Operational Concept Definition(OCD)
(Life Cycle Architecture - LCA)

for

Serial Control Record(SCR) Builder for Serial Publications

Team 3: Clint Chua, In-Young Ko, Jong-Weon Lee, Jung-Won Park, and Ilmi Yoon
{chua, iko, jongweon, jungwonp, iyoon}@usc.edu

Computer Science Dept., University of Southern California, December 1997




Table of Contents

1. System Overview
1.1 System Objectives
1.2 System Scope and Context

2. List of Documents

3. Description of Current System

3.1 Current System Overview
3.2 Current System Shortfalls

4. Changes to Current System and Rationale
4.1 Description and Prioritization of Changes
4.2 Assumptions and Constraints
4.3 Rationale for New Capabilities
4.4 Changes Considered but Not Included

5. Concept of Operation for the Proposed System
5.1 Operational Overview
5.2 Operational Stakeholders
5.2.1 Roles and Responsibilities
5.2.2 Operational Assumptions
5.2.3 Organizational Relationships
5.3 Operational Capabilities and Viewpoints
5.3.1 Viewpoint of Record Conversion
5.3.2 Viewpoint of Editing Exception Records
5.3.3 Viewpoint of Editing the Mapping Table
5.3.4 Viewpoint of System Monitoring
5.4 Operational Modes
5.5 Quality Attribute Goals
5.6 Operational Policies and Constraints
5.7 Support Concept

6. Operational Scenarios
6.1 Mainstream Scenarios
6.2 Variant Scenarios
6.3 Exception-Handling Scenarios
6.4 Support Scenarios

7. Operational Impacts
7.1 Operational Impacts on the System
7.2 Operational Impacts on Stakeholders
7.3 Impacts During Development

8. Analysis Results

9. Notes

10. Glossary


Table of Figures

Figure 1.1 System Scope Block Diagram
Figure 1.2 System Use Case Diagram
Figure 3.1 Current System Block Diagram
Figure 5.1 Operational Overview Diagram
Figure 5.2 Organizational Relationship Diagram
Figure 5.3 Data Flow Diagram
Figure 5.4 State Transition Diagram
Figure 5.5 Sequence Diagram of Record Conversion
Figure 5.6 Sequence Diagram of Editing Exception Records
Figure 5.7 Sequence Diagram of Editing the Mapping Table
Figure 5.8 Sequence Diagram of System Monitoring
Figure 5.9 State Diagram of Interface Mode Selection
Figure 6.1 Log-in
Figure 6.2 Start/Stop/Resume Batch Processor
Figure 6.3 Editing Mapping Conditions
Figure 6.4 Editing Exception Records(The first page of the interface)
Figure 6.5 Browse and Print Exception Records
Figure 6.6 Browse and Print System Errors
Figure 6.7 User Account Management


  1. System Overview

    1.1 System Objectives

    The Serial Control Record(SCR) Builder is a software system which will provide librarians of the University of Southern California(USC) an automated tool to build the SCR database. The SCR database is a database used by SIRSI library information system, and contains information about the serial publications like journals and magazines. The USC libraries have three different input sources for the serial publications information - USC Record, Orion Record, and FAXON Record. Each record has its own format, and contains different information about a serial publication. The SCR Builder is an automatic translator which converts the three legacy record formats into the SCR format.

    Currently, the conversion from the legacy data into the SCR data is done manually by the librarians. Currently, there are over 15,000 records to enter into the database. And each Serial Control Record has about 80 data fields to be filled. Because of this, it is very time consuming and has a high possibility of inaccurate and inconsistent conversion due to the human error.

    The SCR Builder is composed of a record converter(batch processor, BP), mapping table editor, and exception editor. The record converter is a batch processing program which automatically converts the three legacy record formats into the SCR format. By using the mapping table editor, the user can adjust the mapping conditions to improve the conversion quality. The exception editor is a convenient tool to browse and edit the records which cannot be correctly converted into the SCR records by the batch processor. A Serial Control Record contains several required fields which are essential for a serial publication. If one of the required fields of a record cannot be filled by the record converter, the record is marked as an exception record and then the librarian is notified of the exception record which the librarian has the option to manually edit.

    All the components of the SCR builder have graphical user interfaces(GUIs), by which the librarians can interact with the system in a user-friendly manner to start, adjust and monitor the converting process, and browse and edit the exception records. The conversion status monitor, the mapping table editor, and the exception record editor interfaces are the major user interfaces of the SCR builder.

    The BP status monitor provides the user an interface to specify the conversion process and start or stop the process. Also it shows the user the current status of the conversion process like the number of records processed, the number of exception records generated, the number of errors occurred, the time elapsed, etc. By using this interface, the user can manage and monitor the conversion process.

    Through the mapping table editor, the librarians can adjust the conversion process by editing the mapping table. When a test run of the record converter generates a lot of exception records, the users can specify specific mapping conditions through this interface to reduce the number of exception records in the real conversion process. This can make the conversion process more flexible.

