Database Reference
In-Depth Information
tions, such as, “What works well in the current system?” give the intervie-
wee room to provide all relevant information. Conversely, closed-ended
questions tend to provide process-oriented information. Both types of
questions provide relevant data. Both types should be included in in-
person interviews as well as questionnaires. However, there's one thing to
remember when using a questionnaire: Interviewees have no one to ask for
clarification when filling out a questionnaire. Make your questions clear
and concise; this often means that you include more closed-ended ques-
tions. It may be necessary to revisit the respondents to ask the open-ended
questions and to obtain clarification on the questionnaires.
As interviews are conducted and questionnaires are returned, you
need to document and store the information for later use. You may be
gathering information from various types of sources (interviews, question-
naires, notes, etc.), so even if you don't use a questionnaire, consider typ-
ing up a document that lists the questions you'll be asking. This will help
ensure that you ask the same (or similar) questions of each interviewee. It
also means that when you start analyzing the responses, you'll be able to
quickly evaluate each sheet for the pertinent information (in Chapter 6 we
discuss how to recognize the key data points). The benefit of this practice
is that if you need to switch from doing in-person interviews to using ques-
tionnaires, you'll already have a standard format for the questions and
answers.
When you're working in conjunction with application developers (un-
less of course you are the application developer), they will ask most of
these questions. However, as the data modeler you should be a part of this
process in order to gain an understanding of how the data will be used and
to have a better sense of what the underlying logical structure should look
like. If you aren't conducting interviews (or if they've already taken place),
ask for copies of the original responses or notes. Then work with the ap-
plication developers to extract the information specific to the data model.
Observation
In addition to interviewing, observing the current system or processes may
be one of the most important requirements gathering activities. For any-
one involved in designing an application, it's vital to understand the work
that must be accomplished and recognize how the organization is currently
doing that work (and whether or not workers are doing it efficiently). It's
easy for members of an application design team to let their own ideas
of how the work “should” be done affect their ability to develop a useful
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