There are many actors in my rich picture. They are young people, volunteer, project manager, service centre manager, regional manager, executive committee, trust board and funders. I would like to identify the two key actors in my rich picture. They are funders and the service centre managers. The reasons why I would like to choose the key actors are as follow.
Firstly, the Youth Action has 25 different service centres. Those service centres are operating by the funds of Funders. Without having the funds of funders, the service centres cannot run the projects and services to support the vulnerable lives of young people. The service centres of Youth Action can survive because of the funds of funders. So in my point of view, funders are main the key actors of this environment. Moreover, the funders included the local authority, major car manufacturers and the other charitable donations.
Secondly, Youth Action has 45 full time employees. These employees include regional managers, service centre managers, volunteers and other executives. Among them, I would like to identify the service centre manger as key actor. Service centres managers are the people who are controlling the Youth Action at management level. They need to communicate not only with the executive level but also with the operational level. They also chaired at the management teams to manage the daily activities of the services and projects. They also have the responsibility to report quarterly to the regional managers. So I would like to identify the service centres managers as key actors in the environment.
A2.2. What led you to choose the key issues and the areas of conflict affecting the environment that you have included in your diagram?
The one key issue of the Youth Action is to develop a management information system (MIS) and some applications to support the management levels of the Youth Action. At that time, the head office is keen to collect the suitable data to report to the funders of charity in order to prove the money of the funders are using effectively by offering the services to the young people. Thus, the funders will keen to support Youth Action. For example, if the funders do not see the activities that are offering to the young people effectively, they will not keen to make more investment in projects. As a result, if the Youth Action does not get the enough funds from funders, they cannot support the life of young people.
The areas of conflict affecting the environment in my rich picture are concerning with the IT. The first one is conflict in reports when the service centres reports to regional managers and regional mangers report to head office. There are conflicts because service centres use different reporting mechanism for gathering the data. Service centres have no standard format for reporting, so regional managers face the problems concerning with the different reports and difficult to report to the head office. So this conflict affects the environment to change the IT system at service centres level.
The second conflict is head office has invested in central IT systems for finance, marketing areas. These systems purchased in piecemeal way and these systems are not integrated. So the conflict occurs in the rich picture concerning with central IT systems. Another conflict is services centres made individual investment in IT systems. Some centres used spread sheets and some performed by third parties. This mean there is no standard system for service centres. Moreover, IT equipment using in the services are also out of date and not suitable for the modern management information system . They are the main conflicts that include in my rich picture.
A2.3 What is the main focus of the environment shown in your picture?
The main focus of the environment shown in my rich picture is Youth Action need to make investment in Management Information System (MIS) and IT systems at service centre level. The reasons why I choose this issue as main focus are as follow.
Now Youth Action is facing the problems concerning with the IT services at different levels. In service centres level, they are failing to keep personal data secure and holding incorrect data. In management level, they are facing with the different style of reporting. Moreover, the central IT systems invested for head office is also facing problem because of not integrated. Furthermore, the IT equipment using for services are also out of date and not suitable with management information system. So I am convinced that IT systems and services are the main focus in my rich picture.
There are also consequences of having in unreliable IT systems and services. For example, if service centres do not record the running services and projects, they cannot report to regional manager effectively. If the regional managers do not get the appropriate report, they will not able to report to head office efficiently. If the head office does not get sufficient report, they cannot able to report to funders effectively. If the funders do not see the significant success of running services and project, they are not willing to raise funds. If the service centres do not get sufficient funds, they cannot be able to support young people. So in my point of views, this issue is concern with the existence of the Youth Action. So I would like to put this issue in my rich picture as main focus.
A2.4 Where does the control of systems, data, processing lie in the environment as shown in your picture?
Firstly, I would like to discuss about the areas where the control of systems does. There are two parts the control of the system, outside the system and inside the system.
Funders are the people who are controlling the system from outside. They control the system by giving money to head office with contacts. The funders included local authority, motor care manufactures and the other charities. So in my rich picture funders are controlling the system form outside the system.
