02 Requirements Determination

7/31/2019 02 Requirements Determination

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Chapter 4:

Requirements Determination


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Key Ideas

Goal of the analysis phase:

Truly understand the requirements of the new

system

Develop a system that addresses them -- or decide

a new system isnt needed.

The line between systems analysis and

systems design is very blurry


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Key Ideas

The first challenge is finding the right people

to participate.

The second challenge is collecting and

integrating the information

Requirements determination a step

performed to expand the system request

high-level statement of business requirements

in a more precise list


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Requirements


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What is a Requirement

Analysis Phase: Business Requirement

Statement of what the system must do

Focus on what the system must do, not how to do it

There are 2 kinds of requirements

Functional

Nonfunctional

Design Phase: System requirement

Designers perspective


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Functional Requirement

Defines the functions the system must carryout

Specifies the process that must be performed

Specifies the information a process needs tocontain

Examples:

Must search for inventory Must perform these calculations

Must produce a specific report


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Cont Functional RequirementFunctional

Requirement

Description Examples

Process-oriented A process the system

must perform;

a process the system

must do

The system must allow registered to review

their own order history for the past three

years

The system must check incoming orders for

inventory availability The system should allow students to view a

course schedule while registering for classes

Information-

oriented

Information the

system must contain

The system must retain customer order

history for three years The system must include real-time inventory

levels at all warehouses

The system must include budgeted and actual

sales and expense amounts for current year

and three previous years


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Nonfunctional Requirements

Deals with how the system behaves

Operational Physical/technical environment

Performance Speed, capacity and reliabilityof the system

Security Who can use the system; who has

authorized access Cultural & Political Company policies, legal

issues


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Cont. Nonfunctional ReqtsNonfunctional

Requirement

Examples

Operational The system can run on handheld devices

The system should be able to integrate with the existing inventory system

The system should be able to work on any Web browser

Performance Any interaction between the user and the system should not exceed 2

seconds

The system downloads new status parameters within 5 minutes of change The system should be available for use 24/7

The system supports 300 simultaneous users from 9-11 AM; 150

simultaneous users at all times

Security Only direct managers can see personnel records of staff

Customer can see their order history only during business hours The system includes all available safeguards from viruses, worm, Trojan

Cultural and

Political

The system should be able to distinguish between US currency and

currency from other nations

Company policy is to buy computers only from Dell

Country managers are permitted to authorize customer interfaces within

units Personal information is protected in compliance with Data Protection Act


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Requirements Definition

Report that lists the functional and

nonfunctional requirements

All requirements must be traceable back to

business requirements

Purpose: provide the information needed by

the other deliverables in the analysis phase

Purpose: define the scope of the system


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THE ANALYSIS PROCESS


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Analysis Across Areas

Analysis of the IS system is:

A business task

An IT task

Need to balance expertise of users and

analysts


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The SDLC Process


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Three Steps of the Analysis Phase

Understanding the As-Is system

Identifying improvement opportunities

Developing the To-Be system concept


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Understanding the As-Is system

To-Be derived from As-Is

Cant focus just on what users want, need to

understand what they need

Cant focus just on dry analysis

need to listen to users experience


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Identifying improvement opportunities

Need business and technology skills

Business skills

Improvements in business processes

improve what we do

Technology skills

improve how we do it


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Developing the To-Be system concept

Starts out as a fuzzy set of possible improvementideas

Refined into a viable system concept Analysis ends with a system proposal

Proposal presented to approval committee in theform of a system walk-through


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Systems Proposal Outline

1. Table of Contents2. Executive Summary

A summary of all the essential information in the

proposal so that a busy executive can read it quicklyand decide what parts of the plant to read in more

depth

3. System Request

4. Work plan

The original work plan, revised after having completed

the analysis phase


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Systems Proposal Outline

5. Feasibility AnalysisA revised feasibility analysis, using the information

from the analysis phase

6. Requirements Definition

A list of the functional and nonfunctional business

requirements for the system

7. Behavioral and structural models (Use Case,

Data Model, Process Model

8. Appendices: survey results, interviews, industry

reports, potential design issues, etc.


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1st challenge of Info Gathering

Finding the right people to participate


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2nd challenge of Info Gathering

Deciding how to gather the information

Five techniques:1. Interviews

2. Joint Application Design (JAD)3. Questionnaires

4. Document Analysis

5. Observation


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1. INTERVIEWS


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Interviews

Most commonly used technique

Very natural

If you need to know something, you ask someone

There are 5 basic steps to interviewing


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Interviews -- Five Basic Steps

1. Selecting interviewees

2. Designing interview questions

3.

Preparing for the interview4. Conducting the interview

5. Post-interview follow-up


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1. Selecting Interviewees

Need an interview schedule

list all people to be interviewed

when each will be interviewed

for what purpose they will be interviewed

The list may be informal or it may be part ofthe Analysis Plan

List is based on info. needed


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1. Selecting Interviewees

Good to get different perspectives

Managers

Users

Ideally, all key stakeholders

Select people for political reasons

Interviewing is iterative List often grows by 50% to 75 %


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2. Designing Questions

Don't ask for information that can be obtained

elsewhere

Want to show interviewee respect

Will get better information anyway


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Types of Questions Examples

Closed-Ended Questions * How many telephone

orders are received per day?

