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108 Part 2 • InformatIon requIrements analysIs

COnsUlting OppORtUnity 4.1

Strengthening Your Question Types

Strongbodies, a large local chain of sports clubs, has experienced presented by managers, and interacting with club members.
phenomenal growth in the past five years. Management would like His time is short, and to compensate for that he has become
to refine its decision-making process for purchasing new body- an extremely well-organized, efficient divisional manager. He
building equipment by using a DSS or a dashboard. Currently, cannot grant you a lot of interview time. However, his input
managers listen to customers, attend trade shows, look at advertise- is important, and he feels he would be the main beneficiary of
ments, and put in requests for new equipment purchases based on the proposed system.
their subjective perceptions. These are then approved or denied by What type of interview question might be most suitable for
Harry Mussels. your interview with Harry? Why is this type most appropriate?
Harry is the first person you will interview. He is a 37-year-old How will your choice of question type affect the amount of
division manager who runs five area clubs. He travels all over the time you spend in preparation for interviewing Harry? Write 5
city to their widespread locations. He keeps an office at the East to 10 questions of this type. What other techniques might you
location, although he is there less than a quarter of the time. use to supplement information unavailable through that type
In addition, when Harry is present at a club, he is busy answer- of question? Write a paragraph to explain.
ing business-related phone calls, solving on-the-spot problems

using a PyRaMid stRuctuRe. Inductive organization of interview questions can be visualized
as having a pyramid shape. Using this form, the interviewer begins with very detailed, often
closed, questions. The interviewer then expands the topics by allowing open-ended questions
and more generalized responses, as shown in Figure 4.7.
You should use a pyramid structure if you believe your interviewee needs to warm up to the
topic. Using a pyramid structure for question sequencing is also useful when you want an ending
determination about the topic. Such is the case in the final question in Figure 4.7, “In general,
how do you feel about the security of data versus the importance of Internet access?”

using a Funnel stRuctuRe. In the second kind of structure, the interviewer takes a deductive
approach by beginning with generalized, open-ended questions and then narrowing the possible
responses by using closed questions. This interview structure can be thought of as funnel shaped,
as depicted in Figure 4.8. Using the funnel structure method provides an easy, nonthreatening
way to begin an interview. A funnel-shaped question sequence is also useful when the interviewee
feels emotional about the topic and needs freedom to express those emotions.

using a diaMond-shaPed stRuctuRe. Often a combination of the pyramid and funnel
structures, resulting in a diamond-shaped interview structure, is best. This structure entails
beginning in a very specific way, then examining general issues, and finally coming to a very
specific conclusion, as shown in Figure 4.9.

Figure 4.6
Probes
Probes allow a systems analyst
to follow up on questions to get • Why?
more detailed responses. These • Give an example of how ecommerce has been integrated into your
examples were selected from business processes.
different interviews and are not • Please give an illustration of the security problems you are experiencing
shown in any particular order. with your online bill payment system.
• You mentioned both an intranet and an extranet solution. Please give an
example of how you think each differs.
• What makes you feel that way?
• Tell me step by step what happens after a customer clicks the “Submit”
button on the Web registration form.