    By using the exception editor, the users can browse and print the exceptions and system errors which are generated during the current conversion process. The user can select an exception record and fill the unconverted fields of the record manually. This editing function makes the SCR building job more robust and flexible.

    The SCR builder will provide the USC libraries a fast, flexible, accurate, and user friendly software system to build the SCR database for the serial publications.

    1.2 System Scope and Context

    Figure 1.1 is the high-level block diagram of the system and shows the system scope of the SCR Builder and the users of the system. The dotted-box indicates the system scope. Four major components are inside the system - the record converter, mapping table editor, exception editor, and serial control record database. The record converter gets input data from the three major input sources, converts the data formats into the SCR format and stores the data into the SCR database. By using the mapping table editor, the user can adjust the mapping conditions to corrdinate the conversion process. The users can browse all the exceptions and system errors generated during the conversion process by using the exception editor, and edit the exception records manually and store them into the SCR database. The users of the SCR builder will be the USC librarians who are in charge of the building the SCR database.

    The USC Record, Orion Record, and FAXON Record are the three major legacy record formats of serial publications which need to be converted into the SCR format. These input record formats are different from each other and electronically available.

    Figure 1.1 System Scope Block Diagram

    Outside the system scope, there are the existing SIRSI interface and the computing infrastructure. The existing SIRSI interface allows the librarians to access the SCR database and provide the librarians the tools to manage the SCR database. The general USC library patrons(students, faculty and staff) can access the catalog of the serial publications through the USC library Web site which interacts with the SIRSI interface.

    The USC UCS(University Computing Services) computing environment is the basic infrastructure for the library information system. All the servers and the network systems are operated and managed by the UCS.

    Figure 1.2 represents the use cases of the system. There are five stakeholders who work with this system. The record conversion operator initiates the conversion batch processor, the SCR editor staff uses the exception editor and edits the exception records which are generate by the batch processor, and the exception records are managed by the exception record database manager. The mapping coordinator adjust the mapping table by using the mapping table editor to improve the mapping quality and the system manager monitors and maintain the system and ensures the normal function of the system.

    Figure 1.2 System Use Case Diagram


  2. List of Documents


  3. Description of Current System

    3.1 Current System Overview

    The large number of serial publications like journals and magazines are received each day by the USC libraries. So the libraries need a database of serial publications to maintain information about the journals and magazines, and keep track of currently available issues. The Serial Control Record database is the database for the serial publications and is now in the process of being built. The SIRSI library information system accesses this SCR database, and provides catalog services to the library patrons.

    In order to put correct information about a serial publication into the SIRSI's SCR database, several different input sources should be referenced up and searched. The USC Record, Orion Record, and FAXON Record are the three major input sources for the serial publications. These input sources are taken from different institutes who use different record formats. The order and representation of the data items for a serial publication are different among the input sources.

    Figure 3.1 Current System Block Diagram

    Figure 3.1 shows the block diagram of the current system. Currently, the SCR database is constructed manually by the librarians. The librarians take a look at the actual journal and bibliographic information of the publication and collect data for the SCR. Our product will automate the conversion process which is being done manually by the librarians. The dashed-box in the figure indicates the part of the current system which will be replaced by the automated system.

    After building the SCR database, the information about the serial publications is available to the library patrons through the SIRSI interface. The library patrons like students, faculty, and staff of USC can see the catalog of the serial publications through the USC library Web site. Also the librarians can manage the SCR database after loading by using the the SIRSI user interface. They may add a new record, delete a record, or modify the information of a record through the SIRSI user interface.

    3.2 Current System Shortfalls

    The current manual conversion system has several shortfalls which are originated from the nature of human behavior or resulted from human faults. The conversion process is a mechanical and repeted task, and the amount of the data to be converted is very huge. So it will take unreasonable amount of time and efforts to finish the conversion task. Also for this kind of mechanical and repeated task, people can easily be mannered by the work and make them to generate many errors during the task. Followings are the summary of the shortfalls of the current system.


  4. Changes to Current System and Rationale

    As a result of the WinWin negotiation, we decided the changes to the current system for automating the current manual process and providing efficient tool to build the SCR database. Following sections are the description about the changes, priorities, rationale, and changes rejected.

    4.1 Description and Prioritization of Changes

    1. Automatic Record Conversion

      Priority: Essential

      The record converter of the SCR Builder performs the automated record conversion job. It accepts data with the legacy record formats and converts them into the SCR format data. This automatic conversion capability will help the USC libraries to build the SCR database quickly and correctly.

    2. Exception Record Editor

      Priority: Essential

      The user can browse the exception records and system errors through the exception editor. The exception editor explains the cause of an exception by pointing out all the missing fields which are required to convert the input record into the Serial Control Record. And the user can edit the missing fields manually by using this editor.

