Chapter 6

Determining System Requirements

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The impertinence characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the
following statements?

a. You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways.

b. Every fact must fit with every other fact.
c. Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible.
d. You should question everything.

Answer: d Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 162

2. The reframing characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the

following statements?

a. You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways.

b. Every fact must fit with every other fact.
c. Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible.
d. You should question everything.

Answer: a Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 162

3. The impartiality characteristic of a good systems analyst is represented by which of the

following statements?

a. You must challenge yourself to look at the organization in new ways.

b. Your role is to find the best solution to a business problem or opportunity.
c. Assume anything is possible, and eliminate the infeasible.
d. You should question everything.

Answer: b Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 162

4. The primary deliverables from requirements determination include:

a. sets of forms, reports, and job descriptions

b. transcripts of interviews
c. notes from observation and from analysis documents
d. all of the above

Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 162

5. The term used to refer to systems development projects bogged down in an abundance of
analysis work is:

a. information overload
b. analysis paralysis
c. analysis overload
d. information abundance

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 163

6. Techniques developed to keep the analysis effort minimal, yet still effective include:

a. JAD
b. interviewing
c. observations
d. quiz sessions

Answer: a Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 163

7. Traditional methods of collecting systems requirements include:

a. individual interviews
b. observing workers
c. group interviews
d. all of the above

Answer: d Difficulty: Easy Reference: p. 164

8. Which of the following is a traditional method of collecting systems requirements?

a. Group support systems

b. Group interviews
c. Joint Application Design
d. Rapid Application Development

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 164

9. Questions in interviews that have no pre-specified answers are:

a. nonspecific questions
b. closed-ended questions
c. open-ended questions
d. investigative questions

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 166

10. One advantage of open-ended questions in an interview is:

a. a significant amount of time can be devoted to each interviewee

b. the interviewee is restricted to providing just a few answers
c. previously unknown information can result
d. they work well when the answers to the questions are well known

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 166

11. Questions in interviews asking those responding to choose from among a set of specified
responses are:

a. specific questions
b. closed-ended questions
c. open-ended questions
d. structured questions

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 166

12. Which of the following is an advantage of closed-ended questions?

a. Interviews based on closed-ended questions do not necessarily require a large time

commitment, so more topics can be covered.
b. Closed-ended questions enable the analysts to explore information that does not quite fit
defined answers.
c. The analyst can obtain previously unknown information.
d. Closed-ended questions often put the interviewee at ease.

Answer: a Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 166

13. Good interview guidelines consist of:

a. phrasing the question to illicit the correct response

b. typing your notes within two weeks of the interview
c. establishing expectation levels about the new system
d. seeking a variety of perspectives from the interviews

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 167

14. Interviewing several key people at once refers to:

a. stakeholder interviewing
b. group interviewing
c. user interviewing
d. strategic interviewing

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 167

15. Which of the following is a disadvantage to group interviewing?

a. Group interviewing does not effectively utilize your time.

b. Interviewing several people together allows them to hear the opinions of other key
people.
c. Group interviewing requires significantly more time than does the JAD process.
d. Scheduling group interviews can be a problem.

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 168

16. A facilitated process that supports idea generation by groups where at the beginning of the
process, group members work alone to generate ideas, which are then pooled under the
guidance of a trained facilitator best describes:

a. affinity clustering
b. requirements structuring
c. group interviews
d. nominal group technique

Answer: d Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 168

17. Which of the following is a reason for directly observing end users?

a. The analyst gets a snap-shot image of the person or task being observed.
b. Observations are not very time consuming.
c. People often do not have a completely accurate appreciation of what they do or how they
do it.
d. Employees will alter their performance if they know that they are being observed.

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 169

18. The analysis of documents can help you identify:

a. problems with existing systems

b. special information processing circumstances that occur irregularly and may not be
identified by any other requirements
c. the reason why current systems are designed the way they are
d. all of the above

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 171

19. A written work procedure:

a. indicates the job an analyst will need to perform on a given project

b. describes how a particular job or task is performed, including data and information that
are used and created in the process of performing the job
c. indicates what data flow in or out of a system and which are necessary for the system to
function
d. enables you to work backwards from the information on a report to the necessary data

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 171

20. If your analysis of several written procedures reveals a duplication of effort in two jobs, you
should:

a. indicate that one job be deleted from the new system

b. call the duplication to the attention of management as an issue to be resolved before
system design can proceed
c. justify the duplication of effort
d. restructure the tasks so that the duplication is removed

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 171

21. The official way a system works as described in organizational documentation is referred to
as a(n):

a. formal system
b. informal system
c. official system
d. desired system

Answer: a Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 172

22. The way a system actually works is referred to as a(n):

a. unofficial system
b. informal system
c. actual system
d. formal system

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 172

23. Forms are important for understanding a business because they:

a. indicate the correct sequencing of tasks

b. describe how particular tasks are performed
c. indicate what data flow in or out of a system and which are necessary for the system to
function
d. enable you to work backwards from the information on a report to the necessary data

