5. Investigating the Business Situation

Question 1

Advantage: It provides an opportunity to build a relationship with the individual stakeholders

Answer 1

Interview

Question 2

Advantage: It can yield important information

Answer 2

Interview

Question 3

Advantage: it helps analyst to understand different viewpoints and attitudes across user group

Answer 3

Interview

Question 4

Advantage: they enable the analyst to identify and collect examples of documents, forms and reports used by the clients

Answer 4

Interview

Question 5

Advantage: They allow appreciation of political factors that may affect how the business performs it work

Answer 5

Interview

Question 6

Advantage: They provide an opportunity to study the environment in which the business staff carry out their work

Answer 6

Interview

Question 7

Disadvantage: It can require significant investment of time and budget

Answer 7

Interview

Question 8

D: The information provided is often based upon opinion and is likely to derive from the interviewee’s perspective on the situation. Therefore, quantitative data may be required to confirm the information

Answer 8

Interview

Question 9

D: Different interviewees often hold different views and the BA needs to analyze the information gathered in order to identify conflicts.

Answer 9

Interview

Question 10

A: Collect factual information, a much better understanding of the problems and difficulties faced by the business users is obtained, which is taken-for granted knowledge.

Answer 10

Observation

Question 11

A: Seeing a task performed helps to identify relevant questions for a follow-up interview with the person responsible for that task

Answer 11

Observation

Question 12

A: The depth of understanding gained from observation helps in identifying workable solutions that are more likely to be acceptable to the business

Answer 12

Observation

Question 13

D: Can be unnerving so people tend to behave as they feel is expected rather dan how they would under normal work conditions. You change what you observe, needs to be factored into the approach taken and the findings obtained.

Answer 13

Observation

Question 14

D: The analyst just sees what happens on that particular occasion. The routine activities are likely to be performed but there may be other aspects of the process that are carried out infrequently.

Answer 14

Observation

Question 15

A: Gain a broad view of the area under investigation

Answer 15

Workshops

Question 16

A: Increase speed and productivity

Answer 16

Workshops

Question 17

A: Obtain buy-in and acceptance for the project

Answer 17

Workshops

Question 18

A: Gain a consensus view or group agreement

Answer 18

Workshops

Question 19

D: Extensive preparation time

Answer 19

Workshops

Question 20

D: Undue influence of dominant personalities

Answer 20

Workshops

Question 21

D: Authority limitations

Answer 21

Workshops

Question 22

A: They require the member of staff to identify each step required to carry out a transaction, and the transitions between the steps; this reduces, or even removes, the opportunity for omissions

Answer 22

Scenarios

Question 23

A: The step-by-step development approach helps to ensure that there are no taken for-granted elements and the problem of tacit knowledge is addressed.

Answer 23

Scenarios

Question 24

A: They are developed using a ‘top-down’ approach, starting with an overview scenario and then refining this with further detail. This helps the member of staff to visualise all possible situations and removes uncertainty.

Answer 24

Scenarios

Question 25

A: A workshop group with responsibility for refining a scenario should identify those paths that do not suit the corporate culture or are not congruent with any community of practice involved.

Answer 25

Scenarios

Question 26

A: They provide a basis for developing prototypes

Answer 26

Scenarios

Question 27

A: They provide a painstaking basis for preparing test scripts.

Answer 27

Scenarios

Question 28

D: Time-consuming to develop

Answer 28

Scenarios

Question 29

D: Some scenarios can become very complex (particularly when there are several alternative paths)

Answer 29

Scenarios

Question 30

A: They clarify any uncertainty on the part of the analysts and confirm to business staff that their requirements have been understood

Answer 30

Prototyping

Question 31

A: They help the business staff to identify new requirements as they gain an understanding of how the system will operate and what the system will do to support their work

Answer 31

Prototyping

Question 32

A: They demonstrate the look and feel of the proposed system and elicit usability and accessibility requirements.

Answer 32

Prototyping

Question 33

A: They enable business staff to validate the requirements and identify any errors.

Answer 33

Prototyping

Question 34

A: They provide a means of assessing the navigation paths and system performance.

Answer 34

Prototyping

Question 35

D: The prototyping cycle can spin out of control with endless iterations taking place

Answer 35

Prototyping

Question 36

D: If the purpose of the exercise has not been explained clearly, business staff may make false assumptions about the progress of the work and believe that the solution is almost ready for delivery on the basis of an agreed prototype

Answer 36

Protoyping

Question 37

D: Expectations can be raised unnecessarily by failing to match the final appearance of the system, or its performance.

Answer 37

Prototyping

Question 38

A: a means of identifying where stakeholders have common interests or requirements;

Answer 38

User role analysis

Question 39

A: a more efficient approach to eliciting and analysing requirements;

Answer 39

User role analysis

Question 40

A: a strong basis for analysing scenarios, stakeholder perspectives, use cases and user stories

Answer 40

User role Analysis

Question 41

D: Generic user role names cover a very wide stakeholder group, which makes it difficult to envisage how and why individuals might want to use a particular system.

Answer 41

User role Analysis