* How do customers place orders?* What additional information

would you like the new system

to provide?

Open-Ended Questions * What do you think about thecurrent system?

* What are some of the problemsyou face on a daily basis?

* How do you decide what types ofmarketing campaign to run?

Probing Questions * Why?* Can you give me an example?* Can you explain that in a bit

more detail?


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Closed-Ended Questions

Requires a specific answer

Often multiple choice

Good for specific, precise info. not "are there a lot of requests?"

but "how many requests are there?"

Analyst is control Doesn't uncover "why"


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Open-Ended Questions

Leave room for elaboration

Gives interviewee more control

Yields more rich, deep info


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Probing Questions

Follow-up questions

For clarification

Encouraged to expand answer Show your listening and interested


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No one type of question is best

Initially use unstructured interviews to

determine As-Is system (open-ended

questions)

As the analyst gains knowledge, structured

interviews will be used (closed-ended

questions)


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Unstructured interview

Broad, roughly defined information

Structured interview

More specific information


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Interviewing Strategies

How

can order

processing be

improved?

How can we reduce the

number of times that customers

return ordered items?

How can we reduce the number oferrors in order processing (e.g., shipping

the wrong products)?

Top-down

Bottom-up

High-level:

Very general

Medium-level:

Moderately specific

Low-level:Very specific


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3. Preparing for the Interview

Prepare for the interview in the same way you would

for a presentation

Prepare general interview plan

List of question

Anticipated answers and follow-ups

Segues between related topics

Confirm interviewee's area of knowledge Don't ask questions that can't be answered

Set priorities in case of time shortage


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3. Preparing for the Interview

Structured Interviews with closed-ended

questions take longer

Don't try to "wing it"

will need follow-up interviews

user's don't like you to waste their time


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4. Conducting the Interview

Appear professional and unbiased

Build rapport (and trust) with interviewee

Record all information

Check on organizational policy regarding tape recording Be sure you understand all issues and terms

Separate facts from opinions

Give interviewee time to ask questions

Be sure to thank the interviewee End on time


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4. Conducting the Interview

Practical Tips

Dont worry, be happy

Pay attention

Summarize key points

Be succinct

Be honest

Watch body language


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5. Post-Interview Follow-Up

Prepare interview notes

Prepare interview report within 48 hours

Get buy-in from interviewee

Look for gaps and new questions

Interview Report


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Interview Report


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2. JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN

(JAD)


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JAD Key Ideas

Allows project managers, users, and

developers to work together

May reduce scope creep by 50%

Avoids requirements being too specific or too

vague

J i A li i D i (JAD)


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Joint Application Design (JAD)

Important Roles

Facilitator a person who sets the meeting

agenda and guides the discussion

Scribe assist the facilitator by recording

notes, making copies, etc

J i A li i D i (JAD)


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Joint Application Design (JAD)

Setting

U-Shaped seating

Away from distractions

Whiteboard/flip chart

Prototyping tools

e-JAD


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JAD Meeting Room

JPEG Figure 5-5 Goes Here


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The JAD Session

Include 10 to 20 users

Tend to last 5 to 10 days over a three week period

Prepare questions as with interviews

Formal agenda and groundrules

Facilitator activities

Stay neutral

Keep session on track

Help with technical terms and jargon

Record group input

Help resolve issues

Post-session follow-up


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3. QUESTIONNAIRESa set of written questions for obtaining

information from individuals

used when there is a large number of peopleconducted for use outside of the organization

like customers or vendors


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Questionnaire Steps

Selecting participants

Using samples of the population

Designing the questionnaire

More important than interview questions

Prioritize questions to grab attention

Distinguish between

Fact-oriented questions (specific answers)

Opinion questions (agree disagree scale)

Test the questionnaire on colleagues


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Questionnaire Steps

Administering the questionnaire Need to get good response rate

Explain its importance & how it will be used

Give expected response date Give it out in person

Follow up on late returns

Have supervisors follow up

Promise to report results

Questionnaire follow-up

Send results to participants


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4. Document Analysis


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Document Analysis

Provides clues about the "formal" existing As-Issystem

Typical documents

Forms

Reports

Policy manuals

Look for user additions to forms

Look for unused form elements

Do document analysis before interviews


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5. Observationthe act of watching processes being

performed


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Observation

Users/managers often dont remember everything they

do

Validates info gathered in other ways

Behaviors change when people are watched

Keep low profile, dont change the process

Careful not to ignore periodic activities

Weekly Monthly Annual

Selecting the Appropriate


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Selecting the AppropriateTechniques

Intervie

w

JAD Question-

naires

Document

Analysis

Observation

Type of

information

As-is,

improves

, to-be

As-is,

improves, to-

be

As-is,

improves

As-is As-is

Depth of info High High Medium Low Low

Breadth of info Low Medium High High Low

Info integration Low High Low Low Low

User involvement Medium High Low Low Low

Cost Medium Low-medium Low Low Low-medium

02 Requirements Determination

Documents