Requirements Gathering
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?

Issues
What are all the sources of information
available?
 What is the goal? What is the end result
of gathering information about
requirements?

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?
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?
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?
Techniques
Interviews
 Questionnaires
 Observation
 Document / Procedure Analysis
 JAD
 Prototyping

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
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?
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

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?
Interviews

Designing the Interview Guide
1. 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
2. Types of Interview Questions
 Open-Ended
 No pre-specified answers
 Close-Ended
 Respondent is asked to choose from a set of specified
responses
Interviews

Preparing for the Interview
Confirm place/time
 Review areas to be covered
 Encourage interviewee to bring reference
materials

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

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.
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!

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

Interviewing Groups

Advantages



Disadvantages


More effective use of time
Enables people to hear opinions of others and to
agree or disagree
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
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
Questionnaires
Response rates to questionnaires are commonly low—
over 15% is sometimes considered very good.
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
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
Document/Procedure Analysis

Four types of useful documents

Written work procedures



Business form


Explicitly indicate data flow in or out of a system
Report


Describes how a job is performed
Includes data and information used and created in the
process of performing the job or task
Enables the analyst to work backwards from the report to
the data that generated it
Description of current information system
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

Joint Application Design
Joint Application Design

Participants
Session Leader
 Users
 Managers
 Sponsor
 Systems Analysts
 Scribe
 IS Staff

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

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?
Prototyping
Repetitive process
 Rudimentary version of system is built
 Replaces or augments SDLC
 Goal: to develop concrete specifications
for ultimate system

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
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

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
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
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

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
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