Vision Document Template SWEN6837
Vision Document
1. Introduction
a. Overview (An overview of the system including the
problems it attempts to solve.)
b. Purpose (The purpose of the system including
rationale for certain major design decisions.)
c. Block diagram of system: (Illustrate basic
components of the system and depict external
interfaces to the environment.)
Example System Diagram
External Interface to Client-Side Users
Operator Interface Administrator Interface Business Analyst Interface
Web-Enabled Thin Client Thick Client
Administrative Tools Client Side Accounting /
Plug-In Decision-Analysis
Component
Server-Side Transaction Engine
Operation Handler Administration Daemon Business Logic Engine
Daemon
ODBC Interface to Central DBMS
External Interface to Organization’s Back-End Servers
2. Design Constraints and Considerations
a. Assumptions / dependencies:
i. (Example: All communications will occur over
a local area network.)
ii. (Example: All thick client machines will be
using Windows XP.)
iii. (Example: There will be a dependency on
existing back-end servers being capable of
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scaling up to nearly twice as many
transactions per minute.)
b. Design Drivers
i. (Example: The customer’s expectation of a
reliable system will require the use of
commercial-off-the-shelf components that
will be delivered as part of the system.)
ii. (Example: The customer’s expectation of a
low price will require use of our existing
development tools to develop and support the
system. This will constrain the types of
technologies we can consider.)
iii. (Example: The customer’s expectation of
accessing the system using only a web-
browser for certain user roles will limit
the types of client-side technology that can
be used to support those user roles.)
3. System Usage
a. Describe the domain served by the system.
(Describe the system attributes that will serve
this domain.)
b. Describe the future users of the system. (Provide
a descriptive profile of each category of
expected system user.)
c. Describe the target environment for the system.
(Describe the anticipated usage patterns as well
as the software and hardware platforms in use.)
d. Important use cases:
i. (Ex: User opens a browser and logons in a
certain user role determined by their
account profile.)
ii. (Ex: User runs a report that requires data
from legacy database servers as well as data
from this system.)
4. System Requirements and Supporting Features
a. Desired system features table: (Briefly describe
user-desired features that are currently planned
for the system.)
Feature Rationale
Ex: Thin Client User is familiar with web browser
Browser Access interface and wants to utilize
that interface where possible.
Ex: Open Database User is already heavily invested
Access in a certain DBMS technology that
supports ODBC and wants the system
under development to communicate
with that existing infrastructure.
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Using an industry-standard open
database API allows working with
pre-existing, heterogeneous
database servers.
Ex: Utilization of The user wants a reliable system
Reliable COTS that uses industry-accepted
Middleware technology. Using a proven COTS
product to provide certain system
functions increases the
reliability of the final system.
b. User Requirements / system features table:
(Describe the features of the system under
development and how those features will fulfill
the expressed requirements of the customer
organization.)
User Requirement Supporting Feature(s)
Ex: Ease of use - User The thin client approach
shall train within two allows users to use a
weeks standard browser interface
to access system functions.
Ex: System shall use Using an open database
existing infastructure access API (such as ODBC)
allows for interaction with
existing database servers.
Ex: System shall be Using a proven, COTS
reliable supporting an middleware component should
MTBF of ### hours. increase overall system
reliability.
Note: The user requirement column will contain
the free-form (or prose form) of the
customer organization’s requirements. These
are the user requirements that will be
analyzed in order to derive the system
requirements.
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