    3. Mapping Table Editor

      Priority: Desired

      Through the mapping editor, the user can specify specific mapping conditions for a conversion process to reduce the exception records and improve the accuracy of the conversion. This capability will make the conversion process flexible enough to adjust the mapping condition of the record converter depending on the information quality of the input sources.

    4. Conversion Status Monitor

      Priority: Essential

      The record converter shows the status of the conversion process refers to the progress as to how much records have been processed, how many exceptions and errors have occurred, how long it has been working and other important information. The user may need these metrics not only as an indicator that processing is going on but also to measure the efficiency of the system.

    5. Printing Exception Records and Error Messages

      Priority: Essential

      The system provides the facility to print out the exception records generated and system errors happened. The contents of the result records will be printed in the human readable form.

    6. General mapping problem

      Priority: Desired

      This system may be developed as a general record converter which is able to solve a general mapping problem. But the general mapping problem is not currently required by the USC libraries. Also, to develop the general mapping system, more time and efforts should be spent. So, instead of providing the general converter, we will make the system as general as possible to adapt the basic algorithm to other products or easily extended for future demands.

    7. Help Message

      Priority: Essential

      This program provides the hypertext help system to assist users to interact with this system easily and correctly. All the help messages are descriptive enough to be understood by the users - the USC librarians.

    8. System Security

      Priority: Essential

      Only authorized users are able to access the system because this system deals with important data related to the serial publications. The users of the system will be registered and managed by an authentication subsystem. The system will provide a log-in session prior to access the system to prevent unauthorized accessing of the system.

    4.2 Assumptions and Constraints

    1. Working Environment

      The working environment of the system which the library client offered is based on the computer and campus network environment which is supported by the USC UCS. The record converter batch-processor will run on the library's dedicated server which is a SUN Ultra Enterprise 4000. And the record converter client interface and the exception editor will run on a Mac or a PC. So, the developer should consider the UNIX environment for the batch processor and TCP/IP for the communication between client programs and the server program.

    2. Record Size

      There are approximately 15,000 records to be converted into the SCR format.

    3. Input Data

      Currently, there are at least three different input sources for constructing the SCR database. The USC Record, Orion Record, and FAXON Record are the three major input sources for the serial publications. To improve the quality of the record conversion, the user may add extra input sources to the converter.

    4.3 Rationale for New Capabilities

    1. Fast processing

      This software system automates the record conversion process hence the SCR database construction process will be done in a faster way than the current manual process.

    2. Minimizing the number of exceptions

      This determines whether or not the system is usable to the librarians. Currently, the quality of the converted data depends on the librarians who use it and the input sources. By automating the conversion process, the quality will not depend on human error. Also the user can add another input with another format which is different from the three major formats when the mapping process generates too many exceptions and cause the results to be unacceptable.

    3. Providing flexibility to edit the mapping table

      This is related to the second capability rationale, and allows the user to adapt the mapping table to the specific input source they have at hand. An efficient description mechanism is needed to express the relationship among input sources and among fields in a record which should be considered while converting the record.

    4. Allowing Several input sources

      The capability of allowing several input sources is required because not one format contains all the necessary information to convert a record successfully.

    5. Prioritizing the input sources

      When the conversion batch processor generates data for a field of a SCR, it should consider the three input sources in a prioritized order to avoid conflicts among the different input sources. The user can prioritize the input sources for a SCR field by using the mapping table editor. The system will take in priorities of the input sources and based on those priorities, resolve any conflicts that arise from the different input formats.

    6. GUI design

      The potential users are the USC librarians including library staff and faculty. They are experts on library systems but they may not be proficient with computer systems. Therefore, all the user interfaces of the system will be presented with GUIs(Graphic User Interfaces) which look and feel like the current SIRSI's Unicorn editor. This will have an impact on the amount of training needed and consistency of user interface.

    7. Random and Multiple Access to the Exception Records

      This is necessary since we would like to have more than one staff member work on the exception records. This also includes the fact that we want the library staff (or the users) to be able to edit the SCR directly if there is no automatic way to map the available data.

    8. Capability of explaining the cause of an exception

      The system has the capability to explain the cause of exceptions which occur during the conversion process. The explanation of an exception will help users edit the record efficiently. The explanation will point out all the missing fields which are required to transform the input record into the SCR format record.

    9. Capability of browsing system error messages

      For major hardware related faults, the record conversion process will stop, produce an error message and exit cleanly. For minor problems that will not can be recovered from, the system will just log the error in some error file and explain the cause of the error. The system will provide capability of browsing system error messages to check the error messages which occurred during the conversion process. The user may browse the error messages during or after the conversion processing in order to check the mapping process.

    10. Allowing only authorized users to access the system

      The system provides an authentication subsystem to permit only authorized users to access the system.

    11. On-line Help Messages

      The system provides the on-line help subsystem to support users the hypertext help messages. All the help messages are descriptive enough to assist users to use the system properly.


