CIS-320-SAD3-2020
9. What are the important factors in selecting an appropriate analysis strategy?
- Potential Business Value - Project Cost - Breadth of Analysis - Risk
28. What information is typically included in a system proposal?
brings together the material created during planning and analysis. The system proposal typically includes an executive summary, the system request, the workplan, the feasibility analysis, the requirements definition, and the evolving models that describe the new system. The evolving models include functional models, structural models, and behavioral models.
13. Explain the difference between a top-down and bottom-up interview approach. When would you use each approach?
Top-down: the interviewer starts with broad, general issues and gradually works toward more-specific ones. - enables the interviewee to raise a set of big-picture issues before becoming enmeshed in details, so the interviewer is less likely to miss important issues Bottom-up: interviewer starts with very specific questions and moves to broad questions. - when the analyst already has gathered a lot of information about issues and just needs to fill in some holes with details.
4. What are the three basic steps of the analysis process? Which step is sometimes skipped or done in a cursory fashion? Why?
Turning a very high-level explanation of business req's in system req, into a more precise list of reqs to be used as inputs into the rest of analysis (creating functional, structural, and behavioral models).
12. Explain the differences between unstructured interviews and structured interviews. When would you use each approach?
Unstructured: interviews that seek broad and roughly defined information. The interviewer has a general sense of the information needed but has few closed-ended questions to ask. Structured: specific sets of questions are developed before the interviews. There usually are more closed-ended questions in a structured interview then in the unstructured approach
2. What is the difference between an as-is system and a to-be system?
as-is: current system to-be: new system
1. What are the key deliverables that are created during analysis? What is the final deliverable from analysis, and what does it contain?
requirements definition, functional models, structural models, and behavioral models that together form the system proposal. The system proposal also includes revised project management deliverables, such as the feasibility analysis and the workplan
20. How does designing questions for questionnaires differ from designing questions for interviews or JAD sessions?
the information on a questionnaire cannot be immediately clarified for a confused respondent
25. Explain factors that can be used to select information-gathering techniques.
- Type of information - Depth of info - Breadth of info - Integration of info - User involvement - Cost
24. What are the key aspects of using observation in the information-gathering process?
- it enables the analyst to see the reality of a situation, rather than listening to others describe it in interviews or JAD sessions - The goal is to keep a low profile, to not interrupt those working, and to not influence those being observed. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that what analysts observe may not be the normal day-to-day routine because people tend to be extremely careful in their behavior when they are being watched. - often used to supplement interview information.
18. What are the three primary things that a facilitator does in conducting the JAD session?
1) Ensures that the group sticks to the agenda. 2) Must help the group understand the technical terms and jargon that surround the system-development process and help the participants understand the specific analysis techniques used. 3) Records the group's input on a public display area, which can be a whiteboard, flip chart, or computer display and structures the information that the group provides and helps the group recognize key issues and important solutions
10. Describe the five major steps in conducting interviews.
1) Select Interviewees: 2) Design Questions: 3) Prepare for Interview: 4) Conduct Interview: 5) Post-Interview Follow-Up:
16. Describe the five major steps in conducting JAD sessions.
1) Select Participants: 2) Design a JAD Session: 3) Preparing for a JAD session: 4) Conducting a JAD Session: 5) Post-JAD Follow-UP:
21. What are typical response rates for questionnaires and how can you improve them?
30-50% paper/email 5-30% web-based
5. Compare and contrast the business goals of BPA, BPI, and BPR.
BPA: leaves the basic way the organization operates unchanged and uses computer technology to do some of the work. BPA can make the organization more efficient but has the least impact on the business. BPI: makes moderate changes to the way the organization operates in order to take advantage of new opportunities offered by technology or to copy what competitors are doing. BPI can improve efficiency (i.e., doing things right) and improve effectiveness (i.e., doing the right things). BPR: changing the fundamental way the organization operates, obliterating the current way of doing business and making major changes to take advantage of new ideas and new technology.
