HUMERA Polytechnic College

Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

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LO 2: Gather data through formal and informal processes

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INTRODUCTION Learning Guide # 1

This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following content
coverage and topics –

This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page.
Specifically, upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to –
 conduct information gathering workshops and interviews to gather data
 review reports and other data sources for relevant business information
 confirm business-critical factors relating to current and future directions of the organisation with
stakeholders
 analyse group and individual responses to clearly define business priorities
 .

Learning Activities

1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.

2. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1” in pages 3-6.
3. Accomplish the “Self-check” in pages 7.
4. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Information Sheet 2”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 1.
5. Read the information written in the “Information Sheet 2” in pages 8-11.
6. Accomplish the “Self-check” in page 12.
7. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “Lap Test”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity # 2.
8. Do the “LAP test” on page 13 (if you are ready) and show your output to your teacher. Your teacher
will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your teacher shall
advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to Learning Guide 7.

 Your teacher will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory, your
teacher shall advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to the next topic.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 1 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Information Sheet 1
Defining the problem/opportunity
Defining the problem/opportunity
The very first stage in requirements determination is the identification of the problem or opportunity. Once this
is established, you will need to gather information to understand the problem and any constraints that may limit
the solution. The next section briefly discusses problems or opportunities within the context of system
development.

Problem / Opportunity statements

In order to implement data–gathering techniques, you will need to identify one of the following:
 the problem that has to be solved
 the opportunity that has to be realised.
Once the problem or opportunity has been identified, it should be documented. This can then be included in a
Business Requirements Report under the heading ‘Problem Statement’ or ‘Opportunity Statement’.
 Problem Statements may use key words like cannot, will not and unable to.
 Opportunity Statements may use key words like would like to, leverage and evolve toward.
Both problem and opportunity statements should include the organisation’s name and a brief outline of the
problem / opportunity.
The following is an example of a Problem Statement:
The XXX Company cannot efficiently update records to their database.
The following is an example of an Opportunity Statement:
The XXX Company would like to increase sales through an e–commerce website.
The problem or opportunity statement is usually ascertained from business owners or project sponsors. It is a
high–level statement that concisely captures the problem or opportunity. Details associated with the problem or
opportunity are documented in the functional requirements. These are sometimes called the business
requirements.

Activity 1
To practice developing a problem statement, complete Activity 1 – Problem statements in the Activities section
of the Topic menu.

Goal setting

Questions should be used to achieve well–defined goals. Without goals, an analyst may lose focus and waste
time. Without goals, incomplete data may be gathered.
The first task in developing questions is to determine what facts and/or opinions must be collected and from
whom you should collect them. Your objectives should be based on the stated or perceived problems or
Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 2 of 14
1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
opportunities for the business. Problem and Opportunity Statements have already been discussed above.
Examples of questioning goals include the following:
 identifying the processes associated with completing a sale
 identifying the computing resources of an organisation
 identifying questions most often asked by customers (FAQs)
 identifying the client’s expectation for a system (eg. what is the reason for developing a website?)
 identifying current process that may be automated with a new system.
Before commencing an interview, workshop or developing a questionnaire, you must define the goals that you
want to achieve.

Low and high–level questions

The purpose of questioning is to elicit data or information that enables you to understand a problem,
requirement or possible solution from the respondent’s point of view. The response may be a fact, or it may be
an opinion. An analyst may ask questions which require the respondents to use thinking skills. Benjamin Bloom
(1956) developed a system for organising and categorising thinking skills in a hierarchical order from lower to
higher level, with the higher levels including all of the cognitive skills from the lower levels. The categorisation
is often referred to as ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy’.
Listed below are the levels of the taxonomy (categories):

Image: This pyramid shows the levels of taxonomy. From level 1 at the bottom to level 6 at the top they are Knowledge,
Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Figure 1: levels of the taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy has its foundation in educational assessment; however, the concepts are relevant for
eliciting information for business requirements and system designs. Over the duration of a development project,
you will need to ask many questions to ascertain information in order to proceed with the project. You may use
different questioning techniques in different situations and through different media. If you are conducting a
workshop, for example, it would be appropriate to use the higher level questions of Analysis, Synthesis, and
Evaluation. Interviews may incorporate questions at all levels. Questionnaires typically involve questions at the
lower levels of Knowledge and Comprehension.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 3 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
It is not essential that an analyst be able to classify each question at a specific level. Bloom’s Taxonomy can be
used as a tool that helps the analysts focus their questions on well–defined goals. Another way to examine
questions is described in the next section.

Activity 2
To learn more about Bloom’s Taxonomy, complete Activity 2 – Bloom’s taxonomy in the Activities section of
the Topic menu.

