Deck 6: Fact-Finding Techniques for Requirements Discovery

Question 1

Preliminary investigation includes those techniques used by systems analysts to identify or extract system problems and solution requirements from the user community.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

System requirements that specify what the information system must do are referred to as functional requirements.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Another name for a system requirement is business requirement.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Failure to correctly identify system requirements can lead to higher maintenance costs over the life of the system..

Question 5

System requirements that specify a property or quality the system must have are frequently referred to as functional requirements.

Question 6

The purpose of requirements discovery and management is to correctly identify the knowledge, process and communication requirements for the users of the new system.

Question 7

Based on Boehm's findings, an erroneous requirement that goes undetected and unfixed until the operations phase may cost 1,000 times more than it would have cost if it were detected and fixed in the requirements phase.

Question 8

Requirements discovery consists of the following activities: (1) problem discovery and analysis;
(2) requirements discovery; (3) documenting and analyzing requirements; and (4) requirements management.

Question 9

The Ishikawa diagram is often referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram or a fishbone diagram.

Question 10

Fact-finding is the formal process of using research, interviews, questionnaires, sampling and other techniques to collect information about problems, requirements, and preferences.

Question 11

Another name for fact-finding is information gathering.

Question 12

Another name for fact-finding is a non-functional requirement.

Question 13

A requirements definition document should consist of the following: (1) functions and services that the system should provide; (2) nonfunctional requirements including the system's features, characteristics, and attributes; (3) constraints that restrict the development of the system or under which the system must operate; and (4) information about other systems the system must operate.

Question 14

Requirements validation checks the requirements definition document for accuracy, completeness, consistency, and conformance to standards.

Question 15

Requirements validation checks the systems proposal for the inclusion of data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams for all of the requirements.

Question 16

Requirements management is the process of managing change to the requirements.

Question 17

Sampling is the activity of sampling the requirements from the requirements definition to insure requirements validation.

Question 18

Randomization is a sampling technique characterized as having no predetermined pattern or plan for selecting sample data.

Question 19

Randomization is a sampling technique that attempts to reduce the variance of the estimates by spreading out the sampling and by avoiding very high or low estimates.

Question 20

Stratification is a sampling technique characterized as having no predetermined pattern or plan for selecting sample data.

Question 21

Observation is a fact-finding technique wherein the systems analyst either participates in or watches a person perform activities to learn about the system.

Question 22

Work sampling is a fact-finding technique that involves a large number of observations taken at random intervals.

Question 23

Questionnaires are documents that allow the analyst to collect information and opinions from respondents.

Question 24

An advantage of a questionnaire is that it can be answered quickly.

Question 25

An advantage of a questionnaire is that it provides a relatively inexpensive means for gathering data from a large number of individuals.

Question 26

A disadvantage of a questionnaire is its high cost of gathering data from a large number of individuals.

Question 27

A disadvantage of a questionnaire is that responses take a long time to tabulate.

Question 28

An advantage of a questionnaire is that responses can be tabulated and analyzed quickly.

Question 29

An advantage of questionnaire is that the number of respondents is generally high.

Question 30

An advantage of observation is that it tends to let the analyst observe the normal volume and difficulty of work.

Question 31

An advantage of questionnaires is their flexibility.

Question 32

A disadvantage of questionnaires is their inflexibility.

Question 33

A disadvantage of a questionnaire is that the analyst cannot observe and analyze the body language of the respondent.

Question 34

A disadvantage of a questionnaire is that there is no immediate opportunity to clarify a vague or incomplete answer to any question.

Question 35

An advantage of a questionnaire is that good questionnaires are easy to prepare.

Question 36

A disadvantage of a questionnaire is that good questionnaires are very difficult to prepare.

Question 37

An advantage of observation is that it is relatively inexpensive compared to other fact-finding techniques.

Question 38

Questionnaires allow individuals to maintain their anonymity.

Question 39

Interviews are a fact-finding technique whereby the systems analysts collect information from individuals through face-to-face interaction.

Question 40

The personal interview is generally recognized as the most important and most often used fact-finding technique.

