Techniques of Gathering information - microsoft solution framework

Explain the techniques of Gathering information

a. Shadowing:
This is done by observing the user with the application. This is done by monitoring a user and noting down the problems and questions they face while working on it. This works properly only when team doesn’t give any input or information on his own, but only answers the asked questions.

b. Interviewing:
Interviews are conversation between the team representative and the user. This can be an ad-hoc conversation or a planned one. User responses are recorded to attain the desired information. It takes too much of time as it is one on one interaction.

c. Focus Groups:
It involves face-face interaction between the team representative and the user and between the users as well. It is a done in groups, normally of 6-10 people. The discussion amongst the users allows to brain storm the user requirements more clearly.

d. Surveys:
It is a way to reach out to a wider audience. This is done by circulating set of simple questions to people for their feedback.

e. User instruction: It allows users to teach you the task that they perform. This way we can learn from user’s way of working and determine what are his/her needs in the new system.

f. Prototyping: It involves building a small model of the entire system that shows some basic functionality. It is done to get an acceptance from the stakeholders to continue with the system.