    4.4 Changes Considered but Not Included

    1. Context Sensitive Help

      The context sensitive help would be very useful to the user. However, for this system, user is aware how they do with this system, therefore context sensitive help may not necessary. Also, in order to build the context sensitive help system, more time and effort is required. So the system will support the plain hypertext help system.

    2. Backup Transactioin Files

      It was considered to save old master files and maintain transaction files to rebuild the result file rapidly after a system crash. However, the time for the automatic conversion is relatively very short time than the time for manual conversion. Also it is more important to improve the success rate of the conversion than to maintain the tracsaction file. If the success rate is high enoght to generate small number of exception records, it will take short time to do again the transactions for editing exception records after a system crash. So we decide to focus more on improving the success rate than the recovery mechanism.


  5. Concept of Operation for the Proposed System

    5.1 Operational Overview

    Figure 5.1 Operational Overview Diagram

    Figure 5.1 shows the operational overview of the SCR Builder. The upper half part of the diagram is the part for this system. The conversion batch processor in the record converter gets input data from the three major input sources, converts the data formats into the SCR format. The result of the batch processing is not stored directly into the SCR database. The converted Serial Control Records are first collected into the Specific Data Format(SDF) files which are the intermediate results of the conversion. After editing the exception records and veryfying the correct conversion of the source records, the SDF files are loaded into the SCR database by the Automatic Generator which is a batch loading program. The potential users of this system will be the USC librarians who are in charge of the SCR database building work.

    The user can indicate specific mapping conditions to the conversion process by using the mapping editor interface provided by the conversion editor. And during the conversion processing, the user can monitor the current conversion status through the status monitor interface of the record converter. The status information consists of the number of records processed, the number of exception records generated, the number of errors occurred, the time elapsed, etc.

    During and after the conversion processing, the user can browse and print all the exceptions and system errors generated during the conversion process by using the browsers in the exception editor, and edit the exception records manually and store them into the SDF files.

    The user should give some authentication information before login into the system. Only authorized users are able to access the system. The authentication system provides a mechanism to manage the user accounts and a system manager can add, delete or modify the user information.

    Also this program provides the hypertext help system to assist users to interact with this system easily and correctly. The users can access the help system any time they want. This help system is not described in the figure as a separate component, but all the components in the system includes their own help system.

    5.2 Operational Stakeholders

    5.2.1 Roles and Responsibilities

    The potential users of the SCR builder will be the USC librarians including the library faculty and staff who are in charge of the SCR database building process. This system is not a system which provides services to the general library patrons.

    • Record Conversion Operators

      Among the system users, the record conversion operators are the people who initiate the conversion batch processor and keep track of the correct operation of the conversion processing by checking the status messages generated.

    • Record Mapping Coordinators

      These are the people among the system users who can determines the mapping conditions and adjust the mapping table by using the mapping table editor. The mapping conditions are depend on the type of the input sources.

    • SCR Editor Staff

      These are the librarians who can decide reasonable information need to be filled into the exception records. They are the users for the exception editor. They also can figure out the major exception patterns and inform the mapping coordinator to adjust the mapping conditions to reduce the exceptions.

    • Exception Record Database Managers

      These librarians manage the exception record database and load the SDF files into the existing SIRSI's SCR database after finishing all the conversion process. They will manage the SCR database to insert a new record, delete a obsolete record, and modify incorrect records.

    • System Manager

      The USC library has one computer programmer who can manage and develop computer softwares for the library information system. This person will be the major system manager of the SCR database builder. He will manage all the server and client site programs and detects abnormal operations of the system. He/She can solve minor problems on the computer system or the software system, and in case of the major software problems, he/she can contact to the system developer to solve the problem. Also the system manager will manage the user accounts of the system. He/she can add, modify, or delete a user by interacting with the authentication subsystem.

    • University Computing Services(UCS)

      All the system working environment including the servers and the network systems are operated and managed by the UCS people. people. They are usually experts on computer systems and network systems.

    5.2.2 Operational Assumptions

    The potential users of this SCR builder are not experts on computer systems, but they may be familiar with the existing SIRSI system. So, this system will provide the users GUIs which look and feel like the current SIRSI's interface. The users can easily and quickly learn these interfaces after several trials. All the messages from the system will be descriptive enough to be understood by the users. Also the hypertext style help system will be included into the system.

    The record mapping coordinators may have deep knowledge about the different record formats of the serial publications. They can define the mapping conditions and adjust the condition depending on the quality of the input sources. Also they will use the exception editor to convert manually the exception records which cannot be converted by the automatic converter. They will decide which data is most appropriate for a certain data field of a exception record.

    The system manager is proficient with computer systems and software systems. He can detect problems on the computer or network systems and solve minor problems or report major problems to the UCS. Also he can manage the large scale software systems.

