Components of specifications

Specification of an information system is given by their

Structure How it is organised.

Function What it does.

Behavior How it responds to events and stimuli.

Data Its meaning and organization.

Most CASE tools co-ordinate information systems projects through a project or system dictionary. The function of the dictionary is to standardise the use of terms throughout the organisation and to serve as a repository of all common information in the project. It enforces consistency as well as (relative) completeness of the specifications, and facilitates verification & validation of such specifications. It also serves as a means of communication between the different persons on the information systems building team. The figure below shows the various components of the specifications and the modeling techniques utilised. We will be studying some of those techniques in this course.

 
Figure:   Specification of Information Systems