University of Toronto Department of Computer Science CSC340F – Requirements Engineering September 23, 2006 Prof. Steve Easterbrook Assignment 1: Project Selection and Risk Plan Due Date: 9:20am, Friday, October 6 (i.e. within 10 minutes of the start of the tutorial) This assignment counts for 10% of the final grade Identify an organization that you can work with for the rest of this term, and write an initial statement of the problem that you will analyze for this organization. Identify and measure the project risks. Note: In subsequent assignments you will go on to perform a feasibility study, analyze the requirements, and finally write a specification for the problem you identify in this assignment. The project is to be carried out in teams of four. Each team will submit one report. I. Doing the Assignment This assignment has 8 steps. They are: 1. Select an organisation. You will need to find an organization that is willing to work with you for the remainder of the term (see below for suggestions). 2. Make contact with the organization. Check that you will be able to meet with some of the key people within this organization during the term, to analyze their requirements. 3. Identify a possible problem to analyze. What is your initial idea for a problem that this organization has, for which a software intensive system might be designed? In later assignments you will refine your ideas about the nature and scope of this problem – for now you just need a starting point. 4. Identify the risks that you face in conducting a requirements analysis for this organization. Anything that might affect your ability to complete the course assignments successfully is a project risk. Use the risk identification tools covered in the lectures to help you identify as many risks as possible. 5. Assess the risk exposure for each risk you identified, and use this to rank your risks. Use either a quantitative or qualitative approach – the important thing is to be able to compare risks to find the biggest ones. 6. Draw up a risk management plan for your top ten risks. For each of your top ten risks, write a brief management strategy, including: (a) any steps you can take to mitigate the risk (b) indicators you can monitor to give you an early warning of things going wrong and (c) a recovery plan to invoke if things do go wrong. 7. Write a report that describes your chosen organization and problem, and the results of your risk assessment. 8. Document your teamwork and complete a team report (see attached form)II. What to Hand In Hand in your report at the start of your tutorial on the due date. Reports not handed in within the first ten minutes of the tutorial will be treated as late. The report should not exceed three (3) pages (not counting cover pages, references, appendices, or forms). It should include the following items: 1. A brief description of the organization you plan to work with, including a rationale for why you chose this organization (no more than ½ page). 2. A brief description of the problem you will analyze for this organization (no more than ½ page). 3. A brief description of the approach you used to assess the project risk (no more than ½ page). 4. The results of your risk assessment, in the form of a list of the top ten risks, with a brief risk plan for each (No more than 1½ pages). Written Presentation Requirements Be sure to include a cover page indicating the name of your team, the names of all team members, title of work, course, date and tutor's name. Assignments will be judged on the basis of visual appearance, grammatical correctness and quality of writing, as well as their contents. Please make sure that the text of your report is well-structured, using paragraphs, full sentences, and other features of a well-written presentation. Use itemized lists of points where appropriate. Text font size should be either 10 or 12 point. III. Suggestions Finding a Problem Finding an organization that is willing to provide you with a problem is easier than you think. Of course, someone in that organization will have to spend some time talking to you and giving you information. But then remember that many class projects from this very course actually were adopted by the “customer” organization and were turned into real software development projects! There are several things you may want to try here. Start by considering previous employers, but also friends, relatives, acquaintances, who may be in a position to give you access to an organization that is willing to have you study one of their systems and prepare a feasibility study for development of a new software system. Ideally, the organization you find will be large with many departments etc. and you will be dealing with a few people in one department. Failing this, you may want to try a small business (e.g., a retail store, a professional office,...). Other possibilities for feasibility study projects include an information system or web service for public software (e.g., a help facility for Windows or Unix), a public service that you know well, e.g., driver license registration, or one for which there is publicly available information, e.g., OHIP-related information systems. There are also many organizations on campus (e.g. clubs, associations, and the offices of various departments) with which you could work. In approaching an organization, you should always talk to someone who has the authority to decide to assist you. Remember that this project should be mutually beneficial -- and make sure you tell your “customer” this. In fact, you should offer to present a copy of your final report to your client --- and make sure it is delivered.What kind of project should you choose? Ideally, the organizational information system you study will have several people involved and possibly could include an existing computer system. The following are examples of typical projects: • Computerize a given business system (e.g., inventory, sales). • Computerize a firm (usually small), which currently uses no computers during its daily operations. • Evaluate an existing computerized business system in order to recommend modifications or even a new system. Try not
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