STAKEHOLDER

Fact Finding Methods

Fact Finding Methods

• Conduct interviews and discussion with users

• Distribute and collect stakeholder questionnaires

• Review existing reports, forms, and procedure descriptions

Fact Finding Methods

• Observe business processes and workflows

• Build prototypes

• Conduct JAD (Joint Application Development) sessions

• RAD (Rapid Application Development)

Fact Finding Methods– Interviews– Questionnaires– Review Documentation– Observation– Prototypes– JAD sessions– RAD

Interviews

• Primary technique for fact finding and information gathering

• Most effective way to understand business functions and business rules

• Usually requires multiple sessions

Interviews

• Usually conducted with customers/clients/users

• Clients are not always able to express their requirements clearly it is up to the analyst to ask the right questions to help the client express their requirements

Interviews

• We are going to concentrate on interview techniques; the rest of the slides explain the other methods for fact finding

Conducting effective interviews

• Determine who you are going to interview

• Know what information that stakeholder can provide for you

• Prepare for the interview

• Conduct the interview

• Follow up on the interview

Determine who you are going to interview

• Can be standard (business) or technical (technology adopters) users

– Standard users provide the functional and data requirements

– Technical (technology adopters) users provide the technical and data requirements

Determine who you are going to interview

• Can be standard (business) or technical (technology adopters) users in your business area or the other business areas that communicate with yours

Styles of Interviews• Structured Interview

– Formal style– Requires significant preparation

• Unstructured Interview– Informal– No pre-determined questions or objectives

Structured Interview

• Preparing for the interview– Establish the objectives for the interview

– Have a clear agenda

– Prepared in advance with a list of open and closed ended questions

– Set the time and location for the interview

– Inform all participants of the objective, time and location

Questions

• Should allow you to keep on track and avoid getting off topic during the interview

• Can be prepared from any of the following:– Observations made when existing form and reports may have

been reviewed

– Observations made when reviewing the strategic, tactical or operational plans

– Observations made when observing employees doing current job tasks

• Keep length of questions reasonable (15-20 words or less)

Questions

• Phrase questions to avoid misunderstandings - use simple terms and wording

• Do not ask questions that give clues to expected answers

• Avoid asking two questions in one• Do not ask questions that can raise concerns about

job security or other negative issues

Questioning Strategies

How canorder processing

be improved?

How can wereduce the number

of times that customersreturn items they’ve ordered?

How can we eliminate shipping the wrong products?

High-level: very general

Medium-level: moderatelyspecific

Low-level: very specific

Top Down

Bottom UP

Questions

• Open ended questions– Encourages unstructured responses and

generates discussion– Useful when you need to understand a larger

process or to draw out opinions or suggestions from the person being interviewed

Questions

• Closed ended questions– Limited or restricted response – a simple

definitive answer– Used to get information that is more specific or

when you need to verify facts

Sample interview questions

• Open-ended– What do you think about the current system?– How do you decide what type of marketing

campaigns to run?

• Closed-ended– How do customers place orders?– How many orders to you receive a day?

Structured Interview

• Conduct the interview– Dress appropriately; Arrive on time

– Welcome the participants; introduce the attendees; state the objective and agenda

– Ask permission if you want to tape record the interview

– Ask questions from script

Structured Interview

• Conduct the interview– Listen closely to the interviewee and encourage them to

expand on key points

– Take thorough notes

– Identify and document unanswered questions

– At end of interview, review outstanding questions that require follow up

– Set date and time for the next, follow-up interview

Fact Finding Methods– Interviews– Questionnaires– Review Documentation– Observation– Prototypes– JAD sessions– RAD

Questionnaires

• A document which contains a number of questions

• Can be paper form or electronic form (email or web-based)

• Allows the analyst to collect information from a large number of people– People outside the organization (I.e. customers)

– Business users spread across a large geographic area

Questionnaires

• Limited and specific information from a large number of stakeholders

• Preliminary insight• Not well suited for gathering detailed

information• Open-ended questions vs. close-ended questions

Questionnaires

• Similar process to interviewing– Determine who will receive the questionnaire– Design the questionnaire

