3) Selected Investigation Techniques

Question 1

Please list the different creativity techniques.

Answer 1

• Change of perspective (six-hat thinking)
• Verbal brainstorming
• Written brainstorming
• 6-3-5 method
• Design thinking
• Workshop

Question 2

What are creativity techniques mainly used for to determine requirements?

Answer 2

Creativity techniques are suitable for developing innovative requirements or an initial vision of a system. However, they are less suitable to determine detailed requirements of system behavior.

Question 3

What does each of the six hats represent in the change of persective technique?

Answer 3

• White - stands for objectivity and neutrality. Stakeholders pay attention to facts and figures.
• Red - stands for subjective opinion and personal feelings. Stakeholders expresses their feelings, hopes, and fears.
• Black - stakeholders argue objectively, but negatively.
• Yellow- stakeholders argue objectively, but positively.
• Green - puts creativity in the foreground. Stakeholders are eager to come up with new ideas
• Blue - stands for the control and organization of the whole process.

Question 4

What is change of perspective mainly used for?

Answer 4

Change of Perspective is a creativity technique used to examine a problem from different angles. One variant is six-hat thinking where each hat represents a perspective of a problem.

Question 5

Name the strength and weaknesses for the change of perspective technique.

Answer 5

Strengths:
* it can give a comprehensive view from a different prespective.

Weaknesses:
* only applicable to a limited number of participants
* can be problematic for introverted and conservative stakeholders

Question 6

List the important points on the use of verbal brainstorming.

Answer 6

• Done with a group of 5-10 members.
• The group collects ideas about a certain topic within a giver period of time.
• Stakeholders use the ideas of others as inspiration for new ideas.
• Very successful if participants are diverse and simulated by external influences, which lets them flow into their own idea generation.

Question 7

In what scenarios can verbal brainstorming be used?

Answer 7

• Innovative requirements are required.
• Stakeholders have varying opinions.
• A vision needs to be created.

Question 8

What are the advantages of verbal brainstorming?

Answer 8

The advantages are that many ideas can be collected in a short period of time and innovative can be identified.

Question 9

Please list the strengths and weaknesses of verbal brainstorming.

Answer 9

Strengths:
* Innovative requirements can be determined.
* Stakeholders do not have to be on site.

Weaknesses:
* A maximum of 10 participants can join.
* It can be problematic and can affect group dynamics.
* It can create dominant stakeholders or hierarchical conflicts.

Question 10

If group dynamics, dominant stakeholders, or hierarchical conflicts impair the quality of results, what creativity technique is suitable for the above mentioned scenario?

Answer 10

Written Brainstorming

Question 11

List the main points of written brainstorming.

Answer 11

• Stakeholders collect their ideas and write them down.
• The boundary to verbal brainstorming can be blurred if electronic tools are used for collection.
• Stakeholders write their ideas down and displayed for all stakeholders.

Question 12

In what scenarious will written brainstorming work best?

Answer 12

• Innovative requirements must be obtained
• Stakeholders have varying opinions
• Negative group dynamics can be expected

Question 13

Please list the strengths and weaknesses of written brainstorming.

Answer 13

Strengths:
- Innovative requirements can be determines
- Ideas cannot be lost
- The engineer does not have to record the ideas
- It prevents negative group dynamics or hierarchical conflicts

Weaknesses:
- Limited number of participants can participate
- Inspiration is lost if only one iteration is carried out

Question 14

How does the 6-3-5 method work?

Answer 14

Six participants each create 3 ideas and write them down on a card. The cards are passed on after 5 minutes to the respective neighbore. The stakeholder reads the ideas and is inspired to write down three more ideas. This is repeated 5 times. The ideas are collected and evaluated, and requirements are derived.

Question 15

Name the three ways ideas can be developed.

Answer 15

• Repeating the idea according to the principle of the genetic algorithm. Successful ideas survive.
• Permutation. Ideas are modified.
• New ideas. The participants are inspired by other ideas and adds new ideas.

Question 16

What are the advanteges of the 6-3-5 method?

Answer 16

• This technique is easy to use because the collection, writting and grouping of ideas are done by the participants themselves.
• The 6-3-5 is a good entry level technique for less experiences facilitators.
• Difficult group dynamics are less of an issue, as each participant is equally involved and there is neither silence or dominant stakeholders.

Question 18

Name the six steps of design thinking.

Answer 18

1) Understanding
2) Observing
3) Synthesis
4) Develop Ideas
5) Create prototypes
6) Testing

Question 19

Please define the 6 steps of design thinking.

Answer 19

1) Understanding means assessing the situation. Its about finding as many data, facts, and questions as possible to understand the issue and to talk about it.
2) Observation is done to find out the real needs of the users that have not been addressed so far.
3) Synthesis means that the data from Understanding and Observation are collected and needs are derived from them.
4) Developing ideas: the goal is to develop as many ideas aspossible and select ideas with great potential.
5) Prototypes are used to concretize ideas, develop simple prototypes, make them tangible for the user, and develop them step-by-step. Prototypes are made from clay, paper, or software.
6) Testing is carried out when the prototypes are made available to the user. Prototypes are refined with feedback from the user.

