Fact Finding Techniques And Methods For Information System Development

Types of Information Systems

The information system can be considered as the set of several pieces of software application that are involved in information dissemination. A typical information system is a collection of software, hardware, computer network, human resources and more. An information system can be of many types like management information system, transaction processing system, knowledge management system, office automation system and many more (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The management information system is the most powerful and most popular among all the information systems. The management information system is a computerized data storage system that consist of financial data of an organization and process those data to generate information and knowledge (Schomburg et al. 2017). The data models are used in the system design for representing the data requirements. The entity relationship model does the same along with describing the nature of the data. Domain model class diagram describes the static structure of the object oriented system. In order to complete the ERD and class diagram, gathering the requirements of the system is essential (Al-Masree 2015). The fact finding methods allows the system analysts to gather the system requirement related data.

The report is based on the case study of You Can Fit In. The organization is currently using OnAllAccounts accounting package. This package is not able to cope with the expansion of You Can Fit In. The fact finding techniques other than the interviews has been described. The data models have been presented through ERD and domain model class diagram. The sequence diagrams have been created based on the information provided in the use cases.

The requirement analysis is considered to be the process of identifying investigation, documentation and evaluation of system requirements. The requirement analysis has a part named fact finding technique that guides the actions of the system analysts while collecting system requirement data (Alipour et al. 2016). The fact finding can be referred to the process of collecting information and data based on the methods that include examples of present documents, research, questionnaire, observation, prototyping, joint requirement planning and interviews. The system analyst can use single or a set of appropriate fact finding methods for developing and implementing the proposed information system (Bahill and Madni 2017). After the essential facts are being collected, applying tools for converting the facts into information in software development life cycle is important. It is because the tools cannot be utilized accurately and efficiently if the system related information is not extracted from the collected facts. The fact-finding methods are applied software development life cycle’s early stages like system analysis, designing phases along with the late phase like post implementation (Ciochina, Paleologu and Benesty 2016). The facts of the information system can be evaluated on the basis of three individual processes like process-function for performing the system objectives, data-facts for generating meaningful information and interface-design for interacting with the potential end users of system.

Management Information System

The fact-finding methods are of various types. Each fact-finding method has its own features, processes and conditions. There are total seven fact-finding methods that can be used for gathering the system requirement information (Hu et al. 2015). These techniques are Joint requirements planning, Questionnaires, Sampling of existing documentation, forms and databases, Observation of the work environment, Prototyping, Interviews and Research and Site visits. The detailed description of the fact finding methods have been provided in the following section.

Sampling of existing documentation, forms and databases: The Sampling of existing documentation, forms and databases allows the system analyst to evaluate the existing OnAllAccounts accounting package for collecting facts from the present documentation other than the human resources. Many types of documents can be used for collecting the facts from present documents such as the e-mails, reports, suggestion box notes and customer complaints (Dick, Hull and Jackson 2017). The reports can contain the reviews on the area of problem along the issues in the organization performance. The collected manual forms can also be used for collecting the facts. Computerized forms like Google forms or spreadsheet forms can be used too as fact finding documents. After analyzing all the documents, the system analyst will create several diagrams like flow charts, UML models, data models and more. Based on the generated models, the program documentation and the user training manual is done. The sampling methods are done by the system analysts for managing the above mentioned documentations (Ciochina, Paleologu and Benesty 2016). The sampling method can be stated as the process of collaborating the documents that represents the samples, records and forms. The sampling method entails that two types of sampling methods exists such as stratification and randomization. The stratification can be stated as the systematic procedure for deducting the modification of sampling data. On the other hand, the randomization is the procedure of choosing the sample data indiscriminately. The analyst can have better understanding of the proposed information system of You Can Fit In as the evaluation of the present documents, files and forms are associated to the present information system.

Research and Site Visits: The fact finding method that evaluates the issues that had been already solved through other sources like documents or human is known as the research and site visits. In order to provide a solution to the issue of requirements, the analyst will visit another organization that had previously dealt with the similar issues. Moreover, the analyst may also recognize the information from the reference books, database, internet and case studies (Englehardt and Narayanan 2016). The main advantage of research and site visits is the time required to solve an issue. As the analyst will follow the procedure that has been established, the time required for providing the requirements of proposed solution is significantly less. The researches always have the detailed information regarding the current development system. The disadvantages of research and site visits are related to the restriction to access information as those information is of another organization. If the previous solution is not documented accurately and properly then this method cannot be implied.

