Fact Finding Techniques In System Investigation

Fact Finding Techniques In System InvestigationFact- dumbfounding is an important activity in system investigation. In this stage, the cognitive operation of the system is to be understood by the system psycho analyst to design the proposed system. Various methods be used for this and these be known as particular-finding techniques. The analyst needs to fully understand the current system.The analyst needs entropy c overleaply the requirements and demands of the project undertaken and the techniques employed to join forces this data are known as item-finding techniques.Various kinds of techniques are used and the most popular among them are interviews, questionnaires, spirit reviews, case tools and also the personal observations made by the analyst himself. to each one of these techniques is notwithstanding dealt in next pages.Two bulk open fire go into the same area to gather facts and experience entirely different results. One sp mop ups weeks and gets fractional an d misleading data. The other is finished in a few hours and has complete and solid facts. This session outlines some of the things a person cannister do to carry through the latter.Requirements analysis encompasses any of the tasks that go into the investigation, scoping and definition of a new or altered system. The first activity in analysis phase is to do the introductory investigation. During the preliminary investigation data collecting is a very important and for this we can use the fact finding techniques.The following fact finding techniques can be used for collecting the dataInterviews Analysts can use interviews to collect nurture about the current system form the potential users. Here the analysts grasp the areas of misunderstanding, unrealistic exception and descriptions of activities and jobs along with resistance to the new proposed system. Interviews are time consuming.Questionnaires Here the analysts can collect data from large groups. Questionnaires could be Open-ended or Close questionnaires. Open-ended questionnaires are used to learn feelings, opinions, general experiences on affect detail or problem. In it, questions are answered in their own words. Where as in closed questionnaires a set of prescribed answers are used and specific response suck in to be selected. This is a costly affair as the questions should be printed out.*Getting Cooperation in Fact FindingThe cooperation of operating volume is crucial to fact assemblage. However, if the operating the great unwashed believe that the purpose of the fact gathering is to make changes in the reckon with the object of blackguard-down staff, it is nave to expect them to do. The key to obtaining cooperation is deuce-way loyalty and trust. We get this by commitment to developing expediencys that simultaneously dress the interests of employees while they serve the interests of owners, managers and customers.Process improvement projects should be undertaken with the object o f do the company as grievous as it can be, not reducing staff. Of course bear on improvements pass on change the sprain, often times eliminating tasks. This is frank. Not quite so obvious is the fact that eliminating tasks does not thrust to mean reducing staff. It can mean having resources avail open at no additional cost to do any number of things needed by the organization, not the least of which could be further improvement work. And, no one is in a better position to improve the work than the quite a little who know it firsthand. When organizations are truly committed to their people and their people know this, their people can relax and impetuousally commit themselves to continuous improvement.This article is written for companies that want to capture the enormous potential of enthusiastic employees embracing new technology. They cannot accomplish this with lip service. The employees of an organization are its most valuable resource. When executives say this sort of thing publicly only(prenominal) then airiness their people as expenses to be gotten rid of at the first opportunity, that is lip service. Resources should be maintained and utilized, not dumped. When they are dumped, trust dissolves.Meanwhile the people and their fiat eat up changed significantly in the last few decades. The popularization of com locateers stands high among the factors that have contri thated to recent social change. Young people are being open to computers proterozoic in their education. A sizeable portion of the work force is comfortable working with computers. This was certainly not so a generation ago. other social change that is very important to process improvement is the increasing acceptance of involving operating level employees in the improvement process. It has be sleep together sooner stock(a) to form groups of operating people. Along with the increasing acceptance of employee affair has come a dramatic change in the role of the internal consul tant who is scholarship new skills for working with teams.This article addresses the role of the facilitator who gathers facts about work processes to use with an improvement team. The facilitator follows a work process as it passes through departmental boundaries and prepares an as-is Chart. thence an improvement team made up of people from the departments involved in the process studies the as-is Chart and develops a To-be Chart. Facilitators learn how to study work processes. Facilitators are a great help as they gather and organizing the facts of work processes and guide the study of those facts by improvement teams.*What Facts to Gather?Knowing what facts you want to gather is crucial to rough-and-ready fact gathering. When a people do not know what they are timbreing for but attempt to learn everything they can, in effect to gather all of the facts, they embark on endless and often fruitless effort. Knowing what facts not to gather is just as important as knowing the facts that are needed. on that point is a pattern to fact gathering that is particularly helpful during process improvement. It makes use of the standard journalism questions what, where, when, why, who and how. This pattern focuses on the information that is relevant for process improvement and avoids that which is not. How it accomplishes this is not completely obvious. It goes like this.