Information Information Gathering

Requirements Analysis • used to discover business information

 Information Gathering
details to define the information structure
 Methods for Information Gathering
 Review Existing Reports, Forms, and • helps systems analysts to establish the
Procedure Description
 Conduct Interviews and Discussion priorities of the information needs and
with Users further leads to opportunities that highlight
 Observe and Document Business Process key issues which may cross functional
 Distribute and Collect Questionnaires
 Conduct Joint Application Design Sessions
boundaries or may touch on policies or the
organization itself

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Information Gathering Information Gathering

• must be organized to ensure that nothing is • General steps conducted in information
overlooked and all system details are gathering:
eventually captured • Schedule initial visit to user site

• Gather and read background materials

• Establish data gathering objectives

• Determine what data gathering techniques to

use

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 Methods for Information
Information Gathering
Gathering
• Identify contact persons • Relationship between information gathering
• Schedule data gathering activities
and model building

• Assign to data gathering teams

• Identify deliverables

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Methods for Information Review Existing Reports, Forms,

Gathering and Procedure Description
• Review existing reports, forms, and
procedure description • Review of documentation helps identify
• Conduct interviews and discussion with business rules that may not come up in the
users interviews.
• Observe and document business processes • Written procedures help discover
• Distribute and collect questionnaires discrepancies and redundancies in the
• Conduct joint application design (JAD) business processes.
sessions

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 Review Existing Reports, Forms, Review Existing Reports, Forms,
and Procedure Description and Procedure Description
• Two sources of information for existing
• To make sure that assumptions and business procedures and forms:
rules derived from existing documentation • External to the organization—at industry-wide
are correct, the analysts should review them professional organizations and at other
companies
along with the users.
• Existing business documents and procedure
description within the organization
• it is a good way to get a preliminary understanding
of the processes
• it is in the interviews themselves

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Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users Discussions with Users

• Interviewing is a directed conversation with • To conduct an effective interview, a system

a specific purpose that uses a question-and- analyst need to organize in three areas:
answer format. • Prepare for the interview
• Conduct the interview
• Follow-up the interview

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 Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users Discussions with Users

• Prepare for the Interview • Question types:

• Open-Ended Questions
• Five major steps: • Please explain how your current inventory system works?
• Read the background material • What are the critical objectives of your department?
• Establish interviewing objectives • What are the data entry errors made in your department?
• Decide who to interview
• Prepare the interviewee
• Decide on question types and structure

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Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users Discussions with Users

• Advantages: • Disadvantages:
Put the interviewer at ease. The interviewer might be asking questions that
Allow the interviewer to pick up on the can result in too much irrelevant detail.
interviewee’s vocabulary. There is a possibility of losing control of the
Reveal avenues of further questioning that may interview.
have gone untapped. It may be misconstrued as unprepared on the
Make it more interesting for the interviewee. part of the interviewer.
Allow more spontaneity. It may give the impression that the interviewer
Make phrasing easier for the interviewer. is fishing for information.

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 Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users Discussions with Users
• Closed Questions
• How many times a week is the report updated? • Disadvantages:
• Who receives this input? Fail to obtain rich detail.
• Advantages: Miss main ideas for the preceding reason.
Save time. Fail to build rapport between interviewer and
Easy to compare interviews. interviewee.
Get to the point.
Keep control over the interview.
Cover lots of ground quickly.
Get to relevant data.

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Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users Discussions with Users

• Question structures: • Diamond-Shaped Structure

• entails beginning in a very specific way
• Pyramid Structure
• combines the strength of pyramid and funnel structures
• used if interviewee needs to warm up to the topic
• takes longer
• useful as an ending determination about the topic
• Funnel Structure
• interviewer takes a deductive approach
• provides an easy, non-threatening way to begin an
interview
• useful when interviewee feels emotional about the topic

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 Conduct Interviews and Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users Discussions with Users
• Conduct the Interview • Follow-up the Interview
• Dress appropriately • Follow-up is an important part of each
• Arrive on time interview.
• Limit the time of the interview • Information that was obtained should be
• Look for exception and error conditions absorbed, comprehended, and documented.
• Probe for details • Make a list of new questions based on areas
that need further elaboration or that are missing
• Take careful notes information.