Open and Closed Questions

In addition to asking questions at various levels of the taxonomy, an analyst might consider whether they are
asking closed or open questions. There is some debate over what defines an open or closed question.
Generally a closed question is one in which there are a limited number of answers, most of which will usually
be categorised by the analyst. In addition, the answers to closed questions are usually one word or a short
phrase. In its simplest form the answer to a closed question may be limited to “yes” or “no”.
An example of a closed question might be the following:
“Do you put a job number on the work request form”
An interviewer who uses this method of questioning will only get their own opinion confirmed and may not get
any new or relevant information at all. Such a style of questioning may also be very frustrating for the
interviewee, who may never get the chance to elaborate on what they think is important.
An open question is one to which there are many answers, most of which will not be anticipated by the analyst.
An example of an open question might be the following:
“Tell me what happens when the work request form comes in?”
or even better
“Tell me what you do about work requests.”
It could well be that the work request form described might represent only a fraction of the processing done or
might be completely out of date, superseded by new procedures devised by the workers to tackle problems.
It is always advisable, at some point - often near the end of an interview - to simply ask the ultimate open
question:
“Now, have we missed anything?” or “Is there anything else you would like to say?”
There are also some disadvantages to open questions, which could include the following:
 trying to summarise the data into a concise form may be difficult
 it takes a lot longer to collect information
 ambiguities need to be recognised and expanded upon
 open questions require more psychological effort on behalf of the respondent, and the respondent may
answer in a haphazard manner.
Note: Both open and closed questions may be used at any level of the taxonomy.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 4 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
Activity 3
To practice identifying open and closed questions, complete Activity 3 – Open and closed questions in the
Activities section of the Topic menu.

Bias, Sensitivity and Plasticity

Bias

From time to time, lobby groups bias questions in order to achieve a desired result. An example of an
intentionally biased question may be the following:
“Are you in favour of educational institutions requiring that all lecturers join a union, thus raising
educational costs?”
In this theoretical question, the information gatherer is not interested in getting an unbiased opinion; the
question is loaded with non–neutral wording.

Sensitivity

The wording in a question may unduly influence responses. In the following questions, it is clear that political
sensitivity can influence the results!

Table 1: Political sensitivity

‘Do you think the US was right or wrong in Wrong 36%

sending American troops to stop the Right 55%
Communist Invasion of South Korea ?’
(Opinion Research Centre, January Don’t Know 9%
1951)
‘Do you think the US made a mistake in Mistake 49%
deciding to defend Korea, or not?’ (Gallup, Not a Mistake 38%
January 1951)
Don’t Know 13%

Plasticity

Plasticity is the degree to which questions may be affected by the context and by previous questions asked.
Many questions will be answered very differently by the same person according to the context of the questions,
including where they are placed amongst other questions. This happens to some extent because the things which
have gone before put us in a particular frame of mind or mental state which has an effect on how we perceive
the question. Schuman and Presser (1981) asked people the following two questions:

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 5 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
Table 2: Schuman and Presser’s questions

Order Question Result 1 Result 2

A Do you think a Communist country like Russia 82% Yes 64% Yes
should let American newspaper reporters come in
and send back to America the news as they see it?
B Do you think the United States should let 75% Yes 55% Yes
Communist newspaper reporters from other
countries come in and send back to their papers
the news as they see it?

When the questions were ordered A–B, Result 1 was obtained. However, when the question order was B–A,
Result 2 was obtained.
In the process of developing questions and interviewing people, ensure that your terminology is not emotive or
directional and be aware of the context in which your questions are set as this could well influence the answers
you receive.
For a light–hearted view of bias and leading questions, read the following abstract from the BBC TV series
“Yes Prime Minister” (25 KB 2828_reading01.doc).
Remember: The purpose of questioning is to elicit data or information that enables you to understand a
problem or requirement from the respondent’s point of view. The response may be a fact, or it may be an
opinion. Questioning should be used purposefully to achieve well–defined goals. When a question is asked, the
respondent engages low or high-level thinking skills in order to answer the question.

Activity 4
To reinforce your understanding of question sensitivity, complete Activity 4 – Questioning sensitivity in the
Activities section of the Topic menu.

Implement questions
One method of gathering information to identify functional requirements and constraints is by implementing a
questionnaire.
There are many software programs and techniques that can be used to create questionnaires. The activities in the
next sections demonstrate some simple techniques for implementing questionnaires.

MS Word questionnaire

Using Microsoft Office Suite and an email system you can implement a survey and analyse the respondents’
data without re–keying the respondents’ responses. In this demonstration, you will develop questionnaires in
MS Word, distribute them through an email system, then import the returning data into an MS Excel
spreadsheet for analysis. Instructions and flash animation have been provided to assist your understanding. The
guide has been based on Microsoft Office 2000 suite; you may need to adapt the guide to earlier or later
versions of Microsoft Office.

