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Chapter 6Determining System
Requirements
2011 by Prentice Hall: J.A.Hoffer et.al., Modern Systems Analysis & Design, 6th Edition 2/43
Content
Requirements determination
Data collection methods interview
observation & document analysis
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Prototype
Questionnaire
Explain how computing can support requirements
determination
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1. Performing Requirements Determination
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1.1 Process of Determining Requirements
Systems Analyst Characteristics for Successful
Requirements Determination
Impertinence: question everything
Impartiality: find best solution
Relaxing constraints: assume every thing is possible
Attention to details: find all facts
Reframing: new create process
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1.2 Deliverables and Outcomes
Deliverables for Requirements Determination
From interviews and observations - interview
transcripts, observation notes, meeting minutes
From existing written documents - mission and
strategy statements, business forms, procedure
manuals, job descriptions, training manuals, system
documentation, flowcharts
From computerized sources Joint Application
Design session results, CASE repositories, reportsfrom existing systems, displays and reports from
system prototype
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2. Traditional Methods for Determining
Requirements
Interviewing (individuals & groups)Observing workers
Studying business documents
Questionnaire *
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2.1 Interviewing and Listening
One of the primary ways analysts gather
information about an IS project Interview guide is a document for
developing, planning and conducting an
interview
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Guidelines for Effective Interviewing
Interview Guideline
Plan the interview
Prepare interviewee: appointment, priming questions
Prepare agenda, checklist, questions
Listen carefully and take notes (tape record if
permitted)
Review notes within that day.
Be neutral
Seek diverse views
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Interview Outline
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Choosing Interview Questions
Each question in an interview guide can
include verbal & non-verbal information
Open-ended questions: questions that have no pre-
specified answers
Closed-ended questions: questions that ask those
responding to choose from among a set of
specified responses
T/F
Multiple choice
Rating a response
Ranking items
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2.2 Interviewing Groups
Drawbacks to individual interviews
Contradictions and inconsistencies between
interviewees
Follow-up discussions are time consuming
New interviews may reveal new questions
that require additional interviews with those
interviewed earlier
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Interviewing Groups (Cont.)
Interview several key people together
AdvantagesMore effective use of time
Can hear agreements and disagreements at once
Opportunity for synergies
Disadvantages
More difficult to schedule than individualinterviews
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Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
A facilitated process that supports idea generationbygroups
Process Members come together as a group, but initially work
separately
Each person writes ideas
Facilitator reads ideas out loud, and they are written on ablackboard or flipchart
Group openly discusses the ideas for clarification
Ideas are prioritized, combined, selected, reduced
NGT exercise used to complement group meetings oras part of JAD effort
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2.3 Directly Observing Users
Direct Observation
Watching users do their jobs
Obtaining more firsthand and objective
measures of employee interaction with IS
(negative) Can cause people to change their
normal operating behaviorTime-consuming and limited time to
observe
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2.4 Analyzing Procedures and Other
Documents
Document Analysis
Review of existing business documents
Can give a historical and formal view of systemrequirements
Useful document: work procedure/ form /report
For an individual or work group
Describes how a particular job or task is performed Includes data and information used and created in
the process16/43
Types of information to be discovered
Problems with existing system
Opportunity to meet new needs
Organizational direction
Titles and names of key individuals
Values of organization
Special information processing circumstances
Reasons for current system design
Rules for processing data
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a)
User document:
a written workprocedure
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Analyzing Procedures and Other
Documents (Cont.)
Potential Problems with Procedure Documents
May involve duplication of effort
May have missing procedures
May be out of date
May contradict information obtained through
interviews
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Analyzing Procedures and Other
Documents (Cont.)
Formal Systems
the official way a system works as described inorganizational documentation (i.e. work
procedure)
Informal Systems
the way a system actually works (i.e. interviews,
observations)
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b)
User document:
a business form
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c)
User document:a report
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Comparison of Observation and Document Analysis
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3. Contemporary Methods for
Determining System Requirements
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Brings together key users, managers, and systems
analysts
Purpose: collect system requirementssimultaneously from key people
Conducted off-site
Group Support Systems
Facilitate sharing of ideas and voicing of opinionsabout system requirements
CASE/ Prototype24/43
3.1 Joint Application Design (JAD)
Intensive group-oriented requirements
determination technique
Team members meet in isolation for an
extended period of time
Highly focused
Resource intensive
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JAD (Cont.)
