Software Engineering

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8.3 
Product analysis tasks
product behaviors will be explored further in Chapter 11. The operational model 
should involve the following elements:
1. 
Organizational elements
 represent the organizations within the business enter-
prise, or external organizations, such as business partners, vendors, suppliers, 
and users. Each organizational element represents a role in the operational 
model, and is used to group the activities each organization must perform. Each 
organizational element participates in the business process by performing opera-
tional activities in a time-sequenced workflow.
2. 
Actors
 represent a specific organizational role, user type, system, computing 
equipment item, or application that participates in the operational process. 
Actors perform activities and exchange information with other actors.
3. 
Operational activities
 represent the tasks or work that is performed by an actor. 
An operational activity represents a step in conducting the operational or busi-
ness process to transform inputs into outputs. Operational activities may require 
resources to be available to be executed. Operational activities are similar to 
software functions but are expressed at the operational process perspective and 
are performed by actors or organizational elements.
4. 
Process control mechanisms
 are the business rules and control mechanisms that 
determine which step in the process will be executed next (e.g., If (condition) 
Then (perform function X) Else (perform function Y)). Control mechanisms 
may represent a loop condition that repeats previously performed activities 
one or more times, or conditional branches where each branch involves activi-
ties appropriate to respond to an anticipated situation. If a customer applies for 
credit, then upon an initial credit rating search, the application may be approved, 
rejected, or subjected to further credit checking. Each result is dependent on the 
results of the initial credit check and alters the follow-on activities associated 
with the process.
5. 
Data items
 are the inputs and outputs of operational activities that represent the 
exchange of information among the organizational elements and actors who are 
transmitting or receiving the information exchange. The data flow is important 
to capture because it may represent one of the following data flow types:
●
 
Point-to-point
—an output data item flows from one operational activity to 
one other operational activity as an input.
●
 
Broadcast
—an output data item flows from one operational activity to two 
or more operational activities as an input.
●
 
Trigger
—a point-to-point data item that initiates the receiving operational 
activity. The receiving operational activity cannot begin to be executed until 
the triggering data item is received.
●
 
Data record
—a data item that is published to or retrieved from a data source, 
such as a database, file cabinet, or external application. A data record repre-
sents useful information that is going to be saved and retrieved in support of 
business operations.

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