Software development methodology

In project management, there are a number of things which need to be studied before its implementation. A case study about sports club was carried out to examine the existing system of the identified problem. Case study will enable the project team to actually understand what the customer needs and what needs to be improved on the working system.

However, for a project to be implemented, a problem must be identified. After the problem has been identified, it is taken up for discussion where the team members discussed about the problem and come up with the solutions.

The project can be approved or disapproved during the discussion depending on the cost of implementation. If the project is approved it is now taken for implementation stage and if disapproved by the panelists, it is taken back for the discussion where some amendments will be made in order for the panelists to come to an agreement about the implementation of the project.

Methodology is a strategy which is used during the project development process. This implies that some techniques need to be applied for a successful completion of the Sports Club Reporting Information System. When a process is being developed, it has to follow a series of steps. Each step consist of tasks to be undertaken within a specific time limit. Therefore each stage is allocated time stamp so that the people responsible for the task has to accomplish the mission before or within deadlines. (Bae, Lee, & Chae 2008, April).  This is because the whole project development process is given a duration of time which is supposed to be completed.

In project development, the team is broken down and each group is assign the task to undertake and complete within a certain period of time allocated to each team. Some of the methodologies one can apply during Sports Club Reporting Information System project development include the following

1. Agile methodology
2. Waterfall model
3. Spiral model

When the team members are discussing about the project, they look into consideration of so many things. A discussion about the benefits or the possible outcomes of the Sports club reporting information system have to be done in detail. The team members also should be able to cross-examine the questions pertaining customer requirements. Does the implementation of the project meets customer requirements? Does it solved the problems being faced by the customers or the users? All these questions must be discussed in details by the project team

Justification

During case study, data collection is one of the major key area that needs to be undertaken with a lot of keenness. The data are collected and analyzed so that the important issues are highlighted and taken up for the discussion.

Data collection requires some techniques to be used to make the work of implementing the project easier and allow faster implementation. The following methods are applicable during data collection;

1. Use of questionnaire – a questionnaire is constructed so that people could be able to answer specific questions concerning the project. The data concerning the designed questions are taken for analysis and interpretations.
2. Individual interviews – People are interviewed so that they give views regarding to the existing system. Open ended questions are used during the interview.
3. Direct observation – this is where direct observation of what is going on with the current system. The studies are just made by just looking at how the existing system works.
4. Documents and records – this is where the researcher focuses on the history of the existing system. Books and book of records are referred for the data to be extracted from them.  

During case study, the techniques which is the most convenient to use is chosen. A kind of technique which is faster and can collect large volume of data. This is because the actual customer requirements about the proposed project is of highest priority. The changes that are to be made largely depends on the collected data.

In data collection, accurate methods of collecting data are prioritized. For example contacting individual interviews, give an assurance of almost accurate results about the existing system. Through direct interviews, direct information concerning all the challenges facing the current system are received and they are taken for analysis.

Questionnaire is a method of collecting data whereby specific questions are constructed concerning the proposed system. Questionnaires are structured questions which are used to collect data about the new and the existing system. The questions are designed in such a way that they can be closed or open ended. Questionnaires are mostly use during data collection. The data collected are taken, entered into the system and analyzed.

Questionnaires can be classified into two categories which include the open ended format questions and close ended format questions. In open ended question a person gives opinion or a suggestion regarding the problem identified whereas in the close ended question a person has to use the given choices to answer the question stated in the questionnaire.

Questionnaires does not use open ended questions but strictly focuses on facts about what is to be done. Questionnaires is mostly preferred because it is easier and cheap since it does not require any movement from one location to the other but it can be done online.

This describes Sports Club Report Information System behavior on how it should look like, its features and functions. Sports Club Report Information System developers must showcase this so that users can meet what they require from the new system to complete their tasks. The formats and documents normally used are:

• The specifications of the system- it consists of the descriptions of the functionality of the project
• The cases which are used- this provide the description of the interaction of the external users and the system users.
• The past stories used- this is the document that describes the features of the software being implemented as demonstrated from the user perspective.
• Work breakdown structure- this is the decomposition of work into simpler and manageable units.
• Prototypes- implies the process of development stages during the project implementation. It helps the project team to identify areas which are more complex.

The non-functional requirements in the case study demonstrates the behavior of the system and how it works. It generates the challenges of its functionality. The following are the best examples of non-functional requirements.

• Usability- it should be able to show how easy it is so that the user can learn and use the system.
• Security – to ensure that the software is well protected from intruders from accessing the data stored in it.
• Reliability- the system should be reliable for use at any given point of time and hence it should be real time.
• Performance- software should be able to be of highest performance since the main aim of the project implementation is to the performance of the company is achieved.

