Requirements Determination

Section 0: Module Objectives or Competencies

Section 1: Overview

Requirements determination:

• the last step in the Planning phase (or the first step in the Analysis phase)
• the process of communicating actions, facts, feelings, interpretations, and plans (schedules, activities, etc.) regarding a system
• the collection of information necessary to understand and model the existing system and the future system
• heavily involves users, and therefore requires a great deal of personal contacts and communication
• requires 30% of the analysis time

The importance of requirements determination.

Essential Systems Analyst Characteristics

• inquisitiveness – question everything
• impartiality – consider all issues to find the best organizational solution
• willingness to relax constraints – assume anything is possible
• attention to details – every fact must fit
• creative – challenge yourself to consider new approaches

Why Requirements Gathering is Critical

Section 2: Requirements Determination Techniques

• Reading and studying written materials.
• Observing is best suited to understanding human or machine processes that currently exist (passive participation).
• Participating is an advanced form of observing in which the data gatherer actually performs the activity (active participation).
• Surveying and questionnaires are best for written responses, and are used in situations where a small amount of data is needed from a large number of people.
• Interviewing provides a verbal response, and is a good method for collecting data on feelings and interpretations. It is the most widely used, and often most poorly used, technique.
• Brainstorming is used in group interviews as a means of arriving at new ideas. It is good in undefined situations in which no solution is evident. (Not  barnstorming.)

Section 3: Sources for Requirements Determination

• Internal Sources
  • Written documents
  • People
• External Sources
  • Textbooks
  • Professional journals
  • External documents (government regulations, etc.)

Section 4: Prerequisites to Requirements Determination

• Sanctioned by the group where you collect data?
  • Management, unions, etc. must understand your purpose.
• Participants aware of your process and intentions?
  • People have to know why you are there.
• Familiar with the subject?
  • Read up on the subject and prepare — prior preparation prevents poor performance.
• Selected data gathering techniques?
  • What's best for this situation and environment?

Section 5: Problems of Requirements Determination

• Approaching the wrong people
  • Must find the right people from management directions
• Biasing the system or person by being there
  • Your presence affects observation of the existing system.
  • In interviews people say what they think they should.
• People telling you what they want you to hear
  • People often give a biased view of their own, rather than a realistic assessment.
• Not sensing all the stimuli that are presented
  • We perceive things selectively, and might miss some stimuli.
• Not interpreting correctly the things you sense
  • Do you understand the jargon being used?
  • Did you understand all that was being said?
• Not uncovering feelings or intentions
  • User's feelings can influence the use or acceptance of a system.

Section 6: Deliverables for Requirements Determination

The major deliverable from requirements determination is the Requirements Specification.

• 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, reports from existing systems, displays and reports from system prototype

Section 7: Interviewing

Interviewing is one of the primary ways analysts gather information about an information systems project.

Interview preparation may require the following:

• Reading background material
• Establishing interview objectives
• Deciding whom to interview
• Deciding on question types and structure

Question Types

• Open-ended questions
  • questions that have no pre-specified answers but rather leave all possible response options open to the respondent
  • allow interviewees to respond how they wish, and to what length they wish
  • well-suited to situations in which it is necessary to solicit opinions about some aspect of the system
  • appropriate when the analyst is interested in breadth and depth of reply
  • good when it is impossible to list effectively all possible responses to questions
  • useful in exploratory situations in which analyst is not able to determine exactly what problems exist with a system – responses can be used to focus on cited problems more narrowly via interviews
  • require that you anticipate the type of response that you will get because you must be able to correctly interpret responses
  • must be narrow enough to guide respondents to answer in specific way
    • approach: phrase questions in context of satisfaction vs. dissatisfaction with current system
    • approach: suggest some system features to prompt respondents to recall features of interest
  • Advantages:
    • Puts the interviewee at ease
    • Allows the interviewer to pick up on the interviewee’s vocabulary
    • Provides richness of detail
    • Reveals avenues of further questioning that may have gone untapped
    • Provides more interest for the interviewee
    • Allows more spontaneity
    • Makes phrasing easier for the interviewer
    • Useful if the interviewer is less prepared
  • Disadvantages:
    • May result in too much irrelevant detail
    • Possibly losing control of the interview
    • May take too much time for the amount of useful information gained
    • Potentially seeming that the interviewer is unprepared
    • Possibly giving the impression that the interviewer is on a "fishing expedition"
• Closed-ended questions
  • questions that ask those responding to choose from among a set of specified responses
  • limit the number of possible responses
  • appropriate for generating precise, reliable data that is easy to analyze
  • useful when it is possible to list effectively all possible responses to questions and when all responses listed are mutually exclusive (choosing one precludes all others)
  • useful when sampling large groups of people (easier to interpret)
  • the methodology is efficient, and it requires little skill for interviewers to administer
  • Advantages
    • Saving interview time
    • Easily comparing interviews
    • Getting to the point
    • Keeping control of the interview
    • Covering a large area quickly
    • Getting to relevant data
    • Easier for the interviewer to analyze
  • Disadvantages
    • Boring for the interviewee
    • Failure to obtain rich detail
    • Missing main ideas
    • Failing to build rapport between interviewer and interviewee
• 

