Case Study for the Team Project
PROJECT OVERVIEW

Making decisions across the Department of Defence project portfolio capability requires a comprehensive understanding of hundreds of projects and their interdependencies. The traditional way of looking at portfolio for decision-makers is often too complex to comprehend and visualise all the relationships between the projects and related risks. To be able to understand projects interdependencies from different perspectives when there is imposing change, or emerging risk, is often a challenging task for decision makers. Dealing with various constraints, and required business capabilities and benefits is critical for strategic decision-making and it requires awareness of related implications.

The aim of this project is to design and develop a prototype software system that is capable of capturing and processing project data, mapping interdependencies and enabling visualisation against the current state, or emerging change. The main goal of the system is to help users get a better visual overview of departmental portfolio to support their critical decisions.

This will need to work within a restricted ICT departmental environment, which implies security constraints as limitation to a number and type of commercial or open source deployable software packages like database and frameworks. This is an important requirement that requires research at an early stage of project study and requirements analysis.

Software design shall use best practice when dealing with the design to tackle the complexity and modularity, processing speed and data validation and storage. System design shall capture functional and non-functional requirements, business processes/flow, business rules and other important components.
Software Engineering Practice (S2, 2015) Case Study for the Team Project
The new system shall consist of two basic parts, which is data entry, first processing and mapping, and second is the visualisation. Basic functionality shall consist of the following modules: assets, resources, stakeholders, project and program management, interdependency mapping for projects and programs allowing different project elements like milestones or risks, as mapping attributes. These elements will be stored in system register and categorised by attributes. Design of this register is an important part of the system due to a need to reuse it across the different modules. At this early stage the complete set of elements is not finalised but it is known that it should consist of all project and program elements and attributes.

The unique set of the major elements is program, project, requirement time, cost, task, milestone, risk, asset, resource, constraint, stakeholder etc. More details can be found in additional reference documentation.

Database design shall use normalisation (up to the 3NF) for design to reduce the duplication of data and ensure referential integrity. It is important to cater for future changes and new functionalities. For example, there is a requirement to build user module with role-based access to system functionality. System must protect the data integrity during data input and its processing operations. The system must prevent the data loss by validating data input and protecting the data integrity from wrong entries or data processing.

Visualisation of the project data is a crucial component that requires functionality to present project maps or dependency charts via graphs and maps for a given set of projects or programs within a given time frame.

Each team shall determine further details on system functionality through brainstorming, researching and communication. This is an important task and if it’s not done thoroughly and properly the cost and the consequences of its payoffs may affect the experience through the unit and final grades.

Some aspects of the system requirements are left ambiguous, intentionally. It is a part of the learning process necessary for understanding of the system and it’s requirements correctly. Use the research and discuss it with your peers when required. In additions to this case study you should read through the three papers listed in references section and get familiar with the problem. This knowledge is crucial not only for the understanding of the system you are going to build, but also for the effective work on your requirements and your assignments. Your ideas and approach and quality of your system will contribute in your grade.

Software Engineering Practice (S2, 2015) Case Study for the Team Project
To satisfy this assignment minimal functionality required by your online modular system must have the following:

• Project Program and Portfolio management component with search functionality

• Project details search, edit and modify and delete

• Project interdependencies mapping with other projects

• Registers resources, stakeholders, assets, project elements and other required registers

• Interdependencies mapping functionality for Portfolio, Program and Project against the list of projects

Following functionality will be required for those aiming at higher grades (2 or more):

• Visualization of project tasks (Gantt chart) based on given project and filters like time frames, milestones, dependencies, risks etc.

• Program visualization of project and interdependencies in a one or many different graphs based on a given criteria

• Ability to remove one or many projects from visual representation to estimate gaps and effect on a program or portfolio level

• Enable export or interface to statistical tools like “R” or “MathLab”
Some of the provided documents contain the visualisation of the project dependencies, to help you create the system.

ADITIONAL REFERENCES

• http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/documents/DSTO -TN-1098%20PR.pdf

• http://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2013/D1/garanovich.pdf

• http://www5vip.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/3578215.pdf

Software Requirements Specification
for
<Project>
Version 1.0 approved
Prepared by <author>
<organization>
<date created>

