Module 3b:

Information
Requirements Analysis

Learning Objectives:
 Information Gathering
 Methods for Information Gathering
 Review Existing Reports, Forms, and
Procedure Description
 Conduct Interviews and Discussion
with Users
 Observe and Document Business Process
 Distribute and Collect Questionnaires
 Conduct Joint Application Design Sessions

Information Gathering
• used to discover business information
details to define the information structure

• helps systems analysts to establish the

priorities of the information needs and
further leads to opportunities that highlight
key issues which may cross functional
boundaries or may touch on policies or the
organization itself

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 Information Gathering
• must be organized to ensure that nothing is
overlooked and all system details are
eventually captured

Information Gathering
• General steps conducted in information
gathering:
• Schedule initial visit to user site

• Gather and read background materials

• Establish data gathering objectives

• Determine what data gathering techniques to

use

Information Gathering
• Identify contact persons

• Schedule data gathering activities

• Assign to data gathering teams

• Identify deliverables

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 Methods for Information
Gathering
• Relationship between information gathering and
model building

Methods for Information

Gathering
• Review existing reports, forms, and
procedure description
• Conduct interviews and discussion with
users
• Observe and document business processes
• Distribute and collect questionnaires
• Conduct joint application design (JAD)
sessions

Review Existing Reports, Forms,

and Procedure Description

• Review of documentation helps identify

business rules that may not come up in the
interviews.
• Written procedures help discover
discrepancies and redundancies in the
business processes.

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Review Existing Reports, Forms,
and Procedure Description

• To make sure that assumptions and business

rules derived from existing documentation
are correct, the analysts should review them
along with the users.

Review Existing Reports, Forms,

and Procedure Description
• Two sources of information for existing
procedures and forms:
• External to the organization—at industry-wide
professional organizations and at other companies
• Existing business documents and procedure description
within the organization
• it is a good way to get a preliminary understanding
of the processes
• it is in the interviews themselves

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users

• Interviewing is a directed conversation with

a specific purpose that uses a question-and-
answer format.

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 Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users

• To conduct an effective interview, a system

analyst need to organize in three areas:
• Prepare for the interview
• Conduct the interview
• Follow-up the interview

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users

• Prepare for the Interview

• Five major steps:
• Read the background material
• Establish interviewing objectives
• Decide who to interview
• Prepare the interviewee
• Decide on question types and structure

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users

• Question types:
• Open-Ended Questions
• Please explain how your current inventory system works?
• What are the critical objectives of your department?
• What are the data entry errors made in your department?

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 Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users
• Advantages:
Put the interviewer at ease.
Allow the interviewer to pick up on the
interviewee’s vocabulary.
Reveal avenues of further questioning that may
have gone untapped.
Make it more interesting for the interviewee.
Allow more spontaneity.
Make phrasing easier for the interviewer.

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users
• Disadvantages:
The interviewer might be asking questions that
can result in too much irrelevant detail.
There is a possibility of losing control of the
interview.
It may be misconstrued as unprepared on the
part of the interviewer.
It may give the impression that the interviewer
is fishing for information.

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users
• Closed Questions
• How many times a week is the report updated?
• Who receives this input?
• Advantages:
Save time.
Easy to compare interviews.
Get to the point.
Keep control over the interview.
Cover lots of ground quickly.
Get to relevant data.

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 Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users

• Disadvantages:
Fail to obtain rich detail.
Miss main ideas for the preceding reason.
Fail to build rapport between interviewer and
interviewee.

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users

• Question structures:
• Pyramid Structure
• used if interviewee needs to warm up to the topic
• useful as an ending determination about the topic
• Funnel Structure
• interviewer takes a deductive approach
• provides an easy, non-threatening way to begin an
interview
• useful when interviewee feels emotional about the topic

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users
• Diamond-Shaped Structure
• entails beginning in a very specific way
• combines the strength of pyramid and funnel structures
• takes longer

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 Conduct Interviews and
Discussions with Users
• Conduct the Interview
• Dress appropriately
• Arrive on time
• Limit the time of the interview
• Look for exception and error conditions
• Probe for details
• Take careful notes

Conduct Interviews and

Discussions with Users
• Follow-up the Interview
• Follow-up is an important part of each
interview.
• Information that was obtained should be
absorbed, comprehended, and documented.
• Make a list of new questions based on areas
that need further elaboration or that are missing
information.

