1.2.6 Describe appropriate techniques for gathering the information needed to arrive at a workable solution.
1.2.5 Describe methods of obtaining requirements from stakeholders.
There needs to be a clear understanding of what the problem is for a new system. This is obtained through data collection involving all stakeholders.
Without thorough data collection, the problem cannot be identified correctly, leading to a poor decision.
To define a problem, the following questions should be considered:
What kind of output should be produced?
Where will the input data come from and how will it be entered and validated?
Should computers be used at all?
Should standard software packages be used? If so, how much customization is desirable?
Who will have responsibility for the input, processing and output of the system?
Appropriate techniques for gathering information to formulate a workable solution to a problem involves examining the current systems. Examining current systems entails
detailed examination and analysis of its functions and procedures
studying the business and system documentations
the analysis of competitive factors
identifying their benefits and vulnerabilities
identifying successful attributes
taking consideration the breakthroughs the products introduced
the design features that the users and stakeholders accepted.
The first phase of analysis is termed “fact-finding”. The ways of investigating an existing system are to:
Interviews: In-depth fact finding from different stakeholders.
Questionnaires: A larger process of data collection from a wide range of stakeholders yet is less flexible than interviews.
Existing documents: Examines documentation of the current system.
Literature search: For existing solutions--it compares the system requirements and functionality with other pre-built (turn-key) systems.
Observation: People working with the existing system--examines the functionality and sees how end users interact with the system.
Interview
more detailed data ca be gathered compared to a questionnaire
interesting topics can be pursued
time consuming
not easy to classify or quantify data
costly
Questionnaire
many people can be reached quickly
results can be analyzed with numerical methods
people may not respond
questions cannot be clarified as they can be in an interview
may gather biased and untruthful answers
Study of existing system documentation
the data required to be input and the outputs produced can be identified
the documents may not tell the whole truth or story without the people that use them
Literature search (i.e. looking at 3rd party systems
may save work if the problem has been solved efficiently somewhere else.
time consuming
not easy to classify or quantify data
costly
Observation
may be able to find out things not apparent from interview or questionnaire
questions are unbiased
time consuming to carry out
the observer can subtly alter the process