Fact finding process and techniques or Information Gathering Techniques

The main aim of fact finding techniques is to determine the information requirements of an organisation used by analysts to prepare a precise SRS understood by the user.

Ideal SRS Document should −

• be complete, Unambiguous, and Jargon-free.
• specify operational, tactical, and strategic information requirements.
• solve possible disputes between users and analyst.
• use graphical aids which simplify understanding and design.

There are various information gathering techniques −

Interviewing

Systems analysts collect information from individuals or groups by interviewing. The analyst can be formal, legalistic, play politics, or be informal; as the success of an interview depends on the skill of the analyst as interviewer.

It can be done in two ways −

• Unstructured Interview − The system analyst conducts a question-answer session to acquire basic information about the system.
• Structured Interview − It has standard questions which users need to respond to in either close (objective) or open (descriptive) format.

Advantages of Interviewing

• This method is frequently the best source of gathering qualitative information.
• It is useful for those who do not communicate effectively in writing or who may not have the time to complete a questionnaire.
• Information can easily be validated and cross checked immediately.
• It can handle complex subjects.
• It is easy to discover key problems by seeking opinions.
• It bridges the gaps in the areas of misunderstandings and minimises future problems.

Questionnaires

This method is used by analysts to gather information about various issues of the system from a large number of persons.

There are two types of questionnaires −

• Open-ended Questionnaires − It consists of questions that can be easily and correctly interpreted. They can explore a problem and lead to a specific direction of answer.
• Closed-ended Questionnaires − It consists of questions that are used when the systems analyst effectively lists all possible responses, which are mutually exclusive.

Advantages of questionnaires

• It is very effective in surveying interests, attitudes, feelings, and beliefs of users which are not co-located.
• It is useful in situations to know what proportion of a given group approves or disapproves of a particular feature of the proposed system.
• It is useful to determine the overall opinion before giving any specific direction to the system project.
• It is more reliable and provides high confidentiality of honest responses.
• It is appropriate for electing factual information and for statistical data collection which can be emailed and sent by post.