MIS 4053: Analysis (Requirements Determination) Handout

Types of Questionnaires: Examples

  1. Open-ended (free format)

How do you currently track inventory?

What reports do you currently receive and how are they used?

Are there any problems with these reports? If so, please explain.

Bad examples:

Tell me about some of your good customers.

Walk me through a typical day.

  1. Closed-ended (fixed format)
  2. Multiple Choice (also, yes/no)

Which of the following people have primary responsibility for inventory?(Choose all that apply)

____ shipping clerk

____ receiving clerk

____ accountant

Do customers receive a discount for early payment?

____ Yes (If yes, how much ____?)

____ No

  1. Rating

The implementation of quantity discounts would cause an increase in customer orders.

Strongly agree

Agree

No opinion

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Overall, this is the best course I have ever taken.

Strongly agree

Agree

No opinion

Disagree

Strongly disagree

  1. Ranking

Rank the following transactions according to the amount of time you spend processing them (should add to 100%):

____% new customer orders

____% order cancellations

____% order modifications

____% payments

100 %

Indicate the steps in processing a transaction by placing a 1 next to the first step, a 2 next to the second step, and so on.

____ Payment received

____ Paperwork completed

____ Order received

  1. Single Fact

How many orders did you process last month? _____

Bad Example:

How many orders do you process in a normal working day? _____

Question types to avoid:

  1. Loaded questions

Do you have to have both of these columns on the report?

Have you run a stop sign lately?

Do you like my new haircut?

Do I look fat?

  1. Leading questions

You’re not going to use this OPERATOR CODE, are you?

You’ll need employee personnel information on the payroll report so that we don’t have to write a separate program, right?

  1. Biased questions

How many codes do we need for FOOD-CLASSIFICATION in the INVENTORY FILE? I think 20 ought to cover it.

All the other department managers think we only need a department report – do you agree?

The Dean thinks it is a good idea – what do you think?

Example:

Questionnaire Cover Memo

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:Rosa Jones, Compensation Manager

FROM:Betty Smith, Systems Analyst

DATE:October 5, 2014

SUBJECT:Bonus Compensation System Meetings

Your manager asked us to investigate the bonus compensation system at your company to see if improvements can be made. Your answers to the questionnaire attached would be a valuable source of information for our assessment. Please have the questionnaire ready by Date. The questionnaire should be returned (with attachments if necessary) to Where. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated; please feel free to email us as email if you have any questions.

Example: Questionnaire

PURCHASE REQUISITION QUESTIONNAIRE

Pat Kline, Vice-President, Finance, has asked us to investigate the purchase requisition process to see if it can be improved. Your input concerning this requisition process will be very valuable. We would greatly appreciate it if you could complete the following questionnaire and return it by October 13 to Dana Juarez in Information Systems. If you have any questions, please call Dana at extension 2561.

  1. How many purchase requisitions did you ______

process in the past 5 working days?

  1. What percentage of your time is spent processing _____ 20% and under

requisitions?_____ 21-39%

_____ 40-59%

_____ 60-79%

_____ 80% or more

  1. Do you believe there are too many errors on _____ Yes

requisitions?_____ No

  1. Out of every 100 requisitions you process, how _____ fewer than 5

many contain errors?_____ 5 to 9

_____ 10 to14

_____ 15 to 19

_____ 20 or more

  1. What errors do you most often see on requisitions?_____ Incorrect no.

(Place a 1 next to the most common error, place a _____ Missing info

2 next to the second most common error, and so on.)_____ Math errors

_____ No authorization

_____ Other (explain)

  1. If the currently used purchase requisition form were to be redesigned, what changes to the form would you recommend?

(Please attach another sheet if necessary)

Questionnaire Practice: Critique the following questions

  1. When a residential customer calls, I always use my computer terminal to get an answer.

SometimesNeverAlwaysUsually

1 2 3 4

  1. My manual log of time spent on the computer matches the computer log:

TimeTime

0%5%25%50%100%

  1. How often do you back up your computer files?

FrequentlySometimesHardly at allNever

1 2 3 4

  1. What is your age?
  2. Under 18
  3. 19-24
  4. 24-30
  5. 31-40
  6. Over 40
  1. Please indicate the excellent aspects of your computer system.
  1. Rate the following items in order of importance:

_____ TV

_____ Radio

_____ Internet

_____ Video Games

Example:

Memo for Meeting Confirmation

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:Rosa Jones, Compensation Manager

FROM:Betty Smith, Systems Analyst

DATE:October 4, 2014

SUBJECT:Bonus Compensation System Meetings

I would like to confirm our meeting on October 11 at 10:00 a.m. in your office. As part of my information gathering for the new bonus compensation system, I need to know all details about the steps you and your staff perform in processing bonus compensation. I plan to ask the following questions:

  1. What portion of bonus compensation processing is handled within your department?
  1. What other areas of the company are responsible for different aspects of bonus compensation? How do these other areas interact with your department?
  1. What procedures do you handle and what specific steps are involved?
  1. What improvements would you like to see in the bonus compensation processing?
  1. Are portions of bonus compensation processing confidential? What special security requirements are needed?

