Facts Finding Methods

Domain knowledge

Most generally, domain knowledge is that valid knowledge used to refer to an area of human endeavor, an autonomous computer activity, or other specialized discipline. Specialists and experts use and develop their own domain knowledge. If the concept domain knowledge or domain expert is used we emphasize a specific domain which is an object of the discourse/ interest/ problem.

More particular, in software engineering, domain knowledge is knowledge about the environment in which the target system operates, for example, software agents. Domain knowledge is important, because it usually must be learned from software users in the domain (As domain specialists/experts), rather than from software developers. Communicating between end-users and software developers is often difficult. They must find a common language to communicate in. Developing enough shared vocabulary to communicate can often take a while.

Interview

An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton

Study process / Site visit

We can go and study the present system and gather the facts that we need to analyze and design the new automated system

Review Records

Facts can be gathered by studying and reviewing the reports which was kept in the present system.

Non Traditional Methods

 Brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem. In 1953 the method was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming.

Although brainstorming has become a popular group technique, when applied in a traditional group setting, researchers have not found evidence of its effectiveness for enhancing either quantity or quality of ideas generated. Because of such problems as distraction, social loafing, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking, conventional brainstorming groups are little more effective than other types of groups, and they are actually less effective than individuals working independently. In the Encyclopedia of Creativity, Tudor Rickards, in his entry on brainstorming, summarizes its controversies and indicates the dangers of conflating productivity in group work with quantity of ideas.

Although traditional brainstorming does not increase the productivity of groups (as measured by the number of ideas generated), it may still provide benefits, such as boosting morale, enhancing work enjoyment, and improving team work. Thus, numerous attempts have been made to improve brainstorming or use more effective variations of the basic technique.

 A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.

The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories.

By presenting ideas in a radial, graphical, non-linear manner, mind maps encourage a brainstorming approach to planning and organizational tasks. Though the branches of a mind map represent hierarchical tree structures, their radial arrangement disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented with more linear visual cues. This orientation towards brainstorming encourages users to enumerate and connect concepts without a tendency to begin within a particular conceptual framework.

 Joint Application Development (JAD) is a development methodology system originally used for designing a computer-based system, but can be applied to any development process. It involves continuous interaction with the users and different designers of the system in development. JAD centers on a workshop session that is structured and focused. Participants of these sessions would typically include a facilitator, end users, developers, observers, mediators and experts.  JAD allows for a faster development process and minimizes errors at the same time. JAD also improves the quality of the final product by focusing on the up-front portion of the development life cycle, thus reducing the likelihood of errors that are expensive to correct later on.