- Assume that you want to develop a software system for AREI. The information you have about the system is described by the scenario below:

A Real Estate, Inc. (AREI), sells houses. People who want to sell their houses sign a contract with AREI and provide information on their house and their contact information. The house information includes the location, size, how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, desired price, a short description of their house. The seller information includes the name, phone, email, and mailing address. Such information is kept in a database by AREI, and a subset of the information (house information) is sent to the citywide multiple listing service used by all real estate agents. A seller can have two options to complete the contract. One option is to complete it and submit it online. The other option is to download it to his/her machine, complete it locally, and finally send it back to AREI via email.

AREI has a website showing all houses currently for sale. AREI works with two types of potential buyers. When working with a new potential buyer, the buyer completes a buyer information form including his/her name, phone, email, mailing address. The buyer can have three options to complete the form. The first option is to complete it and submit it online. The second option is to download the form to his/her machine, complete it locally, and finally send it back to AREI via email. The third option is to complete a paper-based form and submitted it to AREI.

Some buyers have an interest in one specific house. In this case, AREI prints information from its database, which the real estate agent uses to help show the house to the buyer (a process beyond the scope of the system to be modeled). Other buyers seek AREIs advice in finding a house that meets their needs. In this case, the buyer provides a short description of the desired houses including the location, size, how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, and desired price. The AREI real estate agents use such information to search AREIs database and the multiple listing service for houses that meet their needs. The results of these searches are printed and used to help the real estate agent show houses to the buyer.

Based on the information you collect from AREI, they require the new system should be:

Questions

(1) What system architecture (server-based, client-based, client-server, client-server tiers) will you recommend to AREI? Why?

(2) Create an interface for the system used for when working with a customer who has an interest in one specific house. Note that, this is an exercise, so you can draw it by hand.

(3) List at least four non-requirements that can be applied to decide the architecture of the system