1. Requirements Gathering

2. Contemplative Questions
What techniques are available for gathering information about requirements?
Which technique is best? When is each appropriate to use?
What are the problems of bias? From where can bias come?

3. Issues What are all the sources of information available?
What is the goal? What is the end result of gathering information about requirements?

4. Sources Users Reports Forms Procedures
Is it “better” to utilize more than one of the above?
How do we define “better”?
What is the inherent tradeoff here?

5. What characteristics should analysts possess?
Impertinence
Question everything
Impartiality
Find the best organizational solution
Relaxation of constraints
Attention to detail
Reframing
View the organization in new ways
Are these attributes important? Why or why not?
What do analysts really do?

6. Deliverables Information collected from users
Existing documents and files
Computer-based information
Understanding of organizational components
Business objective
Information needs
Rules of data processing
Key events
In and of themselves, these deliverables are not important. What do they become? What is the bigger picture here?

7. Techniques Interviews Questionnaires Observation
Document / Procedure Analysis
JAD
Prototyping

8. Exercise
Rate each of the previous techniques based on these criteria (high, medium or low):
Degree of participation with user
Information "richness" (depth)
Breadth of information (scope)
Cost (Analysts' Time)
Cost (Users’ Time)
Ability to integrate information
User involvement w/ system design

9. Interviews -- Five Basic Steps
Selecting Interviewees
Designing the Interview Guide
Preparing for the Interview
Conducting the Interview
Post-Interview Follow-up
Each of these steps is ripe with opportunities for injecting bias.
Is bias a bad thing? Why or why not?
Which step takes the longest?

10. Interviews Selecting Interviewees Same guidelines as questionnaires
Should be representative of all users
Recall the effects of bias
Types of samples
Convenient
Random sample
Purposeful sample
Stratified sample
Convenient: sample those people that are convenient, i.e. you have easy access
Random: every nth person on a list, or random number generator
Purposeful: those users that meet certain criteria
Stratified: a sample obtained by the process of dividing a population into categories representing distinctive characteristics and then selecting a random sample from each category.
Purposeful and stratified are essentially the same thing, except stratified is a random sample of distinct groups, whereas purposeful might include all people in one specific group.

11. Interviews Designing the Interview Guide Sample Interview Guide
Figure 7-2
For whose benefit are interview guides?
Is it worthwhile to construct them?
What are the benefits?
What about bias?
Convenient: sample those people that are convenient, i.e. you have easy access
Random: every nth person on a list, or random number generator
Purposeful: those users that meet certain criteria
Stratified: a sample obtained by the process of dividing a population into categories representing distinctive characteristics and then selecting a random sample from each category.
Purposeful and stratified are essentially the same thing, except stratified is a random sample of distinct groups, whereas purposeful might include all people in one specific group.

12. Interviews Designing the Interview Guide
Overall Questioning Strategies
General area, narrowing to specific topic (preferred)
Tell me about CTI site, then Courses, then Course Information, then enrollment numbers
Specific topic, moving to General
Enrollment numbers on Course Info page to CTI site in general
Types of Interview Questions
Open-Ended
No pre-specified answers
Close-Ended
Respondent is asked to choose from a set of specified responses

13. Interviews Preparing for the Interview Confirm place/time
Review areas to be covered
Encourage interviewee to bring reference materials

14. Interviews Conducting the Interview
Gather facts, opinions and speculations
Avoid bias when phrasing questions, e.g. phrasing in ways that imply a wrong or right answer
Never take sides on an issue
Tape record with individual and organizational permission

15. Interviews Conducting the Interview
Assume tape recording will not work, which means you must simultaneously
Follow the interview guide, and
Listen very carefully to what is being said, and
Observe body language and emotions, and
Separate facts from opinions, and
Take notes, and
Plan the next question/flow of the interview
THIS IS VERY DIFFICULT TO DO CORRECTLY AND MUST BE PRACTICED.

16. Interviews Conducting the Interview--practical tips
Don’t worry, be happy
Pay attention
Summarize key points
Be succinct and honest
Give interviewee time to ask questions
Be sure to thank the interviewee
End on time
And, don’t ask unnecessary questions!

