Use case diagram assignment
Need a Use Case diagram and Data Flow diagram for this:
Ms Read is the Director of Electronic Resources and Systems at the Queen Alana (QAL), Leinster University, Leinstershire. Unlike many other University libraries, QAL still has no online access to the catalogue or other library services. This is now regarded as a priority, and the Central IS Services have been commissioned to undertake a new development project.
The QAL library currently uses a packaged library catalogue and loans system accessed via dumb terminals, which are located throughout the library. This handles all data about registered library users, loans and catalogue information. It is not yet known whether that system could function as a database back-end for the new system. It is also not yet known whether the new system can link to the existing student registration and enrolment system. If it can, then registration and password authentication issues may not need to be part of this project.
The overall aim of the project is to enhance the services offered to library users (both students and staff) by giving them better access to the catalogue and their current loans.
Your team has been awarded the contract for the first phase of the project, the Requirements Specification.
Outline of the Selected System
A Project Initiation Document (PID) has been drawn up, and this identifies the following main functional areas for investigation:
Library managers can add and withdraw book titles and copies from the collection. They also have the power to suspend a borrower for unpaid fines or for disciplinary offences in the library building. They will be expected to use the new system for all these tasks.
Library counter staff currently deal with all issues, returns and reservations. They handle enquiries from library users about how many books they can borrow, how many they have on loan, whether they have any current fines, and so on. Counter staff can amend a library user’s personal details on request. It is expected that counter staff will use the new system for all these tasks, although some will be made directly available to library users too.
Library users fall into two categories: students and academic staff. All users should be able to use the new system to search for books and reserve them, to check their current loans and fines, and to update their own personal details.
Academic staff users differ in the way loans and fines are handled. An academic can borrow a book on normal loan until the end of the academic year, while a student is limited to 21 days and must then renew the loan. An academic is limited to twenty books at a time, while a student is limited to ten.
The new system is aimed at enhancing the services offered to library users (both students and staff) by allowing them to access the library from any internet-connected device. Thus the design should be platform-independent as far as possible. The system is expected to have a fairly simple distributed architecture, consisting of a web client for the user interface layer, a middleware application to handle web requests and pass them to the database, and the database itself. A separate project will take care of importing all data from the existing mainframe library system.
A total project budget of £175,000 has been approved. This will cover specification, design, coding, testing and data transfer, and final delivery of the system is scheduled for April 2020.