*Distinguishing Between Facts and SkillNo matter how at endureingfully facts are ga at that placed, they will never match the understandings of people who have experienced the work first hand for years. Those people possess the organizational memory. They have accumulated detailed knowledge that is available to them alone. They access this knowledge intuitively, as they need it, in a fashion that has the feel of common sense. But, they cannot only if explain it to someone else.For instance, we could ask an experienced medical doctor what he does when he visits a patient and expect a general answer lik e, I examine the patient and enter a diagnosis on the patient record form. However, if we then asked How do you do that? How do you know what to write as the diagnosis? we would be asking for detail that took years to accumulate. During those years this detail has been alter from myriads of individual facts to intuitively available skill. We exclusively cannot gather it.The information that the doctor and for that matter all employees can readily provide answers the question, What? The information that cannot be provided because it resides in the realm of skill answers the question, How? Rather than attempt to gather the skill and settling for simplistic/superficial data we acknowledge that that information is not accessible to the fact gathitherr.However, this information is critical to effective improvement. In order to get at it, we mustiness invite the people who have it to join in the improvement ripening activity. This is the fundamental strength of employee teams. They pr ovide the organizational memory.And, dont think for a number that medical doctors have skill but clerks dont. In all lines of work there are differences of skill levels. Our object in process improvement should be to incorporate into our changes the finest skills available. So we use teams of the beat experienced employees we have. To do otherwise invites superficiality.* apply the Description PatternThe description pattern provides facts, not skills. We organize these facts on charts as effective reminders of the steps in a process. When these charts are used by people who are skilled at performing those steps, we have the knowledge we need for improvement. ThereforeWhat Answer this question at every step. This tells us what the step is and provides the necessary reminder for the team.Where This question deals specifically with location. Answer it for the very first step of the process and then every time the location changes and you will endlessly know location.When When dea ling with processes, this question generally means how long. Ask it throughout the fact gathering, making note of all delays and particularly time-consuming steps.Who This question deals specifically with who is performing each step. The easiest way to collect and display this information is to note every time a new person takes over.How This question is important but it changes the fact gathering to skill gathering. We should rarely get into it. Instead we leave this information to be provided by the team, as needed.Why This question is different. It is evaluative rather than descriptive. It becomes most important when we study the process for improvement but while we are fact gathering, it is premature. Just gather facts. Later as a team we will question the why of each of them.http//www.freetutes.com/systemanalysis/images/decriptivepattern.gifFollow this pattern and You will always interpret what is happening. You will always delegate where the work is happening. You will sh ow who is doing the work whenever a person is involved. You will show when most of the processing time is occurring. You wont bog your readers down with how the individual steps are done, non be given detail. You wont bog your readers down with how the individual steps are done, non flow detail.*How to Initiate Fact Gathering Public AnnouncementA public promulgation can go a long way towards inspiring cooperation. It can also provide an opportunity to forestall the anxieties just discussed. The people working in the areas affected by the project are informed that a five or ten minute clash will be held at the end of a work shift and that a senior executive has an important announcement. (This senior executive should be a person whose authority spans the entire project.)The meeting includes an announcement of the project, its objective, who is involved in it, a request for the support of all employees and an invitation for questions. It is conducted by the executive mentioned abo ve because it is important that statements about the intent of the project be made by someone who has the authority to stand behind his or her words. It is also helpful for the executive to introduce the analyst and the team members who have been designate to the project.The issue of staff cuts may be introduced by the executive or may resurrect as a question. (Or, it may not arise at all in organizations where outrage of cause session is a non-issue.) If it is addressed, it should be answered directly and forcefully. I guarantee there will be no loss of employment because of work improvement. This is not a difficult guarantee for executives who genuinely believe that their people are their most valuable resource. (Note, this is not a guarantee that there will be no loss of employment. If we fail to improve our work, there is a pretty certain guarantee that there will be loss of employment.)This meeting can also have constructive side effects. One is that the analyst gets a pub lic introduction to the people from whom he or she will be gathering data. Simultaneously, everyone is informed of the reason for the project, making it unnecessary for the analyst to explain this at each interview. And, the explanation carries the assurances of the boss rather than an analyst.