Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6: SYSTEMS ANALYSIS GATHERING REQUIREMENTS
1. Systems Analysis
It is the process of gathering information about the existing system, which may or may be not be computerized, while identifying the system’s strengths and problems.
2. Information Gathering Techniques:
i. Interviews
ii. Review of documents
iii. Observation
iv. Questionnaires
v. Joint Application Design
vi. Prototyping
3. Interviews
- Interview reveals information about the interviewee opinions and feelings about the existing state of the system, organizational and personal goals and informal procedures
- Four steps in an interview preparation:
i. Read the background materials to establish the interview objectives
ii. Decide who to interview
iii. Prepare the interview
iv. Decide on question type and structure
- Types of interview
i. Structured
ii. Unstructured
- Advantages of interview:
i. Get to meet the persons involved in the system thereby establishing rapport with them
ii. Can get more information if asked correctly
- Disadvantages of interview:
i. Time consuming
ii. Costly than others
4. Review of documents
- Reviewing such documentation can reveal to you how the existing system should work.
- By reviewing documentation, you can conduct more effective interviews with managers and users
5. Observation
- Allows you to gain information that you cannot get by any other information gathering techniques
- It is powerful because it enables you to see the reality of a situation rather than listening to others describe it in an interview
6. Questionnaires
- These are used when there are a large number of users
- Advantages: Cheaper & quicker
- Disadvantage: Difficulties in setting the questions that are clear to the user.
7. Joint Application Design
- It is an information gathering technique that allows a systems development team, users and management to work together in a highly focused workshop to identify requirements for the systems.
- Advantages:
i. Shortening of the time it take to complete a project
ii. Improves the quality of the final system by focusing on the up-front portion of the systems development life cycle
iii. Reduces the likelihood of errors that are expensive to correct later on.
8. Prototyping
- Prototype is a model of a proposed system, it is an approach where a version of the proposed system is quickly built and repeatedly modified based upon the reactions of users as they try put the prototype.
- Stages of prototyping:
i. Agree approximately what is needed
ii. Build something quickly which looked like what is wanted
iii. Test it & see if it does what the user wants
iv. Use it in a representative environment.
v. Adapt and develop the prototype based on the experience and information gained from its use.
- Advantages:
i. Improving information gathering process
ii. Improve relationship between systems development team and users
iii. Better identification of systems problems
iv. Helps to ensure quality in the eventual system.
- Disadvantages:
i. Potential cause of conflict between departments that want different things from the system.
ii. End users may mistakenly think that the actual system can be designed and developed at the same speed.
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