Enterprise Applications
Development Guidelines and Procedures
Appendix C: System Design Specifications
Administrative Systems
System Design Specifications
Date: current date
1. Preliminary Project Description
Briefly describe the project (Do before design work begins.)
2. Former System
Briefly describe the former system. Include background information leading to this development project. Include problems experienced in the past which will be resolved by this project.
3. Scope of Project
Describe the overall objectives. List each department involved. (This information is basically a written summary of the context diagram.)
4. Summary of System Capabilities
List and describe the functions the completed system will accomplish. This is entered in the analysis phase and will be described later in detail in the System Development Plan (item XI).
5. Projected Resource Requirements
Specify the input and output devices to be used. Include disc and tape requirements. Estimate the numbers of each device required. Estimate the volume of data to be entered. The intent of this section is to further establish project feasibility by making certain that any required equipment such as terminals or disk space is available or on order.
6. System Responsibilities
State the positions of individuals who will be responsible for entering and/or processing the data. This is intended to make certain that responsibility for any data entry or production processing is pre-established and well-defined before significant time has been expended.
7. Record of Time Projections and Associated Time Expended
Realistic goals should be set at various stages of the development cycle. Estimates for the entire project are to be made before going to the MIS Committee. Estimates should be revised before physical design begins. Additional goals may be included as appropriate. Indicate the process to be projected (system, sub-system, etc.), date projected, hours projected, hours expended, and related comments.
8. Record of Walkthroughs
Even after project approval it may be necessary to cancel the project if further analysis would indicate that the project is not feasible or lacks adequate justification. After entries have been made in items 1 through 7, a review with your manager is required to establish authorization to proceed.
After analysis and before much time has gone into the physical design process a walkthrough with the manager is required. It is the responsibility of the analyst to schedule this.
After any database design or significant enhancement to any existing database a walkthrough with the manager will be performed.
User and analyst walkthroughs should be done at various stages of development. Minimally one major user walkthrough and walkthrough with another analyst must be performed and recorded. Record time, participants, and results of all major walkthroughs.
9. Data Flow Diagrams
Include the context diagram and all additional levels of data flow diagrams.
10. Analysis Data Dictionary
The analysis data dictionary should consist of all data flows, data stores, origins, destinations, etc. referenced in the data flow diagrams. This step may be eliminated for very elementary designs in which a PowerHouse schema is established quickly. Experience indicates that more complex systems should not be entered in full detail into PowerHouse before a walkthrough. A lot of time can be wasted establishing the dataset structure and data element definitions which will be thrown away on the first walkthrough.
11. System Development Plan
Indicate the names and functions of specific programs to be developed. Indicate the proposed order in which they will be developed. Indicate subsystems and the order which they will be placed into production. Specify any conversion plans.
12. Data Base Diagram
Place a diagram showing all databases and datasets required for the system. List any systems which will be interfaced by this system. This should be maintained with hand sketches through the first few walkthroughs.
13. Run-time Data Dictionary
Insert a copy of the run-time data dictionary in the group SYSDOC.DESIGN.
14. Program Specifications
Copies of each of the specifications for programs requiring written specifications.
15. Future Plans
Indicate any desirable enhancements which will not be considered
in the scope of this project.
| Prepared by | ______________________ | Title | ____________________________ |
| Approved by | ______________________ | Title | ____________________________ |
| Approved by | ______________________ | Title | ____________________________ |
Note: A template for this form can be found and printed from y:\adminsys-share\sysdoc\cc\ccform\Sysspecs.wpd