*Common thought Protocol Where to Get the Facts?It is critical that the analyst go where the facts are to learn about them. This means sack where the work is done and learning from the people who are doing it. If there are a number of people doing the same work, one who is particularly knowledgeable should be selected or several may be interviewed.Unfortunately, analysts often try to collect data in indirect ways. Occasionally this may be for no better reason than that the analyst is too lazy to go where the work is done. Or, the analyst may have been instructed to keep the project a secret because management wants to avoid stirring up concern about ancestry loss. Unfortunately, when emplo yees learn (and they will) that secret projects are underway in their areas, their anxiety levels will rise all the higher, encouraging more than non-cooperation.Introverts tend to be attracted to research fictitious character work and they also tend to find excuses to avoid meeting people. They are often tempted to use written procedures as their source of data rather than going directly to the operating people. Or, they may simply assume data to avoid having to go after it.Sometimes an analyst arrives in the supervisors reachice (a proper practice when visiting a department for the first time) and the supervisor wants to provide the information rather than having the analyst bother the employee who does the work. This could be motivated by a cordial desire to help. The supervisor may also want to slant the data. Regardless of the motive, it separates the analyst from the work place and the person doing the work.Whatever the reasons, each time an analyst settles for collecting data at a distance from universe, the quality of the analysis suffers. Guesses replace facts. Fantasy replaces reality. Where the differences are small the analyst may slide by, but professionals should not try to slide by. Where the differences are large the analyst may be seriously embarrassed. Meanwhile, the quality of the work suffers and, in the worst cases, major commitments to work methods are made based on faulty premises.Introduction to the Employee at the Work PlaceWhen we are gathering data, everywhere you go people are accommodating you, interrupting their work to help you do your work. The least you can do is show that you are willing to return the favor. When the time is not convenient, agree to come back later. Occasionally an employee will suggest that it is an inconvenient time and ask that you come back later. Sometimes, however, the employee is seriously troublesomenessd but for some reason does not address up about it. A sensitive analyst may notice this. Howe ver, to be on the safe side it helps to ask, Is this a convenient time? climax back later is usually a minor problem. Typically you have a number of places to visit. Pick a more convenient time and return. Dont be surprised if the employee appreciates it and is waiting for you with materials set out when you return.Whatever you do, dont start suspecting that every time a person puts you off that person is trying to scuttle your work or is a difficult employee. Assume the person is honestly inconvenienced and simply come back later. If someone puts you off repeatedly, it is soundless a minor inconvenience as long as you have data to collect elsewhere. Give the employees the benefit of the doubt, knowing that every time you accommodate them their debt to you grows. If you do in fact run into a genuinely uncooperative and eventually have to impose a time, it is nice to be able to remind that person of how many times you have rescheduled for his or her benefit. At such times you will a lso appreciate the project-announcement meeting when the senior executive brought everyone together, described the importance of the project and asked for support.As you are about to start the interview the employee may take up up a subject for idle conversation such as the weather, a sports event, a new building renovation, and so on People often do this when they first meet in order to size up one another (on a subject that doesnt matter) forrader opening up on subjects that are important. Since the purpose, on the part of the employee, is to find out what you are like you will do swell to join in the conversation politely and respectfully. Then when it has continued for an appropriate amount of time, shift to the subject of the interview, perhaps with a comment about not wanting to take up too much of the employees time.*RespectMost of the time analysts gather data from people at the operating levels who happen to be junior in status (i.e. file clerks, messengers, data entry clerks). Be careful not to act superior. One thing you can do to help with this is to set in your mind that wherever you gather data you are talking to the top authority in the organization. After all, if the top authority on filing in the organization is the CEO, the organization has serious trouble. Dont treat this subject lightly. We all receive a good deal of conditioning to treat people in superior positions with special respect. Unfortunately, the flip side of this conditioning leads to treating people in lesser positions with limited respect.Unintentionally, analysts frequently show disrespect for operating employees by implying that the way they do their work is foolish. The analyst is usually eager to discover opportunities for improvement. When something appears awkward or unnecessarily time-consuming the analyst is likely to frown, smile, act surprised, etc. In various ways, an analyst can suggest criticism or even ridicule of the way the work is being done. The bottom li ne is that the analyst, with only a few minutes observing the work, is implying that he or she knows how to do it better than a person who has been doing it for years. This is unacceptable behavior. Dont do it Go to people to find out what is happening, not to judge what is happening. First get the facts. Later we can search out better ways and invite knowledgeable operating people to join us in that effort.