  Attributes of Open-Ended and Closed Questions

• Bipolar Questions
  • Bipolar questions are those that may be answered with a "yes" or "no" or "agree" or "disagree."
  • Bipolar questions should be used sparingly
  • A special kind of closed question
• Probes (Follow-ups)
  • Probing questions elicit more detail about previous questions
  • The purpose of probing questions is:
    • To get more meaning
    • To clarify
    • To draw out and expand on the interviewee's point
  • May be either open-ended or closed

Question Arrangement

There are three ways of arranging questions: pyramid, funnel, and diamond.

• Pyramid
  • Begins with very detailed, often closed questions
  • Expands by allowing open-ended questions and more generalized responses
  • Is useful if interviewees need to be warmed up to the topic or seem reluctant to address the topic
  • 

    Pyramid Structure for Interviewing Goes from Specific to General Questions

• Funnel
  • Begins with generalized, open-ended questions
  • Concludes by narrowing the possible responses using closed questions
  • Provides an easy, nonthreatening way to begin an interview
  • Is useful when the interviewee feels emotionally about the topic
  • 

    Funnel Structure for Interviewing Begins with Broad Questions then Funnels to Specific Questions

• Diamond
  • A diamond-shaped structure begins in a very specific way.
  • Then more general issues are examined
  • Concludes with specific questions
  • Combines the strength of both the pyramid and funnel structures
  • Takes longer than the other structures
  • 

    Diamond-Shaped Structure for Interviewing Combines the Pyramid and Funnel Structures

Guidelines for Effective Interviewing

• Plan the interview
  • Prepare interviewee: appointment, priming questions.
  • Prepare agenda, checklist, questions.
• Listen carefully and take notes and/or make an audio recording if permitted.
• Review notes within 48 hours.
• Be neutral.
• Seek diverse views. (example)

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

Here is a useful document on interviewing.

Section 8: Interviewing Groups

Joint Application Design

Joint Application Design (JAD) can replace a series of interviews with the user community.

• JAD is a technique that allows the analyst to accomplish requirements analysis and design the user interface with the users in a group setting.
• Conditions that support the use of JAD
  • Users are restless and want something new.
  • The organizational culture supports joint problem-solving behaviors.
  • Analysts forecast an increase in the number of ideas using JAD.
  • Personnel can be spared from their jobs for the length of time required.
• 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
• Benefits of JAD
  • Time is saved, compared with traditional interviewing
  • Rapid development of systems
  • Improved user ownership of the system
  • Creative idea production is improved
• Drawbacks of Using JAD
  • JAD requires a large block of time to be available for all session participants.
  • If preparation or the follow-up report is incomplete, the session may not be successful.
  • The organizational skills and culture may not be conducive to a JAD session.
• End Result
  • Documentation detailing existing system
  • Features of proposed system

Nominal Group Technique

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a facilitated process that supports idea generation by groups.

• NGT is used to complement group meetings or as part of JAD effort.
• 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 a blackboard or flipchart.
  • Group openly discusses the ideas for clarification.
  • Ideas are prioritized, combined, selected, reduced.

Section 9: Observation

Observation involves watching users do their jobs and is best suited to understanding processes that currently exist.

• Sometimes referred to as passive participation.
• Observation provides insight on what organizational members actually do, not just what is documented or explained.
• Helps to obtain more firsthand and objective measures of employee interaction with information systems and can reveal important clues regarding HCI (Human/Computer Interaction) concerns.
• Allows you to see firsthand the relationships that exist between decision makers and other organizational members.
• Helps to confirm or negate conclusions resulting from other data gathering methods.

