Modern Systems Analysis and Design PDF

Modern Systems Analysis and Design Eighth Edition, Global Edition Joseph S. Valacich Joey F. George Determining System Requirements Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-...

Modern Systems Analysis and Design Eighth Edition, Global Edition Joseph S. Valacich Joey F. George Determining System Requirements Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-1 Learning Objectives ✓ Describe options for designing and conducting interviews and develop a plan for conducting an interview to determine system requirements. ✓ Explain the advantages and pitfalls of observing workers and analyzing business documents to determine system requirements. ✓ Explain how computing can provide support for requirements determination. ✓ Participate in and help plan a Joint Application Design session. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-2 Learning Objectives (Cont.) ✓ Use prototyping during requirements determination. ✓ Describe contemporary approaches to requirements determination. ✓ Understand how requirements determination techniques apply to the development of electronic commerce applications. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-3 Performing Requirements Determination FIGURE 6-1 Systems development life cycle with analysis phase highlighted Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-4 The Process of Determining Requirements ◼ Good Systems Analyst Characteristics:  Impertinence—question everything  Impartiality—consider all issues to find the best organizational solution  Relax constraints—assume anything is possible  Attention to details—every fact must fit  Reframing—challenge yourself to new ways Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-5 Organizational Components to Understand ◼ Business objectives that drive what and how work is done ◼ Information people need to do their jobs ◼ The data (definition, volume, size, etc.) ◼ Existing data movement, transformation and storage processes ◼ Dependencies and sequences ◼ Data handling/processing rules ◼ Business policies and guidelines ◼ Key events Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-6 Deliverables and Outcomes ◼ Deliverables for Requirements Determination:  From interviews and observations ◼ interview transcripts, observation notes, meeting minutes  From existing written documents ◼ mission and strategy statements, business forms, procedure manuals, job descriptions, training manuals, system documentation, flowcharts  From computerized sources ◼ Joint Application Design session results, CASE repositories, reports from existing systems, displays and reports from system prototype Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-7 Traditional Methods for Determining Requirements ◼ Interviewing individuals ◼ Interviewing groups ◼ Observing workers ◼ Studying business documents Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-8 Interviewing and Listening ◼ One of the primary ways analysts gather information about an information systems project ◼ An interview guide is a document for developing, planning and conducting an interview. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-9 Guidelines for Effective Interviewing ◼ Plan the interview.  Prepare interviewee: appointment, priming questions.  Prepare agenda, checklist, questions. ◼ Listen carefully and take notes (tape record if permitted). ◼ Review notes within 48 hours. ◼ Be neutral. ◼ Seek diverse views. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-10 Interviewing and Listening (Cont.) FIGURE 6-2 Typical interview guide Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-11 Interviewing and Listening (Cont.) FIGURE 6-2 Typical interview guide (cont.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-12 Choosing Interview Questions ◼ Each question in an interview guide can include both verbal and non-verbal information.  Open-ended questions: questions that have no pre-specified answers  Closed-ended questions: questions that ask those responding to choose from among a set of specified responses Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-13 Interviewing Guidelines ◼ Don’t phrase a question in a way that implies a right or wrong answer. ◼ Listen very carefully. ◼ Type interview notes within 48 hours after the interview. ◼ Don’t set expectations about the new system unless you know these will be deliverables. ◼ Seek a variety of perspectives from the interviews. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-14 Interviewing Groups ◼ Drawbacks to individual interviews:  Contradictions and inconsistencies between interviewees  Follow-up discussions are time consuming  New interviews may reveal new questions that require additional interviews with those interviewed earlier Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-15 Interviewing Groups (Cont.) ◼ Interviewing several key people together  Advantages ◼ More effective use of time ◼ Can hear agreements and disagreements at once ◼ Opportunity for synergies  Disadvantages ◼ More difficult to schedule than individual interviews Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-16 Nominal Group Technique (NGT) ◼ A facilitated process that supports idea generation by groups ◼ Process  Members come together as a group, but initially work separately.  Each person writes ideas.  Facilitator reads ideas out loud, and they are written on a blackboard or flipchart.  Group openly discusses the ideas for clarification.  Ideas are prioritized, combined, selected, reduced. ◼ Used to complement group meetings or as part of JAD effort Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-17 Directly Observing Users ◼ Direct Observation  Watching users do their jobs  Used to obtain more firsthand and objective measures of employee interaction with information systems  Can cause people to change their normal operating behavior  Time-consuming and limited time to observe Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-18 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents ◼ Document Analysis  Review of existing business documents  Can give a historical and “formal” view of system requirements Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-19 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ 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  Reasons for current system design  Rules for processing data Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-20 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ Useful document: Written work procedure  For an individual or work group  Describes how a particular job or task is performed  Includes data and information used and created in the process Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-21 Analyzing Procedures (Cont.) FIGURE 6-3 Example of a procedure Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-22 Analyzing Procedures (Cont.) FIGURE 6-3 Example of a procedure (cont.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-23 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ Potential Problems with Procedure Documents:  May involve duplication of effort  May have missing procedures  May be out of date  May contradict information obtained through interviews Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-24 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ Formal Systems: the official way a system works as described in organizational documentation (i.e. work procedure) ◼ Informal Systems: the way a system actually works (i.e. interviews, observations) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-25 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ Useful document: Business form  Used for all types of business functions  Explicitly indicates what data flow in and out of a system and data necessary for the system to function  Gives crucial information about the nature of the organization Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-26 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) FIGURE 6-4 An invoice form from Microsoft Excel (Source: Microsoft Corporation.