UKAI 2063 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS II

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY AND MANAGEMENT

BACHELOR OF ACCOUNTING (HONS)

UKAI 2063 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS II

TUTORIAL 6

Activity 1: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Situation: The university is considering a new system that will speed up the registration process. As
part of the systems development team, you are asked to develop a plan for fact-finding.

1. List all the possible techniques that you might use.

Interviewing is a primary method of fact-finding. In addition, the IT team at UTAR might want to
use document review, observation, surveys and questionnaires, sampling and research.

(Interview: 7 steps, prepare the questions to the targeted interviewees, avoid surprise, done in
expected time, need record, ask for permission, set the interview setting, question for interview
should be open ended – not for the yes/no question, the question must can elaborate further)
(Questionnaires and surveys)
(Document reviews: ask for have a look at the existing system manual)

2. Describe an advantage for each technique.

● Interviewing is especially important because it is an interactive process. The interviewer can
listen carefully, evaluate the response, and react with follow-up questions if necessary.
Another advantage of interviewing is that the interviewer can observe and gauge nonverbal
responses such as body languages/ face expression, which often are an important source of
input.
● Document review can help you understand how the current system is supposed to work.
● Observation evaluates the operation of the current system and verifies statements made or
documentation references. (Evaluate how the current system operates and how it is being
used. What is the problem.)

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● Surveys and questionnaires obtain input from a large number of people by asking standard
questions, so that the results can be tabulated and analyzed. (close-ended questions –
demographic information, short answers)
● Sampling examines examples of actual documents and transactions that represent the
whole process.
● Research can provide you with background information, technical material, and news about
IT industry trends and developments.

3. Suppose the development budget is tight. How might that affect the fact-finding process?

Facing a tight budget, the college would not want to use JAD techniques, which can be quite
expensive. Interviews also are expensive, because the interviewer must spend considerable time
preparing, conducting, and documenting the interview. As many interviews will be conducted, it will
cost a lot in terms of the research conducted based on the interviewee selected.
A questionnaire or survey of students, advisors, and registration staff might be an efficient,
low-budget way of obtaining valuable input. Also, you might obtain a lot of information simply by
reviewing registration documentation and observing the registration process. It is easier to spread
the survey among the users.

4. What are five important questions to use during fact-finding?

Regardless of the actual techniques you employ during your fact-finding at UTAR, you must ask
yourself who, what, when, where, and how. The answers to these questions will provide an accurate
picture of the current system and the user requirements for a proposed systems development
project.

Activity 2: Group Activity

Requirements gathering is the process of gathering facts about a system project. During the
requirement gathering process systems analyst will use various techniques to gather information.
The systems analyst should first understand the current system only then can questions about the
requirements of the proposed system can be answered.

The group is required to research on the Group Assignment topic and answer the following list of
basic questions relating to the current and proposed system:

Current System Propose System

Who does it? Why does this person do it? Who should do it?
What is done? Why is it done? What should be done?
Where is it done? Why is it done? Where should it be done?
When is it done? Why is it done then? When should it be done?
How is it done? Why is it done this way? How should it be done?