If you have written procedures, standard forms, or special calculations for the bonus compensation system, would you please have them available for me to review during our meeting? I will need my own copies of some of this material, but we can decide which material should be copied during our meeting.

Please contact me at if something comes up and we have to reschedule our meeting.

Interview Outline

IntervieweeInterviewer

Lori Leonard, DispatcherTeam #: Names

LocationAppointment Time

Acct/MIS SuiteDATE

Start Time: 8:00

End Time: 8:45

Agenda

Introduction (5 minutes)

Team Introduction

Project Background

Interview Overview

Questions (30 minutes)

Team Member /

Question

/ Time
(minutes)
1 / Mike / Question / 4
2 / Jeff / Question / 4
3 / Greg / Question / 4
4 / Heather / Question / 4
5 / Mike / Question / 3
6 / Sarah / Question / 4
7 / Greg / Question / 2
8 / Heather / Question / 1
9 / Sarah / Question / 3
10 / Jeff / Question / 1

Conclusion (5 minutes)

Summary

Closing

Example:

Follow-up Memo

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:Rosa Jones, Compensation Manager

FROM:Betty Smith, Systems Analyst

DATE:October 12, 2014

SUBJECT:Bonus Compensation System Meetings

Thank you for meeting with me on October 11 and explaining the bonus compensation process. I have attached my documentation of the interview; the documentation represents my understanding of the process and points out two problems I believe exist with current procedure.

Please review the attached documentation. If you have any corrections or additions to the documentation, please call me at extension 2046 before October 26. I will advise you of our final recommendations from the bonus compensation investigation before the end of the month.

I appreciate the time that you spent with me and the time spent in preparing the sample documents.

Example:
Interview Summary

------

INTERVIEW WITH:Ted Temple

DATE:October 3, 2014

SUBJECT:Inventory

When a shipment arrives, a two-part form is filled out for each appliance. The sticky-back copy, called the price sticker, is attached to the appliance. The other copy, called the price tag, serves as the inventory control card and is kept in a filing cabinet in stock number order. Stock numbers are assigned sequentially, so the inventory file is also in date order. The inventory clerk notes the supplier of the item on the price tag before filing it.

When an appliance is sold, the sales clerk fills out a sales receipt. One copy goes to the customer. The price sticker is removed from the appliance and attached to a second copy of the sales receipt. At the end of the day, the inventory clerk collects these sales receipts and pulls the matching price tags from the inventory file.

At the end of the week the pulled price tags are used to prepare a sales report that summarizes sales by appliance type and by manufacturer. The original cost is obtained from the supplier’s invoice, which is filed by supplier and by date.

The sales report tells Tina what appliances are selling. She uses it to help her decide what merchandise to order. The inventory clerk gets a list of merchandise to order from Tina, types the order forms, and sends them to the suppliers. He gets the mailing addresses from the old invoices.

Once a month, the inventory clerk compiles a list of appliances that have been in inventory for more than 120 days. The fact that the inventory records are in date order simplifies this task. Tina uses the list to identify slow-moving items and decide on sales and discounts.

Every other month the inventory clerk performs a physical inventory, counting the number of appliances of each type both on the showroom floor and in the warehouse. He uses the physical inventory as a base for tracking the number of items in stock. As merchandise sells, he subtracts sales from the count; as reorders arrives he adds the new units. These are daily tasks. He uses this information to prepare a weekly estimated stock level report. Tina uses this report, along with the sales report, to make reorder decisions. The next physical inventory serves to check the accuracy of the counts and becomes a new starting point.

Example:
Processes, Inputs, and Outputs as part of the Stmt of User Environment

------

Processes / Inputs / Outputs
Fill out price form / Shipment / Price sticker and price tag
Attach price sticker / Price sticker / Attached price sticker
File price tag / Price tag / Filed price tag
Assign stock number / Previous stock number / Inventory file
Note supplier on price tag / Shipment / Price tag with supplier
Sell appliance / Appliance / Sold appliance
Fill out sales receipt / Customer, appliance / Sales receipt
Give receipt to customer / Sales receipt / Customer’s receipt
Remove price sticker / Price sticker / Removed price sticker
Attach price sticker to sales receipt / Price sticker, sales receipt / Sales receipt with price sticker
Collect sales receipts / Sales receipts / Collection of sales receipts
Match tag to inventory / Price tag, inventory / Sales receipts, price tag
Prepare sales report / Price tags / Sales report
Retrieve supplier invoice / Supplier invoice / Original cost
File supplier invoice / Supplier invoice / Filed supplier invoice
Reorder stock / Sales report, stock level report / Reordered stock
Type reorder / List of merchandise / Order form
Get mailing address / Old invoices / Order form
Prepare old inventory list / Inventory / Old inventory list
Identify sale items / Old inventory list / Sale items
Perform physical inventory / Inventory / Physical inventory list
Update stock levels / Sales, orders / Updated stock levels
Prepare stock level report / Stock levels / Stock level report