Norman C.

Cayabyab System Analysis and Design

BSCS/III-A

Interviewing

• What are we talking about?

- Face-to-face interviewing
• What is qualitative interviewing about?
• Types of Qualitative Interview
• Common elements of good interviews
• Understanding the limitations of interview data
• All illustrated by my own good and bad experiences

Comparing Quantitative and Qualitative

• Quantitative: structured
- Interview follows strict set of questions
- Deviation from questions compromises study design
• Qualitative: less structured
- Semi-structured
- Unstructured
- Presence of guide not necessary
+ Deviation from guide encouraged

Objectives:

• Open-ended questions and probes

- Yield in-depth responses about people’s
+ Experiences
+ Perceptions
+ Opinions
+ Feelings
+ Knowledge
• Data consist of verbatim quotations
- With sufficient context to be interpretable

Two Interview Types

Unstructured and Semi-structured

Unstructured Interviewing

• Unstructured interviews
- Also known as ethnographic interviews
- No interview guide
- Have the form of a conversation with participant
+ Does not mean unplanned, means you have a plan but you are not
going to control
participants responses
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
+ Get them to open up and let them express themselves in their terms
and at own pace
• Purpose
- Learn through interaction about the culture being studied
- Learn concepts (as expressed in their culture)

Unstructured Interviewing
When, Why?

• Not sure what’s important to ask

- What are their coordination difficulties?
+ what is being coordinated, how, with whom
- What problems do they have with their current software processes?
+ what are their processes, what’s being built, what tools do they have
to support that
• Not sure how to ask
- How do they talk about the work that they are doing?
+ What terms do they describe the process that they are following in
designing the DSLAM,
what parts belong to the general culture of telephony and what to
them?
• Have time and ability to interview multiple times
- Unstructured interview is a wonderful luxury—seize it!

Semi-structured Interviewing

• Interview Guide
- A list of topics to cover
- Not always questions, sometimes instructions
+ For example: “be sure to ask about how they manage accessing
multiple corporate networks”
- May include an ordering/sequencing of questions
• Do not let Interview Guide overwhelm interview
- Let participants overwhelm the interview!
+ Sort of, you want them to talk to you, but you probably have more
interest in “on topic”

Semi-structured Interviewing
When, Why?

• Multiple investigators
- Interview guides means of maintaining consistency across
interviewers
• Managers
- Senior people accustomed to efficient use of their time
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
- Demonstrates control while maximising their participation in
interview

Sampling

-Sampling is a process of systematically selecting representative

elements of a population
• Involves two key decisions
• Which of the key documents and Web sites should be
sampled
• Which people should be interviewed or sent questionnaires

Sampling and Investigating Hard Data

• Sampling
• Kinds Of Information Sought In Investigation

Interviewing

• Kinds Of Information Sought

• Planning The Interview
• Conducting The Actual Interview
• Writing the Interview Report
• Joint Application Design

Using Questionnaires

• Kinds Of Information Sought

• Planning For The Use Of Questionnaires
• Using Scales In Questionnaires
• Designing and Administering the Questionnaire

Need for Sampling

• The reasons systems analysts do sampling are

• Reduction of costs
• Speeding up the data-gathering process
• Improving effectiveness
• Reduction of data-gathering bias
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
Sampling Design Steps

• To design a good sample, a systems analyst needs to follow four

steps:
• Determining the data to be collected or described
• Determining the population to be sampled
• Choosing the type of sample
• Deciding on the sample size

Sample Size

• The sample size decision should be made according to the

specific conditions under which a systems analysts works with
such as
• Sampling data on attributes
• Sampling data on variables
• Sampling qualitative data

Types of Sampling

• There are four types of sampling

• Convenience
• Purposive
• Simple random
• Complex random

Convenience Sampling

• Convenience samples are unrestricted, nonprobability samples

• Easy to arrange
• Most unreliable

Purposive Sampling

• Based on judgment
• Analyst chooses group of individuals to sample
• Based on criteria
• Nonprobability sample
• Moderately reliable

Simple Random Sampling

• Based on a numbered list of the population

Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
• Each person or document has an equal chance of being selected

