Professional Documents
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Accounting
Information Systems II
Lecture 5
Fact Finding Techniques
Lecture 5 Outline
■Requirements discovery & fact-finding techniques
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Source: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauter/analysis/random_analysis_thoughts.html5 - 3
“Every project succeeds or fails on the quality of its
requirements. They set the scope of all subsequent
work and tell the project team what the users want.
Without good requirements, projects fail, are late,
come in over budget, or produce systems that are
never used” (Alexander and Stevens, 2002).
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Systems Analysis Phase
Overview
The overall objective of the systems analysis
phase is to understand the proposed project,
ensure that it will support business
requirements, and build a solid foundation for
system development
You use models and other documentation tools
to visualize and describe the proposed system
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Systems Analysis Phase
Overview
Systems Analysis
Activities
Requirements
modeling
Outputs
Inputs
Processes
Performance
Security
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Systems Analysis Phase
Overview
Systems Analysis Activities
Data and process modeling
Object Modeling
Development Strategies
System requirements document
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Systems Analysis Phase
Overview
Systems Analysis Skills
Analytical skills
Interpersonal skills
Agile methods
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What is a requirement?
A requirement is a condition or capability that must
be met or possessed by a system or system component
to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other
formally imposed documents.
■Non-functional requirements.
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Functional requirements
■ A requirement that specifies an action that a
system must be able to perform, without
considering physical constraints; a requirement
that specifies input/output behavior of a system.
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Functional requirements - some examples
■Ifyou are buying a vehicle for a business, your
functional requirement might be:
■The vehicle should be able to take a load from a warehouse
to a shop.
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Non-functional requirements
■ A requirement that specifies system properties, such
as environmental and implementation constraints,
performance, platform dependencies, maintainability,
extensibility, and reliability.
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Non-functional requirements - some examples
■The vehicle example, without any constraints, might
result in solutions being offered for everything from a
large truck to a sports car. To restrict the types of
solutions you might include these constraints, e.g.
■It must take a load of at least one ton.
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■For the customer records example these might be:
■Information should be made available and be stored in a
maximum of 3 seconds.
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Joint Application Development
JAD Participants and Roles
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Joint Application Development
JAD Advantages and Disadvantages
More expensive and can be cumbersome if the
group is too large relative to the size of the project
Allows key users to participate effectively
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Rapid Application Development
RAD Phases and Activities
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Rapid Application Development
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Rapid Application Development
RAD Advantages and Disadvantages
Systems can be developed more quickly with
significant cost savings
RAD stresses the mechanics of the system itself
and does not emphasize the company’s strategic
business needs
Might allow less time to develop quality,
consistency, and design standards
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Agile Methods
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Agile Methods
Agile Method Advantages and Disadvantages
Are very flexible and efficient in dealing with
change
Frequent deliverables constantly validate the
project and reduce risk
Team members need a high level of technical and
interpersonal skills
May be subject to significant change in scope
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Modeling Tools and Techniques
CASE Tools
Functional Decomposition Diagrams
Data Flow Diagrams
Unified Modeling Language
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System Requirements Checklist
Outputs
The Web site must report online volume statistics
every four hours, and hourly during peak periods
The inventory system must produce a daily report
showing the part number, description, quantity on
hand, quantity allocated, quantity available, and
unit cost of all sorted by part number
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System Requirements Checklist
Inputs
Manufacturing employees must swipe their ID
cards into online data collection terminals that
record labor costs and calculate production
efficiency
The department head must enter overtime hours on
a separate screen
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System Requirements Checklist
Processes
The student records system must calculate the
GPA at the end of each semester
As the final step in year-end processing, the
payroll system must update employee salaries,
bonuses, and benefits and produce tax data
required by the IRS
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System Requirements Checklist
Performance
The system must support 25 users online
simultaneously
Response time must not exceed four seconds
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System Requirements Checklist
Controls
The system must provide logon security at the
operating system level and at the application level
An employee record must be added, changed, or
deleted only by a member of the human resources
department
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Future Growth, Costs, and
Benefits
Scalability 可扩展性
A scalable system offers a better return on the
initial investment 可扩展的系统可提供更好的
初始投资回报
To evaluate scalability, you need information
about projected future volume for all outputs,
inputs, and processes 要评估可伸缩性,您需要
有关所有输出,输入和过程的预计未来量的信
息
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Future Growth, Costs, and
Benefits
• Total Cost of Ownership
– Total cost of ownership
(TCO) is especially
important if the
development team is
evaluating several
alternatives
– One problem is that cost
estimates tend to
understate indirect costs
– Rapid Economic
Justification (REJ)
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Fact-Finding
Fact-Finding Overview
First, you must identify the information you need
Develop a fact-finding plan
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Interviews
Step 1: Determine the People to
Interview
Step 2: Establish Objectives for
the Interview
Step 3: Develop Interview
Questions
Step 4: Prepare for the Interview
Step 5: Conduct the Interview
Step 6: Document the Interview
Step 7: Evaluate the Interview
Unsuccessful Interviews
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Other Fact-Finding Techniques
• Document Review
• Observation
– Seeing the system in
action gives you
additional perspective
and a better
understanding of the
system procedures
– Plan your observations in
advance
– Hawthorne Effect
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Other Fact-Finding Techniques
Questionnaires and
Surveys
When designing a
questionnaire, the most
important rule of all is to
make sure that your
questions collect the
right data in a form that
you can use to further
your fact-finding
Fill-in form
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Other Fact-Finding Techniques
Sampling
Systematic sample
Stratified sample
Random sample
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Other Fact-Finding Techniques
Research
Can include the Internet,
IT magazines, and books
to obtain background
information, technical
material, and news about
industry trends and
developments
Site visit
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Other Fact-Finding Techniques
Interviews versus Questionnaires
Interview is more familiar and personal
Questionnaire gives many people the opportunity
to provide input and suggestions
Brainstorming
Structured brainstorming
Unstructured brainstorming
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A fact-finding strategy
Learn all you can from existing documents, forms,
reports, and files.
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Documentation
The Need for Recording the Facts
Record information as soon as you obtain it
Use the simplest recording method
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Documentation
Software Tools
CASE Tools
Productivity Software
Graphics modeling
software
Personal information
managers
Wireless communication
devices
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Preview of Logical Modeling
At the conclusion of requirements modeling,
systems developers should have a clear
understanding of business processes and
system requirements
The next step is to construct a logical model of
the system
IT professionals have differing views about
systems development methodologies, and no
universally accepted approach exists
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Acknowledgements
This PowerPoint presentation contains
materials complied from various sources.
Credits are hereby given to their respective
owners. Please refer to the reading list for
details.
Reminder
The lecture slides serve only as a quick
learning guide. Students are required to refer
to the main textbook for detailed elaboration.
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