Chapter 3:

Requirements
Determination

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 Learning Objectives
• Learn how to create a requirements definition
• Learn various requirements analysis techniques
• Learn when to use each requirements analysis techniques
• Learn how to gather requirements using interviews, JAD
sessions, questionnaires, document analysis & observation
• Learn various requirements documentation techniques such as
concept maps, story cards & task-lists
• Understand when to use each requirements-gathering technique
• Be able to begin the creation of a system proposal

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 Introduction
 The systems development process transforms the existing (as
is) system into the proposed (to be) system

 Requirements determination
 The single most critical step of the entire SDLC
 Changes can be made easily in this stage
 Most (>50%) system failures are due to problems with
requirements
 The iterative process of OOSAD is effective because:
 Small batches of requirements can be identified and implemented
incrementally
 The system will evolve over time

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 Requirements Determination
 Purpose: to convert high level business requirements (from
the system request) into detailed requirements that can be
used as inputs for creating models
 What is a requirement?
 A statement of what the system must do or a characteristic it
must have
 Will later evolve into a technical description of how the system
will be implemented
 Types:
 Functional: relates to a process or data
 Non-functional: relates to performance or usability

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 Requirements Definition
 Functional & non-functional requirements listed in outline
format
 May be prioritized
 Provides information needed in subsequent workflows
 Defines the scope of the system

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Sample of Requirements Definition

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 Determining Requirements
 Business & IT personnel need to collaborate
 Strategies for problem analysis:
 Root cause analysis
 Duration analysis
 Activity-based costing
 Informal benchmarking
 Outcome analysis
 Technology analysis
 Activity elimination

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 Determining Requirements
 Requirements are best determined by systems analysts and
business people together
 Techniques for identifying requirements
 Interviews, questionnaires and/or observation
 Joint application development (JAD)
 Document analysis

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 Creating a
Requirements Definition
 Determine the types of functional and non-functional
requirements applicable to the project
 Use requirements-gathering techniques to collect details
 Analysts work with users to verify, change and prioritize
each requirement
 Continue this process through analysis workflow, but be
careful of scope creep
 Requirements that meet a need but are not within the current
scope can be added to a list of future enhancements

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 Problems in
Requirements Determination
 Analyst may not have access to the correct users
 Requirements specifications may be inadequate
 Some requirements may not be known in the beginning
 Verifying and validating requirements can be difficult

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Requirements Analysis Strategies
 Problem analysis
 Ask users to identify problems with the current system
 Ask users how they would solve these problems
 Good for improving efficiency or ease-of-use
 Root cause analysis
 Focus is on the cause of a problem, not its solution
 Create a prioritized list of problems
 Try to determine their causes
 Once the causes are known, solutions can be developed

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 Requirements Analysis
Strategies(Cont.)
 Duration analysis
 Determine the time required to complete each step in a business process
 Compare this to the total time required for the entire process
 Large differences suggest problems that might be solved by:
 Integrating some steps together
 Performing some steps simultaneously (in parallel)

 Activity-based costing
 Same as duration analysis but applied to costs

 Informal benchmarking
 Analyzes similar processes in other successful organizations

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 Requirements Analysis
Strategies(Cont.)
 Outcome analysis
 What does the customer want in the end?
 Technology analysis
 Apply new technologies to business processes & identify
benefits
 Activity elimination
 Eliminate each activity in a business process in a “force-fit”
exercise

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 Requirements Gathering
Techniques
 Process is used to:
 Uncover all requirements (those uncovered late in the process
are more difficult to incorporate)
 Build support and trust among users
 Which technique(s) to use?
 Interviews
 Joint Application Development (JAD)
 Questionnaires
 Document analysis
 Observation

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 Interviews
 Most popular technique—if you need to know something,
just ask
 Process:
 Select people to interview & create a schedule
 Design interview questions (Open-ended, closed-ended, &
probing types of questions)
 Prepare for the interview (Unstructured vs. structured interview
organized in a logical order)
 Conduct the interview (Top-down vs. bottom-up)
 Follow-up after the interview

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 Question Types

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 Interviewing Strategies
Top-down

How
High-level: can order
Very general processing be
improved?