Table of Contents
Table of Contents ii
Revision History ii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Purpose 1
1.2 Document Conventions 1
1.3 Intended Audience and Reading Suggestions 1
1.4 Product Scope 1
1.5 References 1
2. Overall Description 2
2.1 Product Perspective 2
2.2 Product Functions 2
2.3 User Classes and Characteristics 2
2.4 Operating Environment 2
2.5 Design and Implementation Constraints 2
2.6 User Documentation 2
2.7 Assumptions and Dependencies 3
3. External Interface Requirements 3
3.1 User Interfaces 3
3.2 Hardware Interfaces 3
3.3 Software Interfaces 3
3.4 Communications Interfaces 3
4. System Features 4
4.1 System Feature 1 4
4.2 System Feature 2 (and so on) 4
5. Other Nonfunctional Requirements 4
5.1 Performance Requirements 4
5.2 Safety Requirements 5
5.3 Security Requirements 5
5.4 Software Quality Attributes 5
5.5 Business Rules 5
6. Other Requirements 5
Appendix A: Glossary 5
Appendix B: Analysis Models 5
Appendix C: To Be Determined List 6
Revision History
Name Date Reason For Changes Version

1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
<Identify the product whose software requirements are specified in this document, including the revision or release number. Describe the scope of the product that is covered by this SRS, particularly if this SRS describes only part of the system or a single subsystem.>
1.2 Document Conventions
<Describe any standards or typographical conventions that were followed when writing this SRS, such as fonts or highlighting that have special significance. For example, state whether priorities for higher-level requirements are assumed to be inherited by detailed requirements, or whether every requirement statement is to have its own priority.>
1.3 Intended Audience and Reading Suggestions
<Describe the different types of reader that the document is intended for, such as developers, project managers, marketing staff, users, testers, and documentation writers. Describe what the rest of this SRS contains and how it is organized. Suggest a sequence for reading the document, beginning with the overview sections and proceeding through the sections that are most pertinent to each reader type.>
1.4 Product Scope
<Provide a short description of the software being specified and its purpose, including relevant benefits, objectives, and goals. Relate the software to corporate goals or business strategies. If a separate vision and scope document is available, refer to it rather than duplicating its contents here.>
1.5 References
<List any other documents or Web addresses to which this SRS refers. These may include user interface style guides, contracts, standards, system requirements specifications, use case documents, or a vision and scope document. Provide enough information so that the reader could access a copy of each reference, including title, author, version number, date, and source or location.>
2. Overall Description
2.1 Product Perspective
<Describe the context and origin of the product being specified in this SRS. For example, state whether this product is a follow-on member of a product family, a replacement for certain existing systems, or a new, self-contained product. If the SRS defines a component of a larger system, relate the requirements of the larger system to the functionality of this software and identify interfaces between the two. A simple diagram that shows the major components of the overall system, subsystem interconnections, and external interfaces can be helpful.>
2.2 Product Functions
<Summarize the major functions the product must perform or must let the user perform. Details will be provided in Section 3, so only a high level summary (such as a bullet list) is needed here. Organize the functions to make them understandable to any reader of the SRS. A picture of the major groups of related requirements and how they relate, such as a top level data flow diagram or object class diagram, is often effective.>
2.3 User Classes and Characteristics
<Identify the various user classes that you anticipate will use this product. User classes may be differentiated based on frequency of use, subset of product functions used, technical expertise, security or privilege levels, educational level, or experience. Describe the pertinent characteristics of each user class. Certain requirements may pertain only to certain user classes. Distinguish the most important user classes for this product from those who are less important to satisfy.>
2.4 Operating Environment
<Describe the environment in which the software will operate, including the hardware platform, operating system and versions, and any other software components or applications with which it must peacefully coexist.>
2.5 Design and Implementation Constraints
<Describe any items or issues that will limit the options available to the developers. These might include: corporate or regulatory policies; hardware limitations (timing requirements, memory requirements); interfaces to other applications; specific technologies, tools, and databases to be used; parallel operations; language requirements; communications protocols; security considerations; design conventions or programming standards (for example, if the customer’s organization will be responsible for maintaining the delivered software).>
2.6 User Documentation
<List the user documentation components (such as user manuals, on-line help, and tutorials) that will be delivered along with the software. Identify any known user documentation delivery formats or standards.>
2.7 Assumptions and Dependencies
<List any assumed factors (as opposed to known facts) that could affect the requirements stated in the SRS. These could include third-party or commercial components that you plan to use, issues around the development or operating environment, or constraints. The project could be affected if these assumptions are incorrect, are not shared, or change. Also identify any dependencies the project has on external factors, such as software components that you intend to reuse from another project, unless they are already documented elsewhere (for example, in the vision and scope document or the project plan).>
3. External Interface Requirements
3.1 User Interfaces
<Describe the logical characteristics of each interface between the software product and the users. This may include sample screen images, any GUI standards or product family style guides that are to be followed, screen layout constraints, standard buttons and functions (e.g., help) that will appear on every screen, keyboard shortcuts, error message display standards, and so on. Define the software components for which a user interface is needed. Details of the user interface design should be documented in a separate user interface specification.>
3.2 Hardware Interfaces
<Describe the logical and physical characteristics of each interface between the software product and the hardware components of the system. This may include the supported device types, the nature of the data and control interactions between the software and the hardware, and communication protocols to be used.>
3.3 Software Interfaces
<Describe the connections between this product and other specific software components (name and version), including databases, operating systems, tools, libraries, and integrated commercial components. Identify the data items or messages coming into the system and going out and describe the purpose of each. Describe the services needed and the nature of communications. Refer to documents that describe detailed application programming interface protocols. Identify data that will be shared across software components. If the data sharing mechanism must be implemented in a specific way (for example, use of a global data area in a multitasking operating system), specify this as an implementation constraint.>
3.4 Communications Interfaces
<Describe the requirements associated with any communications functions required by this product, including e-mail, web browser, network server communications protocols, electronic forms, and so on. Define any pertinent message formatting. Identify any communication standards that will be used, such as FTP or HTTP. Specify any communication security or encryption issues, data transfer rates, and synchronization mechanisms.>
4. System Features
<This template illustrates organizing the functional requirements for the product by system features, the major services provided by the product. You may prefer to organize this section by use case, mode of operation, user class, object class, functional hierarchy, or combinations of these, whatever makes the most logical sense for your product.>
4.1 System Feature 1
<Don’t really say “System Feature 1.” State the feature name in just a few words.>
4.1.1 Description and Priority
<Provide a short description of the feature and indicate whether it is of High, Medium, or Low priority. You could also include specific priority component ratings, such as benefit, penalty, cost, and risk (each rated on a relative scale from a low of 1 to a high of 9).>
4.1.2 Stimulus/Response Sequences
<List the sequences of user actions and system responses that stimulate the behavior defined for this feature. These will correspond to the dialog elements associated with use cases.>
4.1.3 Functional Requirements
<Itemize the detailed functional requirements associated with this feature. These are the software capabilities that must be present in order for the user to carry out the services provided by the feature, or to execute the use case. Include how the product should respond to anticipated error conditions or invalid inputs. Requirements should be concise, complete, unambiguous, verifiable, and necessary. Use “TBD” as a placeholder to indicate when necessary information is not yet available.>