The areas that are controlling the inside of the systems are as follow. The main area is in the Head Office. There are Trust Board and Executive Committee in the Head Office. They are controlling the system at executive level. Head Office always overseeing the running of the service centres and trying to raise funds by contracting with funders. They also have to report to the funders to show the running of the Youth Actions.
Another area is in the regional managers and service centre manager. They are controlling the system at manager level. Service centres managers manage the daily activities, projects and report quarterly to the regional managers. And then, regional managers report to the head office. Service centre managers also have the relationship with head office to request activities. Then head office provides services and allocates the payments of staffs. Regional managers are also watching the running the service centres and projects.
Project managers and volunteer are also controlling the projects and young people at supervisor level. Project managers have to manage the daily running of the projects and volunteers. The volunteers also have to manage the young peoples.
Section B
B1. Use Case Diagram (Dig-It System)
Use Case Description
There are four main parts in my Dig-It project use case. They are data gathering part, project management part, checking part and reporting part.
In data gathering part, Tim will gather the young people data, volunteer's data and elderly people's gardens data.
In project management part, Tim will arrange young people and volunteers and he will make project schedule. And then he will match the groups to gardens.
In checking part, Tim will make phone call to check the groups are working happily and the young people are doing the jobs well.
In reporting part, Tim will make report to local authority about the project success progresses and the financial statement. If the local authorities see the successful project, they will make more investment in project.
B1.1 + B1.2
I would like to choose the primary scenario in project management part. The first key use of the system is 'Arrange young people and volunteers'. The reason why I choose 'arrange young people and volunteers' as key uses is; the Dig-IT project will start when Tim group the young people and volunteers. Arrangement is play important role in Dig-It project. So I choose 'arrange young people and volunteers' as key uses of system.
First Scenario
Name - "Arrange Young People and Volunteer"
Actor - Tim-Project Manager (Primary Actor), Volunteer (Secondary Actor)
Primary Scenario
Firstly, Tim needs to group the young people
Secondly, Tim needs to assign a volunteer to each group
Thirdly, Tim needs to make rota volunteer (at every assigned time)
Secondary Scenario
If two or three young people who assigned in a group cannot come, Tim needs to regroup the young people.
If a volunteer who assigned in a group cannot come, Tim needs to contact other free volunteers.
If a volunteer who have to make rota in a group cannot come, Tim needs to contact other free volunteers.
Description
Firstly, Tim needs to group the young people to 3 or 4 groups. And then Tim will assign a volunteer to each group. Tim also has the responsibility to make rota volunteer at every agreed time at morning or afternoon.
If two or three young people who assigned in a group cannot come, Tim needs to regroup the young people. For example, two or three young people from a group cannot come in time because of illness, Tim have to regroup the young people by calling the young people from other groups.
If a volunteer who assigned in a group cannot come, Tim needs to contact other free volunteers. For example, a volunteer is sick and he/she cannot come at the time. There are ten volunteers in total. There are only three or four groups because there are only thirty young people at any one time and need only three or four volunteers. The other volunteers are waiting to make rota. So there are back-up volunteers to make replacement. Like the way, if a rota volunteer is not available in case of emergency, Tim needs to make reschedule and need to contact the other free volunteers.
Second Scenario
The second key use of the system that I would like to define is 'Match groups to gardens'. This is also included in project management part. The reason why I choose 'match groups to gardens' is; until the project start, Tim needs to match the groups to gardens. Thus, the young people and volunteers can go to the gardens and work. So I choose this as also key use of the system.
Name - "Match groups to gardens"
Actor - Tim (Primary Actor)
Primary Scenario
Tim needs to check the availability of gardens, until he sends the group to gardens
Send groups to garden according to the project plan
Secondary Scenario
If a garden is not available in scheduled time, Tim needs to make rearrange the young people and volunteers to send the other available gardens instead of doing nothing and Tim need to make reschedule the project plan.
