Information System Languages and Application to Projects (CSCT4111)

Computer Science - COS

Semester: First Semester

Level: 400

Year: 2018

1
Question 1 (70 marks) EXAM
You are recommended as an engineer coming from H.T.T.C Bambili to a grocery supermarket in
order to computerize their inventory management. The items on shelves will be marked with Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and a set of RFID reader-devices will be installed for
monitoring the movements of the tagged items. Each tag carries a 96-bit EPC (Electronic Product
Code) with a Global Trade Identification number, which is an international standard. The RFID
readers are installed on each shelf on the sales floor.
The RFID system consists of two types of components (see figure above): (1) RFID tag or
transponder, and (2) RFID reader or transceiver. RFID tags are passive (no power source), and use
the power induced by the magnetic field of the RFID reader. An RFID reader consists of an antenna,
transceiver and decoder, which sends periodic signals to inquire about any tag in vicinity. On
receiving any signal from a tag it passes on that information to the data processor.
You are tasked to develop a software system for inventory management. The envisioned system will
detect which items will soon be depleted from the shelves, as well as when shelves run out of stock
and notify the store management. The manager will be able to assign a store associate to replenish
the shelf, and the manager will be notified when the task is completed.
REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON
Peace
Work
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Fatherland
The UNIVERSITY OF BAMENDA
P.O. BOX 39 Bambili
School:_HTTTC___ Department: _Computer Science__ Lecturer(s): Mr. KAMGANG BEYALA
Course Code: CSCT4111 _ Course Title: Information system languages and …
Session: _ January 2019_________ Hall: ______ Duration Allowed: 2 Hours
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Based on the initial ideas for the desired functions of the software system, the following requirements
are derived:
REQ1. The system shall continuously monitor the tagged items on the shelves. Every time an item
is removed, this event is recorded in the system database by recording the current item count from
the RFID reader.
The system should also be able to handle the cases when the customer takes an item, puts it in her
shopping cart, continues shopping, and then changes her mind, comes back and returns the item to
the shelf.
REQ2. The system shall keep track when stock is running low on shelves. It shall detect a “low-
stock” state for a product when the product’s item count falls below a given threshold while still
greater than zero.
REQ3. The system shall detect an “out-of-stock” state for a product when the shelf becomes empty
and the product’s item count reaches zero.
REQ4. The system shall notify the store manager when a “low-stock” or “out-of-stock” state is
detected, so the shelves will be replenished. The notification will be sent by electronic mail, and the
manager will be able to read it on his mobile phone.
REQ5. The store manager shall be able to assign a store associate with a task to replenish a particular
shelf with a specific product. The store associate shall be notified by electronic mail about the details
of the assigned task.
REQ6. While the store associate puts items on the shelf, the RFID system shall automatically detect
the newly restocked items by reading out their EPC. The system should support the option that
customers remove items at the same time while the store associate is replenishing this shelf.
REQ7. The store associate shall be able to explicitly inform the system when the replenishment task
is completed. The number of restocked items will be stored in the database record.
The item count obtained automatically (REQ5) may be displayed to the store associate for
verification. After the store associate confirms that the shelf is replenished, the task status will be
changed to “completed,” and a notification event will be generated for the store manager.
To keep the hardware and development costs low, we make the following assumptions:
A1. You will develop only the software that runs on the main computer and not that for the
peripheral RFID devices. Assume that the software running the RFID readers will be purchased
together with the hardware devices.
A2. The tag EPC is unique for a product category, which means that the system cannot distinguish
different items of the same product. Therefore, the database will store only the total count of a given
product type. No item-specific information will be stored.
A3. Assume that the RFID system works perfectly which, of course, is not true in reality. As of this
writing (2011) on an average 20% of the tags do not function properly. Accurate read rates on some
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items can be very low, because of physical limitations like reading through liquid or metals still exist
or interference by other wireless sources that can disrupt the tag transmissions.
A4. Assume that the item removal event is a clean break, which again, may not be true. For example,
if the user is vacillating between buying and not buying, the system may repeatedly count the item as
removed or added and lose track of correct count. Also, the user may return an item and take
another one of the same kind because she likes the latter more than the former. (A solution may be
periodically to scan all tags with the same EPC, and adjust incorrect counts in the database.)
A5. Regarding REQ1, each RFID reader will be able to detect correctly when more than one item
of the same type is removed simultaneously. If a customer changed her mind and returned an item
(REQ1), we assume that she will return it to the correct shelf, rather than any shelf.
A6. The communication network and the computing system will be able to handle correctly large
volume of events. Potentially, there will be many simultaneous or nearly simultaneous RFID events,
because there is a large number of products on the shelves and there may be a great number of
customers currently in the store, interacting with the items. We assume that the great number of
events will
not
“clog” the computer network or the processors.
Do the following:
(a) Write all the
summary use cases
that can be derived from the requirements REQ1REQ7.
For each use case, indicate the related requirements. Note that one use case may be related to several
requirements and vice versa, one requirement may be related to several use cases.
(b) Draw the use case diagram for the use cases described in item (a).
(c) Discuss additional requirements and use cases that could be added to this system.
Question 2 (30 marks) CA
Consider again the Grocery Inventory Management system described in
Question 1
. Focus only on
the summary use cases that deal with depleted stock detection, related to the requirements
REQ1REQ4
. Write the detailed specification for these use cases only.
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