Tài liệu Module 4: Gathering Information doc

Module 4: Gathering Information


THIS PAGE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK

Module 1: Course
Overview
Module 4: Gathering
Information
Module 5: Analyzing
Information: Use Cases
and Usage Scenarios
Module 6: Analyzing
Information: Rationalizing
Information
Module 7: Presenting
Information
Gathering and Analyzing
Business Requirements
Module 2: Identifying
Business Processes,
Challenges, and Vision
Module 3:
Characteristics of
Information
Information Collection
Techniques
Process of Gathering
Information
Activity 4.2: Gathering

Information
Review
Module 4: Gathering
Information
Module 4: Gathering Information 83



!
!!
!

Overview
"
Information Collection Techniques
"
Process of Gathering Information
"
Activity 4.2: Gathering Information
"
Review
In this module...
In this module...


Now that you have identified the characteristics of the information that you
need to gather about the business challenge and vision statement, you are ready
to look at a process for gathering the actual information. You will use the
information to determine the business and user requirements.
First, you will learn about six techniques that you can use to collect

information. Then you will learn about a general process for gathering
information that you can adapt to meet the needs of a project.
After completing this module, you will be able to:
"
Describe six techniques for gathering information.
"
Identify the information-gathering techniques that are most appropriate for a
given situation.
"
Summarize the major steps that are involved in gathering information.
"
Develop a strategy for gathering information.

Slide Objective
To provide an overview of
the module topics and
objectives.
84 Module 4: Gathering Information



!
!!
! Information Collection Techniques
"
Shadowing
"
Interviewing
"
Focus Groups

"
Surveys
"
User Instruction
"
Prototyping
"
Activity 4.1: Choosing Techniques
In this section...
In this section...


In this section, you will learn about six information-gathering techniques that
you can use to collect information about a business challenge and vision
statement.
Some of the techniques that you will learn about require specific training to use
them effectively. You may not always be the person who actually uses a
particular technique. It is important to know the different techniques that you
can use and when they are appropriate. Another team member may carry out the
actual technique. For example, most surveys require someone who has
knowledge about statistical analysis. A representative of the marketing
department may be able to lend expertise in this area.
In Activity 4.1, you will identify the information-gathering techniques
appropriate for the Ferguson and Bardell, Inc. case study.
Slide Objective
To provide an overview of
the section topics and
activities.
Module 4: Gathering Information 85

Shadowing
"
Passive or active observation of the user
"
Implicit knowledge becomes explicitly known
"
Benefits:
$
Gather information from user perspective
$
Uncover hidden information
"
Considerations:
$
Ask the reasons behind user actions
$
Avoid making assumptions about user actions


Shadowing combines passive observation with active user interviews. It
typically involves an interviewer observing the user’s activities by following
the user through daily tasks. The information you can obtain is firsthand and in
context. At the same time, you encourage the user to explain the intent of his or
her activities in as much detail as possible. As the observer, you can be
passive—simply observing and listening—or active, asking directed questions
as the user offers explanations of events and activities.
Team members observe the user at work and can interrupt at any time to ask
questions. Because you are observing users while they are doing actual work,

they can discuss with you what is happening and why. You can also collect
relevant work artifacts, such as documents and screen shots of software, to use
later in the process.
Throughout shadowing, you can answer the following questions:
"
How do users structure their work?
"
What decisions do users make when completing a task?
"
How does the current implementation determine how users do their jobs?
"
How often does the system interfere with their jobs?
"
How do interruptions impact users? Can users pick up where they left off?
"
How many people do users interact with during a given activity?