Description
Firstly Tim needs to check the available elderly people's gardens by phone or some ways according to the project plan until he sends the groups to gardens. If the gardens are available, Tim will send the groups to gardens according to the project plan.
If a garden is not available in scheduled time, Tim needs to make rearrange the young people and volunteers to send the other available gardens instead of doing nothing and Tim need to make reschedule the project plan.
B2.1. Why have you chosen the actors you did and why are they key to the systems?
The key actor included in my use case is Tim (full time worker). The reasons why I chose Tim as key actor are as follow. Tim is the one who is controlling the whole activities of the dig-it project, so he is the project manager of Dig-It project. Tim groups the young people and assigns one volunteer to each group in order to lead the team. And then, Tim sends the group to elderly people's garden after make sure the gardens available. Tim also have the responsibility to make rota ten volunteer into three or four groups. So I think Tim is the main important key actor in the use case.
Volunteer is another actor included in the use case. Firstly, volunteers need to make register in the dig-it system to help the young people. They also have to change the groups of young people at morning or afternoon. So we can say volunteers have the relationship with the dig-it system. Their responsibility is to lead the groups of young people. If volunteers are not included in the system, there will be no leaders for the groups of young people and the projects cannot get the successful results. So in my point of view they are also important for the system.
Another actor is local authority. There are two responsibilities for the local authority. The first one is to refer the young person and the second one is to see the reports of the projects. The first one is not included in the use case because it does not affect the system. The second one is important for the whole project because if local authority sees the successful project, they will consider investing more money into project like allow hiring another full time employee, providing necessary equipment and a van to transport equipment.
B2.2 Choose one scenario. How did you identify the key activities include in it?
Firstly, I would like to choose the primary scenario. The key activities included in the primary scenario are 'group young people', 'assign volunteer' and 'rota volunteer'. The reason why I choose these as key activities are as follow.
After registration young people, volunteer and gardens, Tim, firstly, need to group about the thirty young people to three or four groups. Thus, Tim can send the groups to gardens. So the first activity is 'group young people'. And then, Tim needs to assign a volunteer to each group in order to lead the teams. There are ten volunteer at any one time. The other volunteers are waiting to make rota. So the second activity is 'assign volunteer'.
After that, Tim needs to make sure the gardens are available until he sends the group to gardens. So I would like to define 'check availability of garden' as the key activities. If the gardens are available, Tim will send the groups to gardens according the scheduled project plan. So another key activity is 'send the groups to gardens'. At the scheduled time to make rota volunteers, Tim will change the volunteers to every group. So another activity is 'make rota volunteer'. I would like to identify the above activities as key activities because after registration, they are all essential activities to do in the project management part.
B2.3 How did you identify the alternative uses to produce the secondary scenarios?
There are many uses to produce the secondary scenarios in project management part. Tim needs to group the young people first. When the time to do project, some people from a group cannot come in case of emergency, Tim has to regroup the young people by calling the young people from other groups.
If a volunteer who assigned in a group cannot come, Tim needs to contact other free volunteers. For example, a volunteer cannot come because of emergency cases. Tim needs to contact the other free volunteers to fill the gap of volunteer in group. There are ten volunteers in total at any one time. The young people will group three or four groups, the projects need only three or four volunteers at any one time. The other volunteers need to wait to change the volunteers at morning or afternoon. So I would like to say, Tim can handle this situation because the back-up volunteers are available.
Tim needs to check the available elderly people's gardens by phone or some ways according to the project plan until he sends the groups to gardens. If a garden is not ready at the project time, Tim needs to regroup the young people and volunteers to send the gardens. For example, the gardens are not available at the time of project; Tim will regroup the free young people and volunteer to the other available groups and he need to reschedule the project plan.
Finally, if the volunteers to make rota are not available at the time of volunteer change, Tim need to reschedule and need to contact the other free volunteers. Moreover, if young people or volunteer get injuries while they are digging or doing their jobs. Tim needs to do something for the injured person. For example, the injury is heavy, Tim will phone call to the emergency.