    The SCR database builder will be used at the first step of the SCR database construction work. After loading the SDF files into the SIRSI's SCR database, this system may not be needed to be used again, but this system may be used for the other record conversion works in the future by modifying small portion of the program and mapping conditions.

    5.2.3 Organizational Relationships

    Figure 5.2 Organizational Relationship Diagram

    All the stakeholders of the SCR Database Builder System will be the people from the USC libraries, which includes the library faculty, library staff, and library programmer. A development team will be organized by the library to develop the products of this system. The development team will be comprise of a manager and one or more programmers. The record conversion operators are the librarians who will work with the conversion batch processor and initiate the processor and keep track of the correct operation of the conversion. The record mapping coordinators are the librarians who have deep knowledge on all record formats of the serial publications and can determine the mapping conditions. The SCR editor staff can decide reasonable informations need to be filled into the exception records, and the exception record database manager manages the exception repository. The system manager is the computer programmer of the libraries who can manage the hardware and software systems in the libraries.

    The UCS people are not directly related to this system, but they are the people working on the basic infrastructure and the working environment of this system. They manage the computer and network environment of the library information system.

    Figure 5.2 shows the organizational relationships by connecting each personnel into each program component or responsibilities. The team 3 of the CS577a class in Fall 1997 will do the requirement analysis for the system. The Information Services Division (ISD) is the organization in USC, which provides the university various services of information archiving, retrieving and processing. This organization includes the USC libraries and UCS. The public service core, infrastructure core, and communications core are the major groups in ISD. All the librarians and programmer who are the system users and manager are included in the infrastructure core, and the UCS people who support the infrastructure of the library information system is under the infrastructure core and communications core. The programmer and record conversion operators are from the academic software unit and the mapping coordinators, SCR editor staff, and exception database managers are from the technical service unit under the infrastructure core.

    5.3 Operational Capabilities and Viewpoints

    Figure 5.3 Data Flow Diagram

    Figure 5.3 show the overall data flows of the system. The input records are converted into the SCR format data by the conversion batch processor. The batch processor need the mapping table to decide the mapping conditions for the conversion process. The mapping table can be modified by using the mapping editor. All the records which are successfully converted into the SCR format is stored into the SDF files. The exception records which cannot correctly be converted into the SCR format are saved in the exception record file which will be accessed by the exception editor. And all the system errors generated during the batch process will be logged into the system error log file. The user can see the error messages by using the error browser. Through the exception record editor, all the exception records are manually edited and added into the SDF files. The SDF files which are the results of the conversion batch processing will be loaded into the SIRSI's SCR database by the automatic generator which is a program component of the SIRSI system.


    Figure 5.4 State Transition Diagram

    The major system states and transitions among the states are summarized in Figure 5.4. By entering the user authentication information, the users can log-in to the program component they want to work on. They can run the user manager program to manager the user accounts or run the mapping editor to adjust the mapping conditions. Also they can start the conversion batch processor and monitor the status of the conversion process through the status monitor. The conversion batch processing will be end after converting all the records in the source record files. During or after the conversion processing, the users can browse and edit the exception records. Also they can browse all the system errors generated.


    5.3.1 Viewpoint of Record Conversion

    When the record conversion operator initiate the conversion batch processor, both the conversion status monitor and the conversion engine will start. The batch processor fetches the input file format specification which indicates the next input source to be converted. The records in the input source are converted into SIRSI's SCRs by using the mapping table. All the exception records which cannot be converted into SCRs are saved into the exception record repository. The user can monitor the current conversion status and may stop the process when the status shows an unacceptable low performance or critical system errors. Also the user can make the conversion process to resume to the point where it is stopped after adjusting the mapping conditions or fixing the system problems. Figure 5.5 shows the sequence diagram of the record conversion operation.

    Figure 5.5 Sequence Diagram of Record Conversion


    5.3.2 Viewpoint of Editing Exception Records

    The SCR editor staff can login to the exception record editor, edit the exception records and store the modified record into the SCR database. Each exception records are verified by the user, and fetched into the exception editor, edited by the user, and stored into the database. He/She also can browse the reason of exceptions and print the exception records. The SCR editor staff can get help messages about browsing and editing exception records.

    Figure 5.6 Sequence Diagram of Editing Exception Records


    5.3.3 Viewpoint of Editing the Mapping Table

    The mapping coordinator can edit the mapping table to improve the conversion quality by using the mapping table editor. The mapping table editor opens the mapping table as following the user's request through the mapping interface, and modifies the fields and conditions in the table with the new values given by the user. The user can manipulate the mapping conditions either by creating new mapping table or opening existing table.

    Figure 5.7 Sequence Diagram of Editing the Mapping Table


    5.3.4 Viewpoint of System Monitoring

    The record conversion operator can monitor the status of the conversion process through the batch processor monitor. All the system error messages will be given to the user, and the user may stop the system after deciding that the system is malfunctioning, and resume the process to the point where it is stopped. The user also can print all the error messages and get help messages about using the monitor.