Data collection

Class diagrams are used to map out the structure of a certain system by demonstrating the system attributes, relationships, classes and the operations of objects. A unified modelling language (UML) contains class diagrams attributes through which software programmers can use it to demonstrate the system features to its users. Software programmers’ uses class diagrams to document the programs developed.  These diagrams demonstrates what must be present in the Sports Club Report Information System under development designed. (Ranjini, Kanthimathi  & Yasmine, 2011)

It helps to describe object oriented programming methodology. The classes are the building blocks of objects, therefore the building blocks of UML are the class diagrams. Most items in the class diagram can be use in place of classes which can be coded. Classes and sub-classes are put together to demonstrate static closeness between objects.

Importance of class diagrams

There are a number of importance class diagrams can offer:

• Shows the models of data in the All Sports Club Information System environment
• It gives better understanding on the overview of the All Sports Club Information System application schema
• It specifies the need of the All Sports Club Information System and distribute the information’s throughout the system
• It developed a detailed chart that indicates any code that is supposed to be programmed and deployed within the system.(Emadi & Shams, 2009, August)

Below is an example of a class diagram that was developed to show the modelling of the Sports Club Report Information System

They are used to overview how the Sports Club Report Information System requirements are being used in the program. They are very useful to the representation of both the stakeholders and the managers. They describe the actual requirements which are functional in the system. Von der Maßen & Lichter, 2002, September).

The above diagram is a use case diagram to show how the Sports Club Report Information System will work. The users must register within the information system and then by owning an account, the details of all the users can be viewed. The details are for the members, advertisers and the news letters. In the diagram there are two system users. Each user is assigned a role to play so that it can make the work flow within the system and becomes easier for the manager to monitor all the activities.

Any statements assumed to be true about All Sports Club or about related system for the system to function and execute the specific use case.

The main story of the use case is the successful scenarios. It is jotted down in the assumption that everything is working properly without errors or mistakes and leads to the expected outcome of the use case. (Kim, Lee, Park, Kim & Park, 1999) It consisted of a series of steps

An example of a scenarios are a shown below:

• The user enters the product name, NEWS LETTER and the description- this is the interaction step
• System will validate product NEWS LETTER- validation step
• System adds the NEWS LETTER to the database and return confirmation message – internal changes of updates and interaction steps

The entity relationship diagram above show the relationships between various departments in the Sports Club Information System. All the departments share some data and in that case they should linked up together for easy management and the performance of the organization. The information system is integrated in such a way that all the users are able to communicate and interact in a particular manner.

Questionnaire

The entity relationship diagram is used together the data flow diagrams to show the content of the data stored in the system. By using the entity relationship diagrams we are able to indicate how the data are connected in the integrated All Sports Club Information System.

This kind of diagram are used together with the entity relationship diagrams. They are used to show how data are flowing within the system. The data are supposed to be send from one point to the other in a hierarchical order. The diagram below shows how data flows when players and the information system are registering for games they play.

This kind of diagrams are used to show the activities which are taking place within the Sports Club Information System. It will be able to demonstrate what the users are doing and what is supposed to be done and what the details of each entity in the information system.

For example from the below diagram the system has to check whether the advertisers and members can logs on time or not because each user is assigned a privileged  about what he or she is supposed to do. The system will automatically be able to record all the details of all the registered system users.

This is a process in which each task which is supposed to be done during project implementation is allocated an amount of time by which each task is supposed to be accomplished. The assigned task must be completed with a certain period of time allocated hence it should be strictly followed.

Conclusion

In conclusion in any case study, the discussion stated above must be strictly followed. This is because it provides a step by step procedure on how the work is being undertaken. It shows directions on what is to be done by modelling the group of activities to be performed by the system in an orderly manner. Therefore it is highly recommended that whenever we are undertaking any project, we should use the discussed diagrams to guide us through the process. It will help us to complete the project implementation within deadlines.

References

Bae, J. H., Lee, K., & Chae, H. S. (2008, April). Modularization of the UML metamodel using model slicing. In Information Technology: New Generations, 2008. ITNG 2008. Fifth International Conference on (pp. 1253-1254). IEEE.

Emadi, S., & Shams, F. (2009, August). Transformation of usecase and sequence diagrams to petri nets. In Computing, Communication, Control, and Management, 2009. CCCM 2009. ISECS International Colloquium on (Vol. 4, pp. 399-403). IEEE.

Kim, M., Lee, S., Park, I., Kim, J., & Park, S. (1999). Agent-oriented software modeling. In Software Engineering Conference, 1999.(APSEC’99) Proceedings. Sixth Asia Pacific(pp. 318-325). IEEE.

Ranjini, K., Kanthimathi, A., & Yasmine, Y. (2011). Design of adaptive road traffic control system through unified modeling Language. International Journal of Computer Applications, 14(7), 36-41.

Von der Maßen, T., & Lichter, H. (2002, September). Modeling variability by UML use case diagrams. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for product lines (pp. 19-25).