FactFinding Techniques Please respond to the following You a

\"Fact-Finding Techniques\" Please respond to the following: You are in charge of an ERP systems design project and tasked with fact-finding. The project schedule allows enough time for you to use two fact-finding techniques. Identify two techniques you would use and state the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Solution

An ERP system refers to an Enterprise Resource Planning software application which is designed and developed in order to connect the various departments in an organization and make them perform their functions in collaboration with each other to complete major organizational tasks. The major goals of this application include achieving complete automation of various tasks so that the functions are performed with low operational costs and time and with much more efficiency.

Therefore, in order to design an ERP system for an organization, we need to understand how the organization works as a whole and the roles played by individual departments and personnel in this structure. For finding such information, we may prefer the following two fact-finding techniques over others:

1. OBSERVATION, RECORD VIEW AND BACKGROUND-READING: In this technique, an analyst is required to visit the organization and observe the working of organization. The analyst observes the working of various people/departments in the organization and notes down key points/functions that might be useful in identifying the features and functionalities to be incorporated in the application. He may try and discover useful information through records of organization’s media publishing such as newspapers, business magazines and annual reports.

ADVANTAGES:

1. This technique helps the analyst to have a direct engagement with and feel of organizational structure and activities.

2. Very crucial information can be discovered from organizational records which may or may not be informed when asked even to very senior executives.

DISADVATAGES:

1. The analyst needs to be an experienced person so that only crucial points are noted. Otherwise, the time may be wasted without discovery of any relevant facts.

2. The organization may not have maintained records of its publishing and reports. In such a case, discovery of many crucial facts may get affected.

QUESTIONNAIRES: Questionnaires may act as another crucial way in order to understand the exact individual requirements of people working in the organization. Questionnaires can be provided for employees to answer in the form of structured surveys, which contain crucial questions for all the employees to answer. A good questionnaire would consist of straight-forward, to the point and small questions which would uncover good insights about what problems do employees face in performing their activities and how the application could help them.

ADVANTAGES:

1. A questionnaire is a direct form of engagement with the end -users of the system that is employees.

2. Good questionnaires are short and quick to answer.

3. People can complete them at their desired time and place without any restrictions.

DISADVANTAGES:

1. An analyst should be an experienced person in preparing questionnaires so that he exactly knows at least a few questions that are common for crucial fact discovery.

2. They are prone to not being answered by many people. Even the ones who answer, may not answer a few questions.

3. The questions are open to users\' interpretation and may often be misinterpreted.