Analysis and Design of Information

Systems
Analisis dan Perancangan Sistem Informasi (APSI)

Code: KI141320
Semester: 5
credit semester: 3
APSI Teaching Team

Outline
Last
week

Review of last weeks class

Discussion on last weeks assignment
Requirement mapping example

Today
Requirement Elicitation Techniques
Requirement Analysis Strategies

Requirement Elicitation
to elicit:
draw forth or bring out
Call for or draw out

Requirement elicitation:
active effort to extract information from stakeholders and
subject matter experts

Requirement Elicitation

Like Archeology:
Planned and deliberate
search
More proactive less
reactive

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/01/nata-chiefs/img/04-archaeologists-uncover-el-cano-670.jpg

Requirement Elicitation
Techniques

Requirement Elicitation
Techniques
Brainstormin
g

Interview

Observation

Survey /
Questionnaire

Document
Analysis

Prototyping

Interface
Analysis

Process
Modeling

Focus Group

Joint
Application
Design

1. Brainstorming
Produce numerous idea
Can be fun, productive
and motivating
keep
discussio
n in track

Set time limit

Make it visual
Appoint a facilitator
Ideal group size 6-8 people
Establish ground
rule

evaluation criteria for ideas

do not allow criticism
Limit discussion and
evaluation

At the end: use criteria to evaluate ideas

2. Interview

Select people to interview & create a schedule

Design interview questions

(Open-ended, closed-ended, & probing types of
questions)
Prepare for the interview
(Unstructured vs. structured interview organized in a
logical order)
Conduct the interview
(Top-down vs. bottom-up)

Follow-up after the interview

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Type

2. Interview ( Question Types)

Description

Example

Closed-ended To confirm and

question
validate information

How many telephone orders are received per day?

How do customers place order?
What information is missing from the monthly sales
report?

Open-ended
question

To find information
and gaps

What do you think about the current system?

What are some problems you face on daily basis?
What are some of the improvements youd like to see
in a new system?

Probing
question

To dig much deeper,

Follow-up question
when we do not fully
understand a
response

Why?
Can you give me an example?
Can you explain that in a bit more detail?

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2. Interview: Interviewing Strategies

High level:
Very general
Medium-level:
Moderately specific
Low-level:
Very specific

How
can order
processing be
improved?

Top-Down

How can we reduce the

number of times that customers
return ordered items?
How can we reduce the number of
errors in order processing (e.g., shipping
the wrong products)?

Bottom-Up

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2. Interview: Follow up after interview

Prepare notes
send to the
interviewee for
verification

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3. Observation
Study a stakeholder's work
environment
Good when
documenting
current or
changing
processes

Passive/Invisi
ble
observer does
not ask
questions
takes notes
generally
stays out of
the way

May be disruptive

May be time consuming

May not observe all possible scenarios

Be careful not to ignore periodic activities
(weekly, monthly, annually)

Active/Visibl
e

dialog with
the user while
they are
performing
their work

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Efficiently
elicit
information
from many
people

4. Survey / Questionnaire
Have a purpose
Appropriate audience
Establish a timeframe
Clear and concise questions
Focus on business objective
Support with follow-up interviews

Closed ended
questions

Range of possible responses is very well

understood
Easier to analyze

Open ended
questions

Extra detail when the range of response

is not well understood
Harder to analyze and quantify
Use selectively

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4. Survey / Questionnaire: Steps

Select the participants

Identify the
population

Use
representative
samples for large
populations

Designing the
questionnaire

Careful question
selection

Remove
ambiguities

Administering the
questionnaire

Working to get
good response
rate

Offer an incentive
(e.g., a free pen)

Questionnaire follow-up

Send results to
participants

Send a thank-you

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4. Survey / Questionnaire: Good

Questionnaire design
Begin with non-threatening and interesting questions
Group items into logically coherent sections
No important items at the very end
Do not crowd a page with too many items
Avoid abbreviations
Avoid biased or suggestive items or terms
Number questions to avoid confusion

5. Document Analysis

16

Elicit information from existing

documentation (as-is system)
Helpful when subject matter experts are
not available or no longer with the
organization
Use relevant documentation to study and
understand relevant details
Forms | Reports | Policy manuals

business
business
plans
plans

project
project
charters
charters

business
business rules
rules

Contracts
Contracts

Statements
Statements of
of
work
work

Memos
Memos

Emails
Emails

training
training
materials,
materials, etc
etc

To
do !!

