Words of Wisdom
• Our ability to think and make
Software Requirements Engineering choices differentiates us from
other creatures. We can choose
good over bad, right over wrong.
Week 3
• For the worst of beasts in the sight of Allah
are those who reject Him. They will not
believe. Al-Quran (8:55)
Course Projects
• SIS – Admissions
• SIS – Registration
• SIS – Examination Case Study
• SIS – Fee and dues
• Transport
• Inventory
1
HOLIS Case Study
• What's needed is a new marketplace, not too remote from
• Background for the Case Study what the company does best, but one in which there is
Lumenations, Ltd., has been a worldwide supplier of substantial opportunity for growth in revenue and profits.
commercial lighting systems for use in professional theater and
amateur stage productions for more than 40 years. • After a thorough market research project and spending many
• In 1999, its annual revenues peaked at approximately $20 dollars on marketing consultants, the company has decided to
enter a new market: lighting automation for high-end
million, and sales are flattening. Lumenations is a public residential systems. This market is apparently growing at 25%-
company and the lack of growth in sales—no, worse, the lack of 35% a year. Even better, the market is immature, and none
any reasonable prospect for improving growth in sales—is of the established players has a dominant market position.
taking its toll on the company and its shareholders.
• Lumenations' strong worldwide distribution channel will be a
• The last annual meeting was quite uncomfortable, as there was real asset in the marketplace, and the distributors are hungry
little new to report about the company's prospects for growth. for new products. Looks like a great opportunity!
The stock climbed briefly to $25 last spring on a spate of new
orders but has since crept back down to around $15.
• The theater equipment industry as a whole is flat with little new
development. The industry is mature and already well
consolidated
Preliminary User Needs Problem Definition
• Let's assume that a few reasonably well-understood user needs Problem Statement — For Lumenations
have been defined for HOLIS. The problem of slowing growth in the company's core professional
– HOLIS will need to support "soft'' key switches—individual theater marketplaces
programmable key switches used to activate the lighting features in
various rooms. affects the company, its employees, and its shareholders,
– Homeowners have requested that there be a means to HOLIS from a the result of which is unacceptable business performance and lack of
remote center so they can simply call in their needs and not be bothered substantive opportunities for growth in revenue
with "programming" HOLIS at all. and profitability.
– Other prospective buyers have requested that HOLIS be programmable Benefits of new products and a potential new marketplace for
from their home PCs and that they be provided with the ability to do all
the company's products and services include
of the installation, programming, and maintenance themselves.
– Still others have requested that the system provide a simple, push- • Revitalizing the company and its employees
button control panel-type interface they can use to change HOLIS • Increased loyalty and retention of the company's
programming, vacation settings, and so on, without having to use PC distributors
– HOLIS needs to provide an emergency-contact system of some kind
• Higher revenue growth and profitability
• Upturn in the company's stock price
2
Problem Statement for the Homeowner Problem Statement for the Distributor
The problem of the lack of product choices, limited functionality, The problem of the lack of product choices, limited functionality,
and high cost of existing home lighting and high cost of existing home lighting
automation systems automation systems
affects the homeowners of high-end residential systems affects the distributors and builders of high-end residential
the result of which is unacceptable performance of the purchased systems
systems or, more often than not, a decision “not the result of which is few opportunities for marketplace differentiation
to automate” and no new opportunities for higher-margin
Benefits of the "right" lighting automation solution could products
include Benefits of the "right" lighting automation solution could,
Higher homeowner satisfaction and pride of include
ownership Differentiation
Increased flexibility and usability of the residence Higher revenues and higher profitability
Improved safety, comfort, and convenience Increased market share
Stakeholders Stakeholders - Actors
• The homeowner who uses HOLIS to control the
lighting
• The various lights that HOLIS, in turn, controls
• Lumenations Services, the manufacturer that has
the ability remotely dial HOLIS and perform the
remote programming
• Emergency Receiver, an undefined actor who will
likely receive emergency messages
Homeowner
Emergency Receiver
TBD
Lumenations Services
3
Stakeholders – Non Actors System Thinking
• External • It would be good if we could have common software
– Distributors within both controller device and the homeowner's
– Builders PC; we'll pick a PC-based implementation for both
– Electrical contractors elements of the system.
• Internal • We are not yet certain what flexibility we are going to
– Development team need in the remote softkey switches, but it's clear that
– Marketing/product management
there will be many of them, that some of them will be
– Lumenations general management
a fair distance from the main control unit, and that
we'll probably need some intelligent communication
between those and the control unit
HOLIS Subsystems
Lights and
Other
Emergency
Receiver
Resident
Central Control Unit
Control Switch
Homeowner/
PC Programmer Lumninations
Programmer
Services
4
Constraints Constraints
• Version 1.0 would be released to manufacturing by January 5, • The microprocessor subsystem for the Central Control Unit would be
copied from the professional division's advanced lighting system project
2000 (ALSP)
– The only product launch opportunity this year – An existing design and an inventoried part
• The team would adopt UML modeling, OO-based • The only Homeowner PC Programmer configuration supported would be
methodologies, and the Unified Software Development Process compatible with Windows 98
– We believe these technologies will provide increased productivity and – Scope management for release 1.0
more robust systems • The team would be allowed to hire two new full-time employees after a
successful inception phase, with whatever skill set was determined to be
• The software for the Central Control unit and PC Programmer necessary
would be written in C++. Assembly language would be used for – Maximum allowable budget expansion
the Control Switch • The KCH5444 single-chip microprocessor would be used in the control
– For consistency and maintainability; also, the team knows these switch.
languages – Already in use in the company
• A prototype system must be displayed at the December Home • Purchased software components were permissible, so long as there was no
Automation trade show continuing royalty obligation to the company
– To take distributors' orders for Q1 FY 2000 – No lone-term cost of goods sold impact for software
Q&A
