The Analysis Phase

Objective:To study the current system, organization, and

problems to determine what changes need to be made in order to achieve the organization’s goals.

Thus, the focus of the analysis phase is the CURRENT situation, not the new system that will be implemented.

Steps in AnalysisRequirements gathering

• using interviews, observations, documents, etc. to learn about the customer’s business, their current systems, and its problems

Requirements structuring• using DFDs, ERDs, logic models, etc., to represent and

organize the information gathered

Generation of alternatives• based on the requirements, investigate possible changes

that would achieve the customer’s objectives

Inputs to Analysis

• Customer information – from interviews, observations, documents, etc.– information about goals, objectives, problems, work

processes, current systems, constraints, etc.

• Technical information– from previous experience, web searches, vendor

literature, previous education– information about what technology is available, what it

can do, how it works, and how much it costs

Output of Analysis

The Systems Proposal– summarizes all the information gathered and

structured during analysis– presents alternative solutions– compares solutions in terms of costs, benefits,

feasibility, ability to solve problems, etc.– provides all the information the customer needs to

make a decision– recommends one solution

Gathering requirements

When starting to gather information, you have to decide:– what information sources to consult– what information gathering methods to use

Choosing information sources

• Problem: too many information sources for the time and resources available

• Solution: sampling– Convenience - whoever shows up or responds– Purposive - each information source individually

selected– Random - left completely to chance– Stratified - randomly picked from specific

categories

Sample size

Heuristics:- make sure all functions are covered- make sure both ends of system are covered- try to get two sources for each piece of

information – triangulation

Information gathering methods

• Interviewing

• Questionnaires

• Observation

• Documents

Interviewing

• Focus on getting – opinions– feelings– goals– procedures (both formal and informal)

• not facts

Steps in interview preparation

- Read background material

- Establish objectives

- Decide who to interview

- Schedule

- Design interview guide

Interview Guide

Logistical info: record name, office#, date, time

Organization:

How long have you worked on [project]? At [company]?

Have you worked with any of the [project] members before on other projects?

Who on the [project] team do you interact with most?

To whom do you report?

To whom are you responsible for your progress on [project]?

Inspection process:

Who chose the inspectors?

How long did it take?

Why were those ones chosen in particular?

Which inspectors inspected what?

Who took care of scheduling?

Was it done via email or face-to-face?

How much time did it take?

What steps were involved in putting together the inspection package?

How much time did that take?

How are [project] inspections different from inspections in other [company] projects you’ve been on?

How was this inspection different from other [project] inspections you’ve been involved with?

Interview questions

• Open vs. closed

• Probes

• Pitfalls:– leading questions– double-barreled questions– judgmental questions

Recording of interviews

• Audiorecording

• Notetaking

• Scribing

Interviewing pointers

- give clues about the level of detail you want

- no more than 45-60 minutes

- end with “anything else I should know?”

- dispel any notion of the “right” answer

- feign ignorance

- let interviewee know next steps

- say Thank you!

Writing up the interview

ASAP!!!!

Questionnaires

• Most useful when you want an overall opinion from a wide variety of dispersed people

• Use to get the majority opinion

• Can be combined with interviews

Questionnaire questions• Open (qualitative)

– richer data– must be fairly specific to get comparable answers– not useful with a very large number of respondents

• Closed (quantitative)– easier to analyze– use when all possible responses can be anticipated and

are mutually exclusive• Appropriate terminology• Pilot use

Administering the questionnaire

• balance between your convenience and that of your subjects

• paper-based vs. electronic

• general availability vs. mail vs. personal delivery

• mandated vs. voluntary

Accuracy• Triangulation => sometimes you’ll get different

answers to the same question– different perspectives– actual practice different from policy– sometimes one source clearly more reliable

• Reconciling answers must be done sensitively– ask a third person– interview a group– observation

Observation

• When you need to learn:– what is actually done, as opposed to what is

described– what interactions are going on– what goes into decision-making

• Time sampling vs. event sampling

• Need both typical and atypical situations

• Very expensive

Observation methods

• Shadowing

• Participant observation

• Think-aloud protocols

• Prior ethnography

Documents

• Artifacts of paper-based system– data collection forms - blank and used– reports

• Procedure descriptions• System documentation• Policy handbooks• Archival documents

Joint Application Design (JAD)

• Method for doing requirements and UI design with users• Requires a 2-3 day meeting with users, analysts, senior people,

technical consultants, etc.• Useful when innovation is important and it’s feasible to get

everyone together• Benefits:

– gets requirements over quickly– user ownership– creativity

• Drawbacks: – takes a big commitment– dependent on administrative effectiveness– can be political

Prototyping

• used iteratively to:- clarify what a user has said they wanted- show a user what they’ve suggested- to compare different ways of implementing a user’s

suggestion

• pitfalls:- design can become too tied to one user’s wishes- user may be unwilling to give up the prototype- later concerns may impact interface design- prototyping may never end

Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary System Change

• SA&D is an evolutionary process- processes are changed in small ways- changes are based on current practice- analysis is of current processes

• revolutionary approach- Business Process Reengineering (BPR)- making radical changes without being inhibited by

current practice- motivated by:

- drastic changes in the environment- need to increase profits dramatically- innovative and creative managers