Data Models for Information System Design

Observation of the work environment: Another important fact-finding method is the observation of the work environment. Observation of the work environment method states that the system analyst take part in the business and studies the documentation flow. The system analyst will apply the present system and extensively interact with the potential end user in this fact-finding method. In case the user point of view is the main focus of the project then observation can be considered as the most suitable fact-finding method (Nagorny et al. 2016). The observation method can integrate the sampling method if needed. In this technique, the sampling method is called work sampling. Through the utilization of the observation method, the system analyst can easily identify how the employees and management of You Can Fit In work on daily basis.

Questionnaire: Another useful fact finding method is the questionnaire. This method allows the analyst to collect data from a vast amount of users simultaneously. Each user will have a set of questions that can differ based on the purpose they will use the system. After they fills the answers to those questions, the participants will send the form back to analyst. The questionnaire method is extremely time saving technique because the system analyst will not communicate with the participants individually thus the time needed to complete questionnaire becomes less (Hong and Chen 2019). One thing that analyst must remember is that only the system requirement related questions should be asked. If the questions are not related to the requirements then the whole project would fail. Questionnaires can be of two types such as free-format questionnaire and fixed-format questionnaire.

The main functions are the registration of the members, collecting payments, creating invoices, generating reports and monitoring attendance.

The roles that will be interacting with the system are members, accounting staff, receptionist staff, management and admin staff.

Register: A new member will register first to the system to purchase membership. The new member will provide all the personal details to the system. The system will provide a login id and password after registration is complete.

Check Invoice: The accounting staff will check the invoice generated by the system. The system will create invoice based on the membership. Another invoice is created based on the purchases of merchandise.

Sales Report: The sales report will include the new membership and old member renew membership. The sales report will include the sales of the merchandise.

Make Payment: The member make payment for every purchase they make. The payment can be done in cash or online. The website of You Can Fit In will have a payment gateway that can accept online payment.

Name	Registration
Use case id	Member1
Actor(s)	Member
Stakeholder(s)	Member, You Can Fit In
Pre-conditions	The member must not have any active membership
Activities	The member will access the website The member will click on register button The system will redirect the customer to registration section The member will input all the valid data The system will verify all the entered data If a data is not valid then system asks to re-enter the data The customer confirm registration The system stores the information and create a new membership The system generate a login id and password The system share the login credentials with the member
Post-conditions	The membership of the member is activated for the time period selected by the member
Alternative path	The member can contact receptionist physically and request the receptionist to generate membership
Exception	The member is banned The member has due payments

The You Can Fit In Case Study

The format for all the primary keys in the tables is varchar (200).

Member
Attribute	Sample Data One	Sample Data Two	Sample Data Three
memberID	Dylan8644	Alex7489	Tyler9997
firstName	Dylan	Alex	Tyler
middleName
lastName	Goodman	Stansfield	Patteson
contactNumber	(07) 4074 8644	(08) 8717 7489	(03) 6275 9997
email	[email protected]	[email protected]	[email protected]
address	84 Cedar Street, LANNERCOST QLD 4850	20 Gadd Avenue, BUNGAMA SA 5540	70 Jones Street, JACKEYS MARSH TAS 7304
age	43	34	23
sex	Male	Male	Male
weight	87	99	78
height	178	182	170

Classes
Attribute	Sample Data One	Sample Data Two	Sample Data Three
classID	101	102	101
className	Aerobics	Yoga	Gym
startTime	10:30	06:00	17:45
endTime	12:30	07:30	19:00
days	Monday, Wednesday , Friday	Sunday, Thursday	Everyday
Fee	750.00	500.00	1500.00

Instructor
Attribute	Sample Data One	Sample Data Two	Sample Data Three
InstructorID	101Harry	102Ali	103Austin
class	101	101	103
fullName	Harry McCrea	Ali Tovell	Austin Mackie
dateOfBirth	March 15, 1945	May 17, 1978	April 4, 1967
address	9 Sunnyside Road, LYRUP SA 5343	1 Cedar Street, LUCINDA QLD 4850	11 Frouds Road, ENSAY VIC 3895
salary	3400.00	3100.00	3500.00

Attendance
Attribute	Sample Data One	Sample Data Two	Sample Data Three
classID	101	101	101
memberID	Dylan8644	Alex7489	Dylan8644
classDate	11/12/2018	11/12/2018	18/12/2018
attendance	Present	Present	Absent

