Chapter 2

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 Investigating System Requirements

Chapter 2

Dr. Sarah Naiem

Book: Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World 7th Ed
Satzinger, Jackson & Burd

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Chapter 2: Outline
Systems Analysis Activities
What Are Requirements?
Stakeholders
Information-Gathering Techniques
Models and Modeling
Documenting Workflows with Activity Diagrams

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Learning Objectives
Describe the activities of systems analysis
Explain the difference between functional and
nonfunctional requirements
Identify and understand different kinds of stakeholders
and their contributions to requirements definition
Describe information-gathering techniques and
determine when each is best applied
Describe the role of models in systems analysis
Develop UML activity diagrams to model workflows

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Overview
Chapter 1 introduced the system development lifecycle (SDLC)
and demonstrated its use for a small project
This chapter expands the SDLC processes to cover a wider range
of concepts, tools and techniques
Core process 3: Discover and understand the details of the
problem or need—is the main focus of systems analysis
Systems analysis activities are detailed in this chapter

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Systems Analysis Activities: Involve discovery and
understanding

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Systems Analysis Activities (2 of 2)

Gather Detailed Information

Interviews, questionnaires, documents, observing business processes,
researching vendors, comments and suggestions
Define Requirements
Modeling functional requirements and non-functional requirements
Prioritize Requirements
Essential, important, vs. nice to have
Develop User-Interface Dialogs
Flow of interaction between user and system
Evaluate Requirements with Users
User involvement, feedback, adapt to changes

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What Are Requirements?

System Requirements =
Functional requirements
Non-functional requirements
Functional Requirements– the activities the system
must perform
Business uses, functions the users carry out
Non-Functional Requirements– other system
characteristics
Constraints and performance goals

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FURPS+ Requirements Acronym (1 of 2)

Functional requirements
Usability requirements
Reliability requirements
Performance requirements
Security requirements
+ even more categories…

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FURPS+ Requirements Acronym (2 of 2)

Requirement categories FURPS categories Example requirements

Functional Functions Business rules and processes

User interface, ease of use

Usability Reliability Failure rate, recovery methods
Nonfunctional
Performance Security Response time, throughput
Access controls, encryption

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Additional Requirements Categories

Design constraints –
Specific restrictions for hardware and software
Implementation requirements
Specific languages, tools, protocols, etc.
Interface requirements
Interface links to other systems
Physical requirements
Physical facilities and equipment constraints
Supportability requirements
Automatic updates and enhancement methods

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Stakeholders: Who do you involve and talk to?

Stakeholders– persons who have an interest in the successful

implementation of the system
Internal Stakeholders– persons within the organization
External stakeholders – persons outside the organization
Operational stakeholders – persons who regularly interact with
the system
Executive stakeholders– persons who don’t directly interact,
but use the information or have financial interest

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Stakeholders of a comprehensive accounting system for public
company

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Information Gathering Techniques

Interviewing users and other stakeholders

Distributing and collecting questionnaires
Reviewing inputs, outputs, and documentation
Observing and documenting business procedures
Researching vendor solutions
Collecting active user comments and suggestions

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Interviewing Users and Other Stakeholders

Prepare detailed questions

Meet with individuals or groups of users
Obtain and discuss answers to the questions
Document the answers
Follow up as needed in future meetings or interviews

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Themes for Information Gathering Questions

Theme Questions to users

What are the business operations and
What do you do?
processes?
How do you do it?
How should those operations be
What steps do you follow?
performed?
How could they be done differently?
What information do you use?
What information is needed to perform
What inputs do you use?
those operations?
What outputs do you produce?

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Preparing for the Interview (1 of 2)
Before
Establish the objective for the interview.
Determine correct user(s) to be involved.
Determine project team members to participate.
Build a list of questions and issues to be discussed.
Review related documents and materials.
Set the time and location.
Inform all participants of objective, time, and locations.
During
Arrive on time.
Look for exception and error conditions.
Probe for details.
Take thorough notes.
Identify and document unanswered items or open questions.

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Preparing for the Interview (2 of 2)

After
Review notes for accuracy, completeness, and understanding.
Transfer information to appropriate models and documents.
Identify areas needing further clarification.
Thank the participants.
Follow up on open and unanswered questions.

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Interview Session Agenda (1 of 2)

Discussion and Interview Agenda

Setting
Objective of Interview
Determine processing rules for sales commission rates
Date, Time, and Location
April 21, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. in William McDougal’s office
User Participants (names and titles/positions)
William McDougal, vice president of marketing and sales,
and several of his staff
Project Team Participants
Mary Ellen Green and Jim Williams

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Interview Session Agenda (2 of 2)
Interview/Discussion
1. Who is eligible for sales commissions?
2. What is the basis for commissions? What rates are paid?
3. How is commission for returns handled?
4. Are there special incentives? Contests? Programs based on time?
5. Is there a variable scale for commissions? Are there quotas?
6. What are the exceptions?
Follow-Up
Important decisions or answers to questions
See attached write-up on commission policies
Open items not resolved with assignments for solution
See Item numbers 2 and 3 on open items list
Date and time of next meeting or follow-up session
April 28, 2016, at 9:00 a.m.

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Additional Techniques

Observe and Document Business Processes

Watch and learn
Document with Activity diagram (next section)
Research Vendor Solutions
See what others have done for similar situations
White papers, vendor literature, competitors
Collect Active User Comments and Suggestions
Feedback on models and tests
Users know it when they see it

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Models and Modeling

How do we define requirements? After collecting

information, create models
Model– a representation of some aspect of the system
being built
Types of Models
Textual model– something written down, described
Graphical models– diagram, schematic
Mathematical models– formulas, statistics, algorithms
Unified Modeling Language (UML)
Standard graphical modeling symbols/terminology used for
information systems

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Reasons for Modeling

Learning from the modeling process

Reducing complexity by abstraction
Remembering all the details
Communicating with other development team
members
Communicating with a variety of users and
stakeholders
Documenting what was done for future
maintenance/enhancement

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Some Analysis and Design Models

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Documenting Workflows with Activity
Diagrams
Workflow– sequence of processing steps that
completely handles one business transaction or
customer request
Activity Diagram– describes user (or system) activities,
the person who does each activity, and the sequential
flow of these activities
Useful for showing a graphical model of a workflow
A UML diagram

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Activity Diagrams Symbols

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 Activity
Diagram for
RMO Order
Fulfillment

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Activity Diagram with Concurrent Paths

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Summary (1 of 3)
Systems analysis activates correspond to the core SDLC
process Discover and understand details
Systems analysis involves defining system
requirements– functional and non-functional
Analysis activities include
Gather detailed information
Define requirements
Prioritize requirements
Develop user-interface dialogs
Evaluate requirements with users
FURPS+ is the acronym for functional, usability,
reliability, performance, and security requirements

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Summary (2 of 3)

Stakeholders are the people who have an interest in

the success of the project
There are internal vs. external stakeholders and
operational vs. executive stakeholders

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Summary (3 of 3)

Information gathering techniques are used to collect

information about the project
Interviews, questionnaires, reviewing documents, observing business
processes, researching vendors, comments and suggestions
The UML Activity Diagram is used to document
(model) workflows after collecting information
Models and modeling are used to explore and
document requirements
Unified Modeling Language (U ML) is the standard set
of notations and terminology for information systems
models

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