JAD Participants:
Session Leader: facilitates group process.Users: active, speaking participants
Managers: active, speaking participants
Sponsor: high-level champion, limited
participation.
Systems Analysts: should mostly listen.
Scribe: record session activities.
IS Staff: should mostly listen.
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JAD (Cont.)
End Result
Documentationdetailing
existing
system (AS-IS)
Features of
proposed
system (TO-BE)
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3.2 Upper CASE Tools during JAD
Used to analyze existing systems
Help discover requirements to meet changing
business conditions
Enables analysts to enter system models
directly into CASE during the JAD session
Screen designs andprototyping can be done
during JAD and shown to users
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3.3 Using Prototyping during Requirements
Determination
Iterative development process
Elementary working version of system is built
Quickly converts requirements to working version
of system
Refine understanding of system requirements
in concrete terms
Once the user sees requirements converted to
system, will ask for modifications or will generateadditional requests
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Using Prototyping During Requirements
Determination (Cont.)
Most useful when
User requests are not clear
Few users are involved in the system
Designs are complex and require concrete form
History of communication problemsbetween
analysts and users
Tools are readily available to build prototype
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Using Prototyping During Requirements
Determination (Cont.)
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
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4. Radical Methods for Determining
System Requirements
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Search for, and implementation of radical change
in business processes to achieve breakthrough
improvements in products and services
BPR Goals
Reorganize complete flow of data in major
sections of an organization
Eliminate unnecessary steps / Combine stepsBecome more responsive to future change
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4.1 Identifying Processes to Reengineer
Key business processes
Structured, measured set of activities designed to
produce specific output for a particular customer
or market
Focused on customers and outcome
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4.2 Disruptive Technologies
Technologies that enable thebreaking of long-
held business rules that inhibit organizations
from making radical business changes
Information technologies must be applied to
radically improve business processes
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Disruptive Technologies (Cont.)
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5. Requirements Determination using
Agile Methodologies
Continual user involvement
Replace traditional SDLC waterfall with iterative analyze
design code test cycle
Agile usage-centered design
Focuses on user goals, roles, and tasks
Planning Game from eXtreme programming
Based on eXtreme programming
Exploration, steering, commitment
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5.1 Continual User Involvement
FIGURE 6-11
The iterative analysisdesigncodetest
cycle
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5.2 Agile Usage-Centered Design: Steps
Gather a group of people: users, programmers, analysts,
testers, facilitator
Document complaints of current system
Determine important user roles
Determine, prioritize, and describe tasks for each user role
Group similar tasks into interaction contexts
Give description of each interaction context
Associate each interaction context with a user interface for
the system, andprototype the interaction context
Step through and modify the prototype
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5.3 Planning Game from eXtreme Programming
FIGURE 6-12
eXtreme Programmings Planning Game
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6 e-Commerce Applications: Determining
System Requirements
Determining system requirements for Pine
Valley furnitures Webstore
System layout and navigation characteristics
Webstore and site management system capabilities
Customer and inventory information
System prototype evolution
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Summary
Requirements Elicitation
Observing workers and business documents
Questionnaire
Interviews
Prototyping
Joint Application Design
Explain how computing can provide support forrequirements determination
Understand how requirements determinationtechniques apply to the development of e-Commerceapplications
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Questions & Answers
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Quiz
1 _________________________ is the search for,
and implementation of, radical change in business
processes to achieve breakthrough improvementsin products and services.
2 __________________ are questions in interviews
that have no pre-specified answers.
3 The structured, measured set of activities designed
to produce a specific output for a particularcustomer or market is called _________________
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Exercise
1 Describe traditional techniques for collecting
information during analysis. When might one
be better than another?2 What is JAD? How is it better than traditional
information gathering techniques? What is its
weaknesses?
3 Describe how prototyping can be used during
requirements determination. How is it better orworse than traditional methods?