Technique Of Fact Finding In Systems Analysis And Design 1. INTERVIEWS.

This method is used to collect the information from groups or individuals. Analyst selects the people who are related with the system for the interview. In this method the analyst sits face to face with the people and records their responses. The interviewer must plan in advance the type of questions he/ she is going to as and should !e ready to answer any type of question. "e should also choose a suita!le place and time which will !e comforta!le for the respondent. The information collected is quite accurate and relia!le as the interviewer can clear and cross chec the dou!ts there itself. This method also helps gap the areas of misunderstandings and help to discuss a!out the future pro!lems. Structured and unstructured are the two su! categories of Interview. Structured interview is more formal interview where fi#ed questions are as ed and specific information is collected whereas unstructured interview is more or less li e a casual conversation where in$ depth areas topics are covered and other information apart from the topic may also !e o!tained.

2. QUESTIONNAIRES. It is the technique used to e#tract information from num!er of people. This method can !e adopted and used only !y an s illful analyst. The %uestionnaire consists of series of questions framed together in logical manner. The questions are simple& clear and to the point. This method is very useful for attaining information from people who are concerned with the usage of the system and who are living in different countries. The questionnaire can !e mailed or send to people !y post. This is the cheapest source of fact finding. 3. OBSERVATION. 'nli e the other fact finding techniques& in this method the analyst himself visits the organi(ation and o!serves and understand the flow of documents& wor ing of the existing system& the users of the system etc. For this method to !e adopted it ta es an analyst to perform this )o! as he nows which points should !e noticed and highlighted. In analyst may o!serve the unwanted things as well and simply cause delay in the development of the new system.

4. RECORD VIEW & BACKGROUND READING. The information related to the system is pu!lished in the sources li e newspapers& maga(ines& )ournals& documents etc. This record review helps the analyst to get valua!le information a!out the system and the organi(ation. If an analyst is employed within the organi(ation that is the su!)ect of the fact gathering e#ercise& then it is li ely that he or she will already have a good understanding of the organi(ation and its !usiness o!)ectives. If& however& he or she is going in as an outside consultant& then one of the first tas s is to try to gain an understanding of the organi(ation. *ac ground reading or research is part of that process. The ind of documents that are suita!le sources of information include the following although reading company reports may provide the analyst with information a!out the organi(ation+s mission& and so possi!ly some indication of future requirements& this technique mainly provides information a!out the current system.

Data Dictionary: To reduce the complexity of DFD we use another tool for requirement analysis and designing this tool is called data dictionary. A data dictionary is a catalogue of all elements in the system. DFD shows us flow of information while data dictionary gives the detail of information such as various attributes, attribute types, and size etc. t is a document that collects, coordinate and confirm what a specific data term mean. t is the basic reference wor! for finding the names and attributes of data elements used throughout the system. "e can say that the data dictionary is an organized testing of all data elements that are related to the system. "hen the large quantity of data flowing through the system it is very difficult to remember for the system analyst so there are chances for important elements being left out. The information of the data is therefore recorded in the data dictionary to manage the details. The data dictionary is simply a storage place to store information about all data items defined in DFD. Data dictionary stores following information#$ i% &ame of the data item

ii% Their description iii% 'elated data item iv% 'ange of values v% Data structure definition. Decision tree: A decision tree is a graphical technique that shows a decision or choice situation as a connected series of nodes and branches. Decision tree was first devised as a management science technique to simplify a choice where some of the needed information is not !nown for certain. (ach rule is represented by tracing a series of paths from the root node down a path to the next node and so on until the final action is reached. t is an excellent tool, easy to construct, easy to read and update. t shows only the relative aspects of the policy. )owever it does not show any calculation or show logic as a set of instruction for action.

Structured English: *tructured (nglish is a modified form of (nglish that is used to specify the contents of process boxes in DFD and it is an alternative approach of decision tree. t differs from regular (nglish in that it uses a subset of (nglish vocabulary to express information system process procedures. The whole point of using structured (nglish is to represent processes in a short hand manner that is relatively easy for users and programmers to read and understand. t is possible to represent all the three processes of structured programming that is sequence, conditional statement and repetition.

Decision table: *tructured (nglish and decision tree can used to represent the logic contained in information system process but sometimes a process logic can became quite complex. A decision table is a diagram of process logic where the logic is reasonably complicated. A decision table is used for defining a problem and the action to ta!en. t is a single representation of relationship between conditions and actions. A decision table consists of two parts stub and entry. A stub part is divided into an upper quadrant called the condition stub and a lower quadrant called the action stub. The entry part is also divided into an upper quadrant called the condition entry and a lower quadrant called the action entry. Condition stub: t shows in question form and represent the condition that may exists Action stub: t outlines in narrative form the action to be ta!en to meet each condition. Condition entry: t provides answers to questions as!ed in the condition stub quadrant. Action entry : t indicates the appropriate action resulting from the answers to the condition in the condition entry quadrant.

ER Diagrams: The another tool for problem analysis and designing is the entity relationship diagram. t is the detailed logical representation of data for an organization and uses three main components that is data entry, their relationship, and there associated attributes. (' diagram is the data oriented model while the DFD is the process oriented model. An (' diagram is use to show the relationship between data items while DFD shows data in motion. An (' diagram is a more detailed picture of data store and independent of the process performed with data store. An (' diagram does not provide any information about the function that creates and use that data. t focus entirely on the data relationship of the system. (' diagram does not effect on the process and flow of data. There are three main components of (' diagram# Entity: An entity is a fundamental thing of an organization about which data will be maintained. An entity has its own identity which provides the place where we can identify this entity in a whole data base. An entity is represented by a rectangular box and a name is placed inside a rectangle. The symbol used to represent an (ntity is Relationship: The symbol used to represent the relation between different entities are# The ob+ect are connected to one another by relationship as we can say that relationship is a reason for association between two entities. 'elationship is represented by diamond relation in (' diagram. t represent something that must be remembered by the system and which is not calculated. The number of entity type that participate in relationship is called the degree of relationships . t is important to maintained data base. Attributed: (ach entity type has a set of attributes associated with it. An attribute is a property or characteristic of an entity that is use of interest to organization. An (' diagram we can visually represent an entity attribute by placing its name as an ellipse with a line connected to associated entity.