Requirement Analysis

• System Analysis and Design methods – Whitten

– Chapter 6

1
 Outlin
•
e
Define system requirements
• Understand the concept of requirements
management.
• Identify seven fact-finding techniques and
characterize the advantages and disadvantages of
each.
• Describe a fact-finding strategy that will make the
most of your time with end-users.

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 Introductio
•
n
Requirements discovery – the process and
techniques used by systems analysts to identify or
extract system problems and solution requirements
from the user community.

• System requirement – something that the

information system must do or a property that it
must have. Also called a business requirement.

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Reasons for Investigating the Current
System
• Functionality is required in new system
• Data must be migrated into new system
• Technical documentation provides details of
processing algorithms
• Defects of existing system must be avoided
• Parts of existing system may have to be kept
• We need to understand the work of the
users
• Baseline information about the existing system helps
set targets for the new one

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 Results of Incorrect
Requirements
• More cost.
• Late delivery.
• User dissatisfaction.
• High maintenance and expansion cost.
• Error prone system.
• Reputation of the IT team.

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 Relative Cost to Fix an
Error
Phase in which error discovered Cost Ratio
Requirements 1
Design 3-6
Coding 10
Development Testing 15-40
Acceptance Testing 30-70
Operation 40-1000

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 Criteria to Define System
Requirements
• Consistent – not conflicting.
• Complete – describes all possible input and responses.
• Feasible – can be fulfilled with available resources and
constraints.
• Required – truly needed for the purpose of the
system.
• Accurate – stated correctly.
• Traceable – directly map to the functions and features
of the system.
• Verifiable –can be demonstrated during testing.

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 The Process of Requirements
Discovery
• Problem discovery and analysis
• Requirements discovery
• Documenting and analyzing requirements
• Requirements management

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 Ishikawa Diagram (Problem Discovery and
Analysis)
• The Ishikawa diagram is a graphical tool used to
identify, explore, and depict problems and the causes
and effects of those problems. It is often referred to as
a cause-and-effect diagram or a fishbone diagram.

• They resemble a fish skeleton, with the "ribs" representing

the causes of an event and the final outcome appearing at
the head of the skeleton.

• The purpose of the Ishikawa diagram is to allow

management to determine which issues have to be
addressed in order to gain or avoid a particular event.

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Ishikawa Diagram

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Ishikawa Diagram Example

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Ishikawa Diagram Example

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 Requirements
Discovery
• Given an understanding of problems, the systems
analyst can start to define requirements.
• Fact-finding – the formal process of using
research, meetings, interviews, questionnaires,
sampling, and other techniques to collect
information about system problems, requirements,
and preferences. It is also called information
gathering or data collection.

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 Requirements
Management
• Requirements management - the process of
managing change to the requirements.
• Over the lifetime of the project it is very common for
new requirements to emerge and existing
requirements to change.
• Studies have shown that over the life of a project as
much as 50 percent or more of the requirements will
change before the system is put into production.

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

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 Background
Reading
• Aim is to understand the organization and its
business objectives
• Includes:
– reports
– organization charts
– policy manuals
– job descriptions
– documentation of existing systems

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 Background
Reading
• Advantages:
– helps to understand the organization before meeting the
people who work there
– helps to prepare for other types of fact finding
– documentation of existing system may help to identify
requirements for functionality of new system
• Disadvantages:
– written documents may be out of date or not match the way
the organization really operates
• Appropriate situations:
– analyst is not familiar with organization
– initial stages of fact finding

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

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 Sampling of Existing Documentation,
Forms, and Files
• Sampling – the process of collecting a
representative sample of documents, forms, and
records
– Organization chart
– Memos and other documents that describe the
problem
– Standard operating procedures for current system
– Completed forms
– Manual and computerized screens and reports
– Samples of databases
– Flowcharts and other system documentation
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 Sampling
Documents
• Advantages:
– for gathering quantitative data
– for finding out about error rates
• Disadvantages:
– not helpful if the system is going to change
dramatically
• Appropriate situations:
– always used to understand information
needs
– where large volumes of data are processed
– where error rates are high

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

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 Observation

• Observation – a fact-finding technique wherein

the systems analyst either participates in or watches
a person perform activities to learn about the
system.

