Table of Contents

1. Background and case study
1.1 Introduction to the Just a Line case study
1.2 Developing systems
1.3 What is a system?
1.4 Contents of the book

2. Life cycles and development methods
2.1 The system life cycle
2.2 Development mehtods

3. The system requirements
3.1 Background
3.2 What are requirements?
3.3 Stages in engineering the system requiremets

4. Process modelling
4.1 Modelling
4.2 Data flow diagrams: Part 1
4.3 Data flow diagrams: Part 2
4.4 Process definitions

5. Data dictionary
5.1 Data dictionary

6. Data modelling
6.1 Principles of data modelling
6.2 Entity-relationship modelling
6.3 Normalization

7. Event modelling
7.1 Entity life histories
7.2 State diagrams

8. Consistency checking and CASE tools
8.1 Checking models for consistency
8.2 CASE v.

9. Implementation issues
9.1 Compatibility with existing systems
9.2 Types of implementation
9.3 Database
9.4 Microsoft Access: a typical relational database
9.5 Implementing simple entity-relationship diagrams in a database
9.6 The user interface
9.7 Multimedia
9.8 The Internet
9.9 Security
9.10 Time and cost

10. Testing and handover
10.1 Testing
10.2 Changeover to the new system
10.3 Staff reactions to the new system
10.4 Documentation
10.5 The post-implementation review
10.6 Maintenance

11. Management and professional issues
11.1 What is project managemet?
11.2 Planning
11.3 Monitoring and controlling the project
11.4 Software metrics
11.5 Standards and quality assurance
11.6 Legal and professional issues

12. Alternatives to the traditional approach
12.1 Prototyping
12.2 Rapid Application Development
12.3 Object-orientation Appendices

Appendix A: Jays Newsagents case study
Appendix B: Mike’s Bikes case study

Answers to selected exercises