    If the system needs the adjustment of the mapping table, the mapping table is modified by the mapping editor. For the erorrs of the software system, it should be informed to the software developer or maintenance people. In case of computer or network problems, it will be notified to the UCS.

    Figure 5.8 Sequence Diagram of System Monitoring


    5.4 Operational Modes

    5.5 Quality Attribute Goals

    The purpose of this system is to automate the record conversion process for building the SCR database which is currently done by human. So the system should be more efficient and correct than the current human processing. The followings are the quality attribute goals of the system in the viewpoints of the performance, correctness, consistency, flexibility, portability, security, availability, maintainability, and usability.

    1. Performance

      The automated record conversion should be faster than the current manual conversion system. Currently, the manual conversion takes about 15 minutes to convert a record. Also there are about 15,000 records to be converted into the SCR format records. So it will take very long time to complete the conversion work by human. By using the automated system, the conversion work should be able to finish in several days including the exception editing process.

      The librarian suggested a guideline of the success rate of the record conversion. It is about 70% of the total records from the source files. The record conversion process should satisfy this guideline and generate exception records less than 30% of the total records.

    2. Correctness

      The current manual conversion may not convert all the records correctly, because there may be some human mistakes while the conversion process. It may be possible that the librarian misinterprets the mapping table and puts incorrect data into the target record fields. Also the mistyping is one of the major mistakes which can be happened during the human conversion process. The automated system should be able to avoid all these human mistakes and convert all the source records into the desired format records correctly.

    3. Consistency

      To reduce the total time for the conversion process, several people may work together. In that case, it is possible that different person converts a same field of a record differently by applying different possible mapping conditions. The automatic converter should contain a well-defined rule to apply the mapping conditions to a conversion consistently.

    4. Flexibility

      The mapping tables for the automated conversion process will be built by the record mapping coordinators. They have to test their mapping tables and check whether the conversion process works well with the mapping tables before adapting those tables at the real conversion. In the case of inefficient conversion, they need to adjust their tables to reduce the number of exception records. So, the system should be flexible enough to work with various mapping tables and provide the way to modify the mapping tables.

    5. Portability

      The libraries have different types of machines to execute the client programs of the system - the conversion status monitor and the mapping editor. Those client programs should be portable enough to be run on the different machines in the libraries. The SUN workstations, Mac's and PC's are the machine types which will be used to run the client programs.

    6. Security

      The system should provide an authentication mechanism to protect invalid operations on the system. Only the authorized users should be able to use the system.

    7. Availability

      In Major Hardware failure, the system should log an error and quit processing while in a minor subsystem failure, we can log an error and still continue processing. So the system should be as available as possible and after a major failure the system should be able to continue processing from where it left off.

    8. Maintainability

      By using the mapping table editor, the user can change the mapping conditions to improve the success rate of the conversion. Also the user can indicate more input sources and prioritize the input sources to improve the efficiency of the conversion process.

    9. Usability

      The mapping table editor should be easy to use and the exception editor should be similar to the current editor in use, SIRSI's Unicorn Editor, because the users are familiar with this existing editor. These features will make the users to interact with the new system efficiently. Also the batch processor must have both command-line based and GUI based interface, because a user may run the conversion batch processor either through a terminal which provides a windowing system or through a remote dummy terminal.

    5.6 Operational Policies and Constraints

    1. Working Environment

      The library expect the system to be run on the current computing environment in the libraries. The current working environment of the system is based on the computer and campus network environment which is supported by the USC UCS. The record converter batch-processor will run on the library's dedicated server which is a SUN Ultra Enterprise 4000. And the record converter client interface and the exception editor will run on a Mac or a PC. So, the developer should consider the UNIX environment for the batch processor and TCP/IP for the communication between client programs and the server program.

    2. Record Size

      There are approximately 15,000 records to be converted into the SCR format.

    3. Input Data

      Currently, there are at least three different input sources for constructing the SCR database. The USC Record, Orion Record, and FAXON Record are the three major input sources for the serial publications. To improve the quality of the record conversion, the user may add extra input sources to the converter.

    5.7 Support Concepts

    • System Manager

      The system manager will be responsible for managing all the server and client programs and detecting abnormal operations of the system. The system manager should be able to solve minor problems on the computer system or the software system, and in case of the major software problems, he/she can contact to the system developer to solve the problem.

    • SIRSI's Automatic Generator

      The SIRSI's Automatic Generator(AG) is located out of the scope of our system, but it will make the result of the conversion process available to the library patrons. The SDF files which are the result of the conversion process will be loaded into the SIRSI's SCR database by this AG.

    • System Working Environment

      All the system working environments including the servers and the network systems are operated and maintained by the UCS. They will fix all the problems related to the computer and network systems on which the SCR builder system works.


  6. Operational Scenarios

    6.1 Mainstream Scenarios

    1. Log-In

      • Event: The user connects to the SCR Builder system and tries to execute one of the program components in the system.