Look for user additions to

forms
Look for unused form
elements

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5. Document
Analysis: Example
Look for user additions to
forms
Look for unused form
elements

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6. Prototyping

Visually
represent
the user
interface

Good validation
measure
Great for
interaction
Supports visual
learners

Focus on the whole

solution or just a
specific area
Great for validating
requirements and
uncovering gaps
Be careful: can take lots of
time if stuck in the hows
instead of the whats

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7. Interface Analysis
An interface is a shared boundary between two components.
Most systems require connections with other applications, hardware and peripheral
devices to function properly
Interface types:
user
Interfaces

to and from
external
applications

determining
determining requirements
requirements for
for interoperability
interoperability

to and from
external
hardware/gadget

Interface analysis helps in:

discovering
discovering the
the requirements
requirements needed
needed to
to integrate
integrate software
software into
into its
its new
new
environment
environment
how human beings interact with the system
how applications link to other applications
how hardware links to applications

requirements that define:

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8. Process Modeling
Understand work with multiple steps,
roles, or departments
Initiated by an event
Activities to include
Manual
Automated
Combination of both
Visual nature may help some people

Can become complex and unwieldy

if not structured carefully.
Complex processes should be broken into
their components to aid in understanding

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9. Focus Group
Elicit information from a select group via a
moderator
Very formal process
More structured
Usually has 6-12 attendees

Requires a skilled moderator

Promotes discussion
Asks open questions
Engages all members
Remains neutral

Saves time and cost from not conducting

many individual interviews

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10. Joint Application Design

a.k.a Joint Application Development

Joint user-analyst meeting hosted by a facilitator

10 to 20 users

1 to 2 scribes as needed to record the session

Usually in a specially prepared room

Meetings can be held electronically and anonymously

Reduces problems in group settings

Can be held remotely

Sessions require careful planning to be successful

Users may need to bring documents or user manuals

Ground rules should be established

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10. JAD

involves the system owner and end users

a succession of collaborative workshops called JAD sessions.

Session activities may include:

Task briefing. Provide a clear statement of what the session is to achieve

Problem analysis. Reach a complete understanding of the problem

Product description. Describe the external behaviour of the target system from the user's
point of view

Evaluation. Establish if the requirements are complete correct, consistent and implementable

Summary. Summarise the requirements discovered

The JAD approach leads to shorter development life cycles and greater client
satisfaction because it draws users and information systems analysts together to
jointly design systems in facilitated group sessions.

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Techniques Comparison

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Requirement Analysis
Strategies

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Requirements Analysis
Strategies

Business Process Automation (BPA)

Least amount of change to the current system

Use computer technology to automate some portions

Business Process Improvement (BPI)

Moderate amount of change is required

Designed to improve efficiency of the current system

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Most amount of changea complete makeover

Focus is on the to-be systemlittle time spent on the current system

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Requirement Analysis Strategies

Problem
Analysis

Root Cause
Analysis

Duration
Analysis

ActivityBased
Costing

Informal
Benchmarkin
g

Outcome
Analysis

Technology
Analysis

Activity
Elimination

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Business Process Automation

Problem analysis

Ask users to identify problems with the current system

Ask users how they would solve these problems

Good for improving efficiency or ease-of-use

Root cause analysis

Focus is on the cause of a problem, not its solution

Create a prioritized list of problems

Try to determine their causes

Once the causes are known, solutions can be developed

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Root
Cause
Analysis
Example

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Business Process Improvement

Duration analysis

Determine the time required to complete each step in a business process

Compare this to the total time required for the entire process

Large differences suggest problems that might be solved by:

Integrating some steps together
Performing some steps simultaneously (in parallel)

Activity-based costing

same as duration analysis but applied to costs

Informal benchmarking

analyzes similar processes in other successful organizations

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Business Process Reengineering

Establish maximum change: Out with the old and in with the new

Outcome analysis

Technology analysis

what does the customer want in the end?

apply new technologies to business processes & identify benefits

Activity elimination

eliminate each activity in a business process in a force-fit exercise