One traditional technique for determining systems requirements during analysis is the
Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM). This technique is a waterfall
methodology that involves breaking down a system into smaller components to understand
its requirements. It is a well-established approach that can be useful when working with
large, complex systems. However, its rigidity can make it difficult to adapt to changing
requirements. A contemporary technique for determining systems requirements is Agile
development. This approach involves iterative development and continuous feedback from
stakeholders. It is useful when dealing with uncertain or rapidly-changing requirements, but
can be challenging for larger, more complex systems that require a more structured
approach. A radical technique for determining systems requirements is Design Thinking.
This approach involves empathizing with users, defining their needs, ideating possible
solutions, prototyping, and testing. It is useful when working with complex systems that
require a deep understanding of user needs. However, it can be time-consuming and may not
be appropriate for all types of systems. Each technique has its own drawbacks. SSADM can
be inflexible and slow to adapt to changing requirements. Agile development can be
challenging to manage and may not be appropriate for all types of systems. Design Thinking
can be time-consuming and may not be feasible for all projects. To decide which technique
to use, it is important to consider the specific requirements of the project and the
stakeholders involved. Factors such as project size, complexity, and timeline should also be
taken into account. Ultimately, the chosen technique should be one that aligns with the
project goals and can effectively meet the needs of stakeholders. There are different ways to
determine system requirements during the analysis phase of SDLC. One traditional ways is
the interview. You can schedule interviews with people within the company that may have
information you need to determine system requirements. During the interview you will ask
closed ended questions (questions where you need simple facts), open ended questions
(questions that may require an explanation or longer response), and probing questions
(questions that come up while the interviewee is talking to get more clarification). After the
interview the analysts will prepare an interview report. This is a useful tool that sums up the
information collected in the interviews. Another information gathering technique is JAD
(Joint Application Development) this allows the project team, users, and management o
work together in creating the requirements of a system. This technique could be beneficial
having everyone conversing in one room in a perfect world. However, there will be people
who will not take other people's opinions seriously and there will be those who are afraid to
speak up when people who out rank them are in the room. JAD also offers a nontraditional
way of determining requirements called e-JAD. E-JAD uses software on a computer in the
company's network to allow ideas to be submitted anonymously. If I were the analyst and
had to choose I would choose e-JAD because people tend to speak more freely when it's
anonymous and it can also help free you up from your own biased that may make you hear
more of what one person has to say over the other. A traditional technique for determining
system requirements is collecting information about the current system and what is needed
for improvements. For example, does it need to be improved for currency or organization?
The best way is to talk to the directly or indirectly involved in different parts of the
organizations. The only downfall will be the time it would take to interview each person
about the concerns.
A contemporary technique would be the Joint Application Design to collect system
requirements from key people involved with the system in one place. This process could
take from 4 hours to a week. It needs to be in a separate location from the company. It could
get costly.
A radical technique would be Business Process Reengineering, a process where a current
method is replaced with radically new ways. Not only improving the business process but
reorganizing the complete data flow in significant sections by eliminating unnecessary steps.
The disadvantages of Business Process Reengineering are that the process is lengthy and
costly, and many companies need more patience and money to go that route.
The technique I suggest is the Joint Application Design because it is teamwork between the
company and client and makes the process go by faster. During system analysis, various
techniques can be used to determine the requirements of a system. Three common
techniques are traditional, contemporary, and radical approaches.The traditional approach to
determining system requirements involves gathering information through questionnaires,
interviews, and surveys. This technique relies on the experience of stakeholders and experts
in the field to identify system requirements. The contemporary approach involves gathering
requirements through user observation and user feedback. This technique relies on user
experience and direct feedback to identify system requirements. Finally, the radical approach
involves challenging traditional assumptions and questioning the status quo. This technique
encourages creativity and innovation in identifying system requirements.
Each technique has its strengths and weaknesses. The traditional approach is useful when
stakeholders have a clear idea of their needs, but it can be limiting when it comes to
discovering new or unexpected requirements. The contemporary approach is useful when
trying to identify requirements that will improve the user experience, but it may not capture
the full scope of system requirements. The radical approach is useful when there is a need to
challenge existing assumptions and think outside the box, but it can be difficult to
implement and may not be suitable for all types of projects.
