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Essential Systems Analysis

Article in Proceedings of the IEEE · November 1986

DOI: 10.1109/PROC.1986.13657 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Donald Chand
Bentley University
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i n reference form with each chapter. The text is not sufficient i n
itself to give the reader the knowledge depth necessary to design a
complete robot system but it does identify the essential tasks and
leads the reader to apoint where subsequenttasksare well
defined and thoroughly referenced.
Critchlow’s introduction to Robotics is an essential addition to
the practicing engineer’s robotics and computer-control engineer-
ing library.
Reprinted from / E E E I. Robotics and Automation, vol. RA-1, no. 4,
p. 215, Dec. 1985.
Essential Systems Analysis-Stephen M. McMenamin and John F.
Palmer. (New York, NY: Yourdon Press,1934,392 pp., $29.95.)
Reviewed by Donald R. Chand, ComputerInformation Systems
Department, Bentley College, Waltham, MA.
Before a quality system can be developed, its requirements must
bespecified. The structured techniques of the 197Os, which
markedly impacted our ability to design quality systems, do not
fully address the problems of developing the true requirements of
a large system. It i s heartening to see a book that does.
A primary contribution of McMenamin and Palmer is the way i n
which they focus on the problem. They assert that developing the
true requirements entails discovering the essence of the system.
This essence is defined as the logical requirements of the system,
assuming thataperfectimplementation technology is available.
Derivingthe essence of systems and making it the basis ofa
systemsanalysis methodology is the central theme of Essential
Systems Analysis.
The 31 chapters are grouped into eight parts. The first introduces
the fundamental concepts underlying the essential systems analysis
methodology. The authors postulate that the essence of a system
can be captured i n terms of essential memory and essential activi-
ties (classified as fundamental, custodial, and compound essential).
The concept of perfect technology i s explained and the impact of
imperfecttechnology on any incarnation of the essence is dis-
cussed.
In the second part, the tools and strategies for modeling essential
activities and essential memory are presented. Event partitioning i s
recommended as the strategy for identifying essential activities,
and object partitioning is suggested as the means of structuring
essential memory. Once events are specified, essential activities are
modeledin terms of the planned responses and results of the
system and essential memory accesses.Essential memory, on the
other hand, is modeled i n terms of objects and the intraobject
relationships.
Having introduced the fundamental concepts of essential activi-
ties andmemory,their representation, and basicstrategies for
modelingthem,the authors deal with the actual problem of
deriving systemessence. In the next four parts, techniques for
derivingthe essence of an existing systemarediscussed.The
seventh part outlines a strategy for deriving the essence of a new
system.Thelast part contains recommendations for managingthe
tasks involved in deriving the essence of large systems.
This book offers newinsight on the goals of systems analysis and
provides many good ideas for deriving the requirements of large
systems. Since the book is packed with new terms and assumes a
basic knowledge of the tools and techniques used in structured
analysis, few practitioners could assimilate the essentialsystems
analysis techniques by reading the book alone. I also feel that the
book would not be a good text in a systems analysis course, since
the authors give no end-of-chapter exercises or review questions.
Also, the authors appear to have writtena monograph docu-
mentingtheir understanding of the subject. Instead of simply
defining the concepts, illustrating them with examples, and then
showing their application to a case, McMenamin and Palmer de-
fend and justify their ideas of essentialsystemsanalysis as better
than the analysis techniques oriented toward data flow structuring,
Despite these shortcomings, the book makes a definite contribu-
tion to systems analysis literature, and anyone teaching a course on
the subject should read it.
Reprinted from /€€E Software, vol. 2, no.4, pp. 110-1 11, July 1985.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 74, NO. 10, OCTOBER 1986
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Book Alert
The following descriptionso f recent bookswere prepared by the
staff o f the EngineeringSocieties Library, 345 East 47th Street, New
York, NY 10017-2394. These books are available in the Library for
loan or reference use. The prospective buyer should contact the
listed publishersor his local technical book store.
Optical Bidability: Controlling Light with Light-Hyatt M. Cibbs.
Orlando, FL: Academic Press,1985,471 pp., bound, $54.50,ISBN
0-12-281 940-3.)
This is a research bookintended for new entrants and active
workers i n the field of optical bistability. The treatment interprets
opticalbistabilitybroadlytoincludeallofthe steady-state and
transient characteristics of nonlinear optical systems which exhibit
bistabilityunder some operating conditions. It is restrictive i n
placing the emphasis on passive (non-laser) systems which exhibit
reversible bistability with input intensity as the hysteresis variable.
The book i s motivated by the desire to summarize the beauty of
the physics and to describe the potential applications of such
systems for nonlinear optical signal processing.
Theory of Microwave Remote Sensing-Leung Tsang et a/. (New
York, NY: 1985, 613 pp., bound, $44.90, ISBN 0-471-88860-5.)
This book studies the active and passive microwave remote
sensing of earth terrains such as snow, ice, soil moisture, vegeta-
tion cover, forestry, cloud, and rainfall. Recent developments in the
theoretical models that have been proven useful in the interpreta-
tion of the experimental data are presented. Basic principles of
electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering are used to de-
rivetheequations that govern microwave remote sensing.The
modeling, derivations, and resultsare presented i n a detailed
manner.All relevant topics in the modeling of earth terrain are
covered, providing a valuable reference for researchers and en-
gineers and a solid background for further research.
Integrated Services DigitalNetworks-Anthony M. Rutkowski.
(Dedham, MA: Artech House,1985, 324 pp., bound, price not
given, ISBN 0-89006-146-7.)
This book portrays the development of ISDN from an esoteric
concept and dream of advanced information network planners to a
set of worldwide standards adopted by CCITT, and finally to the
initial equipment and systems of today. The book presents and
explains technical and policy material emanating from international
and domestic forums. It also contains proceedings, and actions by
the FCC and other federal agencies.
Bandit Problems; Sequential Allocation of Experiments-Donald A.
Berry and Bert Fristedt. (New York, NY: Chapman & Hall, 1985, 275
pp., bound $25.00, ISBN 0-412-24810-7.)
This book provides a comprehensive and general account of
banditproblems starting from first principles. Both discrete and
continuoustime are considered. Many examplesare given that
both convey the spirit of bandit problems and demonstrate tech-
niques for solving them. Important results reported in the literature
are reviewed;butinaddition, many new results are given-for
example, the converse of the famous Cittins-Jones result is proved.
Results not covered within the text are given within an annotated bib
liography of some 200 items.
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