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REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION CMDB Visualizer Feb 2016

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Elie Nassif
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77 views7 pages

REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION CMDB Visualizer Feb 2016

Uploaded by

Elie Nassif
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Requirements

Specification
Project [CMDB
Visualizer]

Revision History

Name Date Remarks Version


Elie Nassif, Vincent Pouillard, 05/01/2016 Initial Requirements 1.0
Daniel Oyebisi , Nicholas Pellissier Specification

Elie Nassif, Vincent Pouillard, 08/01/2016 Revision,Modification, 1.1


Daniel Oyebisi Correction
Elie Nassif, Vincent Pouillard, 28/01/2016 Modification, Addition 1.2
Daniel Oyebisi of graphs

© [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL


Table of Contents
Background information.............................................................................................................2
Vocabulary/abbreviations/conventions.......................................................................................2
Product overview........................................................................................................................2
Target market and users..............................................................................................................4
Detailed product description.......................................................................................................4
Content / Data..........................................................................................................................4
Software...................................................................................................................................5
Target platforms and configurations........................................................................................5
Performance.............................................................................................................................5
Testing and acceptance...............................................................................................................6
Delivery medium and installation...............................................................................................6
Processes and logistics................................................................................................................6
Training.......................................................................................................................................6
Schedule and milestones.............................................................................................................6
Risks, dependencies and other issues..........................................................................................7

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 1


Background information

The development and the applying of methodology ITIL in companies is growing. This
method gives advice to optimize the IT department. One of the advice is to store all CI in
a CMDB in order to have a global sight of all components.

A CMDB is a database that contains all the components in a network


The current CMDB is stored in an Excel file and it is impossible to have a graphical
representation with that.

In order to have a graphical representation, the user must use two of these softwares:
Microsoft Visio and GNS3.

One problem is that the user has to build the representation in both softwares and it
takes a lot of time. Another problem is that there is a need to navigate easily in the
network of CIs which is impossible with GNS3.

Vocabulary/abbreviations/conventions

➢ ITIL (Information Technology Information Library): It is a book collection that


gives advice to optimize the IT department in a company.
➢ CI (Configuration Item): It can be a device, an app, a server or a database.
➢ CMDB (Configuration Management Database): It contains all CIs and each relation
between them.
➢ GNS3 (Graphical Network Simulator 3): It is a software that allows the user to
simulate a network and all its components (server, switch, hub, terminal).

Product overview

This product will be a desktop software.

This product will take in entrance an excel file containing the CMDB.

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 2


The CI list will be on the left of the window. There will be a search engine with filter to
display only the wanted components.

In the properties tab, all the properties of the selected CI will be listed. There will be the
list of CIs that are related to the current CI.

In the graph tab, there will be a sophisticated graph viewer that will allow the user to
navigate from the current CI to its several children. The graph will be displayed like the
below picture.

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 3


The Export menu will allow the user to convert the CMDB to GNS3 file or Visio file and
thus, in order to make it automated.

Target market and users

The targeted users are those who use the CMDB method and want to clearly visualize all
elements in it.

All functions and features will be available to all users.

The target market will be IT departments that use the ITIL method.

Detailed product description

Content / Data

Our product will help the user visualize the relation between CI in a form of graph tree.
The content will only be lots of CI and relations between them.

Input data should be an Excel document. One document is expected. It will contain a list
of the different CI to manage and links between them.

The content is expected to be in English.

CIs are the main elements that will be treated by the application. A CI is an element that
contains more 70 properties describing it like: Name, Brand, Status, Owner, Version, etc.
The application will be able to handle thousands of CIs and their relation to each other at
the same time.

The software will provide a documentation on how to use it which will be available via the
“Help” menu.

The project is only a visualizer, therefore it can not be used to add, delete or update
data.

Software

The software is expecting an Excel document as an input. It will manage informations in


this document in order to create configuration file for these differents applications :
● GNS3
● Microsoft Visio
● Second Life (3D Visualization)
When loading these configuration files, the user is going to see the graphical
representation of the CMDB which was contained in the Excel file.
As the visualization is the key feature of this project, the softwares listed above are not
restrictive and other software like Neo4j may be used to get a better result on
visualization.

Must-have:
● Conversion of the Excel file as input into configuration files for external
applications
● Interface which gives the possibility to the user to select the Excel file and the
destination of the newly created configuration files
Nice-to-Have:
● Add to the interface the possibility to open directly the differents applications (Not
open these applications and import the configuration files)

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 4


● A graphical representation of raw data directly inside the application without the
need of exporting it.

An effort in the software design and documentation will be made to help and encourage
the community to develop custom plugins to handle more and more export formats.

Target platforms and configurations

The minimum hardware and software requirements needed are :

Requirements

Operating System Windows XP and above, Linux system based on Debian (Ubuntu)

CPU Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2 at 2.4 GHz

Memory 2 GB RAM

Hard Drive 1 GB of free space

Graphics Hardware DirectX 9.0c compatible video card. 3D Hardware Accelerator -


256MB of memory minimum

Performance

The software does not need to produce real-time data as the database only updates daily
or weekly. The main feature which is the export function may not take more than 10
minutes to complete depending on the chosen export format. All other functionalities will
be fluent at a human scale.

Testing and acceptance

The software will be tested against the information gathered from the business
requirements session. Based on the collected information we will test that:

1. Every CI along with its attributes are properly imported into the system from the
excel sheet.

2. After the import process, the relationship between one CI and another CI is
configured based on the relationship in the excel sheet.

We will first conduct an operational acceptance testing (OAT) to determine whether the
systems behaves and generates results as intended from point 1 & 2.
The next phase will be to conduct an operational health check (OHC) where end users
will try the system and verify the results for themselves.

Delivery medium and installation

The system will be downloadable from a website and also available on a CD-ROM through
an executable file.

Processes and logistics

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 5


In order to generate export files, the user has been to import a valid Excel file. If the
user inputs an invalid file, the user is prompted to import another file. Export files can
only be created after an Excel file had been validated and imported into the application.

Training

Training materials will be developed and attached with the software under the help Menu.
It will clearly describe how to navigate the system and use its functionalities. In addition
training videos will be presented.

Schedule and milestones

Risks, dependencies and other issues

Since the CMDB visualizer uses the file formats provided by other vendors, it does not
support future file formats provided by these vendors. This version of the CMDB
visualizer supports the import of the currently available Excel file formats and the export
to the current standard file formats of GNS3 and Microsoft Visio.

Project [CMDB Visualizer] Requirements Specification – © [Olivier Berthet] – CONFIDENTIAL – Page 6

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