Home > Articles > Software Development & Management > UML

Stakeholder Communities

In the beginning stages of developing an e-business system, many stakeholders must contribute requirements, domain model details for the analysis, and specifications for design and implementation. This book does not attempt to cover the full development lifecycle but instead focuses on analysis and some parts of design, all with an eye toward the use of XML. Within this context, we must consider the needs of several diverse stakeholder communities. I have narrowed the focus for this book to five groups: consumers, business analysts, Web application specialists, system integration specialists, and content developers.

A complete analysis of an e-business system would require documenting many different use cases that describe the convergence of these stakeholder communities in B2B and business-to-customer (B2C) interaction scenarios. Figure 1-1 illustrates one high-level use case diagram that incorporates all five of the identified stakeholder communities. This high-level view spans the requirements from designing the product catalog structure and content to presenting personalized views of this catalog to consumers.

A use case specification identifies a set of "actors" that interact with each use case. Each actor represents the role of a user that works with the resulting system after it is deployed; a specific human user may fulfill several different roles. As shown in Figure 1-1, UML use case diagrams always represent an actor using a "stick person" icon. Each oval represents an individual use case that describes (in a separate document and/or diagram) the activity flow required to achieve the goal of that use case. The use case diagram presents an outside view (from the perspective of the actors) of the system without specifying how that functionality is designed or implemented.

I use the term stakeholder rather than actor in this description because of its broader meaning. A stakeholder represents all roles that have an interest in the goals of a use case, not only those who directly participate in performing the use case activities. Thus, a Consumer stakeholder provides requirements for the design of portals and business processes, although he or she may not have a direct role in performing the steps within those use cases.

Future chapters will decompose the individual use cases into scenarios illustrated with class diagrams, object diagrams, sequence diagrams, and activity diagrams that specify how XML fits into the overall e-business solution. But first, I'll describe the typical characteristics of each stakeholder community in a bit more detail.

Consumer

A consumer may be either a business customer in the supply chain (for example, a buyer of components for a manufacturer) or an end-user retail customer. I use the term consumer rather than customer to emphasize that consumption occurs at many points along the e-business supply chain. In many current situations, this consumer represents a human user who is interacting with the product catalog service. However, we will increasingly see automated consumer agents, also called 'bots (a truncated form of the word robot), that fulfill the consumer role. A B2B consumer may be an automated order submission process triggered by the production schedule, or a retail consumer may be represented by an automated shopping agent that performs comparison shopping across sites.

The use case diagram shows the consumer as a stakeholder in both designing the business processes and in designing the portal's personalized views of the catalog. The business processes for business consumers are very different from those supporting retail customers. Therefore, the use case diagram includes two more specialized use cases that extend the general use case for designing business processes. During requirements analysis of a B2B service, representative consumers must be included, either in individual interviews or as part of larger focus groups. This input would be documented in text documents associated with the relevant use cases and in activity or sequence diagrams of the event flows.

The difference in requirements for human or 'bot consumers is unspecified in this high-level use case diagram. Their different requirements would need to be described in the individual use cases, or likely in additional sub-use cases that define the specialization. For example, both a human and an automated 'bot consumer require a personalized presentation of the catalog, but the means of personalization may be quite different. A human user would expect an HTML browser-based presentation that is tailored to his or her preferences and supports quick navigation without a lot of distracting, irrelevant information. On the other hand, a 'bot may expect a filtered subset of the catalog content that is tailored to its particular interests as a buyer. Of course, either of these kinds of personalization can be enabled by effective use of XML.

In the context of an XML application, consumers are both sources and recipients of communication. As a source, the consumer produces XML-based messages containing product catalog queries, requests for quotes, or orders. A consumer receives product catalog information encoded in XML documents, which is then presented in a Web browser or imported into the recipient's business system. Both scenarios are covered in later chapters.

Business Analyst

The use case diagram in Figure 1-1 depicts the business analyst as being central to implementing a successful e-business application. The analyst participates in each of the use cases, often as the integrative force and visionary for the overall system. The business analyst also collaborates with the content developer to create the domain model for the product catalog. Other stakeholders such as marketing, sales, and accounting would be included in a full requirements analysis. The analyst then works with the Web application specialist to design a dynamic, personalized Web site for this product catalog.