*A Caution about Instant ImprovementsWhile the analyst cannot match the employees detailed knowledge of what happens at their workplaces, it is not at all difficult to discover some things that those people are unaware of, things that involve multiple workplaces. During data collection, opportunities for improvement of a certain type surface immediately. Some of them are outstanding. The analyst discovers, for instance, that records and reports are being maintained that are destroyed without ever being used. Time-consuming duplication of unneeded records is found. Information is delivered through roundabout channels creating costly delays. The only reason these opportunities were not discovered earlier by the employees is that the records had never been followed through the several work areas. These instant improvements simply werent visible from the limited perspective of one office. The people preparing the reports had no cerebration that the people receiving them had no use for them and were destroying them. The people processing redundant records had no idea that other people were doing the same thing.These discoveries can be clearly beneficial to the organization. However, they can be devastating for the relationship between the analyst and the operating employees. The problem lies in the fact that the analyst discovers them. This may delude the analyst into believing that he or she is really capable of redesigning the procedure without the help of the employees. After all, they have been doing this work all these years and never made these discoverie s. I found them so quickly. I must be very bright.Most people go a great deal of their lives seeking confirmation of their worth. When something like this presents itself, an analyst is likely to treasure it. It becomes a personal accomplishment. It is perceived as support for two judgments, I am a clump better at this than those employees. and Employees in general are not capable of seeing these kinds of things. Both of these judgments are wrong. The impute goes to the fact that the analyst was the first person with the opportunity to follow the records through their flow. If any one of those employees had done the same thing, the odds are that the results would have been the same.The analyst is apt to alienate the employees if he or she grabs the credit for these discoveries. If this prompts the analyst to proceed with the entire redesign of the procedure without the help of the employees, he or she will be cut off from hundreds of finer details, any one of which could seriousl y compromise the effort.Taking credit for these early discoveries can also alienate employees even if they are invited into the improvement activity. For instance, it is not uncommon for an analyst who is about to go over a new process chart with a group of users to start by telling them about the discoveries made while preparing the chart. This can appear very innocent, but the fact is, the analyst does this in order to get the credit for the discoveries before the team members spot them. Instinctively, the analyst knows that as soon as the employees see the chart those discoveries will be obvious to them as well.An analyst who realizes that the enthusiastic involvement of the team members is much more important than the credit for one idea or another will want to keep quiet about early discoveries until after the employees get a chance to study the chart. In doing this the analyst positions himself or herself to provide professional support to knowledgeable employees. Soon they ma ke these obvious discoveries for themselves and this encourages them to become involved and excited about the project. It makes it theirs. In the end the analyst shares the credit for a successful project, rather than grabbing the credit for the first few ideas in a project that fails for lack of support.*Recording TechniqueRecording DataThe keys to effective data recording are a reverence for facts and knowing how to look for them. You do not go into data collection with a preconceived notion of the design of the final procedure. You let the facts tell you what shape the procedure should take. But, you must be able to find facts and know how to record them. This is done by breaking down the procedure into steps and listing them in proper sequence, without loss things out. The analyst keeps his or her attention on the subject being charted, follows its flow, step by step, and is not distracted by other subjects that could easily lead off onto tangents. The analyst becomes immersed in the data collection, one flow at a time.Record what is actually happening, not what should happen or could happen. Record without a preference. wake the wishes from your eyes and let the facts speak for themselves. When later you have them neatly organized and present them for study the facts will assert their authority as they tell their story.*The pronouncement of the FactsThere are two authority systems in every organization. One is a social authority set up for the convenience of arranging people and desks and telephones, dividing up the work and making decisions. The other authority system is reality itself. Too often the former is revered and feared and go to to constantly, while the latter is attended to when time permits.Yet, whether we come to grips with the facts or not, they enforce themselves with an unyielding will of steel. Reality is whether we are in touch with it or not. And, it is indifferent to us. It is not hurt when we repel it. It is not pleased or flat tered or thankful when we discover it. Reality simply does not care, but it enforces its will continuously.We are the ones who care. We care when reality rewards us. We care when reality crushes us. The better we are able to organize our methods of work in harmony with reality, the more we prosper. When we are unable to discover reality, or deny reality we are hurt. PeriodSo we enter into data collection with respect for reality. We demonstrate respect for the people who are closest to reality. And, we do our better to conservatively record the unvarnished truth.*ObservationA person who has been doing a job for years will have an understanding of the work that goes well beyond his or her ability to describe it. Dont expect operating people to describe perfectly and dont credit yourself with hearing perfectly. Sometimes it is a lot easier for a person to show you what he or she does than to describe it. A demonstration may save a good deal of time. A person might be able to show yo u how the task is done in minutes but could talk about it for hours.Most people are able to speak more considerably to a human being than to a machine. Furthermore, a tape recorder doesnt capture what is seen. If you are going to use a tape recorder, use it after you have left the interview site. It can help you capture a lot of detail while it is fresh in your mind without causing the employee to be ill at ease.