      • Action: The authentication page is shown to the user, and the user puts his/her user ID and password.

      • Stimuli: The user may want to execute one of the program components When he/she want to start a new record conversion job, monitor the current processing, browse the exceptions or error messages generated, or edit the exception records.

      • Information: Only the authorized users can access the system.

      • Interaction: If the authentication succeeds, the system permits the user to execute the program component. Otherwise, the system displays the authentication failure message.

      Figure 6.1 Log-in


    2. Start a Conversion Batch Processor

      • Event: The user starts a conversion batch processor.

      • Action: The batch processor user interface is brought up and the user puts the input file names which are the input record sources. The user can either directly put the file names into the interface or select the files from the file list. After specifying the input sources, the user puts the 'Start' button to start the batch processor.

      • Stimuli: The user may execute this conversion batch processor when he/she want to convert the legacy input records into the SIRSI's serial control records.

      • Information: The user interface for this batch processor also contains the display fields for the status information. So the user can see the status information right after starting the batch processor.

      • Interaction: All the execution status will be displayed through the status interface. Also user can stop the batch processing by pressing the 'Stop' button.

    3. Stop a Conversion batch Processing

      • Event: The user press the 'Stop' button from the batch processor user interface or all the conversion process is done.

      • Action: The conversion batch processing stops and the system displays termination message and the current status.

      • Stimuli: The user may want to stop a batch processing after recognizing some errors in the processing or abnormal status.

      • Information: When the batch processor stops, the result SDF files will contain the SCR records which have converted before the stopping event. And the termination action will be written in the error message log file.

      • Interaction: After figuring out the problem of the batch processor or the input sources and correcting the problem, the user restart the batch processor from the beginning by pressing the 'Start' button again.

    4. Resume a Conversion batch Processing

      • Event: The user press the 'Resume' button from the batch processor user interface.

      • Action: The conversion batch processing resumes to the point where the process was stopped.

      • Stimuli: The user may want to resume processing of a batch processing after stopping it.

      • Information: When the batch processing is resumed, all the previous state of the process will be restored.

      • Interaction: After fixing the problem of the batch processor, the user resume the batch processor by pressing the 'Resume' button.

      Figure 6.2 Start/Stop/Resume Batch Processor


    5. Edit Mapping Conditions

      • Event: The user selects the mapping editor link in the system main Web page.

      • Action: The mapping editor user interface comes out and the user adjusts or adds the mapping conditions by filling out the fields in the user interface.

      • Stimuli: When the user recognizes that the conversion results are too bad(too many exceptions) or incorrect, he/she may want to adjust the mapping conditions to reduce the exceptions or modify the mapping conditions to correct the incorrect processing.

      • Information: The user can indicate somewhat complicated mapping conditions by describing the relationship among the mapping table fields or by indicating a specific mapping algorithm. This mapping condition adjustment work only can be done by the librarians who has deep knowledge about the mapping conditions and procedures.

      • Interaction: After modifying the mapping conditions, the user should restart the conversion batch processor to affect the new mapping conditions to the conversion processing.

      Figure 6.3 Editing Mapping Conditions


    6. Edit Exception Records

      • Event: The user runs the exception editor.

      • Action: The exception editor user interface appear on the screen and the user can fill out the empty fields which cannot be filled during the conversion process. The user may press the 'Clear' button to clear all the current data for record and put new data into the empty fields.

      • Stimuli: The exception records should be edited to be converted correctly into the SCR format data.

      • Information: This exception editing work only can be done by the librarians who has deep knowledge about the mapping procedures.

      • Interaction: The user can save the record after finishing the editing process, and the user goes to the exception record browser and selects another record to edit.

      Figure 6.4 Editing Exception Records(The first page of the interface)


    7. Browse and Print Exception Records

      • Event: The user press the button 'Exception' in the exception editor user interface.

      • Action: The list of exception record list comes out and the user can browse the list to check and select an exception record. Also the user can print out the list of exception record. If the user selects an exception record, the exception editor is automatically brought up and the user can edit the exception record.

      • Information: In case of large number of exception records, the user can adjust the mapping conditions to reduce the number and improve the conversion quality.

      • Interaction: The user can continually switch between the exception record list and the exception record editor to edit all the exception records.

      Figure 6.5 Browse and Print Exception Records


    8. Browse and Print System Errors

      • Event: The user goes to the error list in the batch processor user interface.

      • Action: The error list displays the set of errors and the user browse and check the minor system errors. The user also can print out the error list.

      • Information: Beside the error list, the user interface shows the user the reason of the errors. So the user can easily figure out the problem of the errors and do appropriate actions for the problems.

      • Interaction: When the user recognize some of the errors may lead the conversion process to generate incorrect result, the user may stop the current batch processing and restart it after fixing the problems.