• Work sampling - a fact-finding technique that

involves a large number of observations taken
at random intervals.

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 Observation
Guidelines
• Determine the who, what, where, when, why, and how of
the observation.
• Obtain permission from appropriate supervisors or
managers.
• Inform those who will be observed of the purpose of the
observation.
• Keep a low profile.
• Take notes during or immediately following the
observation.
• Review observation notes with appropriate
individuals.
• Don't interrupt the individuals at work.
• Don't focus heavily on trivial activities.
• Don't make assumptions.
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 Observation
• Advantages:
– first-hand experience of how the system operates
– high level of validity of the data can be achieved
– verifies information from other sources
– allows the collection of baseline data
• Disadvantages:
– people don’t like being observed and may behave
differently, distorting the findings
– requires training and skill
– logistical problems for the analyst with staff who work shifts or
travel long distances
ethical problems with personal data

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 Observation

• Appropriate situations:
– when quantitative data is required
– to verify information from other sources
– when conflicting information from other sources
needs to be resolved
– when a process needs to be understood from start to
finish

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

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 Questionnaires
• Questionnaire – a special-purpose document that
allows the analyst to collect information and opinions
from respondents.

• Free-format questionnaire – a questionnaire

designed to offer the respondent greater latitude in the
answer. A question is asked, and the respondent records
the answer in the space provided after the question.

• Fixed-format questionnaire – a questionnaire

containing questions that require selecting an answer
from predefined available responses.

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 Types of Fixed‐Format
•
Questions
Multiple-choice questions
• Rating questions
• Ranking questions
Rank the following transactions according to the amount of time
you spend processing them.
% new customer The implementation of quality discounts
orders would cause an increase in customer orders.
% order cancellations Strongly
% order modifications agree Agree
% payments No opinion Is the current accounts
Disagree receivable report that you
Strongly receive useful?
disagree Ye
s
No
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 Developing a
Questionnaire
1. Determine what facts and opinions must be
collected and from whom you should get them.
2. Based on the facts and opinions sought, determine
whether free- or fixed-format questions will produce
the best answers.
3. Write the questions.
4. Test the questions on a small sample of
respondents.
5. Duplicate and distribute the questionnaire.

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 Questionnair
e
• Advantages:
– economical way of gathering information from a large
number of people
– effective way of gathering information from people who are
geographically dispersed
– a well designed questionnaire can be analysed by computer
• Disadvantages:
– good questionnaires are difficult to design
– no automatic way of following up or probing more
deeply
– postal questionnaires suffer from low response
rates
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 Questionnair
e
• Appropriate situations:
– when views of large numbers of people need to be
obtained
– when staff of organization are geographically
dispersed
– for systems that will be used by the general public and
a profile of the users is required

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

32
 Interview
s
Interview - a fact-finding technique whereby the systems
analysts collect information from individuals through
face-to-face interaction.
– Can be used to:
• Find facts
• Verify facts
• Clarify facts
The personal interview is
• Generate enthusiasm generally recognized as the
• Get the end-user involved most important and most often
• Identify requirements used fact-finding technique.
• Solicit ideas and opinions

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 Types of Interviews and
Questions
• Unstructured interview – an interview that is conducted
with only a general goal or subject in mind and with few, if
any, specific questions. The interviewer counts on the
interviewee to provide a framework and direct the
conversation.

• Structured interview – an interview in which the

interviewer has a specific set of questions to ask of the
interviewee.

• Open-ended question – question that allows the

interviewee to respond in any way that seems appropriate.

