Fact finding techniques.

To study any system an analyst (an analyst is a person who researches problems, plans solutions, recommends software and systems, and coordinates development for an organization) needs to do collect facts and all relevant information. When the facts are expressed in quantitative form is named as data. The success of any project depends upon the accurateness of the available data. Precise information can be collected with help of certain methods or in other words techniques. Fact-finding techniques? The above mentioned specific methods to find the information of a system are termed as fact finding techniques. Interviews, Questionnaires, Record Views and Observations are the different types of fact finding techniques used by an analyst. The analyst may use more than one or more technique for investigation.

Questionnaires Questionnaires are a technique that is used to extract information from a number of people based on the particular field. This method can be accepted and used only by a skilful system analyst. The Questionnaire consists of a number of questions enclosed together in a logical manner. The questions are simple, clear and to the point. Questions can be as one word or complete answer within two or three sentences. This method is very useful for accomplishing information from people who are concerned with the usage of the system and who are living in different countries. Questionnaire can be sent via mail, or send to people by post. This is the cheapest source of fact finding.

Types of Questions in a questionnaires.

I.

Open-ended Questions this is used when they expect more than a yes or no answer from the responded. Closed-ended Questions these types of questionnaires are when they need to know a specific piece of information (years of experience, technical knowledge, etc.). These questions require a brief and solid answer. Hypothetical Questions Used to evaluate a problem-solving skills and to make sure you do have enough experience in the field to be able to face day-to-day problems. Leading Questions These questions are assumptive .The idea of leading questions is to get a specific response from the interviewee. Multi-Barrelled Questions these will check the reasoning skills. These questions are linked in such way that suddenly what seems to be one question are actually two or three questions about the same topic. Behavioural Questions Used to check the behaviour of candidates. This type of question states that the best way to know what a candidate will do is by knowing what he/she did in a similar situation in the past.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

Interviewing This is one of the primary ways to gather information about an information system. A good system analyst must be good at interviewing and no project can be lead without interviewing. There are many ways to arrange an effectively interview and no one is superior to others. However, experience analysts commonly accept some following best practices for an effective interview. Observation Watching how customers/employees behave provides many insights, but can leave questions unanswered. Observation works well in retail markets; sit outside a shop and watch how many people walk by, look at the window display etc. Postal surveys Sent to the address of potential customers who complete the form and send back in a pre-paid envelope. Relatively cheap, a postal survey can cover a wide geographical area and avoids the potential for interviewer bias. However, response rates are often very low and it can take be a long time before enough surveys are returned which is a pitfall.

Online surveys Increasingly popular and relatively low cost, online surveys are widely used by small businesses as a way of capturing the views of existing and potential customers.