Assignment Task: Public Library System
A young woman greets David as he enters the Kuala Lumpur Public Library, saying, "Welcome. I'm Sarah, the library's director. I understand you've come to assist us in developing our new information system." David introduces himself as a systems analyst with Metaverse, Inc., a small IT consulting firm.
Sarah hands David the report, which he reads.
The bulleted list in one large section is titled "Summary of Patrons' Main Requirements." It states:
- A library patron who is registered in the system can borrow books and magazines from the system.
- The library system should check periodically (at least once per week) whether a copy of a book or journal borrowed by a patron has become overdue. If this is the case, the patron will be notified.
- A patron can reserve a book or journal that has been borrowed or is being purchased; when the patron checks out the book or journal or through a standard cancelling service, the reservation should be cancelled.
"I'm beginning to understand the patron (or user) requirements," David says to Sarah as he looks up from the report. My old university library and yours have many similarities. One topic I didn't see addressed was how the library decides what to collect and what to discard."
"That's an insightful question," Sarah chuckles. The library staff is in charge of purchasing new books and journals for the library. When something is popular, more than two copies are bought. We can enter, update, and delete information in the system about titles and copies of books and journals, patrons, loan of materials, and reservations."
"I'm still a little confused," David says, looking up from his notepad. "What is the distinction between the terms title and copy?"
"The library can have multiple copies of a title," Sarah responds. A title is typically the name of a book or journal. The library lends out copies of a title."
Use UML to answer the following questions based on David's interview with Sarah, the requirements description in her report, and your own experience with library services. (Note: It is critical to ensure that your solutions are logical and workable. Whenever possible, state your assumptions explicitly.)
Case study questions:
Create sequence diagrams for the library staff use case based on the related steps and scenarios. Please explaining based on each diagram. Please DO NOT use hand-drawing.