B2.4 You will have needed to make some assumptions about the system. In real life what questions would you have asked to get the necessary information? Who would you have asked?
At fast, I would like to make some assumptions about the dig-it project. In scenario, "the young people can be referred to the project form a number of different resources like a school, the police or youth clubs". I assume that they just refer the young people to the head office and they do not make register for young people. Like the ways, local authority or charity also just refers the gardens of elderly people's gardens, not register for elderly people. So I assume that Tim will make register for the young people, volunteers and elderly people's gardens. The data will come from the head office.
Moreover, the scenario described the activities of Tim but the scenario did not describe the role of Tim and volunteers. So I would like to assume that Tim is project manager of Dig-It project because he need to control and monitor the whole activities of projects. Like the way, I assume volunteers are supervisors or team leaders in projects and Young peoples are the workers of the project.
In real life, I would like to ask a question to Tim, project manager. Will the young people work very well in project? I really doubt about it because of their different backgrounds. Their lives were not smooth and they may have some unsatisfied feeling about their lives. In my point of view, firstly young people need some charity or people to teach them about the life and the ways to satisfy about their environments. Thus, young people will understand the meaning of life and they are willing to work in the project.
Moreover, I would like to ask a question to the management of Youth Action. In scenario said, they agreed to using Dig-it as a prototype of developing a system which will support both Dig-It's requirements and requirement of the MIS for the charity centrally. Dig-It project contain about a full time workers and ten volunteers to control the young people. It may be reasonable to develop a system to control the activities of the Dig-It. However, Dig-It should be the first prototype of developing MIS. In my point of view, Management information system to control the whole activities of the Youth Action centrally is more complicated then Dig-It project. So I would like to ask Dig-It should be the first prototype to develop MIS.
Section C
Critical Analysis of the tools used
In this case study, I used the rich picture which is the part of soft system methodology (SSM) to make the requirements analysis of the Youth Action and I used the use case modelling to describe the actors and activities of Dig-It project. Firstly, I drew rich picture to understand the organisation structure, the activities and responsibilities of the actors. And then, I drew the use case diagram for the Dig-It project which is the first prototype to develop management information system. The critical analyses of the rich picture and use case diagram that I used in this report are as follow.
Rich Picture
Rich picture is a technique that is used in human activity modelling. The main purposes of rich picture are as follow
To describe organisation structures including goals and issues
To describe the process and activities of the organisation
To describe the activities and responsibilities of the people who are relating with the organisation including staffs
To describe the organisation/actors' purpose, desire, their worries and concerns
To describe the current situation including conflicts and problems conditions
Rich picture is a flexible technique and based on the people not methods. It has only a few rules and very useful to learn the situation of existing business systems. People are too much focus on the methodologies when they develop a system. They forget about the most important things to consider. Without considering the people, both from user side and developer side, the system cannot get achievement. Differ from the other techniques like data flow diagram (DFD) and use case diagram; rich picture is designed to show the interaction and relation of people involved in the system including their wishes, purposes, fears and conflicts.
Advantages of Rich Picture
Rich picture can explain the system more than a thousand of words
Rich picture can show organisational structure and current situation
Rich picture help to find the solutions by thinking about the problems and conflicts
Disadvantages of Rich Picture
There are only few rules and not well used.
Non-IT people may think just as a cartoon.
Requirements Analysis using Rich Picture
Requirements analysis play very important role in a project because projects can decide success or failure by requirement analysis. Requirement analysis is one of the initial states to develop a system. So if there is no good requirements analysis, the project cannot get the achievement. Requirements analysis too much depends on the good understanding of technical aspects and environment of the system. Nowadays, the analysts are using many tools and techniques to understand the technical and environments of the system. Many tools and techniques are focused on the technical aspects and there are few techniques to describe the people and environments, soft things of systems. In my point of view, the requirement analysis needs to understand both technical and environment of the systems. So analysts are using many techniques to make requirements analysis of a system like DFD, ERD, ELH and many others techniques.
