The Requirements Analysis

The helpdesk system is to be used by both the customers of ACME Systems and the helpdesk assistants working in the company itself. The quality management group has been trying hard to improve the services provided to its users. They recently decided to implement a browser-based helpdesk system that can be accessed through the Internet.

In the implemented solution described in this chapter, the company's helpdesk assistants can view the cases raised by the users and, as they work on fixing the problems, they can update the status of each case. The progress of the case is visible to the end user in the form of an itemized sequence of tickets. Finally, when the problem is fixed, the helpdesk assistants can close the case, so that the case is no longer visible in the list of pending cases.

After an initial feasibility study and requirements analysis, the business analysts at ACME Systems came up with a list of requirements for the proposed helpdesk system:

  • The customers should be:

    • Able to access the system from their desktops all over the world

    • Authenticated before they can use the system

    • Allocated a case ID for reference when they initiate a new case

    • Able to track the status of their cases by searching through case IDs

  • The helpdesk assistants should be:

    • Authenticated before they can use the system

    • Able to view the list of cases raised by a customer

    • Able to view further details on individual cases

    • Able to update the case status and add comments to the case history

Since the system is going to have two very different types of users, it was decided to have the system implemented as two isolated systems loosely coupled to each other to minimize mutual impact and security implications. In modern application development, which can tend to be more about integration than development, an important aspect is integrating applications that are ignorant of each other's functionality. In most cases, it is better to develop enterprise systems as a collection of independent self-contained applications interacting with each other either through exposed APIs or sharing data in pre-agreed formats.

Along with the list of requirements, the business analysts came up with the diagram below depicting all the use cases in the system. Use case diagrams belong to the family of UML diagrams and are used for modeling a system's interaction with external entities. In use case terminology the external entities that interact with the system are called actors and the various actions instigated by the actors are called use cases. A use case represents an atomic action as viewed by the external entity, like placing an order or raising a case:

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Professional JMS
Professional JMS
ISBN: 1861004931
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 154

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