*Level of DetailAs covered earlier while explaining the Description Pattern, you can gather facts but not skill. If you attempt to gather enough information to redesign a procedure without the help of experienced employees, your data collection will be interminably delayed. For instance, if you are studying a procedure that crosses five desks, and the five people who do the work each have five years of experience, together they have a quarter of a century of first-hand experience. There is no way to match that experience by interviewing. No matter how many times you go back , there will still be new things coming up. Then, if you redesign the procedure based solely on your scanty information, your results will be deficient in the eyes of these more experienced people. It doesnt do any good to complain that they didnt tell you about that after you have designed a defective procedure.Save yourself a lot of time and grief by not bothering to record the details of the individual steps and concentrate on the flow of the work. It goes here. They do this. It sits. It is copied. This part goes there. That one goes to them. never mind the detail of how they do the different steps. Just note the steps in their proper sequence. Then, when it comes time to analyze and you invite in those five people, they bring with them their twenty-five years of detailed experience. Voila You have the big picture and you have the detail. You have all that you need to discover the opportunities that are there.*Defused resentmentWhen people who have been doing work for years are i gnored while their work is being improved, there is a clear statement that their experience is not considered of value. These people tend to feel slighted. When the organization then pays consultants who have never done the work to develop improvements, this slight becomes an insult. When the consultants arrive at the workplace trying to glean information from the employees so that they can use it to develop their own answers, how do you expect the employees to react? Do you think they will be enthusiastic about providing the best of their inside knowledge to these consultants? Here, let me help you show my boss how much better you can figure out my work than I can? sincerelyWe dont have to get into this kind of disagreeable competition. Instead we honestly accept the cardinal principle of employee empowerment which is, The person doing the job knows far more than anyone else about the best way of doing that job and therefore is the one person best fitted to improve it. Allan H. Mo gensen, 1901-1989, the father of Work Simplification.By involving operating people in the improvement process, you also reduce the risk of getting distorted or misleading data. Their experience is brought into improvement meetings, unaltered. If they get excited about helping to develop the best possible process they will have little reason to distort or withhold the data.*How to Keep the Data OrganizedOne important quality of professional performance is the ability to work effectively on many assignments simultaneously. Professionals have to be able to leave a project frequently and take it up again without losing ground. The keys to doing this well are1. Knowing the tools of the profession and using them in a disciplined manner.2. Working quickly.3. Capturing data the same day that it is self-contained*Using the Tools of the Profession with DisciplineIn this respect, there is more professionalism in a well conceived set of file names and directories than there is in a wall full of certificates belonging to a disorganized person. For that matter, a three-ring binder may do more good than another certificate.A professional simply keeps track of the information that he or she gathers. Perhaps the worst enemy of data organization is the tendency on the part of intelligent people, who are for the moment intensely involved in some activity, to assume that the clear picture of it that they have today will be available to them tomorrow or a week later or months later. One way of avoiding this is to label and assemble data as if it will be worked on by someone who has never seen it before. Believe it or not, that person may turn out to be you.A word about absentmindedness may be appropriate. When people are goal-oriented and super busy they frequently find themselves looking for something they had just moments before. The reason is that when they put it down their mind was on something else and they did not make a record of where they put it. To find it again the y must think back to the last time they used it and then look around where they were at that time. Two things we can do to avoid this are1. Develop the discipline of closure so that activities are wrapped up.2. Select certain places to put tools and materials and do so consistently.*Working quicklyAn analyst should take notes quickly. Speed in recording is important in order to keep up with the flow of information as the employee describes the work. It also shortens the interview, making the interruption less burdensome to the employee, and it reduces the probability that something will come up those forces the interview to be terminated prematurely. At the close of the interview it is a good idea to review the notes with the employee, holding them in clear view for the employee to see and then, of course, thank the employee for his or her help.Skill in rapid note-taking can be develop over time. This does not mean that you rush the interview. Quite the contrary. Address the perso n from whom you are gathering information calmly and patiently. But, when you are actually recording data you do it quickly and keep your attention on the person. For process analysis data gathering, you dont have to write tedious sentences. The charting technique provides you with specialized shorthand (using the symbols and conventions of process charting in rough form). See the rough notes following.*Same Day Capture of DataThe analyst then returns to his or her office with sketchy notes, hastily written. These notes serve as reminders of what has been seen and heard. Their value as reminders deteriorates rapidly. While the interview is fresh in mind these notes can bring forth vivid recall. As time passes they lose this power