Your task is to write a requirements document for the cell-phone-based, chat-room-like communication application described below. You must turn in use cases, but keep the scenarios handy in case we ask to see them. If you have questions about how to classify something, ask!
You must submit your requirements in PDF format by 10pm on Thursday, Jan 29.
Your company has been hired by the staff of Srirangapatnam Madhusudhan Sivasubramanian, an Indian politician trying to make it big on the national stage. He needs to travel extensively around the country, addressing crowds everywhere he goes. This requires communication to coordinate logistics amongst campaign staff and with local volunteers. In particular, it is frequently useful (especially when coordinating in real-time) to have a chat-room-like facility.
(Oh yes: like all other South Indian politicians (MGR, NTR, YSR, ...) and Indian political parties (BJP, BSP, DMK, AIDMK, ...), your client likes to go by his initials.)
Of course, computer chatrooms are easy to build and maintain. But they have several shortcomings.
Immediacy. Communication needs to happen in real-time while events are in progress; certainly desktops, but even laptops, are difficult to access in the midst of an event.
Secrecy. This is necessary both to protect campaign secrets from competitors, and to protect the candidate himself from terrorist attacks.
Cost-effectiveness. The campaign can't afford to turn away volunteers. But volunteers may be quite poor; the campaign certainly can't assume that volunteers will own computers.
Power. It's difficult to power computers while on the move.
Because mobile phone penetration is very high in countries like India, the campaign realizes that it would be far more effective to depend on cell-phones instead of regular computers.
Of course, the campaign may not have thought of everything above. You will be able to (and should!) interview several campaign staff members, as described below.
The campaign has given you access to three staffers (and one more; read on). They are:
Chief of campaign staff (played by Tim)
Head of security (played by Aleks)
Local arrangements in the city of Bengaluru (played by Suman)
Interviews will take place during class on Monday, Jan 26, and Wednesday, Jan 28. They will be in a “speed dating” format. The staffers will be seated at four different tables. You get eight minutes with each one, after which you have to move to the next table, no exceptions. You will therefore get a chance to interview each staff member twice (once on each day).
If, after discussing amongst yourselves, you feel you need to talk to additional people, you can ask to meet with them. Not all of them will be available to talk to you, but you can always ask. Therefore, by 8pm on Sunday, Jan 25, you can email the TA list up to three different roles, in order of priority, that you wish to interview. You will be told who, if any, are available to meet with you on Monday (played by Shriram). You get to send one more such request by 8pm on Tuesday, Jan 27, to meet on Wednesday.