you upload are virus-free and not protected by a password
otherwise they will be treated as null submissions.
Your work will not be printed in colour. Please ensure that any pages with colour are
acceptable when printed in Black and White.
You must NOT submit a paper copy of this coursework, or include the Banner header
sheet.

Coursework Regulations

If no submissions were made before the deadline, coursework submitted up to two weeks
late that meets the criteria for a pass will be treated as a referral. It will be subject
to university regulations for referral work.

If you have Extenuating Circumstances you may submit your coursework up to two weeks
after the published deadline without penalty but this is subject to acceptance of
your claim by the School Extenuating Circumstances Panel. If your claim is
rejected then your work will be subject to paragraph 1 above.

Coursework submitted more than two weeks late will be given feedback but a grade of zero
will be awarded regardless of any extenuating circumstances. However, if your
Extenuating Circumstances claim is accepted then the Extenuating Circumstances
Panel will recommend to the Progression and Award Board that you be permitted
to retake a different item of assessment at a future assessment point.

Do not ask the lecturers for extensions to published deadlines - they are not authorised to
award an extension.

All courseworks must be submitted as above. Under no circumstances can they be accepted
by School academic staff.

Coursework will only be returned by the above Return Date if the coursework is submitted
on time and is submitted in accordance with the specification provided.
Please refer to the University website for further detail regarding the University Academic
Regulations concerning Extenuating Circumstances claims.
Part A: In class test 17th March 2009 (30%)

Part B: Business Rule Analysis: Library Circulation System (70%)

You are a business analyst in a consultancy firm contracted to specify and manage the
redevelopment of a university library circulation system. The senior analyst in your team clears
the semantic schema for the circulation system with your firm’s Quality Manager and the Project
Manager requests you to complete the user requirements specification for seven business
transactions (see the semantic schema below) before sending the specification out to a software
engineering team in India for implementation. Suppose that the library is the University of
Greenwich library and that the library wants a system with the same functionality as the present
system but with some modifications that you will negotiate with library managers.

The key meetings in this project that relate to you are:

14/4/2009 - Walkthrough the Semantic Schema of the relevant Ontology Chart fragments with
the Senior Analyst (see Figures 1,2 and 3 below) - also on the same date, a briefing with your
Project Manager on your deliverables.

21/4/2009 - Question & Answer session focused on the current system with Mr Iain Gray –
systems manager. He will avail himself to you collectively in class.

27/4/2009 - Question & Answer session focused on system modification with Ms Helene
Mallauran - the circulation manager. She will avail herself to you collectively in class.

You should not wait until you meet the library managers to start elicitation of the business rules.
The bulk of your elicitation should be from your scenario testing of the present system,
observation and your real experience of the system as a borrower.

Your Project Manager wants you to:

1. Elicit, trace and structure the perceptual norms associated with these 7 communication
acts: issue(library, “borrowed”), renew(person, borrowed), return(library, holds),
place(person, “reservation”), cancel(person, reservation), declare(library, satisfied
(reservation)). declare uncollected (library, at(item, place)) (30%)

2. Elicit, trace and structure a behavioural norm associated with the issue(library,
“borrowed”), or declare(library, satisfied (reservation)). Explain the criteria that
made you conclude that this norm is a behavioural norm. What is the practical
significance of making this distinction and propagating it to the software specification?

(10%)

3. Identify any functional bug with the existing circulation system from your own scenario
testing.

(5%)
 4. Produce a scenario test plan for accepting the new system on behalf of the library

(10%)

5. Write a memorandum (in less than 300 words) to either

a) the firm’s Quality Manager presenting the case as to why he should adopt SNF-
compliance as a quality target for user requirement specification on all business projects or
b) the firm’s Director critically evaluating three approaches to the implementation of SNF-
compliant software namely: the Conventional, MDA and SNF Native Technology
(15%)

Semantic Schema fragments within the scope of your analysis

The members of the library
are mainly current
students, and staff but
some alumni might be
included. The library
suspends membership each
year until students re-enrol
in their successor year.

Figure 1: Library Circulation System Agents Ontology Chart

person

place
loaned renew

located missing
borrowed request

item
sto
ck
return issue
work holds

r
ne
ow

library

A person may borrow an item with or without permission. Only during the
coexistence of a loan is the borrowing with permission. An item must be held in the
library stock to be either borrowed or returned. The place an item is located is the
normal place that the item is located: Greenwich, Avery Hill or Medway library
buildings. When an item is deemed missing we do not extinguish located but start
missing. If it reappears we finish missing

Figure 2: Library Borrowing Ontology Chart

Members place
reservations for a work
at a place, but for the
library to satisfy a
reservation it must
fetch a particular item
of the work and put it
at the place of the
reservation.

p e rs on
me
Figure 3: Library Reservation Ontology Chart

Deliverable for part B: A single PDF document incorporating your deliverables for all tasks.
Task 1 & 2: The norms written in LEGOL, Structured English or any other notation with the
context causation norm (in the case of perceptual norms) of the relevant communication act /
business transaction. Trace requirements by reference to captured screen shots, statements made
by a library manger, library rules or a coherent argument for why the norm must be/should be
present (8 page maximum). Task 3: The missing or improper norm (1 page maximum). Task 4:
Test cases and expected results. Task 5: Memorandums to management must be brief, formal,
clear, coherent, and accurate. Memorandums should also assign responsibility for judgments and
actions clearly. You must copy all diagrams and computer screen shots into your submitted
word/PDF document. It is better to perfect tasks 1 & 2 before attempting tasks 3 & 4. Do not
spend too much time searching for the bug of question 3. If you spend 3 hours and still cannot
find it then document your testing strategy and move on to task 4. Task 5 is for those aiming for
a distinction.

Marking: As outlined above.

Discussion: You must attend the Ontology Chart walkthrough on the 14 April 2009. You
will have an opportunity to ask questions on this coursework in class only. There will be no
opportunities for individual discussions with the Library manger or tutor

Grading: Your grade for Parts A & B will be based on the accumulation of marks awarded.
Grade A: means that the work you submit demonstrates a through understanding of ontological
constraints, structure of business rules, the elicitation and tracing of user requirements and the
specification notations, including UML OCL. The quality of your business analysis and test case
scenarios would have a marked positive impact on project success (70%+)
Grade B: means that the work you submit demonstrates a very good understanding of ontological
constraints, structure of business rules, the elicitation and tracing of user requirements and the
specification notations, including UML OCL. The quality of your business analysis would have a positive
impact on project success (60%+)
Grade C: means that the work you submit demonstrates a good understanding of ontological constraints,
structure of business rules, and the specification notations including UML OCL. The quality of your
business analysis would have a positive impact on project success. (50%+)
Grade D: means that the work you submit demonstrates an ability to read a specification and understand
some elements of business rules and constraints but that your work is insufficient to have a positive
impact on a real project’s outcome.(40%+)
Grade E: the work demonstrates an ability to read a business specification but not produce a specification
of any value. (30%+)
Grade F: means that the work submitted fails to demonstrate a sufficient understanding of either business
rules or constraints and your specification is either worse or not much better then the original
specification fragments (<30%)