Jackson System Development Method Research Articles

EB3: an entity-based black-box specification method for information systems

This paper describes a formal method for specifying the observable (external) behavior of information systems using a process algebra and input-output traces. Its notation is mainly based on the entity concept, borrowed from the Jackson System Development method, and integrated with the requirements class diagram to represent data structures and associations. The specification process promotes modular and incremental description of the behavior of each entity through process abstraction, entity type patterns, and entity attribute function patterns. Valid system input traces result from the composition of entity traces by using parallel composition operations. The association between input traces and outputs through an input-output relation completes the specification process.

Integrating human factors with the Jackson System Development method: an illustrated overview.

The motivation for integrating human factors with structured systems analysis and design methods has been set out in earlier papers. In addition, a preliminary conception of such an integration has been proposed for the Jackson System Development method (referred to as JSD*), and a set of requirements, research and strategies suggested for further developing this conception. The present paper reports the progress of the research, and presents an overview of the stage-wise design process, scope and notation of the JSD* method. The method is discussed and illustrated using a simple case-study concerning a Recreation Booking System.

Representing Business Policies in the Jackson System Development Method

This paper is based on the tenet that a specific class of system, business information systems, contains a large element of information processing which is dictated by business needs and that these needs will inevitably change. Many researchers and industrialists have recognised these and have called for systems to be designed for evolution. The level of provision for system evolution in systems developed using the Jackson's method is limited to changes in functional requirements; business policy changes are still not addressed and this has contributed to some degree of inflexibility in such area of change. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to discuss the issues pertaining to the evolution and maintenance of business policies in a system specification using the Jackson System Development method.

Knowledge-based support for requirements engineering

The accurate capture and representation of user requirements plays a critical role in the construction of effective and flexible information systems. Despite the introduction of development methods and CASE tools in the project life-cycle, the process of developing a requirements specification remains problematical. The paper proposes that the process of requirements specification should be considered from a viewpoint that is close to an analyst's cognitive processes. To this end the paper presents a requirements specification support environment that is based on the premise that it is advantageous to carry out modelling at the early stages of development independent of any particular software engineering method. This support environment, known as the Analyst Assist system, exploits knowledge-based paradigms for the capture and modelling of facts about an application domain, which are then transformed into a functional specification represented in the Jackson System Development method.