Chap3 Determining System Requirements
Chap3 Determining System Requirements
4.1
Learning Objectives
Describe options for designing and
conducting interviews Discuss planning an interview Discuss using questionnaires to determine system requirements Explain advantages and disadvantages of observing workers and analyzing business documents to determine requirements
4.2
Learning Objectives
Learn about Joint Application Design
(JAD) and Prototyping Discuss appropriate methods to elicit system requests Explain Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) Examine requirements determination for Internet applications
4.3
4.4
Impertinence
Question everything
Impartiality
Find the best organizational solution
4.5
Information collected from users Existing documents and files Computer-based information Understanding of organizational components
Business objective Information needs
4.6
Gather facts, opinions and speculations Observe body language and emotions Guidelines
Plan
Checklist Appointment
Interview Questions
Open-Ended
Close-Ended
4.8
4.9
Design
Mostly closed-ended questions Can be administered over the phone or in
person
Vs. Interviews
Interviews cost more but yield more information Questionnaires are more cost-effective See table 4-4 for a complete comparison
4.10
Serves as a good method to supplement interviews Often difficult to obtain unbiased data
People often work differently when being
observed
4.11
Problems with existing system Opportunity to meet new need Organizational direction Names of key individuals Values of organization Special information processing circumstances Rules for processing data
4.12
Brings together key users, managers and systems analysts Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from key people Conducted off-site Repetitive process Rudimentary version of system is built Replaces or augments SDLC Goal: to develop concrete specifications for ultimate system
Prototyping
4.13
4.14
4.15
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 Most useful when:
4.16
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
4.17
4.18
Reorganize complete flow of data in major sections of an organization Eliminate unnecessary steps
Combine steps Become more responsive to future change 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
4.19
4.20
Technologies that enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes See table 4-6
Summary
Interviews
Open-ended and close-ended questions Preparation is key Must be carefully designed Can contain close-ended as well as openended questions
Questionnaires
4.21
Summary
Other means of gather requirements
Disruptive technologies
4.22