Question 41

Interviewing is a costly fact-finding approach.

Question 42

Interviewing can be used to achieve any or all of the following goals: find facts; verify facts; clarify facts; generate enthusiasm; get the end-user involved; identify the requirements; and solicit ideas and opinions.

Question 43

The purpose of the Ishikawa diagram is to explore the causes and effects of problems.

Question 44

Typically an Ishikawa diagram is filled out in a brainstorming session.

Question 45

Interviewing is a very time consuming process.

Question 46

An advantage of an interview is that it permits the analyst to adapt or reword questions for each individual.

Question 47

A disadvantage of an interview is that the interview guide does not permit the analyst to adapt or reword questions for each individual.

Question 48

An advantage of an interview is that it gives the analyst the opportunity to observe the interviewee's non-verbal communication.

Question 49

An advantage of interviewing is that is less time-consuming than questionnaires, and therefore less costly as a fact-finding approach.

Question 50

Interviewing is highly dependent on the systems analyst's technical skills.

Question 51

An important interviewing skill is to be able to control the time consumed by the interview by diplomatically cutting off answers that seem to be leading nowhere.

Question 52

A disadvantage of interviewing is that it may be impractical due to the location of the interviewees.

Question 53

Unstructured interviews are conducted with only a general goal or subject in mind, and with few, if any, specific questions. The interviewer counts on the interviewee to provide a framework and direct the conversation.

Question 54

Unstructured interviews are conducted with a specific set of free-format questions to ask the interviewee.

Question 55

In structured interviews, the interviewer has a specific set of questions to ask the interviewee.

Question 56

In structured interviews, the interview is structured by the interviewee, not the interviewer.

Question 57

Open-ended questions allow the interviewee to respond in any way that seems appropriate.

Question 58

Closed-ended questions restrict answers to either specific choices or short, direct responses.

Question 59

The following is an example of an open-ended question: "What do you need the new system to do?"

Question 60

An interview guide is a list of specific questions the interviewer will ask the interviewee.

Question 61

To help maintain control of the interview, an interviewer should dress more formally that the interviewee.

Question 62

An interview question should be long and complex enough to cover all points for which an interviewer wants answers.

Question 63

To help set the context of a question, it is best to give your own opinion to preface asking a question of an interviewee.

Question 64

The higher the management level of the interviewee, the more time should be scheduled for the interview.

Question 65

Interviewers should prepare an interview guide in advance and not skip any of the planned questions.

Question 66

If you cannot interview someone in person, a telephone or e-mail interview will work just as well.

Question 67

The interviewer should avoid interrupting with a lot of "uh-huh's."

Question 68

To establish rapport during an interview, position yourself within 1.5 feet of the interviewee.

Question 69

During the interview conclusion, you should express appreciation and provide answers to any questions posed by the interviewee. The conclusion is important for maintaining rapport and trust with the interviewee.

Question 70

Body language is the verbal communication that we all communicate clearly and with awareness.

Question 71

Discovery prototyping is the act of building a small-scale, representative or working model of the users' requirements to discover or verify those requirements.

Question 72

An advantage of discovery prototyping is that it allows users and developers to experiment with the software and develop an understanding of how the system might work.

Question 73

An advantage of discovery prototyping is that it aids in determining the feasibility and usefulness of the system before high development costs are incurred.

Question 74

An advantage of discovery prototyping is that the prototype can serve as a training mechanism for users.

Question 75

An advantage of discovery prototyping is that it may minimize the time spent for fact-finding and help define more stable and reliable requirements.

Question 76

A disadvantage of discovery prototyping is that it may increase the time spent on fact-finding.

Question 77

An advantage of prototyping is that it tends to lead to realistic expectations for the system on the part of users.

Question 78

Prototypes are generally developed using the same technologies as the final software. In fact, they are often just incomplete versions of the finished system

Question 79

A disadvantage of discovery prototyping is that users may develop unrealistic expectations based on the performance, reliability and features of the prototype. Prototypes can only simulate system functionality and are incomplete in nature.

Question 80

The best prototypes are those that actually grow into the final system.