Figure 1-1 e-Business stakeholder interactions

The business analyst uses this knowledge of the product catalog model to collaborate with the system integration specialists. System integration requirements include adaptation of legacy systems into this new e-business application at multiple stages of both B2B and B2C business processes, plus integration with other external systems such as credit authorization and shipping.

The business analyst uses his or her knowledge of the overall e-business environment to oversee the requirements gathering process for an integrated solution. He or she must understand the process for using the UML in use case and activity modeling and be able to facilitate design of the UML static structure models that represent the XML vocabularies for system integration and Web presentation. This last modeling responsibility is the central topic of this book.

Web Application Specialist

A Catalog Exchange Service (CatX) is analyzed as a sample application in this book. For the CatX system, Web application specialists are most often concerned with the portal server component and portal requirements and design. But this is no simple matter! We are still very early in the maturity of XML processing directly within Web browsers. So for the next year or two, it's likely that much of the Web application processing for XML content will be executed within application servers. For example, Java servlets may process the XML catalog content, using an XSLT transformation to produce HTML content for the e-marketplace portal interface.

There are many sub-roles within the community of Web application specialists. Dynamic server pages have become the mainstays of Web development; for example, the J2EE standard for JavaServer Pages (JSP), Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP), or Allaire's ColdFusion. These technologies are often used to process XML content for Web browser delivery. However, XML is also introducing new technologies into the Web developer's toolkit. The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is now used in combination with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to transform and format XML documents for presentation on the Web. These topics are discussed in later chapters as part of designing XML portals.

Jim Conallen's book [Conallen, 2000] examines the broader details and alternative architectures for designing Web applications. I focus attention on the analysis and design of XML content within e-business solutions. Chapters 2 and 5 explore the use of XML by Web application specialists and introduce the benefits of UML from their perspective.

There are also many exciting new developments in wireless Internet access via mobile phones, PDAs, and other specialized Internet devices. In most cases, XML plays a significant, if not dominant, role in communicating information to and from these wireless devices. This new stakeholder role fits most closely with the skills of advanced Web application specialists but will also require development of new skills. I'll have more to say about this subject in later chapters, particularly regarding the use of XSLT to transform XML catalog content for presentation by the wireless world.

System Integration Specialist

System integration specialists play a very significant role in B2B e-commerce. It is almost a certainty that one will encounter several incompatible systems when integrating e-business processes across several organizations in a supply chain or marketplace. Prior to the availability of XML, the most common solutions were to attempt development of standard APIs using technologies like CORBA, RMI, or DCOM, or to adopt message-oriented middleware that supported reliable, asynchronous routing and delivery of data and events. These approaches proved difficult and expensive to implement in a widely distributed, heterogeneous environment using the public Internet for transport and did not have a good solution for formatting the large blocks of structured data contained in the message's body.

XML-enabled applications take a very different approach to integration. Instead of standardizing the APIs for system integration, the data format is standardized for text-based documents exchanged among participants. This is sometimes referred to as platform-independent data, which complements the Java programming language as platform-independent code for a complete, vendor-independent integration solution.

Use of XML for the content format allows these documents to be parsed and transformed with the use of standards-based tools that are very inexpensive, or often free. Thus, exporting and importing XML documents has become a common means for integrating otherwise incompatible systems. Many B2B integration solutions are now adopting a hybrid of message-oriented middleware, carrying XML structured content in the message body.

These are all primary tasks within the domain of system integration specialists. The use case diagram shown in Figure 1-1 includes one use case for integrating B2B transactions. Obviously, there are many details yet to be explored in these requirements. Chapters 3 and 4 introduce the use of UML for modeling business processes and the XML vocabularies required for B2B integration.

Content Developer

Within a large organization, hundreds of people may be involved in developing catalog content in the form of product specifications, price lists, white papers, frequently asked question (FAQ) lists, and so on. Since all of this content is potentially useful in a B2B service, the content developers must be involved in specification of the catalog vocabulary. These stakeholders will be consulted in upcoming chapters as we construct the UML models for the required behavior and structure of the XML documents.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020