      Figure 6.6 Browse and Print System Errors


    6.2 Variant Scenarios

    • Command-line Operations for the Conversion Batch Processor

      The user can log-in to the conversion batch processor under the command line and do the operations in the text mode. The authentication step can be done by putting the user ID and password as following the directions from the system. And user can start the conversion batch processor by sending a command and check the conversion status through the text mode monitor interface.

    6.3 Exception-Handling Scenarios

    • Authentication Failure

      • Event: The user puts a wrong authentication information into the authentication user interface during the log-in process.

      • Action: The system displays the authentication failure message.

      • Information: Only the authorized users can access the system.

      • Interaction: The user can try again to log-in to the system with different authentication information.

    6.4 Support Scenarios

    1. User Account Management

      • Event: The user want to add a new user into the user registry or delete a user from the registry.

      • Action: The system manager add a new user by specifying the user information(the user ID and password) to the user registry. Also, the manager can delete a user from the registry or change the permission type of a user.

      • Stimuli: The system manager should add a new user and assign he/she a permission to use a program component when a new librarian joins to the SCR building task. Also the manager may need to delete a user from the user registry or change the permission type of a user.

      • Information: Only the authorized users can access the system and the user only can execute the program component to which the user has a access permission.

      Figure 6.7 User Account Management


    2. Using Help System

      • Event: The user starts the help system to get some assists about his works on this system.

      • Action: The user selects the help topic from the help index and follows the hypertext link to reach to the specific topic where the user get useful information about his/her current work. Also the user can search a topic by using the help system.

      • Stimuli: The user may need some help to do certain function of the system. The user may need to know the purpose of the function, available options on the functions, and the usage examples of the function.

      • Information: All the help messages are composed as hypertext documents, and the user can follow the hypertext link to search a specific topic.

      • Interaction: They user can go down into more specific help topic by click on the hypertext link or go up to the top level index by press the 'Index' button.


  7. Operational Impacts

    7.1 Operational Impacts on the System

    This system will automate the current manual conversion works and the SCR database can be built in a shorter time and will contain more accurate data of the serial publications.

    7.2 Operational Impacts on Stakeholders

    By automating the record conversion process, the large amount of time and efforts of the librarians to convert the huge number of records can be saved. And more accurate informations about the serial publications will be available to the library patrons more early.

    7.3 Impacts during Development

    All the feed-back information from the librarians about this system will be considered carefully to develop more efficient and usable system. Also the frequent interaction between the developers and the library customers will help us to detect and correct the incorrectly designed parts of the system as soon as possible.


  8. Analysis Results

    The SCR builder will automates record conversion works and provide the USC libraries a fast, flexible, accurate, and user friendly software system to build the SCR database for the serial publications.


  9. Notes

    The initial prototype is developed to demonstrate the GUIs and show the operation mechanism of the SCR builder. The prototype can be tested through the Web browsers by connecting to the following address.

    http://nunki.usc.edu:8082/~cs577/team3/prototype/LCA/team3.html


  10. Glossary

    • Batch Processor(Record Converter): This is the main program that our group is going to specify and architect. This system's objective is to transform/translate a known input data format to a specified output format, SDF.
    • Context sensitivity: This refers to a help system that gives help specific to the current topic/icon/object that the user is interested in.
    • Data Format: A specification of how a file is to be interpreted
    • Exception: This does not refer to the normal definition of exception in computer science. It actually refers to the records that our system that could not generate from our mapping. There are various causes of this phenomenon.
    • Faxon Format: This is the format specification of the records obtained from Faxon, the main journal provider for the USC library.
    • General Mapping Problem: Since we never defined the input format and the output format, this is actually referring to the general mapping from one or more known input formats to another output format.
    • Human Readable Form: This refers to data being arranged is such a way that is easily understood by the primary users of the system.
    • Library Faculty: Library staff members who have a masters of science in library science
    • Library Staff: Employees of the library
    • Mapping Table: This is a file that contains the specification on how to construct the SDF from known input data formats.
    • Mapping Table Editor(Mapping Editor): This refers to the subsystem that enables the user to manipulate the mapping table.
    • Orion or UCLA Format: This refers to the records obtained by our client from UCLA's Orion library database. This also includes the format specification of journals that we are interested in.
    • Progress Monitoring: is the process of monitoring, logging and later analyzing how well the performance of the system is. This can include the estimated finish time based on the elapsed time and number of records finished.
    • SCR: Serial Control Records. This is the final output format that the librarians want it in. Our specific task is then to take the USC, UCLA and Faxon data and get it to SCR.
    • SDF: Specific Data Format. This refers to the output format of out batch processing system.
    • SIRSI: This refers to the name of the company which founded in 1979 as a technical consultant in library automation and information management, in Huntsville, Alabama. SIRSI has become the recognized leader in the development of UNIX-based integrated library systems.
    • SUN: This refers to a Sun Microsystems workstation.
    • USC Format: This is the arrangement and format specification of the library's bibliographical records as specified in the library specification manual.