Admission
Attribute	Sample Data One	Sample Data Two	Sample Data Three
classID	101	101	101
memberID	Dylan8644	Alex7489	Dylan8644
joinDate	01/12/2018	14/11/2018	05/05/2018
lastDate	30/11/2019	13/05/2019	04/05/2019

Name	Deployment	Company Size	Platforms	Price	Reputation
NetSuite ERP	Cloud and In-house (Hamerman et al. 2015)	Small and Medium	Apple, Windows	Medium	Eighty percent customer satisfaction
Epicor ERP 10	Cloud	Small, Medium and Large	Apple, Windows and Linux (Erkayman, Khorshidi and Usanmaz 2018)	High	Fifty-four percent customer satisfaction

Suitability: As per the comparison provided in the above section, the NetSuite ERP can be the best solution for You Can Fit In. The organization wants a cost effective solution that can deploy the system in cloud. As per the description of NetSuite it can perfectly fit to the requirements of new information system.

In-House System: The in-house system will be implemented in the premise of You Can Fit In. The organization will purchase all the hardware and software resources required to develop the system (Deitte et al. 2018). The team will be hired by the organization either individually or a third party system development experts.

NetSuite ERP: This solution is more effective than the previous one. The NetSuite will appoint a team of experts in You Can Fit In to collect data from them and generate a system for the organization (Hamerman et al. 2015). This system will be hosted by the NetSuite organization itself.

Cloud Based System: The organization can hire a team of experts for developing a system. After the system is developed, they can contact any cloud hosting organization to deploy their system (Tyagi, Agarwal and Maheshwari 2016). You Can Fit In will have a team to maintain and monitor the system.

Conclusion:

From the above study it can be concluded that the proposed information system can handle the business processes of You Can Fit In accurately and efficiently. The system will be capable of collecting data from various input sources and store those data into a structured database. The fact-finding methods discussed in the report consists of all the information that can be used for collecting the system requirement data. Each of the fact-finding has been discussed in detail so that proper knowledge of how the method works can be understood. Through the whole assignment, a lot of system related data has been provided and analyzed. All those processes has been done based on the fact-finding methods discussed in the report. The use case diagram provided in the report consist of the information of how the user interacts with the system. These interaction information is collected through the questionnaires and observation of work environment. The report has effectively showed the connection between the use case and the sequence diagram. As both the sequence and use case diagrams are dynamic models of UML, both the diagrams has been properly used for capturing the behavioral requirements of the system. However, the report does not show the process or conditions for validating the collected requirements and created diagrams. The progress of each of the project management tasks has been verified and the current progress report has been provided. It allowed to have a proper idea of how the system project is progressing.

Understanding Requirements through Fact Finding Techniques

Highly Skilled and Experienced Project Team: In order to implement a fresh information system for the You Can Fit In, it is suggested that project team is created at the beginning of the project. It is because, there exists no feasibility for identifying quantities of the unavailable information. The team must be able to raise an alarm if complete data regarding the project is unavailable. This will make Adam Apple recognize the feasibility of the present project exception. The project team will be constructed with small number of experienced and skilled members. Each of the project team member will have separate responsibility or in some cases same. The project manager will be appointed to guide the team and project related tasks. The project manager must work as the communication link between Adam Apple and project team. The project manager will personally track the works of different team members so that project related tasks can be controller appropriately. The team must have a system analyst and may have one business analyst. The project team will have a member who is the internal staff of You Can Fit In. The team will work in harmony to meet every project deliverable.

System Requirements and Measures: Like all the other organizations, You Can Fit In has organizational goals along with the direction statements for performing the organization’s business activities and processes. It can be seen that all the direction statements are not able to satisfy the primary goals of You Can Fit In. The main requirement of the proposed information system is to allow Adam Apple a solution that can handle all the processes of You Can Fit In. The system must process the information of customers so that customer relationship management processes can also be improved. The main focus of the requirement gathering methods (fact-finding techniques) must be on recognizing how to collect, maintain and share information among the authorized end users. The system and business analyst must generate a top-bottom and wide perspective for the proposed information system. The project team must identify the requirements of the customer. The analysts must create a set of conditions so that input collected from questionnaire can be verified. The analyst must use fact-finding methods that can validate the result of other method so that gaps of each technique can be minimized. Each requirement should be documented properly so that project accuracy can be achieved.

Change Management: It is a very important to manage the changes that will happen in You Can Fit In after the implementation of the information system. The project manager along with Adam Apple will identify the advantages that the system will provide. These advantages will be shared with the staff of You Can Fit In so that their support can be obtained. The system analyst will generate a list of prototypes that can be tested by the staff. This way the staff will have a proper idea of how the system will look like and changes done based on their feedback will make the system more user friendly.

