Software - Information gathering

1. NGUYỄN VĂN SANG
SKYPE SANG89VH
MAIL SANG89VH@GMAIL.COM
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/sang.nguyen.792197
ĐT 01656054323
Hà Nội , 25/03/2015

2. Information Gathering

3. Information Gathering
• Two methods for gathering information
– Interactive methods, which interact with
the users of the existing system
– Unobtrusive (passive) methods, which
observe aspects of the existing system

4. Information Gathering
– We assume that we are basing our system on
some existing set of activities and/or associated
information system(s)
• The existing activities could be automated,
manual, or (most likely) a mixture of the two
• Part of the objectives for our new system is to
improve on the existing activities in some way
– In order to understand the needs of the system
we’re going to create, we need to understand
the existing way things are being done

5. Interactive Methods
• We’ll cover three methods for gathering
information interactively
– Interviews
– Joint Application Design (JAD)
– Questionnaires

6. Interviews
• Preparation is key to giving good interviews
• Look for your own biases, such as regarding
– The type of legacy system
– The educational level of the users
– The intelligence of the users
– The type of work being done
– And anything else which might be a factor

7. Interviews
• Make sure the purpose and scope of
the interview are clear
– What kinds of information are you looking for?
– Whom do you need to interview?
– How much time do you need?
– Are the interviewees all in one location?

8. Interviews
• Users may have strong feelings about
what’s good and bad about the existing
system, which can feed the problems
and opportunities analysis
– Also gives insight into the organizational culture
• Look for the users objectives or goals
• You want to interview to be a comfortable
experience for the subject, but you need to
keep control

9. Joint application design
• Joint application design (JAD) is a process
used in the prototyping life cycle area of
the Dynamic Systems Development
Method (DSDM) to collect business
requirements while developing
new information systems for a company. "The
JAD process also includes approaches for
enhancing user participation, expediting
development, and improving the quality of
specifications

10. Questionnaires
• Questionnaires (surveys) can help determine
how people in the organization are affected by
the existing system
– Helps determine if a view found in an interview is
widespread or not
– Or could be used to help identify problem areas
before interviews are conducted
• If you use closed questions, the responses can
be quantified

11. Questionnaires
• Questionnaires (surveys) can help determine
how people in the organization are affected by
the existing system
– Helps determine if a view found in an interview is
widespread or not
– Or could be used to help identify problem areas
before interviews are conducted
• If you use closed questions, the responses can
be quantified

12. Questionnaires
• Questionnaires are good to use:
– If the respondents are widely distributed
geographically
– You want statistics on certain viewpoints
– You want an overview of the situation before
further investigation.
– If you want a survey of problems with the
existing system to follow up with interviews

13. Questionnaires
• The questions used for questionnaires
need to be more carefully thought out
than for an interview
– You need to decide if open-ended questions
should have some structure (e.g. the top three
problems), instead of just an open question
about problems
– If you want quantifiable information, you need
to structure the response section to give
consistent responses

14. Questionnaires
• Closed questions typically need to be
answered by checking a box, circling a
response, or entering numbers
• The choice of wording is very important
– Use local terminology
– Keep wording simple, but don’t talk down to
the audience
– Keep questions short

15. Unobtrusive Methods
• Unobtrusive methods for gathering
information include
– Sampling
– Investigation
– Observation

16. Template
• PS information Gathering template
• JDA-
http://www.slideshare.net/johncrosby2/jad-
sum2120324