E-commerce Application System Requirements Study

Chapter 3

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS STUDY

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E-commerce Application System Requirements Study

After initial discussions with the HR head and preliminary investigation, the
requirement study of the project was done. A pre-ROI was prepared which revealed
the exact amount of efforts required in people-person months, the cost that would be
incurred, the risks and the mitigating factors.

Different parameters were taken into consideration while considering the cost
factor incurred in the project:

Consultancy cost: This cost is based on the staffing of the project and its location.

Hardware cost: This cost is based on the cost incurred on the hardware utilized per
person month like computer, tapes etc.

Software cost: This cost includes the cost incurred on the licensing of tools and
software used in the project e.g. Oracle, Microsoft Office etc.

Systems analysis & requirements definition

After doing a preliminary investigation the following functional and non-

functional requirements were found and a SRS (System Requirements Specification)
was prepared. Based on the SRS we decided to follow the Evolutionary prototyping
model for our system development.

A software process model is a simplified description/abstract representation of

a software process that is presented from a particular perspective. A process model for
software engineering is chosen based on the nature of the project and application, the
methods and tools to be used, and the controls and deliverables that are required.

All software development can be characterized as a problem-solving loop in

which four distinct stages are encountered:

 Status quo
 Problem definition
 Technical development
 Solution integration

1. Status Quo represents the current state of affairs.

2. Problem Definition identifies the specific problem to be solved.
3. Technical Development solves the problem through the application of
some technology.
4. Solution Integration delivers the results (e.g. documents, programs,
data, and new product) to those who requested the solution in the first
place.

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3.1 USER CHARACTERISTICS

There are mainly two types of users in E-Commerce Application. The first
type of user is Administrator and the second one is the Customer/Client. Both users
have their own characteristics. We will discuss here the characteristics of the Users of
our system so that we are able to judge what actually our user wants.

The Administrator is a user, which will manage all the things of our E-
Commerce Application. The administrator will select that which products will be
there to sell on the website. He will manage all kind of resources for the entire system.
The administrator has all the right to do anything in the system. In our application the
administrator can cancel the order of particular customer, can add new products to the
website, and can provide some interesting offers to customers so that they buy more
products online, can select which category to be displayed to user. In short, the
Administrator has all the rights. The administrator will manage our E-Commerce
Application.

The Customer/Client is a user, who will visit our website and watch all the
products available. The client can be a registered user or he can be a guest. If the
client is the registered user he can buy items from the website, he can place orders, he
can give feedback to the administrator, he can manage his personal information,
manage his personal account and so many other things. The registered users are the
one who have a right to buy the product online. The registered user can track of the
items he added to his shopping cart and so much more.

The unregistered user who is a guest has only limited rights. The guest can
watch all the items; he can search for particular item, he can navigate from one page
to another page. The guests do not have a right to place the order or buy the item from
the website. The guest is not authorized to track the shopping cart information or
order history. The guest has limited access and authorization.

So, as you can come to know there are mainly three types of users, which are
the Administrator, the Registered Users and the Guests. All these users have their own
different characteristics. Some users are authenticated to everything and some users
are not authenticated. The administrator has the entire authentication and
authorization while the registered user has some authentication and authorization. The
guest has least authentication and authorization. So you can see that these three users
are the main part of our system. If we do not study their characteristics we cannot
reach up to the solution of our E-Commerce Application.

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3.2 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

The E-Commerce application requires the following minimum hardware

configuration:
 Personal Computer with keyboard and mouse
 256 MB RAM
 500 MB Hard Disk
 Dot Matrix Printer
 Processor with 2.4GHz
 MS Windows XP or later versions

The software requirements for the system are as follows:

 Framework: Microsoft Visual Studio.Net 2.0
 Front End: ASP.Net
 Back End: Microsoft SQL Server 2000
 Language: C#
 Designing: Microsoft Visio
 O.S.: Windows XP/2000/ME

3.3 CONSTRAINTS

3.3.1 Design Constraints

While designing the system for E-Commerce application we kept in mind the
various design patterns and standards followed by the industry. We also adhered to the
coding convention and standards. It is recommended that only the admin must be
given all the administrative rights, so that only he can view the entire information of
the system.

The accessibility of information for the customer must be restricted to a

certain limit.

3.3.2 Regulatory Policies

All the access rights to access the application is provided to all the users
depending on their user type determined by the administrator.

3.3.3 Hardware Limitation

 Personal Computer with keyboard and mouse
 256 MB RAM
 500 MB Hard Disk
 Dot Matrix Printer
 Processor with 2.4GHz

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 MS Windows XP or later versions

3.3.4 Parallel Operation

As it is an online web-store, more than one user can access the application
from any part of the world at a time.

3.3.5 Higher Order Language Requirement

Front End: ASP.NET 2005

Back End: SQL Server 2000

3.3.6 Safety and Security Consideration

Any visitor can view all the products displayed in the mall i.e. he can browse
through all the categories shown here. But if the user wants to buy any product from
the mall then he/she has to login into the application using the User-Id and Password
given to him/her and it is check and verified with the one’s stored in the database and
only after that he is allowed to carry on further transactions. Various validation
controls and sessions have been used to provide enhanced security.

3.3.7 Assumption & Dependencies

We made this software by considering general requirements of company like

all type of information about the company, how many employees are working and
they belongs to which department and branch.

Also the company has the Biometrics security system that enables the user to
enter only if he has already been registered into the database with his fingerprints
record.

3.3.8 Security Constraints

System security mainly involves Confidentiality, Integrity and Authentication.

In our system it can be approached by user login and password. Various validation
controls and sessions have been used to provide enhanced security.

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