Creating the questionnaire

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 6 of 14
1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
Click here to view how to create a questionnaire (1 KB create.htm). Click here to view the transcript (56KB
2828_reading03.doc). The steps are listed below:
1. Open MS Word
2. Insert your questions
3. From the View select Toolbars menu > Open the “forms toolbar”
4. Insert an appropriate form field
5. Right click and modify properties as required
6. Lock the form to enable the form fields
7. Close the Forms toolbar

Distributing the questionnaire

Click here to view how to distribute a questionnaire (1 KB route.htm). Click here to view the transcript (56KB
2828_reading04.doc).The steps are listed below:
Note: A routing slip routes a document to an email address when the document is closed by the respondent.
With the questionnaire document open:
1. From the File dropdown list select Send to >
2. Select routing recipient
3. Click address
4. Select the email account that you want the document to return to
5. Click to
6. Click OK
7. Click Add slip
Note: some organisational email systems may not support routing or have chosen not to enable routing. Routing
requires automated access to email systems. This is a feature that has been exploited by recent viruses.

Save returned data

Click here to view how to save returned data (1 KB save.htm). Click here to view the transcript (56KB
2828_reading05.doc).These steps are listed below:
When the document is returned, you may choose to save data from the forms only. With a returned
questionnaire open do the following:
1. From the File dropdown list select Save as >
2. Tools >
3. General Options >
4. Check – Save data only for forms.
5. Change the document name and destination

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 7 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
6. A comma delimited.txt file will be saved
7. Go back and uncheck the “Save data only for forms” box

Importing data into Excel Spreadsheets

Click here to view how to import data into Excel spreadsheets (1 KB import_datab.htm). Click here to view the
transcript (56KB 2828_reading06.doc).These steps are listed below:
1. Open MS Excel
2. Open the saved .txt file – you will be prompted by a wizard
3. Step 1 – select delimited
4. Step 2 – select comma
5. Step 3 – view the data and click Finish to close the wizard.
6. Repeat actions 1–5 for each reply; then merge all responses into one spreadsheet
Note: if a respondent has placed a comma within their response, this will also be saved in the .txt file. The result
will be a misalignment of data in spreadsheets. Before saving data via the “Save data only for forms”, you may
choose to unlock the form and use the Find and Replace function of MS word to replace “,” with “_”.
Note: you should always trial a survey before distributing it!
Click here to see a copy of the Word Questionnaire (30 KB 2828_reading02.doc).

Functional requirements
The very first stage in requirements determination is the identification of the problem or opportunity. Once this
is established, you will need to gather information to understand the problem and any constraints that exist that
may limit the solution.
Once the problem has been identified, the next step is to do the following:
 Understand the problem, including the cause and effect
 Understand any constraints that may limit the solution.
Defining the functional requirements requires a significant proportion of information gathering, then an analysis
of the information gathered. Whitten, Bentley & Dittman (2001) define functional requirements as:
“A functional requirement is a function or feature that must be included in an information system in order
to satisfy the business need and be acceptable to the users.”
Functional Requirements are actions, therefore a verb(s) should be included in the statement. In addition,
functional requirements can be either mandatory or desirable. The use of Must or May will identify the strength
of the requirement. Functional requirements may become the Acceptance Criteria at the end of the project - that
is, your project success is measured on the attainment of the Functional Requirements.
Functional Requirements (and possibly non–functional requirements or constraints) should be included in a
Business Requirements Report under an appropriate heading.
Here are some examples of possible mandatory and desirable functional requirements. Note the use of must or
may in each statement!
Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 8 of 14
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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
 The system must associate non–stock purchases of raw materials to a specified customer order.
 The system must associate design work as well as production work to customer special orders.
 The system may track the completion status of customer special orders.
 The system must provide a users’ guide for products.
 The system must capture customer details online.
 The system may have password protection for a members’ only section.
In the above functional requirements the word “system” can be replaced by a more meaningful descriptive
word. Here are some examples:
 The website may have password protection for a members only section.
 The database must retain customer details.

Non–Functional requirements
Whitten et. al. also define non–functional requirements:
“A non–functional requirement is a description of the features, characteristics, and attributes of the system as
well as any constraints that may limit the boundaries of the proposed solution”
Some authors use the term “constraints” to identify non–functional requirements.
Note: Non–functional requirements are less important to the Business Requirements report – but highly
important to the Technical Requirements report. It is important to understand the difference between functional
and non–functional requirements.