In soft system methodology, rich picture is very useful to analysis the requirements of the system. Rich picture can describe not only the technical aspects but also the environment of the system clearly. Until I learn the rich picture and soft system methodology, I need many diagrams/tools to make effective requirements analysis of the system. However, after I learn rich picture and SSM, I knew rich picture is very useful to analysis the requirements of the system. Rich picture is not a perfect technique to make analysis. For example, rich picture cannot describe the time and sequence of the system. Like the ways, I think there is no perfect technique which can make analysis of the system perfectly. However, rich picture is very helpful to make the effective requirements analysis of Youth Action. The reason why I said like that is describe in the following analysis of Youth Action rich picture.
Analysis of Youth Action Rich Picture
Organisational Structure
By viewing my rich picture, we can see the organisational structure of the Youth Action clearly. We can see three levels in Youth Action. In operational level, there are young people, volunteers and project managers. Above the operational level, we can see management level. In management level, there are service centre managers and regional managers. Above the management level, there is executive level. In executive level, we can see trust board and executive committee. The people who included in the trust board and executive committee are also described in the rich picture. So, rich picture help in requirements analysis to show the organisation structure of Youth Action very well.
Processes and activities
The activities between these three levels are also described clearly in rich picture. Operational people are running projects like motor mechanic project and Dig-It project. Service centre managers from management levels are also managing the projects and they report to regional managers and then regional managers also report to the head office, executive level. The head office is relating with the external funders who outside the boundary of Youth Action organisation. Funders are also funded the projects by contracting with head office and they are overseeing the activities of Youth Actions. So, rich picture also help in requirements analysis to show the detail activities of Youth Action very well.
Problems and conflicts
Moreover, rich picture also help in requirements analysis to describe the problems and conflicts of the Youth Action organisation very well. In rich picture, head office made investment in central IT systems to control the finance, marketing and others areas. These central IT systems had purchased in piecemeal and not integrated. So there are problems concerning with this systems. Like the ways, the service centres also make their own investment in IT services. Some service centres use the spread sheets and some service centres operate by third parties. So when service centres managers' report to regional managers, they use different styles of reports and there is no standard for report mechanism. So we can also see the conflicts at this area. Furthermore, we can also see the IT equipment that is used by service centres is also out of date and not suitable with the modern MIS. So the rich picture is very useful to describe the conflicts and problems of Youth Action. According to my experience, dataflow diagram (DFD), use case diagram and other diagrams cannot describe the problems situations and conflicts. I think this is because they are focused on the technology. However, rich picture concentrated on soft things like people, so it can show the problems and conflicts of system.
Issues
By seeing the rich picture, we can see the thinking bubbles that describe the thoughts and issues of the people. Firstly, we can see the thinking bubble at the head office. This means that head office is thinking to purchase or develop a management information system. This issue is the main focus of the scenario. Moreover, there is another bubble at the head office. Head office wants to make investment in IT at the service centre level because the head office wants a standard system for all service centres in order to get the same reporting structure and head office is also keen to collect suitable data at service centre level.
The service centres managers are also thinking the ways to raise funds. At the operational level, volunteers are also expecting the vetting process for the volunteers. On the other hand, the funders are thinking the service centres are giving effective service for young people and service centres are using their money effectively. The local authorities also want to see the success of Dig-It project. So rich picture help to describe the thoughts, worries and issues of the stakeholders.
Final analysis
According to my final critical analysis, rich picture can offer the effective ways to understand the system by seeing the picture. In my own experience, dataflow diagram describe only the flows of data and use case also describe the activities of actors and relationships of the system. To be honest, I have no experience with the techniques which can illustrate the organisation structure, problems, conflicts, thoughts and issues of the stakeholders. But rich picture can describe the following functions. After I drew the rich picture and learnt the soft system methodology, I knew one thing that I was focused on the methods and forgot about the soft things when I developing systems. Now I can describe the systems in many ways not only with the hard tools but also with the soft tools. That why I would like to say rich picture is effective tool to make requirements analysis of a system.
