Annaliza E. Nebres

OOC

Book 9

Book: Systems Analysis and Design

Author: Kendall and Kendall

Reference no.: QA 76.9 S88 K45 1995

Quotation (chapter 9)

            “Systems analyst use observation for many reasons. One reason to gain information about decision makers and their environment that is unavailable through another method. Observing also confirm or negate and reverse what has been found through interviewing, questionnaires and other methods.”

Observing Decision-Maker Behavior

In observing Decision-Maker behavior it must be structured and systematic. The system analyst should know what is being observed. It is important that they are aware of the observation.  There are many observational schemes that can be use and has its own objectives.

Observing a typical manager’s decision-making activities is one of the systems analyst must interview. They observe what manager does. In observing decision-making activities analyst may follow this steps of observing:

·                    Decide what is to observe

·                    Decide at what level of characteristics activities are to be observed

·                    Create categories that adequately capture activities

·                    Prepare appropriate scales, checklists or other materials for observation

·                    Decide when to observe.

This observation allows the analyst to see first-hand how managers gather, process, share and use information to get work done.

Analyst also observes the Time and Event Sampling that allows them to set up specific intervals at which to observe managers activities. Time sampling has some advantages including cutting down on the bias that might other wise enter into observations made. It allows for the representative view of activities that occur frequently. The drawback of this includes the gathering information data in a peace meal fashion that may not allow insufficient time for an event. Second is using this sampling to gather data is rare but important events may not be represented in the time that is sample but decision is important and will have an impact.  Event Sampling addresses these concerns such as “board meeting” or “a user training session”, rather than sampling time periods randomly. The drawback of event sampling as that it may not possible to achieve representative sample of frequent occurrences, but it is best to combine time and event sampling in observation for the comparison and contrast of time versus event sampling.

Observing decision-makers body language observation enables the analyst to better understand the information requirements of the decision-maker by adding dimension to what is being said. The system analyst may subconsciously observe body language during interviews and other interactions. One of the popular ways to record behavior is the adjective pairs and categories. The behavior described in adjective pairs. Second is the analyst’s Play Script. They can use this technique to record observed behavior. Using this you have an “actor” who is the one being observed. The actor is listed of the left-hand column while the actions are listed on the right-hand column. It should be recorded in action verbs. Play Script is also an organized and systematic approach.