ISDS 406 Ch. 3

Observation

-Tool to gain insight into the as-is system. -Good way to check the validity of information gathered from other sources such as interviews and questionnaires. -Support the information that users provide in interviews.

Process models

-Used to explain the relationship of functions/processes to the system users, how the functions/process relate to each other, how data is entered and produced by functions/processes relate to each other, how data is entered and produced by functions/processes, and how functions/processes create and use stored data. -Helps clarify the software components that will be needed to accomplish the functional requirements.

JAD sessions

- An information gathering technique that allows the project team, users, and management to work together to identify requirements for the system. -Jones believes that JAD can reduce scope creep by 50% and it prevents the requirements for a system from being too specific or too vague, both of which can cause trouble during later stages of the SDLC. -Structures process in which 10-20 users meet under the direction of a facilitator skilled in JAD techniques. -Facilitator is a person who sets the meeting agenda and guides the discussion, but does not join in the discussion as a participant. Remains neutral -Must be an expert in both group process techniques and systems analysis and design techniques -Problem: Suffers from the traditional problems associated with groups: Sometimes people are reluctant to challenge the opinions of others. -Selecting participants: - Participants are selected on the basis of information they can contribute to provide a broad mix of organizational levels, and to build political support for the system. -Without strong management support, JAD sessions can fail because those selected to attend the JAD session are people who are less likely to be missed. - Designing the JAD session: -Designed and structured along the same principles as interviews. -Must be carefully planned. Top-down -Preparing for the JAD session: Important - Conducting the JAD session: -Try to follow a formal agenda and most have formal ground rules that define appropriate behavior. -JAD facilitator perform three main functions: 1.) Ensures group sticks to 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 groups input input on a public display area which can be a whiteboard, flip chart, or computer display. -Post JAD follow up: -JAD post-session report is prepared and circulated among session attendees.

Activity elimination

- Analysts and managers work together to identify how the organization could eliminate each and every activity in the business process, how the function could operate without it and what effects are likely to occur. -"Force fit" in which they must eliminate the activity.

Activity-based costing

- Examines the cost of each major process or step in a business process rather than the time taken.

Functional Requirements

-Systems functional requirements evolve from understanding how the new system can support user needs. -Two types : 1.) Process oriented: mA process the system must perform; a process the system must do. 2.) Information the system must contain

What is the deliverable of the analysis phase

- Final deliverable System proposal: document compiling the detailed requirements definition statement, use cases, process model, and data model together with revised feasibility analysis and work plan. - At conclusion of analysis phase the system proposal is presented to the approval committee, usually in the from of a system walk-through -Goal of walk through- explain the system in moderate detail so that the users, managers, and key decision makers understand it, identify any modifications, able to make a decision about whether the project should continue. -Analysis deliverables are really the first step in the design of a new system.

Root Cause analysis

- Focuses analysis focuses on problems first rather than solutions. Users generate a list of problems with the current system, then prioritize the problems in order of importance. -Always challenge the obvious and dig into the problem deeply enough that the true underlying cause is revealed.

Interview

- Most commonly used requirements elicitation technique. -5 Basic steps to interview process: 1.) Selecting interviews: - Interview schedule should be created, listing who will be interviewed, purpose and where it will be. 2.) Designing interview questions - Interviews include closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, and probing questions. -Closed-ended questions require a specific answer. ( multiple choice or arithmetic questions) - Used when the analyst is looking for specific, precise information. -Enable analyst to control the interview -Open ended questions: seek a more-wide ranging response from the interviewee. Essay questions on exam. -Designed to gather rich information and give the interviewee more control over the information that is revealed ruing the interview. -Probing questions: Follows up on what has just been discussed in order for the interviewer to learn more. -Interview process begins with unstructured interviews; Interviews that seek a broad and roughly defined set of information. -Two fundamental approaches to organizing the interview questions: -top down: The interviewer starts with broad, general issues and gradually works towards more specific ones. -or bottom up: interviewer starts with very specific questions and moves to broad questions. Analyst has already gathered a lot of information and just needs to fill in some holes with details. 3.) Preparing for the interview: -Should have a general interview plan which lists the questions that you will ask in the appropriate order; anticipates possible answer and provides how you will ask in the appropriate order 4.) Conducting the interview: -Take notes -Ask questions -Facts vs opinions 5.) Post-Interview follow-up: - Analyst needs to prepare an interview report that describes the information from the interview -Report contains interview report

Problem Analysis

- Most straightforward and most commonly used - Asking the users and managers to identify problems with the as-is system and to describe how to solve them in the to-by system. -Tend to be small and incremental -Effective at improving a systems efficiency or ease of use. However it often provides only minor improvements in business value-the new system is better than the old, but it may be hard to identify significant monetary benefits form the new system. -Solutions to problems

Requirements Determination

- Performed to transform the system requests high-level statement of business requirements into a more detailed, precise list of what the new system must do to provide the needed value to the business. -This list is supported, confirmed, and clarified by other activities of the analysis phase: creating use cases and building process and data models.

