Page 26 - DCAP305_PRINCIPLES_OF_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Principles of Software Engineering

Notes in more scientific and professional way. Software Engineering has become very important
discipline of study, practice and research. All are working hard to minimize the problems and
to meet the objective of developing good quality maintainable software that is delivered on time,
within budget, and also satisfies the requirements. With all cries and dissatisfaction, discipline
is improving and maturing day by day. New solutions are being provided in the niche areas
and encouraging results are being observed. We do feel that within couple of years, situation is
bound to improve and software engineering shall be a stable and mature discipline.

Galaxy Mining Company Ltd.

mining company named Galaxy Mining Company Ltd. (GMC) has mines located
at various places in India. It has about fifty different mine sites spread across eight
A states. The company employs a large number of mines at each mine site. Mining
being a risky profession, the company intends to operate a special provident fund, which
would exist in addition to the standard provident fund that the miners already enjoy. The
main objective of having the special provident fund (SPF) would be quickly distributing some
compensation before the standard provident amount is paid. According to this scheme, each
mine site would deduct SPF instalments from each miner every month and deposit the same
with the Central Special Provident Fund Commissioner (CSPFC). The CSPFC will maintain
all details regarding the SPF instalments collected from the miners. The GMC employed a
reputed software vendor Adventure Software Inc. to undertake the task of developing the
software for automating the maintenance of SPF records of all employees. The GMC realized
that besides saving manpower on bookkeeping work, the software would help in speedy
settlement of claim cases. The GMC indicated that the amount it can afford for this software
to be developed and installed is Rs. 1 million. Adventure Software Inc. deputed their project
manager to carry out the feasibility study. The project manager discussed the matter with
the top managers of GMC to get an overview of the project. He also this cussed the issues
involved with the several field PF officers at various mine sites to determine the exact details
of the project. The project manager identified two broad approaches to solve the problem.
One was to have a central database which could be accessed and updated via as satellite
connection to various mine sites. The other approach was to have local databases at each
mine site and to update the central database periodically through a dial-up connection. These
periodic updates could be done on a daily or hourly basis depending on the delay acceptable
to GMC in invoking various functions of the software. The project manager found that the
second approach was very affordable and more fault-tolerant as the local mine sites could
still operate even when the communication link to the central database temporarily failed.
The project manager quickly analyzed the database functionalities required, the user-interface
issues, and the software handling communication with the mine sites. He arrived at a cost
to develop from the analysis. He found that the solution involving maintenance of local
databases at the mine sites and periodic updating of a central database was financially and
technically feasible. The project manager discussed his solution with the GMC management
and found that the solution was acceptable to them as well.
Activities Under Taken During Case Study
The aim of the requirements analysis and specification phase is to understand the exact
requirements of the customer and to document them properly. This phase consists of
two distinct activities, namely Requirements gathering and analysis, and Requirements
specification. The goal of the requirements gathering activity is to collect all relevant
information from the customer regarding the product to be developed. This is done to
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