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CS 3724 - Human Computer Interaction - Summer 2005 -- Pardha S. Pyla

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Project 2: Systems Analysis

Due as per class calendar.

Overview

In this project assignment you perform your upfront systems analysis, starting with an ethnographic field visit and including identifying client business objectives, client business processes, target user classes, usability goals, user tasks, and system constraints. For this phase you can visit one of the following locations to do an ethnographic study based on your choice of kiosk: bus station, train station or an entertainment location.

What To Do

  1. Prepare for an ethnographic field visit for client and user interviews. See other items in the list below to be sure you know what information you need to acquire.
  2. Meet your client contacts and conduct an ethnographic field visit to interview the appropriate people in your client organization, plus potential and representative users of your system. Get everything you need to prepare for your design.

  1. Do the systems analysis to understand and characterize the following:

  2. Your client's business objectives
  3. Your client's overall business process and work flow
  4. Target user classes
  5. Usability goals
  6. User tasks
  7. System constraints

How To Do It

As with Project 1, the product of this stage is a much broader description of the system than you will actually develop in subsequent stages of the project. To get started, in Project 2 we want you to take a broad view of the system and in later stages you will select a few key parts (subset) of the overall system.

1. Prepare for client/user interviews (I will be your client for this phase)

  • Find out as much as possible beforehand about your client (because the client is imaginary, try to find out information about any company that fits the description of this type of client)
  • Understand organization's policies and culture
  • Know current system and history
  • Decide what questions to ask - in particular, plan to get the information you will need to describe items 3-8 in the list above
  • Prepare script of questions for interview

2. Meet with your client contact and interview the client and representative users

  • Document work processes, business process, work flow, what gets done and how, and how it all interrelates. Gather insight into behavior and organizational context.
  • Establish rapport with managers and clients
  • Collect artifacts (e.g., paper forms) as available
  • Follow leads
  • Be a detective! Dig out what you need. You will probably  need more than one meeting with your client to do all this.

3-8. See the class notes and class discussion for items 3-8. For item 5, download the file called User Class Characterization Matrix as a starting point and change/add/delete characteristics as appropriate for your own project topic. Then fill it out for three user classes as a working document during your interviews, in preparation for deliverables item 5. If you have only two legitimate user classes, fill out the matrix form for only those two and explain the situation (why you have only two user classes) in item 5 of the deliverables. You must have at least two clearly distinguishable user classes.

Deliverables

Inside the binder, create a "tabbed" section labeled "Project 2". Add this section to the front of your team binder. This way, your binder becomes a cumulative record of your whole project, with the most recent parts first. This section should start with its own separate cover page with (mostly the same as on the front of the binder):

  • "Project 2: Systems Analysis"
  • Team number
  • Project name
  • Name of client organization
  • One-line description of project
  • Team member names
  • "CS 3724– <current semester, year>"
Contents of Project 2 section:

This report documents your systems analysis process for your proposed application and should include the following. Number and label your items per this list:

  • Begin after the tab for this section, with a blank printed grading form for this deliverable.
  • Then include a Table of Contents for this particular deliverable (not the whole folder).
  • Then follow with these items, numbered as they are here:
  1. To make this report a stand-alone document, repeat the latest version of your product concept statement, as a synopsis of your project.
  2. Describe the process of preparation to interview your client. Describe how you decided how many client representatives and/or users you should interview? Include a copy here of the questions you prepared for the interviews.
  3. a) Describe the process (not the results yet - those are reported in items 3-8) of interviewing your client and potential and representative users.
    b) How many client representatives and/or users did you interview in total? List their names, job titles, responsibilities, and anything else that would help describe their role in the enterprise.
  4. Describe 3 (or more) business objectives, each no more than 50 words (these are not system or usability objectives). Business objectives might include things like better organization of inventory information because controlling inventory is a way of controlling costs. Other examples might include increased revenue or increased customer satisfaction.
  5. Give a narrative description of your client's overall business process and work flow (what gets done and how). Include any artifacts (e.g., paper forms) you may have gathered from the client. Draw a diagram as appropriate. Label the arrows and lines indicating information flow with what information flows and what channel is used (e.g., phone, through the system). Label all boxes with the roles of each person or 'agent' involved and what is done in the box (e.g., storage in a database). This refers to the flow of the work that the target system is designed to support. It almost certainly includes the work flow for the users.  If you are also considering backend processing for the client's side of the transaction, that end of the work flow (the client's internal process) should be also be included. In what ways, if any, does the management or business organization of the client business, company, or group impact your approach to requirements and design?
  6. Define/describe all your target user classes (up to two or three sentences per class). Identify user classes by their work context roles (e.g., manager, sales clerk - not "frequent user," "new user," etc.). As part of each user class definition, give a brief "bottom line" statement, such as "Users are walk-up-and-use users from the general public, with a broad range of computer skills and background" or "These are highly trained and experienced power users". Include your customized user class matrix (that you made in items 3-8 above), filled out for your user classes, in this part of the report. If you truly do not have three user classes, explain and justify here.

    7. In the user class characterization matrix, "culture" is the overall flavor, philosophy, ambiance and environment of the users' work context.  It's about their thought processes, policies, terminology and the way they do things. The culture of a steel mill floor is all about noise, dust, hot temperatures, safety concerns, and making iron and steel. The culture of a doctor's office is very different. It's about making appointments, being examined, and having health insurance. For the workers, though, it's also about keeping track of appointments and driving the business process with appointments. It's about keeping records of each visit in the patient's folder, etc.
  7. Describe 3 (or more) usability goals. These need to be things for which you can set measurable quantitative values later in usability specifications, as a way of establishing criteria to determine if you have met the goals.
  8. a) Draw a hierarchical task analysis diagram, including as many user tasks as you can identify, at least 6 and up to 10 tasks at 2-3 levels for the overall system (from which you will choose a subset to focus on later).
    b) From your hierarchical task diagram, select at least five of the most interesting tasks (e.g., most likely to be performed, needed by most user classes, most critical to system mission, etc.) as key user tasks. Choose your key user tasks to include all of your user classes in at least one of the tasks. Briefly describe each with a single sentence description, using words to the effect: "The user will do such and such" and not "The system will do such and such". These key user tasks are the subset you will focus on as you develop your application in subsequent stages of the project. Each of these tasks should end up involving several screens in the interaction design.
  9. Describe two (or more) system constraints, each with no more than 50 words. These constraints are constraints on you and your development project, not constraints on the user. An example of a hardware/software constraint is the need for a server, if your project is to provide a service via a Web site, plus you probably have to ensure security and privacy for your users. Generic constraints that all the teams will have include small budgets and short time schedules.