Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Study of documents.
Existing documents give ample indications as to the type and
content of the data needed for the organization to run the business. Planning and
policy documents indicate long-term data needed for achieving the company's busi-
ness goals. Reports printed from current applications form a valuable source for
requirements gathering. Layouts of the current files are good starting points to
determine the information requirements. Procedure documents for individual
processes indicate what data are required to perform the processes.
Conducting User Interviews
The first question is, Whom do you interview? Who are the users of the proposed
database system? Broadly, we may classify the users as follows:
Senior executives and division heads
Departmental managers
Operational staff
Business analysts
IT staff maintaining computer files
Senior executives will give you a sense of the direction and scope for the data-
base system. You can derive information requirements for future expansions and
changes in business strategies. Departmental managers can provide information
about the type of control and exception reports they would need and the data
content of those reports. Interviews with operational staff will produce the bulk of
what you need in this phase. That is where most of the emphasis must be placed.
Business analysts can tell you the types of data they use for conducting studies and
producing results for the executives. A lot of data requirements will be available
from IT people such as systems analysts, programmers, and operations staff who
maintain the current applications and their computer master files and transaction
files.
When you gather data requirements from each group, separate the requirements
by business objects. The requirements you collect will comprise of the following:
•
Data elements
•
How and who uses the data elements
•
When and where the data elements are used
•
Business rules governing the data elements
•
Data volumes
You may consider the interview process as consisting of the following steps:
•
Decide on the list of persons to be interviewed.
•
Prepare for interviews.
•
Conduct interviews using appropriate techniques.
•
Document interview findings.
•
Follow up and confirm interview write-ups.
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