Requirements Determination

Chapter 3

Learning Objectives

Introduce and discuss the requirements determination strategies: BPA BPI BPR

Discuss how to select the appropriate strategy and develop an analysis plan

Discuss techniques for information/requirements gathering: Interviews JAD Questionnaires Document Analysis Observation

Requirements Determination

What is requirements determination?

What is a requirement?

Functional requirementsNonfunctional requirements

What is a business process?

Example: store would have following

processes:For ordering productsSelling to customersAccepting customer returns, etc.

Steps

Understand current system Why?

Identify improvements

Develop concept for new system

Strategies

Business Process Automation (BPA)

Business Process Improvement (BPI)

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Business Process Automation

Automate, but not to make major changes to underlying business processes

Rather, make existing business processes more efficient (speed up or simplify a person’s work)

Examples:Computerize existing manual business processesAdd computer support to processes Improve existing computer systems

BPA continued…

Understand current systemSpend considerable time – why???

Opportunities for improvementConduct problem analysis

Conduct root cause analysis

• •

Business Process Improvement

Make moderate changes to business processes to improve them

Incremental or evolutionary in natureUnderstand current system

Spend less time than BPA trying to understand current system (manual or computerized)

Opportunities for improvementSeek out new business ideas/opportunities

BPI cont…

Techniques for seeking opportunities:Duration analysis

Activity based costing

Informal benchmarking

Business Process Reengineering

Radically change how organization runs its business

Time-consuming, riskyOne time processAttempts to use IT for new ways of doing

business

BPR continued…

Understand current systemSpend little if any time on this

Opportunities for improvementTechniques:

Outcome analysis•

Technology analysis:• •

Activity elimination•

Strategy used to develop analysis plan Depends on:

Potential business value

Project cost

Breadth of analysis

Risk

Information Gathering

Challenges

Selecting the right people

Collecting information

Gathering Information

Identify people from whom information will need to be gatheredBased on tasks and information required

Include all key stakeholders

Techniques for information gathering

InterviewsJAD sessionsQuestionnairesDocument AnalysisObservation

Interviews

Can be costly, biased, and provide poor sampling

Answer: who, what, why, when, where, how

Can be face-to-face or by telephoneCan be structured or unstructuredMost common technique

Interviewing steps

Select intervieweesCreate an interview scheduleStart at top level of organization and work your way down

Design questionsClosed ended

• •

Probing•

Structured vs. Unstructured interviewsStructured interviews

Unstructured interviews

Interviews…

Prepare for the interview List questions in logical order Let the person know what topic/subject

Conduct interview

Interviews…

Follow-upWrite an interview report

Have interviewees read the report and ask for clarifications/updates

JAD

Technique developed by IBM in late 1970’s

People work together to identify requirements for the system Brings users, managers, systems analysts together

Need a facilitator skilled in JAD techniques Sets agenda, guides discussion Need to be an expert in group process techniques and

SAD

Need 1 or 2 scribes

JAD stepsSelect participantsDesign the session

Usually 5 to 10 days over three-week periodSessions are highly structured and carefully planned

Prepare for sessionParticipants need to understand what type of information they will

be providingConduct session

Follow an agenda and have ground rules that define appropriate behavior

Follow up With a JAD session report (takes about 1-2 weeks to complete)

Role of JAD facilitator

Ensures staying on track/following agendaHelps group understand technical terms

and jargon for systems development and systems analysis techniques used

Records input on whiteboard, flip chart, etc.

Questionnaires/Surveys

Are used when system will be used outside the organization or for business users spread across geographic locations

Decide:

Test questionnaire on group of subjects

Questionnaire/survey steps

Select participantsSelect a sample

Design questionnaire

Administer questionnaire

Follow-up

Document Analysis

Used to understand current systemExamine documents produced by existing

systemRepresents the “formal” system used

What about “informal” systems?

Analyze documents first then interview users to make sure documents are still helpful and clarify any issues observed by analyst

Observations

ExpensiveCan lead to erroneous conclusionsBe aware of Hawthorne’s effect

Use it to supplement interview

Factors in deciding which technique to useType of information

Depth of information

Breadth of information

Integration of information

User involvementCost