Analyzing what the application needs

After defining the application goals, the staff begins more detailed planning. This section discusses various questions that any organization needs to consider to create a useful application, including data analysis, workflow analysis, identifying the business rules to be enforced, mapping the business rules to workflow components, and considering whether any integrations are required.

Analyzing data

As the park staff members begin to plan their animal management application, they analyze the data by answering these questions:

What types of data do they need to capture?
How is this data stored in their current system (for example, in a legacy database or in paper forms)?
What forms (main and supporting) and fields need to be created?
Should they include menus on the forms and, if so, which kinds are most appropriate to help staff members fill in fields?

The staff determines that they need these forms (shown in the following figure) to capture information:

Animal form—Contains detailed information about each animal. The staff considers using panel fields to organize the form modularly, keeping related fields together.
Species Info form—Contains details about a particular species, such as feeding requirements, life span, medical needs, and whether it is endangered. This is a supporting form.
Feeding form—Contains information about each animal's feeding schedule.
Enclosure form—Contains information about the number and types of animals each enclosure can hold and so forth.
Medical History form—Contains the complete medical history of each animal.
Former Resident form—Contains information about animals that no longer reside in the park.

Analyzing workflow

Next, the staff considers the park's current organizational processes:

What are the processes?
What are the stages or steps of each process?
Which groups of people participate in the processes?
To manage, access, and track the processes, what information do the groups need?

Some of the groups or roles that the park needs are:

Veterinarians, who provide health care for the animals.
Animal handlers, who provide day-to-day care for the animals.
Curators, who handle acquisitions and transfers.
Horticulturists, who maintain the animals' naturalistic habitats.
Researchers, who conduct animal-related studies.

Appropriate permissions will be assigned to each group or role according to the information that they need to access.

Defining business rules

After examining their business processes, the staff members also consider their business rules, the fundamental policies that govern day-to-day life at the park. The rules frequently provide the basis for making important decisions. For example, one of the rules might be that every animal must be checked by a veterinarian within 24 hours of arrival. If the rule is broken, that might indicate a need to hire more medical staff or increase clinic capacity.

Questions about business rules include:

What conditions and events require decisions and actions?
What should happen when various conditions or events occur?
What is the flow of information through the existing systems?

Business rules for the park include:

Animals will be not be kept in temporary enclosures longer than 48 hours.
Specially trained animal handlers will be notified immediately if a dangerous animal escapes.
Every animal must be checked by a veterinarian within 24 hours of arrival.

Mapping business rules to workflow components

Next, the park determines how to translate its business workflow (rules and processes) into workflow components:

Which processes can be accomplished by using active links?
When would it make more sense to use a filter?
What types of escalations are needed to enforce business rules?

Some of the workflow components that the park needs are:

A filter to notify animal handlers whenever an animal needs to be moved.
Active links that help users fill out forms.
An escalation to enforce the rule that animals must be checked by a veterinarian within 24 hours of arrival.
An escalation to notify keepers when an animal has not been fed within one hour of its scheduled feeding time.

Considering integrations

The staff considers what other software products or databases must initially be integrated into the application and what future integrations might be necessary:

The staff must be able to enter data while they are out in the park, perhaps using handheld devices.
Future integration with a sister zoo must be possible.
Integration with an international database of endangered species is also necessary, partly to locate new individual animals that can contribute to the gene pool at the park.
Eventually, the staff might want to integrate information about the botanical gardens at the park, although this could be maintained separately.