Question 20

Course Question!

Please state the advantages of the six-hat thinking method.

Answer 20

The different roles that can occur in a project are personalized and can help to capture problems or solutions from different angles and achieve better completeness.

Question 21

Course Question!

Please indicate what conflicts may arise in verbal brainstorming.

Answer 21

• Problematic group dynamics
• Conflicts in the hierarchy

Question 22

What are the 4 phases of an interview?

Answer 22

• Introduction of the interviewer and salutations.
• Icebreaker question.
• Asking questions, documenting answers, and giving feedback to the interviewee.
• Summary of the results and thanking interviewee.

Question 23

What is an interview?

Answer 23

Interview is a questioning technique actively controlled by the requirements engineer making it possible to determine detailed requirements.

Question 24

List the prepatory activities that must be completed before an interview starts.

Answer 24

• definition of the interview objectives
• selection and invitation of participants
• determining the interview location
• designing the interview questions

Question 25

Questions can be open or closed questions. Please define the term open and closed in this context.

Answer 25

Open questions must be answered independently and freely. Open questions gives the respondent the freedom to provide alot of information, which is also difficult to evaluate.

Closed questions direct questions and statements have proven particularly effective. To answer closed questions, there are various answer options:
* Yes or no (agree or disagree)
* Rating scaled (agree, neutral, disagree)

Question 26

In what scenario would questionnaires be the best applicable?

Answer 26

• Alot of stakeholders have to be interviewed
• Stakeholders are not on sight

Question 27

List the strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires.

Answer 27

Strengths:
* many steakholders can be interviewed
* digital questionnaires with closed questions can be easily evaluated
* stakeholders do not have to be on sight

Weaknesses:
* implicit knowledge can be difficult to survey
* the engineer cannot clarify answers or ask further questions

Question 28

Course Question!

Please state the disadvantages of questionnaires.

Answer 28

• Implicit knowledge can be difficult to evaluate
• the engineer does not have a chance to clarify understanding

Question 29

Course Question!

Please explain the differences between open and closed questions.

Answer 29

• Closed questions are usually answered with a yes or no, or with a rating scale.
• Open questions allows a proposal or opinion to be explained in sentences.

Question 30

Name the two observation techniques and explain in what scenario they are typically used for.

Answer 30

• Field observation
• Apprenticing

Observation techniques are suitable when domain experts do not have the time or can not express requirements that are taken for granted.

Question 31

How is field observation used and what risks are associated with it?

Answer 31

The engineer is on site and directly observes business processes taking place. They record the activities in chronological order to determine the work processes. They can also ask questions and have work processes explained to them.

The danger is that the engineer’s observation can influence the behavior of people, and thus the requirements.

Question 32

Please list the strengths and weaknesses of field observation.

Answer 32

Strengths:
* unconscious requirements can be determined
* requirements that are difficult to describe can be determined
* can be used when stakeholders are not available
* deviations in processes can be detected

Weaknesses:
* processes must be observable
* the engineer’s observation can influence the behavior of people, and thus the requirements

Question 33

Please list the strengths and weaknesses of apprenticing.

Answer 33

Strengths:
* unconscious requirements can be determined
* requirements that are difficult to describe can be determined
* Stakeholders are more willing to cooperate

Weaknesses:
* set of stakeholders not clearly limited
* not applicable in safety critical work environment

Question 34

What is a prototype?

Answer 34

A prototype is understood to be an initial version of a software system that can be used to demonstrate concepts or test designs in order to learn more about the problem and solutions.

Question 35

How can prototypes be differentiated?

Answer 35

• The nature indicated whether they are analog or digital.
• The durability or intended use indicates between prototypes that are disposable, and those that will be further used later in the project (evolutionary and incremental).
• The degree of functionality implemented distinguish prototypes. Horizontal prototypes implements a layer of the architecture. Only the relevant components of this layer is implemented. Vertical prototypes is called piercing prototypes because it implements one functionality across all layers of the software architecture.

Question 36

What is a mock-up?

Answer 36

Mock-up is a prototype implemented in the target technology of the system in the original size and colour, but without functionality.

Question 37

What are the strengths of mock-ups?

Answer 37

• almost 1:1 representation of the real system interface
• the user recognizes their appliances
• very detailed tuning is possible
• GUI can be tested on different devices and platforms
• good for stakeholders with limited imagination
• it is testable with real values

Question 38

Course Question!

Please state the differene between horizontal and vertical prototypes.

Answer 38

• In horizontal prototypes, the functions are implemented in a functional layer, for demonstration purposes.
• In vertical prototypes, all required elements from all layers are realized with narrow width.