DIS 390 – Assignment #1

Alternative 1:

1.) Documents/Hard Data

This technique would be suitable in a situation where the collection of quantitative and qualitative data relevant to the current system is used to analyze the needs of the future system. Such a case where this would be necessary would be the implementation of a new electronic inventory ordering system. In such a case, the systems analyst would need to verify all relevant data types including records, reports, and reorder data forms. This quantitative data would show the analyst the manual system currently in place and what information should be required in the new system. The analyst should also analyze any qualitative data such as procedure manuals, memos, and policy handbooks that are relevant to the current inventory system. This information would show the analyst what is supposed to be done in the current system and what is actually being done in the current system. This comparison would allow the analyst to eliminate unneeded information and data gathering with the implementation of the electronic system. With the proper analysis of current documents and hard data an analyst could save a corporation a great deal of money by implementing a strong inventory reordering system.

2.) Interview

This technique would be suitable in a situation where information is collected from a limited sample in a one-on-one basis. An interview is especially useful in analyzing the personal and organizational goals of the interviewee, feelings the interviewee has toward the organization, and the informal procedures used by the various employees. This analysis technique would be especially suitable in the implementation of an ecommerce website from a mail-order corporation. In this situation interviews could be used to speak with various employees about the complaints and praises customers have revealed to them under the current system. The information gathered from this interview would allow the analyst to design a system that would incorporate the strengths of the current system, while focusing to eliminate the weaknesses.

3.) JAD (Joint Application Design)

This technique would be suitable in a situation where a personal interview would be too time consuming or erroneous. A JAD technique is used to cut the time and cost of personal interviews, improve the quality of the analysis, and create a more hands-on approach to collecting data from the interviewees. This technique would be especially useful in designing the user-interface of a new intranet system used by all levels of employees. Because the system will be used by a number of employees, it would be very costly and time consuming to conduct personal interviews. Also, by selecting people from all parts of the organization the analyst will be able to get a number of opinions from different levels of the organization. The interviewees will interact with each other, and the systems analyst, to generate additional ideas and solutions for the project.

4.) Questionnaire

This technique would be suitable in a situation where information needs to be gathered in a short time and the personality of the interview is not needed for the analysis. Questionnaires focus on analyzing and gathering individual attitudes, believes, behaviors, and characteristics. This technique could easily be used to help an analyst decide if it would be worthwhile to implement the office bulletin board into an electronic version after noticing the over-abundance of memos and notices flooding the current system. You could easily come up with questions regarding what types of information most people look for on the bulletin board, and if they feel they would use an electronic version if it were to be implemented on the company website or intranet.

5.) Direct Observation

This technique would be suitable in a situation where first hand and objective information about the decision maker and the office environment is used to analyze the needs of the system. This technique could easily be incorporated in the implementation of a web-based classroom, such as the DIS-300 class which we have discussed. For example, an analyst could observe the current classroom and teaching style of the professor before implementing the virtual classroom. He/She could observe the body language of both the professor and students to assume when students lose concentration or do not grasp the knowledge being taught, and a computerized demonstration would be very helpful. This would allow the analyst to know how the information is currently being presented, and help he/she to improve or continue these techniques with the implementation of the virtual classroom. By directly observing the current classroom and teaching style, the analyst will have a better feel for what is expected in the implementation. Additional techniques could then be used to gather more specific information, such as questionnaires gathering information regarding the students’ presentation preference (i.e. Powerpoint, Excel Tutorial, etc.)

Alternative 2:

1. Documents/Hard Data

Hypothetical Situation:

Your client - a large, publicly listed company in the U.K., has contacted you asking you to conduct a preliminary overview of the company and how it may be able to utilize new information technologies to obtain a competitive advantage. As the chief consultant responsible for the project, you first want to find out where this organization has been and where it is going. Utilizing the Documents/Hard Data technique in requirements analysis, you look at various written documents of the company - including the corporate web-site, mission statement, annual reports, sales and performance reports, company manuals and policy handbooks and any other form of written documentation that you have authorized access to. You look for facts and figures about the company, its financial statements, organizational contexts and document types in order to fulfill this purpose.

2. Interviews

Hypothetical Situation:

As the senior consultant for a project involving a 1 year-old start-up software company, you decide that the company is small enough for you to conduct one-on-one interviews with its staff. Since the start-up is considering your solution of an office-automation software suite to streamline its processes and increase office productivity, you decide on one-on-one interviews with its key people and end users of your product – the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Software Developer and her team of four programmers, the two staff in charge of technical support and the sales and marketing manager who is leading and training a five-member sales team. In preparing for these interviews, you keep in mind that you are seeking the opinions, feelings, goals and informal procedures of your interview subjects. You then structure your interview and design the relevant questions accordingly.

3. Joint Application Development

Hypothetical Situation:

A Taiwanese chip manufacturer is planning to pursue a listing on the NASDAQ in two years. Due to the differences in accounting methods practiced in Taiwan however, the manufacturer’s accounting department would have to convert its financial reports into U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) format in order to comply with SEC regulations. As the chief consultant and change agent in charge of this conversion project, your task is to integrate a GAAP based accounting system into the organization’s existing system, and to ensure that the transition goes smoothly. In conducting the requirements analysis for this project, you decide that the best way to handle this complex conversion is to bring together the key people involved and to work together in a Joint Applications Development fashion. You decide that the key people that would have to work together on this project would include the manufacturer’s controller, chief accounting officer, its team of internal auditors and your team of GAAP conversion accounting experts. Your goal is to bring all these people together to participate in presentations, discussions and consolidation of information so that new solutions to the typical technical hurdles can be found and a joint problem-solving culture within this conversion team can thrive.

4. Questionnaire

Hypothetical Situation:

Your client is a large multi-national corporation with almost a thousand employees scattered across different countries and geographical regions. As the change agent team leader responsible for designing a training program for the end-users of your new web-based ERP system, you would like to gather information on exactly how web-savvy the employees are in each country that the corporation has operations in. You decide that a Questionnaire technique would be appropriate, since you want to gather information from many users in a relatively short amount of time. Your goal is to determine the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and characteristics of each country-specific culture so that each country-assigned change agent within your team can customize and modify the training style or format accordingly.

5. Direct Observation

Hypothetical Situation:

Your client is a large accounting firm considering an upgrade and an improvement of its inter and intra-office communications from a traditional phone and fax system to an integrated Voice and Data Over IP network. As the management consultant of this potentially large contract, you decide that the best way to calculate and present the potential productivity gains to be realized by the conversion is to first utilize Direct Observation of the firm’s existing communication flows. The goal here is to obtain a first hand and objective measure of the staff’s office behavior and their physical environment. By utilizing Direct Observation, you also intend to look for details such as existing office activities, various message flows, relationships between the administrative staff and others and how influential these factors can be on communication efficiency.