How to Identify Services

Case Study - Automated Movie Ticket System

This case study is used to illustrate how to identify services. We are commissioned to develop an Automated Movie Ticket System (AMTS) for Movie Brothers R Us. This system will allow the movie goers to browse for the current showings that are playing Users can also search based on show time, artist name or movie name. Users will buy tickets after selecting a movie and a show time, and after inserting any valid discount coupon.

This system will only accept credit card as the payment method. Students can insert their student discount coupons to receive a discount of 20%. Matinee shows are priced at a 40% discount in order to fill up the empty seats.

Once the card is authorized, the system prints the movie tickets with the show time, movie name, date & time and the theater screen number where the movie is played. Identify the services provided by this AMTS system.

Answer

browse(), search(), buy(), pay(), charge(), print()

This is the complete list of all services to be provided by the SuD (system under discussion).

Examining the verbs or verb phrases in the problem statement can help discover candidate services that must be provided by the system, but not all of them will relate directly to the system being designed. Candidate verbs or verb phrases that do not describe behavior required by the system are rejected. For example, “insert” is a verb, but it does not describe a behavior to be implemented by the system.

The “matinee” shows get a discount and this is actually a temporal event; the system does not need any input from the actor.

The verb “accept” is not a service to be provided by the system under development. Accepting a credit card is not the service to be provided, the desired service is to charge the credit card.

The verb “receive” is not a service to be provided by the system under development. Receiving a discount is not the service to be provided. Applying the discount is part of the pay service.

The verb “play” is not a service to be provided by the system under development. Playing the movie is the responsibility of the theater, not the system. It is out of scope.