Complex Random Sampling

• Has three forms

• Systematic sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling

Systematic Sampling

• Simplest method of probability sampling

• Choose every k</span><span style=" font-family: 'Tahoma',
'Arial'; font-size: 32pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;
text-decoration: none;">th person on a list
• Not good if the list is ordered

Stratified Sampling

• Identifying subpopulations or strata

• Selecting objects or people for sampling from the subpopulation
• Compensates for a disproportionate number of employees from
a certain group
• Most important to the systems analyst

Cluster Sampling

• Select group of documents or people to study

• Select typical groups that represent the remaining ones

Deciding Sample Size for Attribute Data

• Steps to determine sample size

• Determine the attribute to sample
• Locate the database or reports where the attribute is found
• Examine the attribute and estimate p, the proportion of
the population having the attribute

Deciding Sample Size for Attribute Data

• Steps to determine sample size (continued)

• Make the subjective decision regarding the acceptable
interval estimate, i
• Choose the confidence level and look up the confidence
coefficient (z value) in a table
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
i

σp =

Deciding Sample Size for Attribute Data

• Steps to determine sample size (continued)

• Calculate σp, the standard error of the proportion as
follows:

p(1-p)

n= +1

σp<sup>2

Deciding Sample Size for Attribute Data

• Steps to determine sample size (continued)

• Determine the necessary sample size, n, using the
following formula:

Confidence Level Table

Sample Size for Data on Variables

• The steps to determine the sample size when sampling data on

variables are
• Determine the variable you will be sampling
• Locate the database or reports where the variable can be
found

Sample Size for Data on Variables

• The steps to determine variable sample size (continued)

• Examine the variable to gain some idea about its
magnitude and dispersion
• It would be useful to know the mean to determine a
more appropriate interval estimate and the standard
deviation, s to determine sample size (in the last
step)

Sample Size for Data on Variables

Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
• The steps to determine variable sample size (continued)
• Make a subjective decision regarding the acceptable
interval estimate, i
• Choose a confidence level and look up the confidence
coefficient (z value)

Sample Size for Data on Variables

• The steps to determine variable sample size (continued)

• Calculate σx, the standard error of the mean as follows:

σx =

Sample Size for Data on Variables

• The steps to determine variable sample size (continued)

• Determine the necessary sample size, n, using the
following formula:

n= +1

σx<sup>2

Hard Data

• In addition to sampling, investigation of hard data is another

effective method for systems analysts to gather information

Obtaining Hard Data

• Hard data can be obtained by

• Analyzing quantitative documents such as records used for
decision making
• Performance reports
• Records
• Data capture forms
• Ecommerce and other transactions
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
Qualitative Documents

• Examine qualitative documents for the following:

• Key or guiding metaphors
• Insiders vs. outsiders mentality
• What is considered good vs. evil
• Graphics, logos, and icons in common areas or Web pages
• A sense of humor

Analyzing Qualitative Documents

• Qualitative documents include

• Memos
• Signs on bulletin boards
• Corporate Web sites
• Manuals
• Policy handbooks

Workflow Analysis

• Workflow analysis may reveal signs of larger problems, such as

• Data or information doesn’t flow as intended
• Bottlenecks in the processing of forms
• Access to online forms is cumbersome
• Unnecessary duplication of work occurs because
employees are unaware that information is already
in existence
• Employees lack understanding about the
interrelatedness of information flow

Business Process Reengineering

• Business process reengineering software includes the following

features:
• Modeling of the existing system
• Analysis of possible outcomes
• Simulation of proposed work flow

Archival Documents

• A systems analyst may obtain some valuable information by

abstracting data from archival documents
• Generally, archival documents are historical data, and they are
prepared and kept by someone else for specific purposes
Norman C. Cayabyab System Analysis and Design
BSCS/III-A
Guidelines for Abstracting Archival Data

• Fragment data into subclasses and make cross-checks to reduce

errors
• Compare reports on the same phenomenon by different analysts
• Realize the inherent bias associated with original decisions to
file, keep, or destroy reports
• Use other methods to obtain data

References:
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/dept-pages/business/kendall/sad.html
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2006/cs6455_spring/interviewing.
pdf
http://74.6.146.127/search/cache?ei=UTF-
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