Medium-level: How can we reduce the

Low-level: How can we reduce the number of

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 Post-Interview
 Prepare notes and send to the interviewee for verification

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 Joint Application Development
(JAD)
 Joint user-analyst meeting hosted by a facilitator
 10 to 20 users
 1 to 2 scribes as needed to record the session
 Usually in a specially prepared room
 Meetings can be held electronically and anonymously
 Reduces problems in group settings
 Can be held remotely
 Sessions require careful planning to be successful
 Users may need to bring documents or user manuals
 Ground rules should be established

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 Questionnaires
 A set of written questions used to obtain information from
individuals
 May be paper based or electronic (e.g., web based)
 Common uses:
 Large numbers of people
 Need both information and opinions
 When designing for use outside the organization (customers,
vendors, etc.)
 Typical response rates: < 50% (paper); < 30% (Web)

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 Questionnaire Steps
 Select the participants
 Identify the population
 Use representative samples for large populations
 Designing the questionnaire
 Careful question selection
 Remove ambiguities
 Administering the questionnaire
 Working to get good response rate
 Offer an incentive (e.g., a free pen)
 Questionnaire follow-up
 Send results to participants
 Send a thank-you

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 Good Questionnaire Design
 Begin with non-threatening and interesting questions
 Group items into logically coherent sections
 No important items at the very end
 Do not crowd a page with too many items
 Avoid abbreviations
 Avoid biased or suggestive items or terms
 Number questions to avoid confusion
 Pretest to identify confusing questions
 Provide anonymity to respondents

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 Document Analysis
 Provides information about the “as-is” system
 Review technical documents when available
 Review typical user documents:
 Forms
 Reports
 Policy manuals
 Look for user additions to forms
 Look for unused form elements

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 Observation
 Users/managers often don’t remember everything they do
 Checks validity of information gathered in other ways
 Behaviors may change when people are watched
 Workers tend to be very careful when watched
 Keep a low profile
 Try not to interrupt or influence workers
 Be careful not to ignore periodic activities
 Weekly … Monthly … Annually

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 Requirements-Gathering
Techniques Compared
 A combination of techniques may be used
 Document analysis & observation require little training; JAD
sessions can be very challenging

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 Alternative Techniques
 Concept Maps
 Represent meaningful relationships between concepts
 Focus individuals on a small number of key ideas
 User Stories, Story Cards & Task Lists
 Associated with agile development methods
 Very low tech, high touch, easily updatable, and very portable
 Captured using story cards (index cards)
 Capture both functional and nonfunctional requirements.

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 Story Cards & Task Lists
 Capture requirement using story cards (index cards)
 File card with single requirement
 Each requirement (card) is discussed
 How much effort is required to implement it
 A task list is created for each requirement (story)
 Large requirements can be split into smaller sections
 The story can be prioritized by risk level and importance

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 The System Proposal
 Combines all material created in planning & analysis
 Included sections:
 Executive summary
 Provides all critical information is summary form
 Helps busy executives determine which sections they need to read
in more detail
 The system request
 The workplan
 The feasibility analysis
 The requirements definition
 Current models of the system (expected to evolve)

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 System Proposal Template

PowerPoint Presentation for Dennis, Wixom, & Tegarden Systems Analysis and Design with UML, 5th Edition
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 Summary
 Presented in this chapter:
 Discussion of functional and non-functional requirements
determination
 Requirements analysis strategies
 problem analysis, root cause analysis, duration analysis, activity-
based costing analysis, informal benchmarking analysis, outcome
analysis, technology analysis and activity elimination
 Requirements gathering techniques
 Interviews, joint application development, questionnaires,
document analysis and observation
 Alternative requirements documentation techniques
 concept maps, story cards and task lists
 The system proposal

PowerPoint Presentation for Dennis, Wixom, & Tegarden Systems Analysis and Design with UML, 5th Edition
Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.