The main objectives of preliminary analysis in software engineering are to identify the customer's needs, evaluate system concept for feasibility, perform economic and technical analysis, perform cost benefit analysis and create system definition that forms the foundation for all subsequent engineering works.
There should be enough expertise available for hardware and software for doing analysis.
While performing analysis, the following questions arise.
- How much time should be spent on it? As such, there are no rules or formulas available to decide on this.
However, size, complexity, application field, end-use, contractual obligation are few parameters on which it should be decided.
- Another major question that arises is who should do it.
Well an experienced well-trained analyst should do it.
For large project, there can be an analysis team.
After the preliminary analysis, the analyst should report the findings to management, with recommendations outlining the acceptance or rejection of the proposal.
Initially when the customer makes a request for a system, the customer itself is not sure about the exact requirements of the system.
In order to know what exactly the customer expects out of system, the analyst personally meets the end user or customer.
For this analyst should be very tactful and have a good communications skills so that he or she is able to extract maximum information out of the customer..
In this way analyst is able to know about the exact requirements for the desired system.
All information gathered during the identification period is recorded in System Concept Document.
Documentation is a very important factor in software engineering.