Observe and Document Business

Process
• Observing the business processes in action will
help analysts understand the business
functions.
• Observing business processes can be done
from a quick walkthrough.
• A quick walkthrough gives a general
understanding of the layout of the office, the
need for and use of computer equipment, and
the general workflow.

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Observe and Document Business
Process
• Information gathered about business processes
through interviewing and observing needs to
be documented.
• An effective way to document this information
is through the use of diagrams.
• A workflow is a sequence of processing steps
that completely handles one business
transaction or customer request.

Observe and Document Business

Process

• Methodologies commonly used to model

workflows include flowcharts, data flow
diagram, and activity diagram.
• Flowcharts and activity charts are specifically
designed to represent control flow among
processing steps.

Observe and Document Business

Process

• An activity diagram is a workflow diagram

that describes the various user (or system)
activities, the person who does each activity,
and the sequential flow of these activities.

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 Observe and Document Business
Process
• Basic Symbols Used in Activity Diagram

Observe and Document Business

Process
• Example of Activity Diagram

Distribute and Collect

Questionnaires

• Using questionnaires allows systems

analysts to study attitudes, beliefs, behavior,
and characteristics of several key people in
the organization that may be affected by the
current and proposed systems.

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 Distribute and Collect
Questionnaires
• Guidelines whether use of questionnaires is
appropriate:
• The people you need to question are widely
dispersed (different branches of the same
corporation).
• A large number of people are involved in the
systems project, and it is meaningful to know
what proportion of a given group approves or
disapproves of a particular feature of the
proposed system.

Distribute and Collect

Questionnaires

• You are doing an exploratory study and want to

gauge overall opinion before the systems
project is given any specific direction.
• You want to be certain that any problems with
the current system are identified and addressed
in follow-up interview.

Distribute and Collect

Questionnaires
• Guidelines to use when choosing language
for questionnaires:
• Use the language of respondents whenever
possible. Keep wording simple.
• Work at being specific rather than vague in
wording. Avoid overly specific questions as
well.
• Keep questions short.

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 Distribute and Collect
Questionnaires

• Do not patronize respondents by talking down

to them through low-level language choices.
• Avoid bias in wording. This also means
avoiding objectionable questions.
• Target questions to the correct respondents
(that is, those who are capable of responding).
Do not assume too much knowledge.

Distribute and Collect

Questionnaires

• Ensure that questions are technically accurate

before including them.
• Use software to check whether the reading
level is appropriate for the respondents.

Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions

• JAD is an alternative approach to

interviewing users one-by-one.

• The reasons for using JAD are:

• to cut the time (and the cost) required by
personal interviews

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 Conduct Joint Application
Design Sessions

• to improve the quality of the results of

information requirements assessment

• to create more user identification with new

information systems as a result of the
participative processes

Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions

• Conditions that support the use of JAD:

• User groups are restless and want something
new, not a standard solution to a typical
problem.

• The organizational culture supports joint

problem-solving behaviors among multiple
levels of employees.

Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions

• Analysts forecast that the number of ideas

generated via one-on-one interviews will not be
as plentiful as the number of ideas possible
from an extended group exercise.

• Organizational workflow permits the absence

of key personnel during a two-to-four-day
block of time.

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 Conduct Joint Application
Design Sessions

• Participants involved in JAD sessions:

• JAD Session Leader
• Users
• Technical Staff
• Project Team Members

Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions
• Advantages of using JAD over
interviewing:
Time savings over traditional one-on-one
interviews
Rapid development possible via JAD
Possibility of improved ownership of the
information system
Creative development of designs

Conduct Joint Application

Design Sessions

• Disadvantages of using JAD:

Requires the commitment of a large block of
time from all participants
If preparation for the JAD sessions is
inadequate in any regard or if the follow-up
report and documentation of specifications is
incomplete

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 Conduct Joint Application
Design Sessions

The necessary organizational skills and

organization culture may not be sufficiently
developed to enable the concerted effort
required to be productive in a JAD setting

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