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Observe and Document Business Observe and Document Business

Process Process
• Observing the business processes in action • Information gathered about business
will help analysts understand the business processes through interviewing and
functions. observing needs to be documented.
• Observing business processes can be done • An effective way to document this
from a quick walkthrough. information is through the use of diagrams.
• A quick walkthrough gives a general • A workflow is a sequence of processing
understanding of the layout of the office, steps that completely handles one business
the need for and use of computer transaction or customer request.
equipment, and the general workflow.

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 Observe and Document Business Observe and Document Business
Process Process

• Methodologies commonly used to model • An activity diagram is a workflow diagram

workflows include flowcharts, data flow that describes the various user (or system)
diagram, and activity diagram. activities, the person who does each
• Flowcharts and activity charts are activity, and the sequential flow of these
specifically designed to represent control activities.
flow among processing steps.

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Observe and Document Business Observe and Document Business

Process Process
• Basic Symbols Used in Activity Diagram • Example of Activity Diagram

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 Distribute and Collect Distribute and Collect
Questionnaires Questionnaires
• Guidelines whether use of questionnaires is
• Using questionnaires allows systems appropriate:
analysts to study attitudes, beliefs, behavior, • The people you need to question are widely
dispersed (different branches of the same
and characteristics of several key people in corporation).
the organization that may be affected by the
current and proposed systems. • A large number of people are involved in the
systems project, and it is meaningful to know
what proportion of a given group approves or
disapproves of a particular feature of the
proposed system.

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Distribute and Collect Distribute and Collect

Questionnaires Questionnaires
• Guidelines to use when choosing language
• You are doing an exploratory study and want to for questionnaires:
gauge overall opinion before the systems • Use the language of respondents whenever
project is given any specific direction. possible. Keep wording simple.
• You want to be certain that any problems with • Work at being specific rather than vague in
the current system are identified and addressed wording. Avoid overly specific questions as
in follow-up interview. well.
• Keep questions short.

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 Distribute and Collect Distribute and Collect
Questionnaires Questionnaires

• Do not patronize respondents by talking down • Ensure that questions are technically accurate
to them through low-level language choices. before including them.
• Avoid bias in wording. This also means • Use software to check whether the reading
avoiding objectionable questions. level is appropriate for the respondents.
• Target questions to the correct respondents
(that is, those who are capable of responding).
Do not assume too much knowledge.

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Conduct Joint Application Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions Design Sessions

• JAD is an alternative approach to • to improve the quality of the results of

interviewing users one-by-one. information requirements assessment

• to create more user identification with new

• The reasons for using JAD are: information systems as a result of the
• to cut the time (and the cost) required by participative processes
personal interviews

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 Conduct Joint Application Conduct Joint Application
Design Sessions Design Sessions

• Conditions that support the use of JAD: • Analysts forecast that the number of ideas
• User groups are restless and want something generated via one-on-one interviews will not be
new, not a standard solution to a typical as plentiful as the number of ideas possible
problem. from an extended group exercise.

• The organizational culture supports joint • Organizational workflow permits the absence
problem-solving behaviors among multiple of key personnel during a two-to-four-day
levels of employees. block of time.

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Conduct Joint Application Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions Design Sessions
• Advantages of using JAD over
• Participants involved in JAD sessions: interviewing:
• JAD Session Leader Time savings over traditional one-on-one
interviews
• Users
Rapid development possible via JAD
• Technical Staff
Possibility of improved ownership of the
• Project Team Members
information system
Creative development of designs

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 Conduct Joint Application Conduct Joint Application
Design Sessions Design Sessions

• Disadvantages of using JAD: The necessary organizational skills and

organization culture may not be sufficiently
Requires the commitment of a large block of
developed to enable the concerted effort
time from all participants
required to be productive in a JAD setting
If preparation for the JAD sessions is
inadequate in any regard or if the follow-up
report and documentation of specifications is
incomplete

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