1. Chapter 7 Determining System Requirements
Analysis Phase
Chapter 7 Determining System Requirements

2. SDLC: Analysis phase Input: Output: Purpose: Process:
Accepted project with baseline project plan and Work of statement
Output:
System requirement & best alternatives to design the system
Output of phase 3 = Input of phase 4
Purpose:
How to determine requirements for the potential system?
How to structure the generated requirement?
How to select the best alternative design strategy?
Process:
Requirement determination
Requirement structuring
Participants & roles
Team of system analysts + end users

3. Objectives
Describe traditional & modern methods to determine system requirements (SR)
Describe guideline for conducting interviews & to design questionnaire during requirement determination
Explain the advantages of observing workers and analysing existing business documents to determine SR
Describe modern method support requirement determination (JAD, prototyping)
Point out to rradical methods for requirement determination (BPR)

4. Analysis of current organisation
Data needed to support job
(definition, volume, size)
Information needed
by people
People involved
Business process
Rules that govern how data
are handled and processed
Activities, steps
& sequence
of activities
Key events affecting
data value
When, how & by whom
data are moved, transformed
& stored
Objectives that
drives what & how
work is done

5. Determining System Requirements Methods
Traditional methods :
Interviews
Survey via questionnaires
Direct observation of working people
Study business documents
Modern methods
Joint Application Design
Group Support System (GDSS)
Case tools
Prototyping
Radical methods
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

6. Traditional methods : Interviews
Open-ended question
is suitable to probe information which you cannot anticipate (in advance) all responses
E.g. Impact of Euro on (Gulf Countries)
Close-open question
Provide a range of answers from which the interviewee may choose
E.g. business intelligence practices

7. Traditional methods : Guideline for interview
Think careful about the subject you want to investigate
Set appointment
Prepare questions
Plan time for questions (check if you have enough time to complete the interview)
With either open or closed questions, do not phrase a question in a way that implies a right or wrong answer
Refer to the book for more information
Listen carefully to your interviewee to what he is being said
Thanks your interviewee and translate the interview in written document within 48 hours
Be careful during the interview and not set expectation about the new system or replacement system unless you are sure these features will be part of the delivery system
Identify variety of perspectives from the interview

8. Traditional methods : Group interviews
Catch up important people is frustrating (e.g. high managers)
Group interview overcome the problem of performing several separate interviews
Group interview is very hard to schedule
Group interview may be supported by technologies

9. Traditional methods : Questionnaire
It includes
Structured questions
More questions than in interviews
Open and closed questions
Advantages
Let people to recall information
Is less time consuming: less time to complete than do interview
Allow to gather more information from different people in a short time and simultaneously
Is less biased during interpretation
Filled in at the convenience of the interviewee since it has to be returned by specific date
Disadvantages
No sense & feeling of persons
Not always possible to evaluate accuracy of answers, e.g. questionnaire filled in by other person than the expected one (secretary)
Less rich than interview

10. Traditional methods : Guideline for questionnaires
Skills may be enhanced through experience
Questions must be clear in meaning & logical in sequence
Avoid ambiguity
Use short sentences
Make pre-test before reel use to check its relevance and usefulness
Use interviews first and questionnaire later for complex system in large organisation
Use questionnaire in small system and organisation

11. Traditional methods : Direct observation of users
It consists to observe people in their daily work to gather requirements instead of interviewing
Interviews and interviews have disadvantages: the first one don’t let people to answer and the second don’t let to recall
The memory (short & long term) is lacking efficiency
People are unable to answer some question, e.g. “how to interpret strategic information picked up from daily newspapers”

12. Traditional methods : Analysis of existing documents
Gather formal & informal system
Formal system is the official way a system works as described in organisational document, e.g. how to process complain of customer
Informal system # formal system; e.g. collecting strategic information
Gather information about current & future system (reports written by internal departments)
Analyse strategies & objectives of the organisation
Example of documents to be analysed when generating further requirements
Minutes of meeting
Annual reports
Business missions and strategy
Job description
Consultant reports
Training manuals
Flow chart & description of existing systems
Interviews of upper managers in newspapers

13. Modern methods: JAD
Collect system requirement simultaneously from key people & reviewing system design
Bring a structure to the requirement determination phase of analysis & to the review that occur as part of design
Reduce time required for analysis collected requirements
Sharing different views of involved people affected by the system
Better manage organisational resources through bringing several roles in JAD sessions