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 173

24. A report:

a. indicates the inputs required for the new system

b. describes how a particular job or task is performed, including data and information that
are used and created in the process of performing the job
c. indicates what data flow in or out of a system and which are necessary for the system to
function
d. enables you to work backwards from the information on a report to the data that must
have been necessary to generate them

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 174

25. When comparing observations and document analysis:

a. the time required to conduct observations compared to document analysis is low

b. the observee is not known to the interviewer
c. the potential audience of the observation method is limited
d. with document analysis, a clear commitment is discernible

Answer: c Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 175

26. Which of the following is not a contemporary method for determining system requirements?

a. interviewing
b. group support systems
c. CASE tools
d. Joint Application Design

Answer: a Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 175

27. Which of the following is a true statement regarding JAD?

a. The primary purpose of using JAD in the analysis phase is to collect systems
requirements simultaneously from the key people involved with the system.
b. JAD follows a particular structure of roles and agenda that are similar to the group
interview.
c. JAD sessions are usually conducted in the organization’s conference room.
d. A JAD session is inexpensive to conduct.

Answer: a Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 176

28. The trained individual who plans and leads Joint Application Design sessions is referred to
as the:

a. scribe
b. JAD session leader
c. JAD manager
d. JAD contributor

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 176

29. The person who makes detailed notes of the happenings at a Joint Application Design
session is referred to as the:

a. JAD analyst
b. scribe
c. JAD manager
d. JAD session leader

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 176

30. The CASE tools most useful to the analyst during JAD are:

a. lower CASE
b. cross life cycle CASE
c. upper CASE
d. code generators

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 178

31. Which of the following is a way that JAD can benefit from GSS?

a. GSS-supported JADs tend to be more time-efficient than traditional JADs.

b. Comments are more likely to be obtained from everyone.
c. Important ideas are less likely to be missed.
d. All of the above are correct.

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 179

32. Drawbacks to prototyping include:

a. a tendency to avoid creating formal documentation of systems requirements that can

then make the system more difficult to develop into a fully working system
b. prototypes becoming very idiosyncratic to the initial user and difficult to diffuse or adapt
to other potential users
c. prototypes being built as stand-alone systems
d. all of the above

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: pp. 180-181

33. Prototyping is most useful for requirements determination when:

a. user requirements are well understood

b. communication problems have existed in the past between users and analysts
c. possible designs are simple and require an abstract form to fully evaluate
d. multiple stakeholders are involved with the system

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 180

34. The search for, and implementation of, radical change in business processes to achieve
breakthrough improvements in products and services best defines:

a. Joint Application Design

b. Rapid Application Development
c. structured programming
d. business process reengineering

Answer: d Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 181

35. The structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a
particular customer or market best defines:

a. formal systems
b. key business processes
c. secondary activities
d. production systems

Answer: b Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 182

36. Technologies that enable the breaking of long-held business rules that inhibit organizations
from making radical business changes best defines:

a. technology barriers
b. business process reengineering
c. disruptive technologies
d. business constraints

Answer: c Difficulty: Med Reference: p. 183

37. Which of the following technologies disrupted the business rule that information can appear
only in one place at a time?

a. high-performance computing
b. distributed databases
c. expert systems
d. advanced telecommunications networks

Answer: b Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 183

38. Which of the following is not an Agile Methodologies requirements determination technique?

a. Planning Game
b. JAD
c. Agile Usage-Centered Design
d. continual user involvement

Answer: b Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 183

39. Continual user involvement works best when:

a. the number of end users is large.

b. the number of end users is small.
c. the development group is small.
d. the development group is large.

Answer: c Difficulty: Medium Reference: p. 185

40. Which of the following is not a step in the Agile Usage-Centered Design Method?

a. Give everyone a chance to vent about the current system and to talk about the features
every one wants in the new system.
b. Determine what the most important user roles would be.
c. Determine what tasks user roles will have to complete in order to achieve their goals.
d. Test each program module separately from every other program module, and then
perform system testing.

Answer: d Difficulty: Hard Reference: p. 185

“List …” Type Questions
1. List traditional methods of determining requirements for IS.

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Difficult

2. List 5 characteristics of a good system analyst to determine requirements for IS.

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med

3. List JAD meeting participants.

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med

4. List modern methods of determining requirements for IS.

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med

5. Describe Prototyping: When it should be used, Advantages, Drawbacks.

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med

6. Provide your answers for Exercise # 4, p. 192

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med

7. Provide your answers for Exercise # 5, p. 192

Answer: PPT slide Difficulty: Med