CSE1IS Information Systems
Week 4 Lecture 1

Fact Finding Techniques

Data Gathering/Fact Finding Techniques Overview

These are the activities that enable you to gathering information about the organisation, the problems that have led to the system request and the detailed system requirements.

Four basic techniques avaliable to you:

interviewing: allows you to obtain a lot of information from key people
questionnaires/surveys: allows you to obtain information from a lot of people
research/document collection: allows you to find out about formal procedures, organisational structures i.e. the way things are supposed to be done.
observation: allows you to see what actually happens rather than what should be happening

IS professionals must develop the necessary inter-personal skills to carry out these activities.

Data gathering activities occur mainly during the systems planning and the detailed analysis phases of the SDLC.

S.C.&R. specify the answers to 5 questions need to be answered: Who, What, Where, When, How and Why?
They summarise these questions in Fig 3-15:

CURRENT SYSTEM		PROPOSED SYSTEM
Who does it?	Why does this person do it?	Who should do it?
What is done?	Why is it done?	What should be done?
Where is it done?	Why is it done there?	Where should it be done?
When is it done?	Why is it done then?	When should it be done?
How is it done?	Why is it done that way?	How should it be done?

Interviewing

an expensive form of data gathering as it takes time
but an excellent source of qualitive information.
i.e. opinions, informal channels of information flow
(voice tone and body language can also be interpreted)
you need to establish who to interview
- generally only interview people with responsibilities within the system
- use organisation structure charts to find out who are the responsible employees (eg. Fig 3-29)
you need to establish the interview objectives
you must prepare/plan the interview
you must document the interview
you must evaluate the interview

The interviewee and interview objective may vary depending on type of investigation being carried out:

	Systems Planning	Systems Analysis (Requirements Determination)
who?	Top to middle level management.	Lower level management and operational personnel.
objective?	To get an overall view of the problem. Identify organisational structures. Establish who to interview next.	To obtain detailed knowledge of processes and procedures. To determine the information requirements.

Interview planning/preparation

You need to decide what type of information are you seeking from the interview?
These may include things such as opinions, goals (objectives), feelings/attitudes, procedures (how things are done), sample documents.
Sometimes it is useful to carry out some preliminary research prior to the interview.
Read some background material in order to become familar with the organisation, you might be interested in the following
- what is its core business?
- what is its culture?
Inform department head who you are going to interview (and why) eg. Fig 3-18.
Formally arrange a time/place. Brief the interviewee on the sort of things you intend to talk about. This might be done formally (written memo, email) or informally (verbally over the phone). You might suggest that the interviewee brings some relevant documents to the interview.

Structured and Unstructured interviews

structured interviews - everything is planned, the nature and sequence of questions is pre-determined [inexperienced interviewers tend to use this approach].

unstructured interviews - only a general overview of the direction of the interview is determined. Specific questions are asked as they arise. Sample questions may be prepared beforehand, but the order is determined during the interview.

Question types

There are three basic question types:

Open-ended questions:

those that invite opinions, those that allow the interviewee to expand on a point.
eg 'what do you think of .....'
'what is your opinion of ...'
'how could ....... be improved...'
advantages:

Puts the interviewee at ease.
Permits further questioning into areas that were not anticipated during interview planning.
Provides detail.

disadvantages:

interview may get off the track (i.e. the interviewer loses control of the interview)
can be time-consuming, particularly if the interviewer is inexperienced

Closed questioning:

those that generate a specific answer i.e. the possible responses to a question is limited.
eg 'how many employees are in your department?'
'how long have you .......?'
'Which of the following best describes....'
advantages:

makes it easy to compare interviews.
the interviewer is in control.
allows you to get to the relevant data quickly.

disadvantages:

difficult to gauge attitudes/opinions.
makes it difficult to establish a rapport between interviewee and interviewer.
you only get answers to the questions asked so it is difficult to identify and explore unanticipated areas for further questioning.

Range-of-Response questions:

basically closed-ended questions but with a range of possible answers.
eg. a question with an answer on a scale of 1 to 10, or low, medium or high.