14. Roles involved in JAD Scribe Users Managers JAD leader IT staff
Write detailed minute of meeting
Use laptop
Enter data to case tool
Managers
Give organisational directions
Explain motivations for system
Explain organisation impact of system
Emphasis support for requirement determination
Emphasis collaboration during SR
Users
Explain their need
How they will use the system
JAD leader
Is a neutral person
Plan meetings
Set agenda
Facilitate discussions
Check completeness of the agenda
Don’t contribute to idea generation & opinions
Resolve conflicts & disagreements
Solicit all ideas
IT staff
Learn from discussion
Propose idea
Evaluate technical feasibility
Explain limitation of current system
Sponsor
Fund the project
Attend beginning and end
Of meetings
System analyst
Limit their participation
Learn from end-users & managers
Don’t run the sessions
Don’t dominate the meeting

15. Procedure of JAD
JAD sessions are held in special room “U” equipped with
JAD last from 1/2 day to one week and may consist of several sessions
Output is a document that contains the finding of the JAD (agreed requirements)
JAD could be supported by case tools such planning tools and diagramming tools
JAD could also be supported by Group Support System
But most traditional JAD rely on computer for the scribe
JAD suffers from problem that are similar to group meeting

16. Problems of group meeting
Group meeting don’t allow all participant to speak
Outcomes (output) reflect views of only those who participate
Suffer from the dominance of the leader, i.e. outcome is influenced by the leader
Some persons are afraid to speak out for fear they will be criticised
Most people are not willing to criticise or challenge their boss

17. How can group Support System (GSS) overcome previous problems
Advantages of GSS
GSS allow writing into computer rather than speaking
Guarantee of anonymity: comments typed into a GSS are anonymous
GSS is set up so that all members of the group can see what every member has been typing without showing the name “no one knows who typed what”
Consequences of GSS on group solving problems
Contribution of all participants during the JAD
Less dominance of leaders during discussion
Comments will be criticised but not the person himself
Important ideas are less likely to be missed
Poor ideas are more likely to be criticised
Disadvantages of GSS
Difficulties to solving conflict

18. Modern methods: Prototyping
Used to improve the JAD
Is a form of Rapid Application Design (RAD)
Serves as the working description of needs (requirements) instead of document
Could also replace traditional SDLC or enhance it
Allows to quickly convert basic requirements into a working system through limited functions

19. Prototyping is suitable for requirement determination when
User requirements are not clear or well understood,
E.g. the case of new system that support decision system
One or few users and other stakeholders, involved with the system, have different visions
E.g. different distribution of information power
Possible design are complex and require concrete form to fully evaluate the system
E.g.designing a Strategic Business Intelligence System
Communication problems have existed in the past between users
E.g. Designing a system by a cross functional team

20. Three disadvantages of prototyping
Trend to avoid writing a formal documentation of system requirements which make the system more difficult to develop
Prototyping can become very idiosyncratic to the initial users and difficult to diffuse or adapt to other potential users
Prototype are often built as stand-alone systems, thus ignoring issues of sharing data and interactions with other existing systems

21. Radical method Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
Why BPR?
Previous traditional and modern methods for system requirements are used to automate existing business processes by new systems,
Changing conditions such as pressure of competition, globalisation, rapid change of customers’ needs have lead to re-engineer existing processes
Reengineering is driven by improvement in speed, quality & customer satisfaction
Definition of BPR
It refers to the search for, and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in product and service
BPR is looking for new ways to perform current tasks

22. BPR and IT How to perform BPR? Consequence of BPR
E.g. of question: “if we were a new organisation, how would we accomplish this activity?”
Changing the way work is done (now) implies to change the way information is shared, stored & processed
New ways may be radically different from how things are done now
E.g. selling books on the web (Amazon.com)
Consequence of BPR
Radical increase in the quality of business processes can be achieved though creative application of IT
This is the purpose of System development Life Cycle (SDLC)

23. Output/deliverable requirement determination
Input
Interviews, questionnaire, JAD sessions, direct observations of working people
study business documents, Group Support System (GDSS), and BPR
Requirement
determination
Output
Rough (raw) data gathered