Chapter 3. Gathering and Analyzing User Requirements

Terms you'll need to understand:

• Unified Modeling Language (UML)

• Use cases

• Usage scenarios

• Globalization

• Localization

Techniques you'll need to master

• Creating use cases and use case diagrams

• Developing usage scenarios

• Gathering requirements needed to develop world-ready applications

The previous chapter covered methods for analyzing the current business state and identifying business requirements for the solution. There are many sources from which to collect information and ways to interpret this information. The next phase of the requirements process is to focus on gathering and analyzing users' specific requirements. In many ways, this phase can be one of the most challenging and frustrating aspects of developing a computer system (think of your "favorite" user). Because of time or resource constraints, you might need to start designing the system before you can adequately complete the requirements-gathering phase. You might encounter users who can't tell you what they want but still expect the perfect solution. The amount of information gathered during the requirements-gathering phase can, at times, be overwhelming or contradictory. To extend the life spans of systems professionals and to address these issues, the development of systems applications evolved into the object-oriented approach.