When deciding which technique to use, it is important to consider the project's goals,
resources, and stakeholders. A project that requires quick implementation may benefit from
the traditional approach, while a project with a focus on user experience may benefit from
the contemporary approach. A project that requires innovation and new ideas may benefit
from the radical approach. Ultimately, the chosen technique should align with the project's
goals and objectives. I think interviewing is most useful when you hardly have any other
way to gather information about the functions of the business system.
Strengths:
Interviewee can respond freely and openly to questions.
Interviewee can be asked for more feedback.
Questions can be adapted or reworded for each individual.
Interviewee's nonverbal communication can be observed.
Drawbacks:
Very time-consuming, and therefore costly, fact-finding approach.
Success is highly dependent on the systems analyst's human relations skills.
May be impractical due to the location of interviewees.
JAD Joint application development (Contemporary)
Joint Application Development is most likely the best option when you are working on
system that requires you to work as a team and involve others.
Strengths:
Understand multiple perspectives at once.
Have user feedback while documentation is being made.
Drawbacks:
Facilitator required.
Can take valuable time from other work.
Coordination required and group issues arise.
Business Process Reengineering (Radical)
BPR should be used when the business system is no longer meeting requirements or found
to be inefficient.
Strengths:
Business performance, making processes more efficient boosting productivity, and employee
morale.
Motivation in employees, which then results in job satisfaction.
Drawbacks:
Costly Process.
Long-Term process.
Requires proper training.
How would I decide which technique to use:
I enjoy working with people. Due to the nature of work that I do, I believe that involving
others makes them feel as though their opinion matters and that ideas should be challenged
and voted on esp. when money and time and so many things are a factor in creating a
successful process.
Therefore, JAD is probably the route I would go.
The first technique I will talk about is a traditional technique. This technique is called
Interviewing and listening. This technique requires one to talk to users, mainly, individually
and sometimes as a group to discover their views about the current systems. It also involves
preparing an interview outline and guide before said interviews. This technique is most
useful when very few people are involved or when a more personal method is needed. While
there are are some advantages there are also some disadvantages. Those being long
preparation times and the amount of time and money it takes to conduct each interview. The
second technique is a radical technique called business process reengineering. This
technique involves the extreme redesign of core processes to achieve improvements in
productivity and quality. It coordinates and integrates several functions immediately, reduces
the number of checks and reconciliation processes and eliminates unnecessary activities and
in return helps in reducing organizational complexity. However the advantages also come
with disadvantages of course. The first being that the efficiency of one department may be
improved at the expense of the overall process, the second is that it may require a very large
investment in IT along with almost perfect planning, amazing teamwork and flawless
implementation.
If one wanted to use the interviewing and listening technique they would have to be
prepared to spend a lot of time doing interviews about the systems . They should also use
this technique if the system they are studying requires a lengthy explanation to the
participants. They would want to use the BPR technique if they already have stable systems
but wish to lower the costs and cycle times and/or Improve the quality of said systems.
When it comes to traditional technique its a process that is taken step by step, which in most
cases is good, as it allows for thorough planning and analysing but its downfall is it may
take a little longer to complete the same goal. Where as other methods may be a little more
fast paced as it makes it easier to complete the goal but with a better product, but the
downfall of the other methods may be something could get missed, even though it is
constantly evolving. Thinking about it like the Cyberpunk game, it came out not ready,
people thought it was a terrible game, because it was not finished and they decided to go
through with it, after a few updates and patches everything got fixed that was an issue, but
was a big game then lost its interest, so it may be a risky move.Radical techniques are
similar to what I had described above about the Cyberpunk game, as it is a game that was
underdeveloped before it reached the consumer, then when it had gotten fixed, all interest
was lost in the game, radical development techniques are just a risky move sometimes,
which is because if something does get "hyped up" per say, you are looking at a group of
people that were so happy to recieve the game and then it destroys the whole value of the
game at the time. Same thing for any apps. A company could have a good reputation for
producing good apps, but it could have flaws as the company plans to continuously develop
and change, which in otherwords, makes it harder on the company to bounce back not
producing something worth peoples time.
