Written by Luke Humphrey
This is part two of a four part series. Click here to read from the beginning.
Onto the Adventure!
Day 1 - Definition
On the first day, the Good Witch of Systems Engineering spoke to the grads of their quest-to-come:
"A wicked sorcerer has cursed the village of elves across the valley. A great enchanted river swept through their lands, circling the village and cutting them off. No one can get in or out. We need your help to build something to rescue them. I'll help, but we need to get moving!"
The grads were wary of the good witch, and all agreed she would inevitably reveal her true evil self in an act of betrayal before the quest was done (though this never came to pass). Nevertheless, they agreed to travel with her to the Town of Dobbiton to meet with the Council of Elves, the primary stakeholders for the quest.
Expecting an audience with a grand council of concerned elves, the grads were met instead by a magical messenger holding but a single small scroll. They huddled around the missive and read:
Credit: Jessica Korzeniowska
With the scroll in hand, the grads thanked the travelling postal worker and were soon on their wa---
"WAIT!" cried the Good Witch, "this scroll hardly tells us anything about the system! Surely there are more details than this?
The postie shrugged.
"Look, don't shoot the messenger! That is, I'd love to help you out; I know as much as the next magical messenger about the sorcerer's curse, but I've had a glance at the scroll myself and don't see what more there is to say."
"Then at least answer our questions! Will you do that?"
"Fine, but I'm on a tight schedule here, I'll answer one question per person and then I must be on my way."
And with that, the grads got their first taste of Stakeholder engagement. With only a single question each it wasn't possible to find out everything they needed, but it did get them to think about what important question were yet unanswered.
"How big are the elves?"
"About 40mm tall, including their hats."
"What do they eat?"
"Mostly sweets, maybe berries if they're in season."
"How deep is the river?"
"Deep. Getting deeper."
"How wide is it?"
"12000 Elvish feet... that's about 10 of your Earth metres."
"Can we use magic?"
"I don't know, can you? ;)"
And so on...
Soon enough, the grads had used up all their goodwill, and the petite postalmancer went on their way. Having secured lodgings for the night at a local inn, it was now time for the grads to consolidate what they'd learned using three tools granted to them by the Good Witch of systems Engineering: Context Diagrams, Requirement Documentation, and Interfaces.
Context Diagrams
… are diagrams showing the relationships between the system and its environment.
Credit: "The Isotopes" - Thomas 'Protium' Clayton, Yannik 'Deuterium' Diuedonne, Callum 'Tritium' Steventon, Sami 'Quadium' Bux
Requirements Documents
… are documents detailing the requirements for the system.
Credit: "The Guild of Evil Physicists" - Amy Bleasdale, Alastair McShee, Hermione Salter, Beth Thomas
Interfaces
...are points of interaction between the system and any other systems or the environment, or they can be internal interfaces: interactions between different parts of the same system.
Credit: "Happy Rotter" - Luke Humphrey, Kwanele Tualki, Kaouthar Stambouli, Alex Marsh
Having now a good idea of the task at hand, our heroes laid down their sleepy heads and dreamt up all kinds of weird and wonderful ways to whisk the woeful wee-folk away to the safety of Dobbiton.
To be continued...
This is part two of a four part series. Click here to read from the next part.
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