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Meltem Özturan
www.mis.boun.edu.tr/ozturan/samd

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Determining Systems Requirements

Systems Requirements
The functions that the new system must
perform, i.e.the definition of specifications for
functions to be provided by a system.
Two categories of systems requirements:
1.Functional Requirements
2.Technical Requirements

Determining Systems Requirements

Functional Requirements
A system requirement that describes a function
or process that the systems must support.
• Define what the system is required to do
• Activities the system must perform
• Based on procedures and business
functions
• Documented in analysis models

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Determining Systems Requirements

Technical Requirements
A system requirement that describes an
operating environment or performance objective
• Hardware and software needs of the
organization
• Describes system performance
expectations
• Documented in narrative descriptions of
technical requirements

Determining Systems Requirements

Source of System Requirements – Stakeholders

Primary source of information for functional system
requirements is the stakeholders.
1. Users
2. Client
3. Technical staff

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Determining Systems Requirements

Stakeholders - Users
User roles are identified in two dimensions:
• Horizontal - information flow across
departments
• Vertical - information needs of clerical staff,
middle management, and senior executives

Determining Systems Requirements

Stakeholders - Users
Business Operations Users : Use the system to
perform the day-to-day operations
Query Users : Ask current information from the
system
Management Users : Require statistics and summary
information from a system
Executive Users : Are interested in strategic issues,
as well as the daily issues

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Determining Systems Requirements

Stakeholders - Clients
Person or group who is providing the funding of the
project
Ongoing approval and release of funds can be
maintained by clients.
Project team must provide project status reviews to
the client from time to time.

Determining Systems Requirements

Stakeholders – Technical Staff

Source of many technical requirements.
Establish and maintain the computing environment of
the organization.
Provide guidance in such areas as programming
language, computer platforms, and other equipment
A project team may include a member of the
technical staff or may ask for one on an as-needed
basis.
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Determining Systems Requirements

Identifying System Requirements

Objective of analysis phase is to understand

business functions and develop requirements
Original approach involved modeling of existing
system then the new system
Current approach involves identifying directly the
logical requirements for new system

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Determining Systems Requirements

Requirements Discovery

Includes those techniques to be used by systems

analysts to identify or extract system problems and
solution requirements from the stakeholders.
Fact-Finding is the process of using those
techniques to collect information and is also called
information or data gathering.

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Determining Systems Requirements

Fact-Finding Methods
1. Distribute and collect questionnaires to
stakeholders
2. Review existing reports, forms, and
procedure descriptions
3. Conduct interviews and discussion with
users
4. Observe business processes and workflows
5. Build prototypes
6. Conduct joint application design (JAD)

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Determining Systems Requirements

Fact-Finding Methods
• Question Types
- Close-Ended Questions : Questions that have a simple
definitive answer
- Open-Ended Questions : Questions that require discussion
and do not necessarily have a simple short answer

√ Probes
√ Leading Questions
√ Double-Barreled Questions

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Determining Systems Requirements

Fact-Finding Methods
• Sampling
- Convenience Sampling : Unrestricted, nonprobabilistic,
easiest to arrange and most unreliable
- Purposive Sampling : Based on judgment, nonprobabilistic
and moderately reliable
- Simple Random Sampling : Each entity in the population
has the same chance to be selected - probabilistic
- Complex Random Sampling : Most appropriate for
systems analysis (Systematic Sampling, Stratified
Sampling, Cluster Sampling)

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Determining Systems Requirements

Distribute and Collect Questionnaires to Stakeholders

• Have a limited and specific use in information gathering
• Enable the project team to collect information from a large number of
stakeholders
• Can be used to obtain preliminray insight on the information needs of the
various stakeholders
• Are not well suited for learning about processes, workflows, or techniques.
• Usually include close-ended questions and a very limited number of open-
ended questions
√ Planning for the Use of Questionnaire
√ Designing and Administering the Questionnaire

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Determining Systems Requirements

Review Existing Reports, Forms, and Procedure Descriptions
• A good way to get a preliminary understanding of the processes
• Can serve as visual aids for the interview, and the working
documents for discussion.
Types are:
• Quantitative Documents : They include records used for decision
making, performance reports, records that provide periodic updates
of the business, and data capture forms
• Qualitative Documents : They include memos, signs on bulletin
board or in work areas, corporate web sites, manuals, and policy
hand books
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Determining Systems Requirements

Conduct Interviews and Discussion With Users

• Members of the project team (systems analysts) meet
with individuals or groups of users to understand
business functions and business rules.
• Most time-consuming and resource expensive technique
• Steps of interviewing are :
• Preparing for the interview
• Conducting the interview
• Following up the interview

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Determining Systems Requirements

Conduct Interviews and Discussion With Users

Preparing for the Interview
Steps are as follows:
• Establish the objective of the interview
• Determine which users should be involved in the interview
• Decide on the recording technique of the interview
• Prepare detailed questions to be used in the interview
• Make final interview arrangements and to communicate those
arrangements to all participants
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Determining Systems Requirements

Conduct Interviews and Discussion With Users

Conducting the Interview
Guidelines are as follows:
• Dress appropriately
• Arrive on time
• Limit the time of the interview
• Look for exception and error conditions
• Probe for details
• Take careful notes
• Finalize the interview

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Determining Systems Requirements

Conduct Interviews and Discussion With Users

Following Up the Interview
Steps are as follows:
• Absorb, understand, and document the information that
was obtained
• Review you findings with other project members in the
interview
• Make a list of new questions based on areas that need
more elaboration and/or that are missing information
• Send a thank-you message to the users who participated
in the interview
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Determining Systems Requirements

Observe Business Processes and Workflows
Helps to gain information about decision makers and their
environments that is unavailable through any other method.
Steps are as follows:
- Decide what is to be observed
- Decide at what level of concreteness activities are to be
observed
- Create categories that adequately capture key activities
- Prepare appropriate scales, checklists, and other materials for
observation
- Decide when to observe (time sampling – event sampling)

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Determining Systems Requirements

Build Prototypes
Prototype is a preliminary working model of a larger
system. Prototype used during analysis is to have a
working model to test a concept or verify an approach.
The following characteristics of prototypes help project
members develop effective prototypes:
• Operative (Mock-Up – a final product that is for viewing
only, not executable)
• Focused
• Quick

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Determining Systems Requirements

Conduct Joint Application Design (JAD)

A technique to define requirements or design a system in a
single session by having all necessary people participate
together.
Those involved are:
• The JAD Session Leader
• Users
• Technical Staff
• Project Team Members

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Determining Systems Requirements

Fact-Finding Ethics
During fact finding exercises one may come
across or be analysing information which is
sensitive in nature
• The analyst must take great care to protect
the data they have been entrusted with
• Most computer professional societies such as
ACS have a code of conduct and code of
ethics their members must adhere to and
abide by in the way to conduct business

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Determining Systems Requirements

Fact-Finding Strategy
• Learn all you can from existing documents
• If appropriate, observe the system in action
• Given all the facts that you've already collected,
design and distribute questionnaires to clear up
things you don't fully understand
• Conduct your interviews
(or group work sessions, such as JRP)
• Possibly build discovery prototypes for any
functional requirements that are not understood
• Follow up
• Verify facts
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Determining Systems Requirements

Structured Walkthrough
A review of the findings from your investigation.
Objective is to find errors and problems and
make sure gathered information is correct.
• What and when.
• Who.
• How (preparation, execution, follow-up).

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Determining Systems Requirements

Business Process Reengineering
• Questions basic assumptions for doing
business and seeks to find a better way
• Uses IT as an enabler
• Systems analyst may discover
opportunities for business process
improvement

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