1. Systems Analysis Requirements determination Requirements structuring
Alternative generation & selection

2. Performing Requirements Determination
Gather information on what system should do from many sources
Users
Reports
Forms
Procedures

3. Performing Requirements Determination
Characteristics for gathering requirements
Impertinence
Question everything
Impartiality
Find the best organizational solution
Relaxation of constraints
Assume anything is possible
Attention to detail
Every fact must fit in with every other fact
Reframing
View the organization in new ways

4. Deliverables and Outcomes
Types of deliverables:
Information collected from users
Existing documents and files
Computer-based information
Understanding of organizational components
Business objective
Information needs
Rules of data processing
Key events

5. Methods for Determining Requirements
Traditional
Modern
Radical

6. Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements
Individual interviews
Discover issues with the current system and needs for the future
Questionnaires
Observation of workers
See how data are handled and what information people need to do their jobs
Document Analysis
Study business policies and rules

7. Interviews Gather facts, opinions and speculations
Observe body language and emotions
Guidelines
Plan
Checklist
Appointment
Be neutral
Listen
Seek a diverse view

8. Interview Questions Open-ended Closed-ended Advantages
-New info can surface
-Interviewees are at ease and more involved
-Short time commitment
-More topics can be covered
Disadvantages
-Long answers
-Difficult to summarize
-Useful info maybe ignored if it does not fit choices

9. Questionnaires More cost-effective than interviews
Choosing respondents
Should be representative of all users
Types of samples
Convenient
Random sample
Purposeful sample
Stratified sample

10. Questionnaires Design Mostly closed-ended questions
Can be administered over the phone or in person
Can be paper or electronic

11. Direct Observation Serves as a good method to supplement interviews
Often difficult to obtain unbiased data
People often work differently when being observed
Can observe only a limited amount of time, people and sites

12. Analyzing Documents Types of information to be discovered:
Problems with existing system
Opportunity to meet new need
Organizational direction
Names of key individuals
Values of organization
Special information processing circumstances
Rules for processing data

13. The Appropriate Technique?
Characteristic
Interview
Questionnaire
Observation
Document Analysis
Information type
As-is, improvement, to-be
As-is, improvements
As-is
Information depth
High
Medium
Low
Information
breadth
User Involvement

14. Modern Methods for Determining Requirements
Joint Application Design (JAD)
Brings together key users, managers and systems analysts
Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from key people
Conducted off-site
Prototyping
Repetitive process
Rudimentary version of system is built
Replaces or augments SDLC
Goal: to develop concrete specifications for ultimate system

15. Joint Application Design (JAD)
Participants
Session Leader (Facilitator)
Users & Managers
Sponsor
Systems Analysts & IS Staff
Scribe
End Result
Documentation detailing existing system
Features of proposed system

16. Prototyping Quickly converts requirements to working version of system
Once the user sees requirements converted to system, will ask for modifications or will generate additional requests
Most useful when:
User requests are not clear
Few users are involved in the system
Designs are complex and require concrete form
History of communication problems between analysts and users
Tools are readily available to build prototype

17. Prototyping Drawbacks Tendency to avoid formal documentation
Difficult to adapt to more general user audience
Sharing data with other systems is often not considered
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) checks are often bypassed

18. Radical Methods for Determining Requirements
Business Process Reengineering
Search for and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services

19. Analysis Strategies Business Process Automation
Business Process Improvement
Business Process Re-engineering

20. BPR Goals
Reorganize complete flow of data in major sections of an organization
Eliminate unnecessary steps
Combine steps
Become more responsive to future change

21. Business Process Reengineering
Identification of processes to reengineer
Identify key business processes
Set of activities designed to produce specific output for a particular customer or market
Focused on customers and outcome
Same techniques are used as were used for requirements determination
Identify specific activities that can be improved through BPR

22. Business Process Reengineering
To identify activities that can be improved through BPR ask:
How important is the activity to delivering an outcome?
How feasible is changing the activity?
How dysfunctional is the activity?
Ref: Hammer & Champy (1993)
Those activities deemed important, changeable and dysfunctional are candidates for alteration.
Dysfunctional activities:
Info that is redundantly recorded
Excessive inspection
Lot of rework

23. Disruptive Technologies
Rule
Disruptive Technology
Information can only appear in one place at a time
Distributed databases
Only experts can perform complex work
Expert Systems
Managers must make all decisions
Decision support tools for non-managers
Field personnel need offices
Wireless data communication & portable computers
Personal contact is best
Interactive communications
Have to find out where things are
Automatic identification and tracking

24. Results of Requirements Determination
Structured according to three views of the information system:
Process
Data flow diagrams
Logic
Structured English & Decision tables
Data
Data modeling