11. Explain the differences among a closed-ended question, an open-ended question, and a probing question. When would you use each?
CE: require a specific answer - used when an analyst is looking for specific, precise information OE: leave room for elaboration on the part of the interviewee. - designed to gather rich information and give the interviewee more control over the information that is revealed during the interview. Pr: follow up on what has just been discussed in order to learn more
7. Compare and contrast duration analysis and activity-based costing.
DA: requires a detailed examination of the amount of time it takes to perform each process in the current as-is system. The analysts begin by determining the total amount of time it takes, on average, to perform a set of business processes for a typical input. They then time each of the individual steps (or subprocesses) in the business process. The time to complete the basic steps are then totaled and compared to the total for the overall process. A significant difference between the two—and in our experience the total time often can be 10 or even 100 times longer than the sum of the parts—indicates that this part of the process is badly in need of a major overhaul. ABC: a similar analysis; it examines the cost of each major process or step in a business process rather than the time taken. The analysts identify the costs associated with each of the basic functional steps or processes, identify the most costly processes, and focus their improvement efforts on them. Assigning costs is conceptually simple. Analysts simply examine the direct cost of labor and materials for each input. Materials costs are easily assigned in a manufacturing process, whereas labor costs are usually calculated based on the amount of time spent on the input and the hourly cost of the staff. However, as you may recall from a managerial accounting course, there are indirect costs such as rent, depreciation, and so on, that also can be included in activity costs.
17. How does a JAD facilitator differ from a scribe?
Facilitator: person who sets the meeting agenda and guides the discussion but does not join in the discussion as a participant. He or she does not provide ideas or opinions on the topics under discussion so as to remain neutral during the session. Scribe: This individual carefully takes the minutes of the meeting by recording all significant events that occur during the walkthrough. In particular, all errors that are uncovered must be documented so that the analysis team can address them.
23. How does the formal system differ from the informal system? How does document analysis help you understand both?
Formal: paper reports, memorandums, policy manuals, user-training manuals, organization charts, forms, and the user interface. Informal: the actual system It identifies the differences between them
14. How are participants selected for interviews and JAD sessions?
Participants are selected based on the information they can contribute in order to provide a broad mix of organizational levels and to build political support for the new system.
6. Compare and contrast problem analysis and rootcause analysis. Under what conditions would you use problem analysis? Under what conditions would you use root-cause analysis?
Pr: asking the users and managers to identify problems with the as-is system and to describe how to solve them in the to-be system. RC: focuses on problems, not solutions. users/analyst generates a list of problems with the current system and then prioritize the problems in order of importance. Starting with most important, they then generate all possible root causes and investigate until true root causes are identified. If any possible root causes are identified for several problems, those should be investigated first, because there is a good chance they are the real root causes influencing the symptom problems
26. What is the primary advantage that concept maps have over traditional textual requirements documents techniques?
The advantage of the concept-mapping approach to representing requirements over the typical textual approach is that a concept map is not limited to a hierarchical representation. Concept maps allow the relationships among the functional and nonfunctional requirements to be explicitly represented.
29. What is the purpose of the executive summary of the system proposal?
The executive summary provides all critical information in a very concise form.
8. Assuming time and money were not important concerns, would BPR projects benefit from additional time spent understanding the as-is system? Why or why not?
Yes, because ~70% of BPR projects fail, taking more time to understand the as-is system and what it does already does well change it less, could help the project be more successful as less may have to change
22. What is document analysis?
a process undergone to understand the as-is system
19. What is e-JAD and why might a company be interested in using it?
electronic JAD attempts to overcome traditional JAD problems by using groupware. In an e-JAD meeting room, each participant uses special software on a networked computer to send anonymous ideas and opinions to everyone else. In this way, all participants can contribute at the same time without fear of reprisal from people with differing opinions. Initial research suggests that e-JAD can reduce the time required to run JAD sessions by 50 to 80 percent.