17. Interviews Post Interview Consider asking for more time if necessary
Confirm major points identified with interviewee
Look for Gaps and New Questions
“If it isn’t in the field notes, it never happened.”
Type up notes within 24 hours (preferably immediately after the interview is over

18. Interviewing Groups Advantages Disadvantages Nominal Group Technique
More effective use of time
Enables people to hear opinions of others and to agree or disagree
Disadvantages
Difficulty in scheduling
Nominal Group Technique
Facilitated process to support idea generation by groups
Individuals work alone to generate ideas which are pooled under guidance of a trained facilitator

19. Questionnaires
A questionnaire is similar to a very structured interview
Many of the same guidelines apply
Choosing respondents
Should be representative of all users
Same types of samples
Convenient
Random sample
Purposeful sample
Stratified sample

20. Questionnaires Response rates to questionnaires are commonly low—
over 15% is sometimes considered very good.

21. Observation Directly Observing Users
Serves as a good method to supplement interviews
Often difficult to obtain unbiased data
People often work differently when being observed
Be cognizant of normal and abnormal conditions, e.g. entering an order vs. the end of quarter sales report

22. Document/Procedure Analysis
Great starting point
Gets analyst quickly up to speed with user jargon
Can create preliminary models, e.g. DFDs or ERDs
Types of information to be discovered:
Problems with existing system
Opportunity to meet new need
Organizational direction
Names of key individuals
Values of organization
Special information processing circumstances
Reasons for current system design
Rules for processing data

23. Document/Procedure Analysis
Four types of useful documents
Written work procedures
Describes how a job is performed
Includes data and information used and created in the process of performing the job or task
Business form
Explicitly indicate data flow in or out of a system
Report
Enables the analyst to work backwards from the report to the data that generated it
Description of current information system

24. Joint Application Design
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Brings together key users, managers and systems analysts
Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from key people
Conducted off-site

25. Joint Application Design

26. Joint Application Design
Participants
Session Leader
Users
Managers
Sponsor
Systems Analysts
Scribe
IS Staff

27. Joint Application Design
Supporting JAD with GSS
Group support systems (GSS) can be used to enable more participation by group members in JAD
Members type their answers into the computer
All members of the group see what other members have been typing

28. Joint Application Design
End Result
Documentation detailing existing system
Consensus on features of proposed system
CASE Tools During JAD
Upper CASE tools are used
Enables analysts to enter system models directly into CASE during the JAD session
Screen designs and prototyping can be done during JAD and shown to users
What is the apparent drawback with JAD?

29. Prototyping Repetitive process Rudimentary version of system is built
Replaces or augments SDLC
Goal: to develop concrete specifications for ultimate system

30. Prototyping Quickly converts requirements to working version of system
Once the user sees requirements converted to system, will ask for modifications or will generate additional requests
Is prototyping useful in any of these cases?
User requests are not clear
Few users are involved in the system
Designs are complex and require concrete form
History of communication problems between analysts and users
Tools are readily available to build prototype

31. Prototyping Drawbacks Tendency to avoid formal documentation
Difficult to adapt to more general user audience
Sharing data with other systems is often not considered
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) checks are often bypassed

32. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Changes to the underlying Business Process (BP) can vary from project to project
Minor changes to process (BP Automation)
Moderate changes (BP Improvement)
Major (BP Reengineering)
BPR is the search for and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services
Some common BPR Goals
Reorganize complete flow of data in major sections of an organization
Eliminate unnecessary steps completely
Combine steps, or
Become more responsive to future change

33. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Identification of processes to reengineer
Key business processes
Set of activities designed to produce specific output for a particular customer or market
Focused on customers and outcome
Same techniques are used as were used for requirements determination

34. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Identify specific activities that can be improved through BPR
Disruptive technologies
Technologies that enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes
See table 7-7

35. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

36. Summary
There are many techniques for gathering information about functional requirements
To minimize bias it is a good idea to use more than one technique
Consider the pros and cons of each
Theoretically you should gather information until saturation, i.e. you learn nothing new