Metadata requirements

Please note that ICA-AtoM is no longer actively supported by Artefactual Systems.
Visit https://www.accesstomemory.org for information about AtoM, the currently supported version.

Main Page > System requirements > Metadata requirements

Purpose

Metadata requirements identify the entities the system must track and the kinds of information about them it must capture in order to do the things specified by the functional requirements. The requirements provide parameters for designing the system.

Structure

Metadata requirements are organized hierarchically, with high-level requirements broken down into sub- and sub-sub-requirements. To facilitate cross-references and links, each requirement has been assigned an alpha-numeric code: the alpha prefix designates the type of requirement (MTD = mateadata requirement), the number establishes its position in the hierarchy. Seven main metadata requirements have been identified:

Information

Each metadata requirement includes some or all of the following information:

Requirement number	MTD-x.x.x (unique tracking number assigned to requirement.
Requirement name	Descriptive name assigned to requirement.
Requirement specification	Brief description of requirement: what data must the application be able to capture?
Source quotation	Links to standards or other documents: why must the applicable capture this data?
Associated functional requirements	Links to funcational requirements: what functionality requires the application to capture this data?
Associated quality requirements	What design and interface features must the application have to do capture this data well?
Associated technical requirements	Links to technical requirements: what system architecture, hardware / software configurations, and programming rules must the application implement to capture this data?
ICA-AtoM fields	List of fields in ICA-AtoM that store the required date (in the form table_name::field_name.
ICA-AtoM implementation	Brief description of how ICA-AtoM implements this metadata requirement.
Known issues	Brief indication of known problems or limitations in the current version of ICA-AtoM that should be addressed in future releases.
Use cases	Links to descriptions of user-end scenarios relating to the requirement and how they are handled in ICA-AtoM.
User Manual sections	Links to the User manual sections that provide step-by-step instructions for capturing this data.

Note that most of this detail will only be found at the lower-level requirements. Higher-level requirements will typically only include the requirement name, number, specification, and source quotation, with links to the lower-level sub-requirements.