Table 3: Non–functional requirements can be classified by their requirement type as in the following table

Requirement type Explanation

Performance Performance requirements represent the performance the system is required to exhibit
to meet the needs of users.
What is the maximum download time for web pages?
What is the acceptable throughput rate?
What is the required response time?
Information Information requirements represent the information that is pertinent to the users in
terms of content, timeliness, accuracy and format.
What are the necessary inputs and outputs? When must they happen?
Where is the required data to be stored?
How current must the information be?
What are the interfaces to the external systems?
Economy Economy requirements represent the need for the system to reduce costs or increase
profits.
What are the areas of the system where costs may be reduced?
How much cost should be reduced or profits should be increased?

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1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
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What are the budgetary limits?
What is the timetable for development?
Control (and Security) Control requirements represent the environment in which the system must operate, as
well as the type and degree of security that must be provided.
Must access to the system or information be controlled?
What are the privacy requirements?
Does the criticality of the data necessitate the need for special handling (backups, off–
site storage, etc) of the data?
Efficiency Efficiency requirements represent the system’s ability to produce outputs with
minimal waste.
Are there duplicate steps in the process that must be eliminated?
Are there ways to reduce waste in the way the system uses its resources?
Service Service requirements represent needs in order for the system to be reliable, flexible
and expandable.
Who will use the system and where are they located?
Will there be different types of users?
What are the appropriate human factors?
What training devices and training materials are to be included in the system?
What training devices and training materials are to be developed and maintained
separately from the system, such as stand–alone computer–based training (CBT)
programs or databases?
What are the reliability/availability requirements?
How should the system be packaged and distributed?
What documentation is required?
Source: Whitten, J., Bentley, L., Dittman, K. (2001). System Analysis and Design Methods, Sydney, McGraw–Hill Irwin. Page 216

Non–functional requirements are often associated with the technical requirements of a system – therefore the
non–functional requirements may be part of the Technical Requirements Report rather than the Business
Requirements Report. Your organisation or client will often specify the format and content of the required
report.
In this section, you have looked at functional requirements which should appear in the Business Requirements
Report. Functional requirements are sometimes known as business requirements, and non–functional
requirements are sometimes known as constraints. Constraints may limit the project or solution.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 10 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Self-Check 1 Written Test

Name:____________________ Date:_________________
Instruction: Answer all the questions listed below, if you have some clarifications- feel free to ask your teacher.

Please ask your trainer for the questionnaire for this Self-Check.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 11 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Operation Sheet 1 Problem statements

Activity 1 – Problem statements

Consider that you have been given the task of interviewing a member of an organisation in order to identify the
business problem or opportunity.
You have reviewed the information given to you, and you have found there is not enough information to
complete the Business Requirements Report for your client “RTO Institute”.
You have requested an interview with the Finance Officer and have asked several questions.
View the transcript (35 KB 2828_activity1_pop01.doc)
Question: What do you think the problem statement would be?
Feedback
Possible Problem Statement
RTO Institute cannot record the purchase price of PCs, and it is unable to identify where PCs are presently
located.
There is a significant amount of additional information gained in the interview. Much of this additional
information relates to the “functional requirements” for the system.
Remember: The problem statement should be clear, concise, unambiguous and should include the company’s
name.

Activity 2 – Bloom’s taxonomy

Search the Internet for information on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Find THREE key words or phrases which will assist
in the development of questions for each of the following categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application,
Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.
When you are searching the Internet, you will notice that many of the key words and phrases relate to education
and learning; be sure to select key words or phrases that elicit information from the respondent, rather than
assess the respondent.
Hint: The following words may be helpful in your search “Bloom’s Taxonomy” and “questions” and
“keywords”

Activity 3 – Open and closed questions

The following quiz is intended to test your comprehension of open and closed questions. Complete the quiz on
Open and closed questions (3 KB quiz_2828_activity01.htm).

Activity 4 – Questioning sensitivity

This self–check question is intended to help you understand questioning sensitivity and context.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 12 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT
 HUMERA Polytechnic College
Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development
The wording in a question may unduly influence responses. In the following questions political sensitivity influences the
results:

‘Do you think the US was right or wrong in Wrong 36%

sending American troops to stop the Right 55%
Communist Invasion of South Korea ?’
(Opinion Research Centre, January Don’t Know 9%
1951)
‘Do you think the US made a mistake in Mistake 49%
deciding to defend Korea, or not?’ (Gallup, Not a Mistake 38%
January 1951)
Don’t Know 13%
Which two words in the first question influenced political sensitivity and produced a higher affirmative result?
Feedback
Communist Invasion

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 13 of 14

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development

Lap Test Practical Demonstration

Name: _____________________________ Date: ________________

Time started: ________________________ Time finished: ________________

Instructions: You are required to perform the following individually with the presence of your
teacher.

 Please ask your trainer for the instructions for this lap test.

 Your teacher will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If

unsatisfactory, your trainer shall advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory, you
can proceed to the next topic.

Learning Guide Date: 05-2013 Page 14 of 14

1st Revision Author: IT DEPARTMENT