<Each requirement should be uniquely identified with a sequence number or a meaningful tag of some kind.>

REQ-1:
REQ-2:
4.2 System Feature 2 (and so on)
5. Other Nonfunctional Requirements
5.1 Performance Requirements
<If there are performance requirements for the product under various circumstances, state them here and explain their rationale, to help the developers understand the intent and make suitable design choices. Specify the timing relationships for real time systems. Make such requirements as specific as possible. You may need to state performance requirements for individual functional requirements or features.>
5.2 Safety Requirements
<Specify those requirements that are concerned with possible loss, damage, or harm that could result from the use of the product. Define any safeguards or actions that must be taken, as well as actions that must be prevented. Refer to any external policies or regulations that state safety issues that affect the product’s design or use. Define any safety certifications that must be satisfied.>
5.3 Security Requirements
<Specify any requirements regarding security or privacy issues surrounding use of the product or protection of the data used or created by the product. Define any user identity authentication requirements. Refer to any external policies or regulations containing security issues that affect the product. Define any security or privacy certifications that must be satisfied.>
5.4 Software Quality Attributes
<Specify any additional quality characteristics for the product that will be important to either the customers or the developers. Some to consider are: adaptability, availability, correctness, flexibility, interoperability, maintainability, portability, reliability, reusability, robustness, testability, and usability. Write these to be specific, quantitative, and verifiable when possible. At the least, clarify the relative preferences for various attributes, such as ease of use over ease of learning.>
5.5 Business Rules
<List any operating principles about the product, such as which individuals or roles can perform which functions under specific circumstances. These are not functional requirements in themselves, but they may imply certain functional requirements to enforce the rules.>
6. Other Requirements
<Define any other requirements not covered elsewhere in the SRS. This might include database requirements, internationalization requirements, legal requirements, reuse objectives for the project, and so on. Add any new sections that are pertinent to the project.>
Appendix A: Glossary
<Define all the terms necessary to properly interpret the SRS, including acronyms and abbreviations. You may wish to build a separate glossary that spans multiple projects or the entire organization, and just include terms specific to a single project in each SRS.>
Appendix B: Analysis Models
<Optionally, include any pertinent analysis models, such as data flow diagrams, class diagrams, state-transition diagrams, or entity-relationship diagrams.>
Appendix C: To Be Determined List
<Collect a numbered list of the TBD (to be determined) references that remain in the SRS so they can be tracked to closure.>

Source: http://www.frontiernet.net/~kwiegers/process_assets/srs_template.doc