Fact Finding and Requirements

Capture Techniques
Where are facts found?
 Strategic plans
 company accounts –sales orders/purchase orders
 organisation charts
 procedure manuals
 quality documentation
 job descriptions
 schedules
 training manuals
 sales and marketing literature
 etc.
Existing Systems Documentation

 Forms
 Files/Databases
 Records
 Company
Stationery
 Reports
 Memos
 etc.
External to the company
 Essentially background research
 but useful for not looking a complete …..

 Internet
 Journals
 User groups
 Consultants
 Internet
 Newsgroups
 Bias towards the negative
 Web pages
 Bias towards the positive
 Email
 Who?
 Journals
 Trade v general
 Good overview of industry but may not be specific for a
particular company
 Where do you get them from ?
 Library
 Subscription
 Internet
 User groups
 Most widely available products will have an associated
user group network
 Independent ?
 Negative ?
 Consultants
 Specialist in field
 Where to find them
 Computacenter holds a government approval list of firms call
SCAT
 Trade journals
 etc.
 Cost ?
 Really needed ?
 When to use ?
 Process Modelling?
 How data is recorded
 What process there are or required ?
 What it is used for
 and perhaps what it could be used for ?
 Who uses it
 and who wants to
 and why ?
 Value add!
 What additional information could be provided
 and why it isn’t
 Problems
 there should be, it’s the reason you’re there
 Possible solutions
 perhaps not ?
 Are “the users always right” ?
TECHNIQUES-Interviews
 Interviews
 Structured v Unstructured
 Requires Planning -
 Who
 What about
 Advantages
 Flexible (unstructured or semi approach)
 Discovery of data
 Ideal for gaining ideas
 Face to face
 User involvement
 Disadvantages
 Time consuming
 Bias
 Interpretation
Techniques - Focus Groups
 Meetings held with groups of people with something in
common
 Area managers
 Technical support technicians
 Women
 Advantages
 Find out a lot about a certain area of the enterprise in
terms of their part in the procedures and operations
 Disadvantages
 Do not represent the whole view of a process and are
therefore biased
TECHNIQUES-Questionnaires
 Questionnaires
 Questions -
 open ended
 closed
 mix
 Design in the key
 Poor questionnaire, poor results
 No bias questions
 Advantages
 Useful for large volumes
 Geographic split
 Directed
 User involvement
 Disadvantages
 Difficult to design
 Return rate
 And if you’ve missed something
TECHNIQUES - Sampling
 Used in all fact finding exercises
 Used in any type of fact finding Soil
 Water in a swimming pool
 A small sample is taken to represent the whole
 Sampling
 Advantages
 More control owing to smaller numbers.
 Less time
 Disadvantages
 How is the sample chosen?
 Is it really representative?
 Observation
 Covert or Overt?
 Planned or unplanned?
 Must be properly documented
 Advantages
 Advantages -
 Participation
 concentration
 not easy but can sometimes see the obvious
 Disadvantages-
 Detrimental effect
 disturbing normal working practices,
 time consuming
 Fact Finding Plan!
 Need to use time and resources effectively.
 One possible approach follows:
 Use observation to identify useful contacts and important
processes.
 Interview a few carefully chosen personnel
 Follow up on interesting or unclear areas with further
interviews, focus groups or questionnaires.