Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Individual Interview Documentation
Document each interview session. The interview documentation is not simply
a transcription of the meeting. This is an analysis and interpretation of
what was said. The essence of the discussion must be captured, rather than
the word for word dialogue. Nor is a bulleted list of what was learned
during an interview session sufficient. Each person who reads items on a list
interprets it in his or her own way. This could result in ten or fifteen different
meanings, all of which may fail to reflect what the person who wrote the list
meant.
A brief paragraph should be enough to ensure that everyone knows what
each item means. For example, ''marketing performance monitoring'' could
mean tracking the response rate of a promotion, tracking promotion expenses
to the budget, or even tracking the performance of each of the brand managers
who work in the marketing department. All three could be useful, but which
one was expressed as a requirement and which one is included in the project
scope? Thorough requirements documentation would clarify this.
Responsibilities
This is the easiest section of the interview summary to write. This is where the
basic job responsibilities of each interview participant are documented. This
should not be lengthy or too detailed, but simply provide an overview of what
this person's job is at the time of the interview. This helps in the future, when
people may have changed jobs, to be able to see what perspective they were
representing at that time.
Business Themes
This is the hardest section to document. The business theme is a topic that
was touched upon during the interview. Most likely, the topics are mentioned
multiple times. A complete description of the topic is needed. Think about the
heart of the matter. Each time something is mentioned, it may be another aspect
or detail that, when collected, provides a more complete picture. These should
be grouped into logical categories of related themes. For example, multiple
themes may have been mentioned in the area of product development, finance,
claims management, sales and marketing, or school accountability. Under each
of these categories, the individual themes will be described. Most of the themes
are related to areas of the business itself, but several themes are much more
specific to data and systems. These are important, but they should not be the
only requirements that are collected.
