Chapter 5:
Determining Object-Oriented
Systems Requirements
Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and
Design
Joey F. George, Dinesh Batra,
Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey A. Hoffer
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Chapter Objectives

After studying this chapter you should
be able to:
– Describe options for designing and
conducting interviews.
– Design, distribute and analyze
questionnaires.
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Chapter Objectives
(Continued)

After studying this chapter you should
be able to:
– Compare direct observation and business
document analysis
– Participate in and help plan Joint
Application Design (JAD) sessions.
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Chapter Objectives
(Continued)

After studying this chapter you should
be able to:
– Use prototyping during requirements
determination.
– Select the appropriate methods to
determine requirements.
– Understand requirements determination
for Internet applications.
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Characteristics for Successful
Requirements Determination

Impertinence
 Impartiality
 Relaxing of constraints
 Attention to details
 Reframing
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How to Determine Requirements
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What Is Interviewing?

Dialogue with user or manager to obtain
their requirements

Two forms:
– Open-ended – conversational, questions with
no specific answers in mind
– Closed-ended – structured, questions with
limited range of possible answers
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How to Conduct Interviews
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Interview Guide
is a document for
developing,
planning, and
conducting an
interview.
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Each question in
an interview
guide can include
both verbal and
non-verbal
information.
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What Are Questionnaires?

A written set of questions, sometimes with
answers to select from, that is distributed to
a cross-section of stakeholders in order to
obtain system requirements
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Choosing Questionnaire
Respondents

Goal: obtain a representative sample of
stakeholders
 Methods:
– Convenience
– Random
– Purposeful
– Stratified
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Designing Questions

Avoid ambiguity, especially in closed-ended
questions
 Pretest questions before use
 Closed-ended questions: true/false, multiple
choice, rating, ranking
 Open-ended questions: for discovering
potential probing questions
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Interviews vs. Questionnaires
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Other Approaches

What is Observation?
– Watching users do their jobs
– Can provide more accurate information than
self-reporting (like questionnaires and
interviews)

What is Document Analysis?
– Review of existing business documents
– Can give a historical and “formal” view of
system requirements
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Observations vs. Document
Analysis
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Written work
procedure is a
business document
that formally
describes work
processes. Provides
useful information
regarding system
functionality and
logic.
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Business form is a
document that contains
useful information
regarding data
organizations and
possible screen layouts.
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Other Business Documents

Report
– Often contains pertinent summary information,
and possibly screen layout ideas

Existing system documentation
– Gives descriptions of use and inner workings of
current information system
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Joint Application Design (JAD)

Intensive group-oriented requirements
determination technique
 Team members meet in isolation for an
extended period of time
 Highly focused
 Resource intensive
 Started by IBM in 1970s
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JAD Team Members

Session leader
 Users
 Managers
 Sponsor
 Systems analysts
 Scribe
 IS staff
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coordinator
information source
information source
champion
listeners
recorder
listeners
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What Is Prototyping?

A repetitive process in which analysts and
users build a rudimentary version of an
information system based on user feedback

Repeated cycle: build, use, evaluate
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When to Use Prototyping

Prototyping is good when:
– Users are unclear about their requirements.
– The system affects a relatively small number of
users.
– Designs are complex.
– Communication between users and analysts
needs to be strengthened.
– Rapid application development tools are
available.
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Recap
 After
studying this chapter we learned
to:
– Design and conduct interviews
– Design and use questionnaires
– Use direct observation and business document
analysis
– Work in JAD sessions
– Use prototyping for requirements determination
– Apply requirements determination to a Web
application
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