• Determine objective of questionnaire

• Design questions

– Follow up questionnaire

Questionnaires

• Determine who will receive the questionnaire– Select a sample audience who are

representative of an entire group– Assume 30-50% return rate for paper and email

questionnaires– Assume a 5-30% return rate for web-based

questionnaires

Questionnaires

• Design the Questionnaire– Clearly state the following in the questionnaire:

• The purpose of the questionnaire• Why the respondent was selected to receive the

questionnaire• When the questionnaire is to be returned

Questionnaires

• Design the Questionnaire– Let the respondent know when/where they can see

the accumulated questionnaire responses– Consider providing an inducement to have the

respondent complete the questionnaire (I.e. a pen)

Questionnaires

• Design the Questionnaire– Keep the questionnaire brief and user friendly– Provide clear instructions on how to complete

the questionnaire– Arrange the questions in a logical order; going

from easy to more complex topics

Questionnaires

• Design the Questionnaire– Phrase questions to avoid misunderstandings,

use simple terms and wording– Do not ask questions that give clues to expected

answers– Avoid asking two questions in one– Limit the use of open ended questions that will

be difficult to tabulate

Questionnaires

• Design the Questionnaire– Do not ask questions that can raise concerns

about job security or other negative issues– Include a section at the end of the questionnaire

for general comments– Test the questionnaire whenever possible on a

small test group before finalizing it

Review Existing Reports, Forms, and Procedure Descriptions

• Purposes

– Preliminary understanding of processes

– Guidelines / visual cues to guide interviews

• Identify business rules, discrepancies, and redundancies

• Be cautious of outdated material

Reviewing existing documentation• Most beneficial to new employees or

consultants hired to work on a project• Types of documentation that is reviewed:

– Company reports

– Organization charts

– Policy and Procedures manuals

– Job Descriptions

– Documentation of existing systems

Reviewing existing documentation• Allows the analyst to get an understanding

of the organization prior to meeting with employees

• Allows the analyst to prepare questions for either interviews or questionnaires (other fact finding techniques)

Observation

• An effective way to gather requirements if obtaining complete information was not effective through other fact finding techniques (I.e. interviews and questionnaires)

Or• An effective way to verify information gathered

from other fact finding sources (such as interviews)

Observation

• Observation can be done by having the analyst observe the client from a distance (without actually interrupting the client) or by actually doing the work of the client

Observation

• Should be carried out for a period of time and at different time intervals, not just once, so that the analyst can observe different workloads and to ensure that what the client does is consistent over different periods of time

Observation

• Allows the analyst to follow an entire process from start to finish

• Can upset the client if they feel threatened by new activity going on around them – the client may behave differently from what they normally do

Prototypes

• A demonstration system– Represents a graphical user interface– Simulates system behavior for various events– Any data displayed on a GUI screen is hard-coded; not

retrieved from a database

• Constructed to visualize the system• Allows the customer to provide feedback• An effective way to gather requirements for a new

system• Supports JAD or RAD type sessions

Other Methods

• Joint Application Development (JAD)– A series of workshops that bring together all

stakeholders (users and systems personnel)

Other Methods• Joint Application Development (JAD)

– Consists of the following types of attendees:• Facilitator: the person who conducts the meeting

and keeps it on track (generally the analyst)• Note taker: the person who records the information

for the session• Clients/Customers/Users: the people who

communicate the requirements, take decisions and approve the project

• Developers: the people who are part of the development team and need to gather information

Other Methods

• Joint Application Development (JAD)– Takes advantage of the group dynamics– Increased productivity– May require more than one session– One session may last a few hours, several days

or several weeks

Other Methods

• Rapid Application Development (RAD)– An approach to software development where

the system solution is delivered – fast– Most appropriate for systems which are not the

organization’s core business– Example: Xtreme Programming

Other Methods

• Rapid Application Development (RAD)– Can result in:

• Inconsistent GUI designs

• Poorly documented systems

• Software that is difficult to maintain