Data Gathering

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Data Gathering

Into the real world

Done academic research on theory Decide on what is wanted in the product Gather data from the real world Also called empirical research
How do you get this information?

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Data Gathering

Client/User Needs

Requirements Definition PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM TIME

Requirements Specification

Functional Specification

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Product development

Aiming for

a list of requirements for a piece of software / website / video etc a data model from a real business process a business requirement for a e-commerce site

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Data Gathering

Requirements capture
Who says what the product should do? Who do you question? Outcomes:

Requirements definition Requirements specification Functional specification

More next week

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Interviewing vulnerable groups

If you are intending to question anyone who is in some way vulnerable then you need to

make this clear in the proposal Complete the form for the research ethics committee (see week1.2 on the schedule) Take this to your supervisor Complete (and pay for) a new CRB check

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Data Gathering

What is best?

Interview Paper Questionnaire Web questionnaire Information analysis techniques e.g. rich pictures in soft systems analysis Software engineering techniques such as requirements capture
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Designing an Interview
Why have an interview? How many interviews? Usually use semi-structured interviews

Outline prepared in advance Some key questions as a guide Same topics covered but the emphasis can be shifted as appropriate

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Data Gathering

What questions to ask

What answers do you want? How many 50% of interviewees said What do they want? Why do they want it? Who are they? Where will you ask these questions? How much time is available?

For you , for the interviewee?

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Designing a questionnaire

Work out the questionnaire aims first put together draft questions that are

clear, easy to understand Can be answered DIRECTLY and IMMEDIATELY so the respondent does not have to seek out any information to help Not more than 2 pages

Show it to your supervisor and friends

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Web questionnaires

The questionnaire resides on the web site Email the url to a list of potential participants Advantages / Disadvantages?

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Data Gathering

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Checks

What kind of answers are expected? Is it easy complete? Should questions be

Multiple choice Open ended

Any biased questions? How many questions?

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Data Gathering

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pilots

You need to pilot everyone gets it WRONG first time

Test the questions against real people Make sure they will be honest when something is wrong

Extensive questionnaires require a statistical analysis see Chapter 8 of Project Research in Information Systems (Cornford and Smithson, 2006)
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Example NSS questionnaire

Aim(s) to discover .

Quality of the teaching Organisation of the teaching 1. Rate the quality of your teaching 1 2 3 4 5

so we could ask

is that a good question?

NSS Aims

The NSS design breaks down the basic aim into detailed questions on

Teaching Assessment Support Etc

How did they know to do that? You need to get alongside the target audience, interview, chat, read . Find out as much as you can so that you know what to ask

NSS consistency

Double check your responses

1. Staff are good at explaining things 21. As a result of the course, I feel confident in tackling unfamiliar problems

Is this a consistent response?

Can you see any other possible cross checks?

Web experiments

The experiment resides on a web site and is accessed via a browser Variables that control the experiment are set via the web server Subjects are remote from the observer and free to choose time and place of experiment Subjects could be emailed and invited to take part by clicking a hyperlink in the email
E.g. Research exercise in e-learning
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Analysis and Writing up

Put results into Excel (or stats package) Present results in report as

Simple numbers in text or tables e.g. result of marketing survey Simple graphs (use Excel) Put example questionnaires in appendices

Discuss results in report: Implications, problems etc Specimen questionnaires in Appendix

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Conclusion

Think out your aim of a questionnaire identify important factors before deciding on the questions Work out how you will analyse the results before collecting them Always do a PILOT Write it up as you go along Next week requirements analysis
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how others do it
A survey and analysis of Electronic Healthcare Record standards Marco Eichelberg, Thomas Aden, Jrg Riesmeier, Asuman Dogac, Gokce B. Laleci December 2005 ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), Volume 37 Issue 4

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Data Gathering

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something to read
A new twist on an old method: a guide to the applicability and use of web experiments in information systems research Michael R. Wade, Peter Tingling August 2005 ACM SIGMIS Database, Volume 36 Issue 3
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Textbooks

T Cornford and S Smithson, 2006, Project Research in Information Systems, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.

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