Guidelines

• decide which activities are to be observed
• decide the level of detail necessary
• create categories that adequately capture key activities
• prepare appropriate scales, checklists, or other materials for observation
• decide when to observe

Downside

• Can cause people to change their normal operating behavior. (link)
• Time-consuming and limited time to observe (snapshot).

Techniques

• Time Sampling – allows the analyst to set up specific intervals at which to observe activities.
• Event Sampling – allows the sampling of entire events rather than random time periods, and provides for observation of an integral behavior in its natural context.
• Best to utilize both.

• Comparison of Time and Event Sampling

  	Time Sampling	Event Sampling
  Advantages	reduces bias when observations are randomized allows a representative view of frequent activities	allows observation of actual behavior as it occurs allows observation of important events
  Disadvantages	data gathering is fragmented with no time for decision to unfold misses infrequent but important decisions	requires a great deal of time misses a representative sample of frequent decisions

Participation

• Participating is an advanced form of observing in which the data gatherer actually performs the activity.
• Sometimes referred to as active participation.

Section 10: Questionnaires

Questionnaires are special-purpose documents that allow analysts to collect information and opinions from respondents

• used to ascertain attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics of several key people in an organization who may be affected by the current and proposed systems.

Reasons to Use Questionnaires

• people to be questioned are widely dispersed
• large number of people are involved
• important to determine proportion that supports or opposes change
• trying to gauge overall opinion before undertaking project

Characteristics of Questionnaires

• questionnaires require extensive planning
• questions must be transparently clear
• flow of questions must be presented in a way that brings out pertinent points
• respondents' questions must be anticipated and accounted for
• administration of the questionnaire must be planned in detail

Question Types

• Same as in interviews.

Guidelines for Choosing Language

• Use the language of respondents whenever possible. Keep wording simple.
• Be specific rather than vague in wording. Also avoid overly specific questions.
• Keep questions short.
• Do not talk down to respondents through low-level language choices.
• Avoid bias and objectionable questions.
• Target questions to the right respondents.
• Include only technically accurate questions.
• Use appropriate text for the reading level of the respondent.

Designing the Questionnaire

• Allow ample white space
• Allow ample space to write or type in responses
• Make it easy for respondents to clearly mark their answers
• Be consistent in style

Order of Questions

• Place most important questions first
• Cluster items of similar content together
• Introduce less controversial questions first

Methods of Administering the Questionnaire

• Convening all concerned respondents together at one time
• Personally administering the questionnaire
• Allowing respondents to self-administer the questionnaire
• Mailing questionnaires
• Administering over the Web or via email

Scales

• Details here.

Section 11: Document Analysis

Document analysis is the review of existing business documents in order to gain a historical and "formal" view of system requirements.

Types of information to be discovered

• Problems with existing system
• Opportunity to meet new need
• Organizational direction
• Names of key individuals
• Values of organization
• Special information processing circumstances
• Reasons for current system design
• Rules for processing data

Useful documents

• Written work procedures – describe how a particular job or task is performed, and often includes data and information used and created in the process.
• Business forms – explicitly indicate what data flow in and out of a system and data necessary for the system to function.
• Reports – the primary output of current system enables you to work backwards from the report to the data needed to generate it.
• Description of current information system – provides details of the existing system.

Formal vs. Informal

When analyzing documents, keep in mind the difference between formal and informal procedures.

• Formal Systems – the official way a system works as described in organizational documentation, such as work procedures.
• Informal Systems – the way a system actually works as discovered in interviews, observations, etc.

Section 12: Prototyping

Requirements determination

• Quickly converts requirements to working version of system.
• Once the users see requirements converted to system, they will ask for modifications or will generate additional requests.

Most useful when:

• User requests are not clear.
• Few users are involved in the system.
• Designs are complex and require concrete form.
• There is a history of communication problems between analysts and users.
• Tools are readily available to build prototype.

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.

More on prototyping here.

Section 13: Supplemental Reading

• Requirements Discovery

Section 14: Resources

• Video: Requirements gathering
  
• Video: Functional Requirements
  
• Video: Requirements Gathering Process
  
• Video: Requirement Gathering Techniques For A Business Analyst
  
• Video: How to Collect Requirements for a Project
  
• Video: Requirement Gathering in Software Engineering
  
• Video: Requirement Elicitation Case Study - Real life example walk-through!
  
• Video: How to Conduct a Requirements Gathering Interview
  
• Video: Analysis and Requirements Gathering 1
  
• Video: Requirement Prioritization Techniques
  
• Video: Software Requirements Gathering