Information Gathering

 One gathers many types of information related to the current system during system development.

After determining which sort of information it is, we have to determine the source of information. There are two main sources of obtaining information- human resources and documents.

Human resources are called external resources while documents are generally called internal resources.

The success of system development depends upon each of the above mentioned. techniques.

To understand a system the study of the documents, forms and database related to it is important. Good system analysts give it more importance than the users.

A system analyst first of all sees the organizational chart as a document. After this, the system analyst studies such documents which provide the account of the problem,

These mainly contain documents like interoffice memoranda, customer complaints, reports, accounting records etc.

The second information gathering technique for system development is research and site inspection. System analysts do extensive research on application and problem.

Good computer magazines and reference books assist in the research. Magazines and reference books are good sources for such type of information.

Observation is a technique, where the system analyst himself participates in a system or sees the activities done by the user happen on the system.

This technique is mainly used when the data collected through other methods is doubtful or some aspects of the system are not clear.

Site observation is a very delicate technique of information collection. It has many benefits as well as some negative aspects.

Questionnaires are standard documents for specific purposes which the analyst uses for taking the advice of the respondents and collecting information.

A questionnaire helps the analyst know the opinion of the people in large number and it is then easier for him to take decision on some important aspects on that basis.

The free-format provides more liberality in the answer to the questionnaire respon-dent.

It is essential to design a good questionnaire well. If you don't think it important to design a questionnaire well with a complete plan, your questionnaire will work but with limited success.

Personal interview is considered the most important and the most general process of information gathering.

Interview is such a data collection technique through which the analyst collects infor-mation from the people face to face.

The purpose of an interview can be different in context of information gathering. Its purpose includes, fact finding, verifying the truth, generating enthusiasm, including the user, identifying the requirements and seeking for opinions or ideas.

Two people have important rules in an interview. The system analyst is the interviewer. whose task is to conduct the interview. The system user and the system owner are the interviewees who answer the questions of the interviewer.

Generally, the system analysts are not good interviewers. This section deals with how you can become a good interviewer.

A person is the most important element of the information system. No other informa-tion gathering technique except interview lays so much emphasis on people, Different people have different values, priorities, opinions, motivations and personalities.

In open ended questions, the interviewee answers the questions as he wants. Such questions can have several types of answers. The example of an open-ended question might be like this.

To some extent, the success of the system analyst in an interview, depends upon his art of conducting it.

In the order of conducting a successful interview is selecting the individual who are to be interviewed.

You should know the merits and demerits of each of these people you want to interview, besides, get their time allotted for the interview.

Better preparation is the key to a good interview.

A real interview is based on three steps; opening, body and conclusion.