Week 5.2 Data Gathering

Chapter 15 talks about four categories of data gathering: artifacts, surveys, interviews and observation.

I think out of the four techniques interviews provide the most reliable and productive way of data gathering when we are trying to obtain details or opinion about something that is ongoing or current. Even though this is more time consuming, if the process is important this gives personal one on one time with people from whom you would like to gather information and people are more likely to get involved in the discussion and provide more useful information than just going through the motions. Survey's might be effective in some cases as well, but they might not help people express their opinions and tend to be more Q & A (yes/no).

When implementing new systems or process in a company if we send e-mails or surveys to collect the requirements, most likely people end up missing at least some of the requirements. If we conduct meeting with people not necessarily individually but with groups, we can understand the requirements better and this eliminates the need to make changes or modification later.