I would decide what technique to use depending on the situation. Games, that is a traditional
style, that is because people are willing to wait on a game, when it comes to businesses,
sometimes rolling out something that has ever evolving updates and people use on a daily
basis, that is something where a radical technique would come in handy, because O365 is a
great program, it is an evolving system, and lots of people are growing on it. This program
needs continuous development to help ease the customer on usability and effort.
Interviewing and Listening
Interviewing is one of the traditional ways analysts gather information about an information
systems project. Early in a project, an analyst may spend a large amount of time
interviewing people about their work, the information they use to.
Advantages:
• Interview is a flexible tool.
• It offers a better opportunity rather than the questionnaire to evaluate the validity of the
information gathered.
• It is an effective technique for eliciting information about complex subject.
• It is easy to discover key problem by seeking opinions.
• Many people enjoyed being interviewed.
Disadvantages:
• Long preparation time
• Take a lot of time and money to conduct.
Recommendation for use: Interviews are also useful when the topic you are studying is
rather complex, when whatever you plan to ask requires lengthy explanation, or when your
topic or answers to your questions may not be immediately clear to participants who may
need some time or dialogue with others to work through their responses to your questions.
Joint Development Application (JAD) (Contemporary Method)
Is a very common technique in business analysis world. It brings system developers and
users together in a productive and creative environment through a structured approach that
involves discussion groups with the goal to obtain requirements and specifications.
Advantages
• JAD allows you to resolve difficulties more simply and produce better, error-free software.
• The joint collaboration between the company and the clients lowers all risks.
• JAD reduces costs and time needed for project development.
• Well-defined requirements improve system quality.
• Due to the close communication, progress is faster.
• JAD encourages the team to push each other to work faster and deliver on time.
Disadvantages
• Different opinions within the team make it difficult to align goals and maintain focus.
• Depending on the size of the project, JAD may require a significant time commitment.
Recommendation for use: the following list of conditions will help you decide when the use
of JAD may be fruitful. Consider using joint application design when:
• User groups are restless and want something new, not a standard solution to a typical
problem.
• The organizational culture supports joint problem-solving behaviors among multiple levels
of employees.
• Analysts forecast that the number of ideas generated via one-on-one interviews will not be
as plentiful as the number of ideas possible from an extended group exercise.
• Organizational workflow permits the absence of key personnel during a two-to-four-day
block of time.
Business process reengineering methodology (Radical)
The traditional definition is that Business Process Reengineering Methodology involves the
radical redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in
productivity, cycle times and quality.
Advantages:
• It gives an appropriate focus to business as it revolves around customer needs.
• BPR helps in building a strategic view of operational procedures by making radical
inquiries about how processes are improved and how things could be done.
• It eliminates unnecessary activities and thereby helps in reducing organizational
complexity.
• It coordinates and integrates several functions immediately.
• Provides improved viability and adequacy to an organization by eliminating delay and
unessential phases of operations and management.
• Reduced number of checks/controls and reconciliation processes.
• It helps overcome short-sighted approaches that usually emerge from excessive
concentration on functional boundaries.
Disadvantages:• It doesn't suit every business need as it depends on factors like size and
availability of resources. It usually benefits large organizations.
• In some cases, the efficiency of one department was improved at the expense of the overall
process.
• This BPR approach does not provide immediate resolution. It concentrates significantly
upon long haul income collaborations of a business which not only takes some effort to take
shape but are hard to gauge as well.
• It might require a substantial investment in IT along with proper planning, fantastic
teamwork, and exceptional implementation.
• It can replace humans when it comes to getting the job done error-free hence posing as a
real threat to jobs.
Recommendation for use:
Majority of business use Business process reengineering method if they want to:
• Reduce costs and cycle times.
• Improve quality.
