System Analysis and Design

Chapter 5
(Analysis)
Requirement Determination
 Outline
 Modern/Contemporary Methods
 Joint Application Design(JAD)
 Prototyping
 Radical methods
 Business process re-engineering
 Agile

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 Modern methods: JAD
 JAD brings together the key users, managers,
and systems analysts involved in the analysis
of a current system
 Similar to NGT interview with focus of system
analysts is control and take note of the meeting
 It is an intense and structured, but highly
effective, process of analyzing requirement

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 Modern methods: JAD
 Meeting with all of these important people for
over a week of intense sessions allows you the
opportunity to resolve conflicts on processes.
 JAD may last anywhere from four hours to an
entire week and may consist of several
sessions.

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 Modern methods: JAD
 JAD participants:
 JAD session leader: organizes and runs the JAD
 Users
 Managers
 Sponsor: JAD must be sponsored
 System analysts: to learn from users and managers
 Scribe: takes notes on laptops during the JAD
sessions
 IS staff: to learn from users and managers and
contribute their ideas 5
 Modern methods: Prototyping
 Prototyping is an iterative process involving
analysts and users whereby a rudimentary
version of an information system is built and
rebuilt according to user feedback.
 Prototyping enables you to quickly convert
basic requirements into a working, though
limited, version of the desired information
system.

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 Modern methods: prototyping
 The prototype can then serve as the basis for
the production system in a process called
evolutionary prototyping.
 Alternatively, the prototype can serve only as a
model, a reference for the construction of the
actual system
 In a throwaway prototyping, the prototype
model is discarded after it has been used

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Modern methods: prototyping

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 Modern methods: prototyping
 Prototyping is most useful when
 user requirements are not clear or well understood,
such as for totally new systems
 one or a few users and other stakeholders are
involved with the system;
 possible designs are complex and require concrete
form to fully evaluate;
 communication problems have existed in the past
between users and analysts
 tools and data are readily available to rapidly build
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working systems
 Modern methods: prototyping
 Prototyping also has some drawbacks
 Prototypes have a tendency to avoid creating
formal documentation of system requirements,
 Prototypes can become very personal to the initial
user and difficult to diffuse to other potential users.
 Prototypes are often built as stand-alone systems,
 Checks in the SDLC are bypassed so that some
more subtle, but still important, system
requirements might be forgotten (e.g., security,
data entry controls, or standardization of data
across systems). 10
 Radical methods
 Business process re-engineerning (BPR):
 The overall process by which current methods are
replaced with radically new methods
 The concept behind BPR is to enhance the
processes, eliminate unnecessary steps,
achieve synergies among previously separate
steps, and become more responsive to future
changes.

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 Radical methods
 BPR starts with identification of Key business
processes
 The structured, measured set of activities designed
to produce a specific output for a particular
customer or market
 Then identify specific activities that can be
radically improved through reengineering:
1. How vital is activity to delivering an outcome?
2. How feasible is changing the activity?
3. 3. How dysfunctional is the activity? 12
 Radical method: Agile
 Agile: involve the users continually,
throughout the entire analysis and design
process.
 User can provide information on requirements
and then watch and evaluate as those
requirements are designed, coded, and tested.
 The user who works with the development
team must be very knowledgeable

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
1. Gather a group of people, including analysts,
users, programmers, and testing staff, and
sequester them in a room to collaborate on this
design. Include a facilitator who knows this
process.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
2. Give everyone a chance to vent about the current
system and to talk about the features everyone
wants in the new system. Record all of the
complaints and suggestions for change on
whiteboards or flip charts for everyone to see.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
3. Determine what the most important user roles
would be. Determine who will be using the system
and what their goals are for using the system.
Write the roles on 3 × 5 cards. Sort the cards so
that similar roles are close to each other. Patton
(2002) calls this a role model.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
4. Determine what tasks user roles will have to
complete in order to achieve their goals. Write
these down on 3 × 5 cards. Order tasks by
importance and then by frequency. Place the cards
together based on how similar the tasks are to each
other. Patton calls this a task model.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
5. Task cards will be grouped together on the table
based on their similarity. Grab a stack of cards.
This is called an interaction context.
6. For each task card in the interaction context, write
a description of the task directly on the task card.
List the steps that are necessary to complete the
task. Keep the descriptions conversational to make
them easy to read. Simplify.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
7. Treat each stack as a tentative set of tasks to be
supported by a single aspect of the user interface,
such as a screen, page, or dialogue, and create a
paper-and-pencil prototype for that part of the
interface. Show the basic size and placement of the
screen components.

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 Radical methods: Agile
 8 steps in Agile requirement determination
8. Take on a user role and step through each task in
the interaction context as modeled in the paper-
and-pencil prototype. Make sure the user role can
achieve its goals by using the prototype. Refine the
prototype accordingly

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