Use Case Modelling
Use case modelling is an important technique that is used in unified modelling language (UML). The main purpose of the use case diagrams are as follow
To describe the actors who are related with the system or included in the system
To describe the relationship between the actors and the system
To describe the key activities, behaviour of the system
To describe the components of the system
To describe the objectives of the user
Use case is a hybrid technique between soft and hard techniques .Use cases are concentrated on not only the system but also the actors. So both the developers and users can see the system clearly. There are only two important things to create use case diagrams that are actors and use cases. Actors represent the people have relation with the system and use cases represent the tasks or activities of the system. Most of functional requirements can be described as use cases. Use case diagrams are very popular in software industries and most of developers are familiar with the use case diagrams. Use case diagrams are easy to describe the behaviour of the system and users can also easy to understand.
Advantages of use case modelling
Use cases are easy to understand by users, so errors can find easily and reduce cost
Use cases can describe the requirements of the system and actors clearly
Use cases can be used for not only simple systems but also complex systems
Use cases can also be used in iteration processes and configuration managements
Use cases are very popular and familiar with developers
Disadvantages of use case modelling
Hard technique and cannot used to describe the soft things
Use cases are usually used together with other UML diagrams like sequence and class diagrams
Requirements Analysis using use case modelling
Use case modelling is very important technique to make the requirements analysis of a system. Use case diagrams are very useful to describe the functional requirements of the system. Nowadays, most of software industries are using use case diagram to make the requirements analysis of a system. This is an effective technique to show the activities of the system. It can also use with not only with the traditional method but also with the rapid development methods.
It is more focused on the technical aspects then environment of the system. But it describes the actors who have the relationship with the system and their responsibilities. Until I learn the use case diagrams, I used the data flow diagrams to analyse the system. There are so many levels and too much documentation. However, after I learnt the use case diagrams I knew that use case diagrams are clear and concise to describe the system. Use case diagrams are very helpful to make the requirements analysis of Dig-It project. The reason why I said like that is describe in the following analysis of Dig-It project use case.
Analysis of Dig-It project use case
Dig-It project is the first prototype to develop the management information system (MIS) of the Youth Action. So this is very important project and the project success or failure can affect the whole plan to develop MIS of Youth Action. However, the functional requirements analysis of Dig-It project used the use case diagram to describe the behaviour of the system. Use case diagram is very helpful to describe the functional requirements of Dig-IT project.
Actors of Dig-It project
Use case diagrams are very useful to describe the actors who have the relationship the system very well. Moreover, it can describe the activities of each actor and their responsibilities. In Dig-It project, we can see the three actors. They are Tim (full time worker), Volunteers and Local Authority. We can see clearly the activities of Tim and we can define Tim as project manager. Like the way, we can say volunteers are supervisors and local authorities are acting like executives. Their detail activities are described below.
Activities of the Dig-It project
By using use case diagram, Dig-It project can describe the whole activities of the system very well. According to the Dig-It use case, we can see the activities steps by steps. Firstly, Dig-It project need to make the data gathering like young people, volunteers and elderly people's gardens. These activities will perform by Tim. The second activity is to arrange young people and volunteers. Again, Tim has the responsibility to do this activity. And then Tim will create the project plan and he will match the groups to gardens. Moreover, Tim needs to check the groups by phone. Finally, he needs to report to the local authorities. Thus local authorities will provide necessary things for project.
The above activities are the main activities of the Dig-It project. We can also see the sub activities in the diagrams. I will not discuss these activities in detail because we can see clearly in the diagrams. So I would like to say, use case diagram is an effective technique to describe the activities of Dig-It project
Final analysis
According to my final analysis, use case diagrams are very effective to analyse the functional requirements of the system and it can cover the necessary things to create a system for Dig-It project. So in my point of view, this technique is very suitable to use in the requirements analysis of Dig-It project.
