Chapter 6 : Determining System Requirements

1. Chapter 6 : Determining System Requirements

3. Performing Requirements Determination • Gather information on what system should do from many sources • Users • Reports • Forms • Procedures

4. Performing Requirements Determination • Characteristics for gathering requirements • Impertinence • Question everything • Impartiality • Find the best organizational solution • Relaxation of constraints • Attention to detail • Reframing • View the organization in new ways

5. Performing Requirements Determination • Components of an organization you need to understand: • The business objectives that drive what and how work is done • The information people need to do their jobs • The data (definition, volume, size) handled within the organization to support the jobs • When, how, and by whom or what the data are moved, transformed, and stored

6. Performing Requirements Determination • The sequence and other dependencies among different data-handling activities • The rules governing how data are handled and processed • Policies and guidelines that describe the nature of the business and the market and environment in which it operates • Key events affecting data values and when these events occur

7. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Interviewing and Listening • Gather facts, opinions and speculations • Observe body language and emotions • Guidelines • Plan • Checklist • Appointment • Be neutral • Listen • Seek a diverse view

8. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements Steps in Interviewing : 1.Read Background Material 2.Establish interviewing objectives 3.Decide who to Interview 4.Prepare the Interviewee 5.Decide on Question types and Structure

9. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Interviewing (Continued) • Interview Questions • Open-Ended • No pre-specified answers • Close-Ended • Respondent is asked to choose from a set of specified responses • Additional Guidelines • Do not phrase questions in ways that imply a wrong or right answer • Listen very carefully to what is being said • Type up notes within 48 hours • Do not set expectations about the new system

10. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Type of Interview • Unstructured Interview • Structured Interview

11. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Questionnaires • More cost-effective than interviews • Choosing respondents • Should be representative of all users • Types of samples • Convenient • Random sample • Purposeful sample • Stratified sample

12. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • The Need for Sampling : • Containing Cost • Speeding up the data gathering • Improve Effectiveness • Reducing bias

13. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Questionnaires • Design • Mostly closed-ended questions • Can be administered easy • Vs. Interviews • Interviews cost more but yield more information • Questionnaires are more cost-effective

14. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements Questionnaires formats : 1.Should not have over load question 2.Use attractive method and allow ample white space 3.If use open end question must have enough space 4.If use choice answer choose write clear instruction

15. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements Questionnaires formats : 5.Design the question in questionnaire from the purpose 6.Use the consistency for design questionnaire approach 7.Organize questionnaire by order and categorize 8.Do not use the flexible question for the first of questionnaire

16. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements Type of Questionnaires 1.Free format : used open end question in this questionnaire 2.Fix format : used close end question in this questionnaire 2.1 Multiple choice 2.2 Rating question 2.3 Ranking question

17. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Interviewing Groups • Advantages • More effective use of time • Enables people to hear opinions of others and to agree or disagree • Disadvantages • Difficulty in scheduling

18. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements • Directly Observing Users • Serves as a good method to supplement interviews • Often difficult to obtain unbiased data • People often work differently when being observed • Type of Observing Methods • Observing by time • Observing by activity

19. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements Structured Observation of the environment • Office location • Desk position • Equipment such as file • Props such as pen ,pencil • Journal such as Newspaper • Lighting and color in room • Dress of Interviewee

20. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents • 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

21. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents • 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

22. Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents • Other two types of documents • Quantitative Document • Almost of data are number • Such as financial or accounting statement • Qualitative Document • Almost of data are text • Such as business’s policy Business vision

23. Example of A Work Procedure

24. A Blank Invoice (Business Form)

25. Financial Highlights Report

26. Modern Methods for Determining Requirements • Joint Application Design (JAD) • Brings together key users, managers and systems analysts • Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from key people • Conducted off-site

27. Joint Application Design (JAD) • Participants • Session Leader • Users • Managers • Sponsor • Systems Analysts • Scribe • IS Staff

29. Joint Application Design (JAD) • End Result • Documentation detailing existing system • 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

30. Joint Application Design (JAD) • 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

31. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) • Search for and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services • Goals • Reorganize complete flow of data in major sections of an organization • Eliminate unnecessary steps

32. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) • Goals (Continued) • Combine steps • Become more responsive to future change • 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

33. 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

34. Quiz !!!!!!!!!! What are the different things between Time observation and Activity observation??? Example for the open end question and close end question that use in questionnaires ????