Overview of Fact-Finding Methods

Alipour, M.A., Groce, A., Zhang, C., Sanadaji, A. and Caushik, G., 2016. Finding model-checkable needles in large source code haystacks: Modular bug-finding via static analysis and dynamic invariant discovery. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.06382.

Al-Masree, H.K., 2015. Extracting Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) from relational database schema. International Journal of Database Theory and Application, 8(3), pp.15-26.

Al-Masree, H.K., 2015. Extracting Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) from relational database schema. International Journal of Database Theory and Application, 8(3), pp.15-26.

Bahill, A.T. and Madni, A.M., 2017. Discovering system requirements. In Tradeoff Decisions in System Design (pp. 373-457). Springer, Cham.

Chong, G. and Jun, Z., 2017. Analysis and Design of Internet-based Library Management System Based on UML. INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT.

Ciochina, S., Paleologu, C. and Benesty, J., 2016. An optimized NLMS algorithm for system identification. Signal Processing, 118, pp.115-121.

Deitte, L.A., Chen, P.H., Scanlon, M.H., Heitkamp, D.E., Davis, L.P., Urban, S., Marx, M. and Slanetz, P.J., 2018. Twenty-four–Seven In-house Faculty and Resident Education.

Dick, J., Hull, E. and Jackson, K., 2017. Requirements engineering. Springer.

Englehardt, S. and Narayanan, A., 2016. Online tracking: A 1-million-site measurement and analysis. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (pp. 1388-1401). ACM.

Erkayman, B., Khorshidi, M. and Usanmaz, B., 2018. AN INTEGRATED FUZZY APPROACH FOR ERP DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY SELECTION UNDER CONFLICTING CRITERIA. Atatürk Üniversitesi ?ktisadi ve ?dari Bilimler Dergisi, 32(3), pp.807-823.

Hamerman, P.D., Andrews, C., Miller, J. and Glazer, L., 2015. The SaaS ERP Applications Landscape. Forrester Research, Sept.

Hong, Y. and Chen, D., 2019. Construction of the” Last Mile” Service Quality Evaluation Index System for E-commerce Logistics——Analysis of Questionnaire Based on Consumer Perception. In 3rd International Seminar on Education Innovation and Economic Management (SEIEM 2018). Atlantis Press.

Hu, S., Su, L., Liu, H., Wang, H. and Abdelzaher, T.F., 2015. Smartroad: Smartphone-based crowd sensing for traffic regulator detection and identification. ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks (TOSN), 11(4), p.55.

Khurana, N., Chhillar, R.S. and Chhillar, U., 2016. A Novel Technique for Generation and Optimization of Test Cases Using Use Case, Sequence, Activity Diagram and Genetic Algorithm. JSW, 11(3), pp.242-250.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Mohapatra, D.P., Godbley, S. and Dutta, A., 2017. Measuring Hit ratio of Software Systems using UML Sequence Diagram.

Nagorny, K., Scholze, S., Barata, J. and Colombo, A.W., 2016, April. An approach for implementing ISA 95-compliant big data observation, analysis and diagnosis features in industry 4.0 vision following manufacturing systems. In Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems(pp. 116-123). Springer, Cham.

Schomburg, I., Jeske, L., Ulbrich, M., Placzek, S., Chang, A. and Schomburg, D., 2017. The BRENDA enzyme information system–From a database to an expert system. Journal of biotechnology, 261, pp.194-206.

Shi, L., Zhao, L., Wong, A., Wang, D. and Mok, V., 2015. Mapping the relationship of contributing factors for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific reports, 5, p.11259.

Soares, J.A.C., 2017. Automatic Model Transformation from UML Sequence Diagrams to Coloured Petri Nets.

Tyagi, S., Agarwal, A. and Maheshwari, P., 2016. A conceptual framework for IoT-based healthcare system using cloud computing. In Cloud System and Big Data Engineering (Confluence), 2016 6th International Conference (pp. 503-507). IEEE.

Yang, L. and Cao, L., 2016. The Effect of MySQL Workbench in Teaching Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) to Relational Schema Mapping. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 8(7), p.1.

Zhang, C., Duan, Z., Yu, B., Tian, C. and Ding, M., 2016. A test case generation approach based on sequence diagram and automata models. Chinese Journal of Electronics, 25(2), pp.234-240.