Some further hints

Be prepared to ask any follow up questions that may arise, particularly during open questioning. eg 'why?'......'Can you give me an example?..' etc.
Limit notetaking until the confidence of the interviewee is gained.
Listen and don't interrupt.
Avoid yes/no questions.
Don't express your own opinion.
Compliment where possible.
Distinguish between fact and opinion.
At the end draw up a quick summary.

However.....

avoid leading questions ..i.e. questions that invite a reponse the interviewer wants
- e.g. 'you agree with other managers on this point, don't you'
avoid double-barreled questions: i.e. two or more questions in one
- e.g. 'describe how you calculate customer discount and give me your opinion on the relevance of the method'
- there is a danger that you may only get an answer for one of them
avoid paraphrasing other people in your interviews (dobbing in!)
- eg: "Bill Smith stated the current incentives scheme favours females. What do you think?"

Interview Structure

There are three basic interview structures, according to the style of questioning used.

'pyramid' structure
specific to general/broad questioning more closed-ended questioning at the start, open-ended questioning at the end
'funnel' structure
general/broad to specific questioning more open-ended questioning at the start, closed-ended questioning at the end
'diamond' structure
general/broad questioning in the middle, specific questioning at the beginning and the end

or a combination of the above

Interview Evaluation:

ensure that you document the interview by handwritten notes or tape transcript
summarise important points
identify omissions/contradictions . i.e. points for further clarification
confirm interview summaries with the interviewee - perhaps by memo
i.e. 'This is my understanding of ...........'
even get interviewee to sign off the findings of the interview
if necessary, organise a follow-up interview

Questionnaires:

(a good website by Wai-Ching Leung who has some practical advice on questionnaires)

Questionnaires/surveys are useful for determining the attitudes, characteristics, profiles, beliefs from a sample of people
Closed questionnaires questions can be quantified .For example you could say '80% of respondents are supportive of the proposed change...' and so on.
Open-ended questionnaire questions can be also be quantified (although with more difficulty)

Questionnaire item types

open-ended: the respondent gives a written response

the framing of the question is crucial:
eg 'How do you feel about the current system?' may be too broad for comparison or interpretation
whereas
'What are the most frequent problems you have experienced with computer output'
followed by
'Of the problems mentioned above which is the single most troublesome?'
followed by
'Why'
might lead to a restricted set of responses
Also remember to leave enough space (preferably lined) for a response

closed-ended: limits responses to those options presented

tick a box
circle an option
remember always give instruction to the respondent

The use of rating scales

asking the respondent to rate a characteristic, to give an indication of the strength of feeling or attitude to something or to make a judgement about something. eg:


        In my opinion the software vendors are:

        some help       quite helpful     very helpful
           1        2        3        4       5

They must be carefully designed or you may have....

'leniency' problems (the respondent(s) always selects a high rating)
'central tendency' problem (the respondent(s) always selects the centre or average rating)
the 'halo effect' (an impression is formed in one question and influences the rating for the next - particularly if a sequence of questions relate to the one thing)

Generally on questionnaires:

Advantages

cost effective for large numbers of people or people at a distance.
anonymity - may lead to more honest responses.

Disadvantages

takes time to prepare
difficult to follow up replies

Preparation:

presentation - neat, brief, uncluttered
make sequence logical
avoid
- ambiguous questions
- long answer questions
Use a computer for rapid evaluation.
- need closed answer questions.

S.C.&R.'s Fig 3-21 is a good example of a questionnaire.

Verification of Facts:

Need to assess accuracy of information obtained.
Inaccuracies to questions posed by the analyst may be due to ...
- ignorance of subject matter
- misunderstanding of question
- deliberate misinterpretation
Verification methods.
- Cross-checking from 2 or more sources
- Deeper analysis
- Common sense.

Finally....

A thing to remember about questionnaires:: the response rate is always low, unless you administer it personally.

For example:
You might choose to survey the customers of an organisation. If you choose to carry out the survey by mail you can be pretty sure that the response rate will be very low (maybe about 15%). You need to determine whether it is worth the effort. The group who respond may not be representative of the whole customer base.

However, within an organisation, employees can be made to answer if management consider it important!

Observation:

Provides first hand information about HOW activities are carried out.
Important to meet people being observed in advance.