Sample Question:

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JSR Notes:

First of all note the difference between this, 1.2.5, and the next assessment statement 1.2.6. Here, the focus is still on the stakeholder and their requirements, and in 1.2.6, it's more what will need to be done to meet those requirements. So this is focused on communication with the stakeholders, and 1.2.6 is focused on communication and interaction with the IT world.

To find out the requirements needed by a particular group, which are to be met by the IT system, you can take several approaches, including surveys, interviews, focus groups and direct observation.

Surveys

Surveys offer a great way to quickly and easily gather information that will be necessary to plan and implement a new IT system. They are not the only way, but make for at the very least a good start. Surveys now-a-days are very easy to conduct, with websites such as SurveyMonkey etc. Still, care needs to be taken in their development and use.

Pros

• Easy to develop & administer
• Anonymity is possible if it is desired
• Capable of collecting data from a large number of respondents
• Can be administered remotely a variety of ways, such as on-line, e-mail or telephone.
  • (and this can prevent geographical issues of transportation etc.)
• When privacy is assured and trusted by respondents, it's a more objective, and potentially honest source of information.
• Numerous questions can be asked about a subject, allowing a range of statistical data analysis.
  • (For example "cross examination" by asking the same basic question slightly different ways to check for consistency, and thereby judge the reliability of each respondent)
• A broad range of data can be collected quickly (e.g., attitudes, opinions, beliefs, values, behavior, factual).
• Even though questions can be limiting, free response questions allow for broader coverage of information seeking.

Cons

• There is a lack of follow-up and contextualization to respondent's answers, compared to actual interactions.
• Respondents may not feel secure enough to provide accurate or honest answers (particularly if there are questions of privacy - "It says it's anonomous, but is it really?...").
• Respondents may not be well informed enough about certain questions to give useful answers, but will answer anyway, since it's just clicking a button etc.
• The "kind" of respondents who mostly choose to respond to a survey may be different from those who chose not to respond, thus creating biased data.
• Survey question answer options could lead to unclear data because certain answer options may be interpreted differently by respondents. "Somewhat agree” may mean something different to two different people.
• The survey can end up with "loaded questions", which point to a certain opinion or desired end result.
• There could be issues of trolling, or people improperly, randomly filling out surveys.

http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/

 

Interview

An interview is a face to face meeting, that consists of an interviewer asking the interviewee questions that should be pertinent to the topic of the interview. To be most useful, interviews are usually one-on-one meetings. Follow up interviews are very helpful too.

Pros

• You get direct feedback from stakeholders.
• You can pursue a line of thought based on things said, with follow-up questions.
• You get to see non-verbal reactions, which can actually be more reliable than words.
• You can discuss a topic in depth and get details.

Cons

• Logistically it can be hard to schedule interviews (both in terms of time and place).
• It takes a long time to interview a statistically significant number of people.
• Cost: time is money, and people have to stop working to be interviewed.
  • A professionally outsourced interview contract provides quality, but is costly.
• Since it is not anonymous, the respondent may not be honest, and instead give the interviewer wants they think he/she wants to hear.
• Hard to replicate for statistical analysis
• The interviewees can feel they are being "put on the spot" if asked about something that they do not want/need to answer.

 

Observation ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Observation is the process of monitoring a system while it is at work. Back in my ISP Prague days, people came from all over the world, regularly, to observer our laptop program and IT organization. Reading and watching videos about a system is one thing, but there's nothing like seeing it in action.


Pros

• What you see is, more or less, real.
  • When done right, unobstructed observation can create extremely natural data.
  • As it is not based on numerical statistics; rather, it is real.
• It can allow full exploration of topics in great detail and depth.

Cons

• You don't necessarily see everything.
• A functioning system that is being observed will always act differently than it does normally. The Hawthorne Effect.
• Can't see hidden issues, fixed by (potentially staged) work-arounds,
• Time consuming - and so costly - to do right, in a comprehensive way.
• The non-statistical data can be difficult to analyze and can cause generalizations.

Focus Groups / "Town-hall Meeting"

A focus group is a form of research in which a group of people, generally stakeholders, are gathered together and questioned on their opinions towards a project or product. Questions are generally asked in an interactive group setting where the participants are free to talk with other members in the group.


Pros

• The researcher can interact with the participants, pose follow-up questions or ask questions that probe more deeply.
• Results can be easier to understand than complicated statistical data.
• The researcher can get information from non-verbal responses, such as facial expressions or body language.
• Information is provided more efficiently than if people were interviewed separately.­
• Underlying issues that may otherwise remain covered up can come to the surface via one outspoken person, and the validity of those issues can be checked against the reaction of the others.

Cons

• A potentially small sample size means the groups might not be a good representation of the larger population.
• Group discussions can be difficult to steer and control, and time can be lost on irrelevant topics.
• Respondents can feel peer pressure when answering questions, and thereby not answer sincerely.
• It can end up being dominated by either special interest groups or strong, opinionated individuals.

 

The Importance of Confidentiality and Accuracy

Whichever form the information gather takes, ever effort need to be taken to ensure privacy and confidentiality. This is true not only for ethical reasons, but also because only this way can the most sincere and accurate information be collected.

And if you don't get sincere, accurate information before designing and implementing the system, big mistakes can be made which will come back to haunt both the IT teams implementing the project and the business or organization for whom the project is intended.

Certain "truths may hurt", but they will hurt a whole lot more if they are not even realized until after the system is built and operational, based on false assumptions.

 

 

IA Solution Connection and Considerations

It is so, so important for you to accurately collect information in your IA solution. You have to understand the situation as well as you can, and more often than not, it is a situation you will be for the most part not know the inner workings of. If multiple people will be affected, surveys may be useful, and depending on the situation, direct observation can also be invaluable. But for sure, multiple interviews with your primary client will be of paramount importance. Alway remember that it is for your client that you are creating this program, not yourself. And only they truly know what will work for them and what will not.

More than just three times, you will likely, and you should, meet with your client. But at a minimum, there are three times at which it will be most important to interact with them:

Initial Interview - This should happen very early on as an initial fact-finding conversation to pin-point what it is that they need help with that your program can support. A big first part of this will be getting to know that context of the problem as well as you can. And then you can have an exchange on the types of things you think you can help them out with.

Prototype Interview - This is where you will show them a "mock-up" series of screen shots showing various GUI windows/tabs that portray what a Java program made in Netbeans might look like. With it, the two of you will take a pencil and cross off things, add things, and leave comments that will help you re-work it as a next step.

Evaluation Interview - Upon completion of your program, you will present it to them, have them take a look at it, and use it. Then, looking back at your "Criteria For Success" list, you will both judge and talk about how the final product did in comparison. A summary of this conversation you will communicate in your written evaluation of the program, the last step of your IA project.