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-27 Analyzing Procedures and Other Documents (Cont.) ◼ Useful document: Report  Primary output of current system  Enables you to work backwards from the report to the data needed to generate it ◼ Useful document: Description of current information system Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-28 Observation vs. Document Analysis Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-29 Contemporary Methods for Determining System Requirements ◼ Joint Application Design (JAD)  Brings together key users, managers, and systems analysts  Purpose: collect system requirements simultaneously from key people  Conducted off-site ◼ CASE tools  Used to analyze existing systems  Help discover requirements to meet changing business conditions ◼ System prototypes  Iterative development process  Rudimentary working version of system is built  Refine understanding of system requirements in concrete terms Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-30 Joint Application Design (JAD) ◼ Intensive group-oriented requirements determination technique ◼ Team members meet in isolation for an extended period of time ◼ Highly focused ◼ Resource intensive ◼ Started by IBM in 1970s Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-31 JAD (Cont.) FIGURE 6-6 Illustration of the typical room layout for a JAD (Source: Based on Wood and Silver, 1995.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-32 JAD (Cont.) ◼ JAD Participants:  Session Leader: organizes and runs JAD session  Users: active, speaking participants  Managers: active, speaking participants  Sponsor: high-level champion, limited participation  Systems Analysts: should mostly listen  Scribe: record session activities  IS Staff: should mostly listen Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-33 JAD (Cont.) ◼ End Result  Documentation detailing existing system  Features of proposed system Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-34 CASE Tools During JAD ◼ Diagramming and form-building CASE tools are used ◼ Enables analysts to enter system models directly into CASE during the JAD session ◼ Screen designs and prototyping can be done during JAD and shown to users Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-35 Using Prototyping During Requirements Determination ◼ Prototyping – an iterative process of systems development in which requirements are converted to a working system that is continually revised through close collaboration between an analyst and users. ◼ 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 Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-36 Using Prototyping During Requirements Determination (Cont.) Figure 6-7 The prototyping methodology (Source: Based on “Prototyping: The New Paradigm for Systems Development,” by J. D. Naumann and A. M. Jenkins, MIS Quarterly 6(3): 29–44.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-37 Using Prototyping During Requirements Determination (Cont.) ◼ Evolutionary prototyping – prototype becomes the basis of the operational system  Prototype needs to be built in order to address the functional needs of the production system (e.g. database processing and coding logic). ◼ Throwaway prototyping – prototype is just a model, discarded after use  Prototype is just a mockup of screens shots an simple functionality, and production system will be built from scratch. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-38 Using Prototyping During Requirements Determination (Cont.) ◼ Most useful when:  User requests are not clear.  Few users are involved in the system.  Designs are complex and require concrete form.  There is a history of communication problems between analysts and users.  Tools are readily available to build prototype. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-39 Using Prototyping During Requirements Determination (Cont.) ◼ 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 Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-40 Radical Methods for Determining System Requirements ◼ Business Process Reengineering (BPR): search for and implementation of radical change in business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in products and services Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-41 Radical Methods for Determining System Requirements (Cont.) ◼ BPR Goals  Reorganize complete flow of data in major sections of an organization.  Eliminate unnecessary steps.  Achieve synergy between steps.  Become more responsive to future change. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-42 Identifying Processes to Reengineer ◼ Key business processes  Structured, measured set of activities designed to produce specific output for a particular customer or market  Focused on customers and outcome  Same techniques as requirements determination are used ◼ Which activities need radical change?  Importance of activity  Feasibility of change  Level of dysfunction of current activity Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-43 Disruptive Technologies ◼ Information technologies must be applied to radically improve business processes. ◼ Disruptive technologies are technologies that enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations from making radical business changes. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-44 Disruptive Technologies (Cont.) Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-45 Requirements Determination using Agile Methodologies ◼ Continual user involvement  Replace traditional SDLC waterfall with iterative analyze–design–code–test cycle ◼ Agile usage-centered design  Focuses on user goals, roles, and tasks ◼ The Planning Game  Based on eXtreme programming  Exploration, steering, commitment Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-46 Continual User Involvement FIGURE 6-9 The iterative analysis–design–code–test cycle Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-47 Agile Usage-Centered Design Steps ◼ Gather group of programmers, analysts, users, testers, facilitator. ◼ Document complaints of current system. ◼ Determine important user roles. ◼ Determine, prioritize, and describe tasks for each user role. ◼ Group similar tasks into interaction contexts. ◼ Associate each interaction context with a user interface for the system, and prototype the interaction context. ◼ Step through and modify the prototype. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-48  The Planning Game from eXtreme Programming FIGURE 6-10 eXtreme Programming’s Planning Game Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-49 Electronic Commerce Applications: Determining System Requirements ◼ Determining system requirements for Pine Valley furniture’s WebStore  System layout and navigation characteristics  WebStore and site management system capabilities  Customer and inventory information  System prototype evolution Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-50 Summary ◼ In this chapter you learned how to: ✓ Describe interviewing options and develop interview plan. ✓ Explain advantages and pitfalls of worker observation and document analysis. ✓ Explain how computing can support requirements determination. ✓ Participate in and help plan Joint Application Design sessions. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-51 Summary (Cont.) ✓ Use prototyping during requirements determination. ✓ Describe contemporary approaches to requirements determination. ✓ Understand how requirements determination techniques apply to the development of electronic commerce applications. Chapter 6 Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Ltd. 6-52