Interviewing S.Vidya,AP/CSE

S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Overview Technique Good for Kind of data Plus Minus Interviews Exploring issues Some quantitative but mostly qualitative data Interviewer can guide interviewee. Encourages contact between developers and users Time consuming. Artificial environment may intimidate interviewee S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Define interviewing? Interviewing is a simple and direct technique. Context-free questions can help achieve bias-free interviews. Then, it may be appropriate to search for undiscovered requirements by exploring solutions. S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Context Free Questions These questions focus us to listen before attempting to describe the solutions. Eg: Who is the user? Who is the customer? Are their needs different? S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Context Free Questions Context free questions are questions that can be used regardless of the project under consideration. They are general questions about the nature of the project and the environment in which the final product will be used. Context free questions make sense at several stages of an interview. S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Solutions - context questions Search for the undiscovered requirements Providing solutions to appropriate problems-problems being solved In addition provides insights of the problem Different views of the problem S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Tips for successful Interview Prepare appropriate questions and review the questions before interview Before interview research the background of the Stakeholders and Company Don’t bore the person being interviewed with the questions Jot down the answers in your notebook during interview Refer the template during the interview S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Template Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5: Establishing the customer or user profile Part 2: Assessing the Problem Part 3: Understanding the user Environment Part 4: Recap for Understanding Part 5: The analyst’s input on the customers problem S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Template Part 6: Part 7: Part 8: Part 9: Part 10: Part 11: Assessing your solution Part 7: Assessing the opportunity Part 8: Assessing the reliability , performance and support needs Part 9: Other requirements Part 10: Wrap up Part 11: The analyst’s summary S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming To invent new way of doing things or when much is unknown When there are few or too many ideas Early on in a project particularly when: uncertain There is little expertise for the type of applications Innovation is important (e.g., novel system) Two main activities: The Storm: Generating as many ideas as possible (quantity, not quality) – wild is good!(brainstroming ) The Calm: Filtering out of ideas (combine, clarify, prioritize, improve…) to keep the best one(s) – may require some voting strategy(idea reduction) Roles: scribe, moderator,participants S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming – Objectives Hear ideas from everyone, especially unconventional ideas Keep the tone informal and non-judgemental Keep the number of participants “reasonable“ – if too many, consider a “playoff “-type filtering and invite back the most creative to multiple sessions Encourage creativity Choose good, provocative(challenging) project name. Choose good, provocative problem statement Get a room without distractions, but with good acoustics(audiability), whiteboards, coloured pens, provide coffee/donuts/pizza/beer S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming – Roles Scribe Moderator/Leader Write down all ideas (may also contribute) May ask clarifying questions during first phase but without criticizing Moderator/Leader Cannot be the scribe leadership role S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming – Participants Virtually any stakeholder, e.g. Developers Domain experts End-users Clients ... “Ideas-people” – a company may have a special team of people Chair or participate in brainstorming sessions Not necessarily further involved with the project S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Brainstorming – The Storm Goal is to generate as many ideas as possible Quantity, not quality, is the goal at this stage Look to combine or vary ideas already suggested No criticism or debate is permitted – do not want to inhibit participants Let your imagination soar Mutate and combine ideas S.Vidya,AP/CSE

Idea reduction Brainstorming idea- generation Phase Pruning Ideas Grouping Ideas Defining features Prioritizing ideas S.Vidya,AP/CSE