Gathering requirements Software Engineering Project Reference:Lec. Sarah A. Alkhudair lecture Slides of SE course, KSU 1

Why User involvement? Requirements Gathering statistics. Ways of Gathering user requirements. One-on-One Interviews. How to Maximize the quality of the data gathered. Next session. 2

 User involvement is invaluable during the requirements- gathering phase of a project: Users' opinions and preferences help shaping the look and flow of an application during the design and coding phases. User training is easier when the application is based on workflow models and scenarios developed with the help of them. In the end, user acceptance helps guarantee the successful adoption of the finished application. 3

In fact, according to some statistics: poor requirements gathering is the cause of about 70% of today's technology project failures. Each badly defined requirement results in: 10 bad design statements which then can multiply out to 100 incorrect coding statements. 4

Surveys (usually for large organizations); On-site workflow observation; One-on-one user interviews; Focus group, Multiple-user sessions; Combinations and variations of all of these. 5

 The most common technique for gathering requirements is to sit down with the clients and ask them what they need.  The discussion should be planned out ahead of time based on the type of requirements you’re looking for.  There are many good ways to plan the interview, but generally you want to ask open-ended questions to get the interviewee to start talking and then ask probing questions to uncover requirements 6

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By understanding the vision, you'll stand a better chance of hitting the target. 9

 An interview is not a conversation; it has structure.  Begin by gathering the strategic information while the contact is fresh and alert in the meeting, and end with the tactical, easy-to-answer questions, such as delivery details.  It must grow out of a set of prepared and insightful questions. Working from a list of questions: ○ allow you to demonstrate progress to the user. ○ let you skip more difficult questions until later in the interview and will help you recap near the end. 10

The interview can be a nerve-racking experience for users, so putting them at ease should be one of your prime concerns. 11

Questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case.

Questionnaire administration modes Main modes of questionnaire administration are: [1] [1] Face-to-face questionnaire administration, where an interviewer presents the items orally. Paper-and-pencil questionnaire administration, where the items are presented on paper. Computerized questionnaire administration, where the items are presented on the computer. Adaptive computerized questionnaire administration, where a selection of items is presented on the computer, and based on the answers on those items, the computer selects following items optimized for the tester's estimated ability or trait.