In addition to observing, you can ask questions to learn about the user’s intent
and sentiments: why the user performs a task in a certain way, and what
frustrations or satisfaction the user feels at each point in the process.
Slide Objective
To explain shadowing.
86 Module 4: Gathering Information



Example questions that you can ask include:
"
What are you doing? (to facilitate conversation)
"

Is that what you expected? (regarding a system response)
"
What is the purpose for doing this? (to explore process)

Keep the following set of questions constantly in mind:
"
What individual tasks are required by the activities under observation?
• How are they currently done?
• How can they be made more efficient?
• What related tasks might impact the design?
• What system features are needed to support the tasks?
• What are the performance criteria?
• How should the features be structured?
"
How can we improve the current system?
• How do users currently use it?
• What features of the current system do they use often or infrequently?
• What do they like and dislike about the current system?
• How can we reduce training and support costs?
"
What else do we not know about our users?
• What is the user’s working environment like?
• What characteristics/preferences do users have?
• What concepts and terminology do they use?
• What training do they have and what training might they need?

Make sure that you observe and question both management and users. If there
are external customers, include them in some of your observations. External
customers represent the ultimate end users.
It may by difficult to record all of the information when a user performs

activities rapidly. Ask the user to repeat or explain any action as necessary.
Also, some activities are performed only once a month or once a quarter. You
need to ask users about related tasks that they may not do on a daily basis, so
that you do not miss important information.
Finally, a user may have performed an action so many times that they no longer
think about the process. It is important to convince the user to provide explicit
steps for each task.
Module 4: Gathering Information 87



Interviewing
"
Collecting information from an individual by asking a
series of questions
"
Interview multiple individuals in similar functions
"
Benefits:
$
Helps drive the generation of information
$
Encourages follow-up when answers are incomplete
"
Considerations:
$
Requires additional time and resources when
interviewing many people

While shadowing provides an effective means to discover what is currently
being done in an organization, it will not provide all the necessary information.
You will need to gather additional information on management-level activities,
long-lived activities (covering weeks, months, and years), and system-to-system
processes that have little or no human intervention, such as automatic bill
paying services in financial institutions.
An interview is a one-on-one meeting between a member of the project team
and a user or some other stakeholder. The quality of the information a team
gathers depends on the skills of the interviewer and the interviewee. An
interviewer who becomes an ally can learn a great deal about the difficulties
and failings of the present system. Interviews can also be a starting point for
other information-gathering techniques.
Structure questions carefully to avoid asking misleading questions or questions
that ask for more than one item of information.
Interviews provide an opportunity to ask a wide range of questions about topics
that you will not be able to observe through shadowing. Example questions you
can ask include:
"
What problems do you encounter or what help do you need when working
remotely?
"
Do you have special needs that are not documented?
"
What policies in the business help or constrain you from doing your job?
"
What individuals or documents provide critical information that you need to
do your job?
"
Are there hidden users, such as third-party suppliers or support specialists,
who impact your work?

Slide Objective
To define the interviewing
technique for gathering
information.
88 Module 4: Gathering Information



Focus Groups
"
Facilitated session of similar individuals
"
Benefits:
$
Provide detailed and valuable information
$
Provide multiple views
"
Considerations:
$
Smaller groups are more
effective
$
Often limited to qualitative
data


A focus group is a session in which individuals discuss a topic to provide
feedback to a facilitator. Focus groups concentrate on group interviewing
techniques. The participants in a focus group should be representative of the

users or stakeholders associated with the business challenge. You can use this
method in cases in which there are many more users than you can involve
directly in the information-gathering process.
Focus groups allow you to gather detailed information about the activity, but
also allow you to see how an activity fits into the larger picture of a business.
Individuals in a focus group can fill knowledge gaps for one another and
provide a complete picture of a business process.
For example, a focus group with support personnel can determine:
"
Characteristics of the current computing infrastructure that can or cannot be
changed from a business perspective.
"
Upcoming plans for technology that the final product will need to take into
consideration.
"
Security and deployment requirements with which any new solution must
conform to fit into the current computing infrastructure.
"
Current applications and systems, including legacy systems, that need to
interact with a new business solution.
"
The volume of support calls, the major support issues, and the difference in
support between existing applications and new ones.

A focus group with management personnel can help determine:
"
Financial constraints that determine the budget for a project.
"
Planned changes in business processes or the structure of an organization.
"

Future growth in the business or external customers that will affect
scalability.

Slide Objective
To define a focus group.