Duration analysis

- Requires a detailed examination of the amount of time it takes to perform each process in the current as-is system. -Analyst determines the total amount of time t takes on average to perform a set of business processes for a typical input. -Then they time each of the individual steps. -Time to complete the basic steps are totaled and compared with the total for the overall process. Process integration: changing the fundamental process so that fewer people at work on the inout which often requires changing the processes and retraining staff to perform a wider range of duties. -Process paralyzation: Changing the process so that all the individual steps are performed at the same time

Requirement

- Statement of what the system must do or what characteristics it needs to have. -Requirements are written from the perspective of the business and they focus on what the system needs to do in order to satisfy the business user needs. -Concentrate on what the user needs to accomplish with the system in order to fulfill a needed job or task. -Systems functional requirements evolve from understanding how the new system can support user needs. -Functional requirements relates directly to a process the system should perform as a part of supporting a user task and or information it should provide as the user is performing a task. -How the system will support the user in completing the task. -Evolve from broad overall goal statements to detailed statements of the business capabilities that a system should provide to detailed technical statements of the way in which the capabilities will be implemented in the new system

Requirements definition

- Straightforward text report that simply lists the functional and nonfunctional requirements in an outline format. -Requirements identified by numbering. -The requirements are grouped into functional and nonfunctional requirements. -Then within each of those groups they are classified further by the type of requirement or by business area. -Prioritized by high medium or low. Important with RAD methodologies that deliver requirements in batches by developing incremental versions of the system. -Purpose of requirements definition is to provide a clear statement of what the new system should do in order to achieve the system vision described in the system request. -Important purpose: to define the scope of the system. Describes to the analyst exactly what the final system needs to do.

Informal Benchmarking

- Studying how other organizations perform a business process in order to learn how your organization can do something better. Benchmarking helps the organization by introducing idea that employees may never considered, but have potential to add value. -Informal: Common for "customer-facing" business processes those processed that interact with the customer. -Analysts think about other organizations or visit them as customer to watch how the business process is performed.

Document Analysis

- To understand the as is system -Most systems are not well documented. -Most powerful indication that the system needs to be changed is when users create their own form or add additional information to existing ones.

Nonfunctional requirements

-"the quality attributes, design, and implementation constraints and external interfaces which a product must have" -Important behavioral properties the system must have. -Ex: accessing the system through a mobile device - Operational: The physical and technical environments in which the system will operate. -Performance: The speed, capacity, and reliability of the system -Security: Who has authorized access to the system under what circumstances -Cultural political: Legal/ Cultural factors that affect the system. -These characteristic do not describe business processes or information but they are very important in understanding what the final system should be like. -Effective approach is to have both business people and analyst working together to determine requirements. -First task of analyst is to identify the primary sources of requirements, including the project sponsor, project champions, all users of the system. -Analyst must consider how best elicit the requirements from stakeholders

Outcome Analysis

-Focuses on understanding the fundamental outcomes that provide value to customers.

Technology Analysis

-Having the analyst and managers develop a list of important and interesting technologies. Then the group systematically identifies how each and every technology could be applied to the business process and identifies how the business would benefit.

3 Steps/ goals of the analysis phase

-Outline business goals for the new system -Define the projects scope , asses project feasibility, provide the initial work plan - Key inputs to the analysis phase 3 steps 1.) Understand the existing situation (as-is system) - Skipped when no current system exists, if the existing system and process are irrelevant to the future system, or if the project team is using a RAD or agile development methodology in which the as-is system is not emphasized. 2.) Identify improvements - Waterfall and parallel development allot significant time to understanding the as-is system and identifying improvements before moving to capture requirements for the to-be system. -Newer RAD and agile methodologies focus on improvements and the to-be system requirements and little focus on as - is system. 3.) Define requirements for the new system ( the to-be system) - Analyst needs strong critical thinking skills; Ability to recognize strength and weaknesses and recast an idea in an improved form.

Questionnaires

-Set of written questions for obtaining information from individuals. -Commonly used for systems intended for use outside of the organization or for systems with business users spread across many geographic locations. -Selecting participants: Sample, or subset of people are selected who are representative of the entire group. -Designing the Questionnaire: -must be clear; Issues: to have a clear understanding of how the information collected from the questionnaire will be analyzed and used. Must address before you distribute the questionnaire. Administrating the questionnaire: Issue; Getting participants to complete the questionnaire and send it back. Solution: personally handing out the questionnaire and personally contacting those who have not returned them. Questionnaire follow up:

Five most commonly used requirements elicitation techniques

1.) Interviews 2.) JAD sessions 3.) Questionnaires 4.) Document analysis 5.) Observation