Kudler Fine Foods SR-Kf-013: Analysis Methods

SERVICE REQUEST: KUDLER FINE FOODS SR-KF-013
Team
BSA/375 Service Request: Kudler Fine Foods SR-kf-013
Analysis Methods
There are many analysis methods organization use to collect data such as interviewing, questionnaires, directly observing users, and analyzing procedures and other documents. One of the most effective ways to collect data is interviewing. Interviewing is one of the primary ways to gather information about an information system. According to "Analysis Methods" (2010), A good system analyst must be good at interviewing and no project can be conduct 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. (p. 1) Some of the ways to
make sure the interview goes well is to prepare the interview carefully, including appointment, priming question, checklist, agenda, and questions. Listen carefully and take note during the interview, review notes within 48 hours after interview, and be neutral. Another method is questionnaires as it provides an advantage to gathering information from many people in a relatively short time. According to "Analysis Methods" (2010), Choosing right questionnaires respondents and designing effective questionnaires are the critical issues in this information collection method. People usually are only use a part of functions of a system, so they are always just familiar with a part of the system functions or processes. In most situations, one copy of questionnaires obviously cannot fit to all the users. To conduct an effective survey, the analyst should group the users properly and design different questionnaires for different group. Moreover, the ability to build good questionnaires is a skill that improves with practice and experience. When designing questionnaires, the analyst should concern the following issues at least. (p. 1)
Questionnaires should be an appropriate length to not overwhelm the participant and contain pertinent questions to obtain the data needed for the scope of the project.
The third method is directly observing users. According to "Analysis Methods" (2010), People are not always very reliable informants, even when they try to be reliable and tell what they think is the truth.
People often do not have a completely accurate appreciation of what they do or how they do it. This I especially true concerning infrequent events, issues from the past, or issues for which people have considerable passion. Since people cannot always be trusted to reliably interpret and report their own actions, analyst can supplement and corroborate what people say by watching what they do or by obtaining relatively objective measures of how people behave in work situation. However, observation can cause people to change their normal operation behavior. (p. 1)
The fourth one is analyzing procedures and other documents. By examining existing system and organizational documentation, system analyst can find out details about current system and the organization these systems support. One of the best systems is joint application design (JAD). JAD is a facilitated, team-based approach for defining the requirements for new or modified information systems. JAD was started at IBM in the late 1970s. According to "Analysis Methods"
(2010), The main idea behind JAD is to bring together the key users, managers, and system analysts involved in the analysis of a current system. The primary purpose of using JAD in the analysis phase is to collect systems requirements simultaneously from the key people involved with the system. The result is an intense and structured, but highly effective, process. Having all the key people together in one place at one time allows analysts to see where there are areas of agreement and where there are conflicts. (p. 1)
Requirements
During the last review, it was determined by Team C the system requirements would need to include RetailPro Software. This software allows the three stores to process orders easily and manage stock while the data is store in a central location. This software is mandatory for the management of the different locations to maintain same items throughout the organization and add specialized items into the database for other stores to retrieve the data. The upgrade to the current POS system will make the transition seamless for customers while the items that lure customers in will be stocked and managed better through RetailPro.
Proposed System Process

Functional Allocation Modeling
“Function allocation is a central component of systems engineering and its main aim is to provide a rational means of determining which system-level functions should be carried out by humans and which by machines” (Wright, Dearden, & Fields, 1999, para. 1). The function allocation process should be done very early in the design process as this will provide a rational method for making allocation decisions. The input to the allocation processes is a list of abstract functions the human and/or machine system is required to achieve and the output is typically the same list categorized in terms of who or what is responsible for implementing that function. The process determines the human-computer interface (HCI) and assigns the appropriate areas of responsibility. In conjunction with the HCI, this process outlines the necessary hardware and software to provide the desired outcome.
Logical Model

References
Analysis Methods. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/zhu/
Wright, P., Dearden, A., & Fields, B. (1999). Function Allocation. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.15.5000&rep=rep1&type=pdf