Unit-2 Fact Finding Technique

Requirement Analysis
&
Fact Finding Technique
Introduction:
Requirements analysis in systems analysis and
designing, encompass those tasks that go into
determining the needs or conditions to meet for a
new or altered system.
Requirements Analysis is the process of
understanding the customer needs and expectations
from a proposed system and is a well-defined stage
in the Software Development Life Cycle model.
The Software Requirements Analysis Process
covers the complex task of eliciting and
documenting the requirements of all these users,
modeling and analyzing these requirements and
documenting them as a basis for system design.
Data and Fact finding Techniques:
“The specific methods that an analyst uses for
collecting data about the requirements of the
new system are called Fact finding
techniques. These techniques include
interviews, Group discussions,
questionnaires, observations”
Gathering or collecting the fact is very
important for detailed analysis of a system.
Fact refers to information or data, and fact
Gathering means collective information, that
are necessary for analysis of a system. If we
lack it then it could be very difficult to
develop a perfect system. “fact finding”
means learning as much as possible about
the present system.
There are some techniques to gather
information/facts:-
a. Interviews
b. Questionnaire
c. Group discussion
Interviews:-
“Interviews are formal meetings, where
the analyst can obtain information
about the operations of the present
system and requirements of any planned
system-replacement.”
Interviews are a fact-finding technique
where the system analyst (interviewer)
collects information from individuals
(interviewees). The respondents
(interviewees) are generally current
users of the existing system or potential
users of the proposed system.
The respondent may be managers or
employees of the organization, who can
provide information about the working of
existing system and can explain the
drawbacks of the current system. Although,
interview is the time consuming method. So
we can use different techniques but the
interviews are the best way of fact finding
technique.
Advantages of interviews:-
1. This method can be specially helpful for
gathering information from individuals who do
no communicate effectively in writing.
2. Where interviewer and interviewee meets fact
to face, there is opportunity for greater
flexibility in explaining information.
3. Interviews are the best source of qualitative
information.
3. Interviews allow the analyst to discover areas of
misunderstandings, unrealistic facts.
4. Interviews give the analyst opportunity to observe
the interviewee’s nonverbal communication.
5. Interviews give the analyst an opportunity to
motivate the interviewee to respond freely and
openly.
5. A good system analyst may be able to obtain
information by observing the interviewee’s body
language or movements and facial expressions as
well as by listening to verbal replies to questions.
Disadvantages of Interviews:-
1. It is very time-consuming.
2. It may be sometimes impractical due to
the location of the interviewees.
3. Sometimes it become very difficult and
expensive to collect all interviewees at
one place.
4. Success of interview is highly dependant
on the systems analyst’s human relations
skills.
Types of interviews:-
a. Unstructured
b. Structured
Unstructured Interview: Unstructured

interviews is an approach in which the questions
and the corresponding responses are open-ended.
The interviewer can ask questions which may not
be directly related to the objective.
Conducting unstructured interviews has the
following advantages:
a. Interviewer has greater flexibility in wording
questions to suit the respondent.
b. Unstructured interview may produce information
about areas that were not thought to be
important.
Structured Interviews: In structured
interviews, the interview has a specific set of
questions to ask from the interviewee. All these
questions are prepared in advance and the answers
are noted.
Structured interviews has the following advantages:
a. Structured interview ensure uniform wording of
questions for all respondent.
c. It is also easy to administer and evaluate the
answer.
d.In structured interview, limited interviewer
training is needed, and hence result in completing
the job in much shorter time. However, the cost of
preparation will be much higher.
Structured interviews are further classified into
the following types:
a. Open-ended interview
b. Close-ended interview
a. Open-ended interview: An interview that
posses questions that do not require a specific or
a brief response. Open questions are general
questions that establish a person’s viewpoint on a
particular subject.
“A question that requires the respondent to express
a viewpoint is called an open question”
b. Close-ended Interview: Close-ended questions
are those in which the responses are presented as
a set of alternatives. Closed-ended questions are
more specific and usually require a specific
answer.
“ A question that requires a direct answer to a
question is called a closed question”
Questionnaire:-
it is a structured and formal method of collecting
data. It is special purpose document that allow
the analyst to collect information and opinions
from respondents. It is mainly used when it is
impossible because of time, distance or cost
constraint, to interview all the desired people
involved in a system, then the analyst may
consider the use of a questionnaire.
“ Information is gathered by requesting users to fill
a pre-designed form called Questionnaire”
Questionnaire could be of two types:
Open-ended questionnaire(Unstructured):-
In Open-ended questionnaire, questions are given
without any choice of answer & the user has to
write the answer in their own words on the space
provided. The replies may give insight but
difficult to analyze in systematic way.
Open-ended questionnaire has following
advantages:
1. This method is better to find opinions and

general experiences of the respondents.
2. This type of questionnaire provide ample
opportunity for the respondents to discuss the
reason for their ideas.
Closed-ended questionnaire (Structured):-
In close-ended questionnaire the choice of answer
is given with each question the user has to select
from possible options and the range of answer is
limited. It allows respondents to give a definite
answer.
Ex:
a. Multiple choice question
b. Select on a ranking scale
c. Selection of a rating
d. Fill in the blanks
Closed-ended questionnaire has following
advantage:
1. This method limits the possible responses of the
recipients. It is also the better method for getting
realistic information.
2. The most common form of closed questionnaire
responses are in the form of yes/no,
agree/disagree, range and limited response
selection.
Group communication:-
When information is required from face-to-face
session, but there is no enough time to conduct
personal interviews, then group interviews or
meetings can be held. Since there are more
persons presents, more types of ideas can be
discussed in a short time. Also, the comments of
one person may prompt other persons to
contribute facts which they may have.
Conducting group communication has some
disadvantages:
1. The group may be dominated by a few persons
and others, who may otherwise have something
to contribute, may be shy and not speak up.
2. The situation may lead to a verbal fight between
persons and may need control.
3. Internal politics of an organization may give
false picture.
4. In group discussion persons talk simultaneously
so comments may not be heard or get recorded.

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Requirement Analysis

Unstructured Interview: Unstructured

1. This method is better to find opinions and

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