• Closed-ended question – a question that restricts answers

to either specific choices or short, direct responses.
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 Procedure to Conduct an
Interview
1. Select Interviewees
– End users
– Learn about individual prior to the interview
2. Prepare for the Interview
– An interview guide is a checklist of specific questions
the interviewer will ask the interviewee.
3. Conduct the Interview
– Summarize the problem
– Offer an incentive for participation
– Ask the interviewee for assistance
4. Follow Up on the Interview
– Memo that summarizes the interview

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 Interviewing
• Advantages:
– personal contact allows the interviewer to respond
adaptively to what is said
– it is possible to probe in greater depth
– if the interviewee has little or nothing to say, the interview
can be terminated
• Disadvantages:
– can be time-consuming and costly
– notes must be written up or tapes transcribed after the
interview
– can be subject to bias
– if interviewees provide conflicting information this can be
difficult to resolve later

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 Interviewing

• Appropriate situations:
– most projects
– at the stage in fact finding when in-depth information
is required

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

38
 Discovery
Prototyping
• Discovery prototyping – the act of building a
small-scale, representative or working model of the
users’ requirements in order to discover or verify
those requirements.

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 Seven Fact‐Finding
Methods
• Background Research
• Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and
databases
• Observation of the work environment
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Prototyping
• Joint requirements planning (JRP)

40
 Joint Requirements
Planning
• Joint requirements planning (JRP) – a process whereby
highly structured group meetings are conducted for the
purpose of analyzing problems and defining requirements.
– JRP is a subset of a more comprehensive joint application
development or JAD technique that encompasses the entire systems
development process.
• JRP Participants-
– Sponsor
– Facilitator
– Users and Managers
– Scribes
– IT Staff

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 Steps to Plan a JRP
Session
1. Selecting a location
– Away from workplace when possible
– Requires several rooms
– Equipped with tables, chairs, whiteboard, overhead projectors
– Needed computer equipment
2. Selecting the participants
– Each needs release from regular duties
3. Preparing the agenda
– Briefing documentation
– Agenda distributed before each session

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Typical room layout for JRP
session

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 Brainstormin
g
• Sometimes, one of the goals of a JRP session is
to generate possible ideas to solve a problem.
– Brainstorming is a common approach that is used
for this purpose.

• Brainstorming – a technique for generating

ideas by encouraging participants to offer as
many ideas as possible in a short period of time
without any analysis until all the ideas have been
exhausted.

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 Brainstorming
Guidelines
• Isolate the appropriate people in a place that will be free
from distractions and interruptions.
• Make sure everyone understands the purpose of the
meeting.
• Appoint one person to record ideas.
• Remind everyone of brainstorming rules.
• Within a specified time period, team members call out
their ideas as quickly as they can think of them.
• After the group has run out of ideas and all ideas have
been recorded, then and only then should the ideas be
analyzed and evaluated.
• Refine, combine, and improve the ideas that were
generated earlier.

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 Benefits of
JRP
• JRP actively involves users and management in the
development project (encouraging them to take
“ownership” in the project).
• JRP reduces the amount of time required to develop
systems.
• When JRP incorporates prototyping as a means for
confirming requirements and obtaining design
approvals, the benefits of prototyping are realized

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 A Complete Fact‐Finding
Strategy
1. Learn from existing documents, forms, reports,
and files.
2. If appropriate, observe the system in action.
3. Given all the facts that already collected, design
and distribute questionnaires to clear up
things that aren’t fully understood.
4. Conduct interviews (or group work sessions).
5. (Optional). Build discovery prototypes for any
functional requirements that are not understood
or for requirements that need to be validated.
6. Follow up to verify facts.

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The PIECES Problem‐Solving
Framework
P the need to improve performance
I the need to improve information (and
data)
E the need to improve economics,
control costs, or increase profits
C the need to improve control or security
E the need to improve efficiency of
people and processes
S the need to improve service to customers,
suppliers, partners, employees, etc.

55 48
 Referenc
e
• System Analysis and Design methods
– Whitten
– Chapter 6

49
Thank You
&
Questions

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