Requirement I

G51REQ Coursework 1 REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION REPORT Group: Authors: Muhammad Khidhir Hein Min Htike Ang Rhu Zen Date: 10/11/2011 Part 1 Report Summary The report is about the activities done and observed before, while and after the trip to Zoo Negara. The main activities were deciding where and when to go, making the trip, arriving at the place and doing a visit, returning from the trip and activities after the visit. Initially, we were planning to visit A’ Famosa in Malacca, but it was canceled as Malacca was a big distance away from the campus, and the travelling will take most of our time.After searching on the internet about places to visit in Kuala Lumpur, we decided on visiting Zoo Negara on Saturday, which is much closer compared to Malacca and almost none of us had visited the place yet. On Saturday morning, we met at the SA building and drove to the zoo. Having a driver who knows the routes in Kuala Lumpur, we reached Zoo Negara in about an hour. However, we had a har d time finding parking spots as it was the eve of Hari Raya. In the end, we had to park our car a long distance away from the entrance, but at least we have arrived at the zoo.Inside the zoo, we saw different kinds of animals and there were several centers that function as a sanctuary for famous local birds, reptiles and fish. We collected data by taking pictures and interviewing a few individuals while having a break at one of the train stops. After we went to see the tigers and lions in the Mammal Kingdom, we finally left the zoo from another entrance, which was not far from where we parked. On the way back, we stopped at a Burger King in Damansara for late lunch before heading back to Nottingham. When we got back to our own home s, we saved the pictures hat were taken and started on writing the report. In the end, the problems we had on that trip was based on finding places within the zoo and wasting our time seeing some of the same attractions. Part 2 Approach to requirements el icitation Requirements elicitation is also known as requirements gathering, which is part of the process upon enquiring the requirements of a particular system from users, customers and stakeholders. In other words, it can also be considered as consul tation with the people who are involved in the process as mentioned above.Stages of elicitation include objective setting, background knowledge, knowledge organisation and stakeholder requirements collection. There is various specific approach of requirements elicitation which includes interviewing, soft systems methods, prototyping, scenarios, and requirements reuse and participant observation. These are some of the familiar approach to requirements elicitation. Firstly, the requirements engineer will talk about the system with numbers of stakeholders and boost the understanding of their requirements.Therefore, an interview will be conducted in order to get the necessary information. This can be done in two different ways, either thro ugh closed interviews or open interviews. Closed interviews will be conveyed by looking for answers from a pre-defined number of questions which has been set by the requirements engineer. Unlike closed interviews, open interviews let the requirements engineer to dispute with the stakeholders in an open-ended way about what they want from the system. Interviewers can never approach the interview with disapproving ideas about what is needed and must be open-minded.Besides that, stakeholders must be given an idea about the discussion by requirements proposal or show examples of an existing system. Secondly, scenarios technique is used for elicitation which explains the way a system is being used through stories description. It starts with an introduction of the system before the scenario starts, then the usual flow of events with some exception and information about coexisting activities. At the end of the scenario, a description of the system is being stated. Scenarios describe how a user communicates with a system.Participant observation is observing people at work because they find it difficult to tell what they do because it is normal to them. Moreover, ethnography method also has proved to be precious in understanding actual work processes. An ethnographer can observe people at work and create an image of how work is done. Furthermore, another method in requirements elicitation is requirements reuse. It involves taking a developed system and uses them in different system. These reused requirements have already been checked and validated in other system, thus saves time and effort.But, currently it is an informal process but through this, it could lead to bigger cost savings. By reusing, it could lead to a consistency of pattern through applications. While being at the zoo, we walked throughout the whole area of the zoo to get a better view and some first-hand experience on how things work there. We could see that, the signage doesn’t really give accur ate direction to the place we wanted to go. The signage tells us to go towards the direction they give but in the end we were in a different pathway from the one we were supposed to be at. They should provide a clearer signage for people to understand it better.Additionally, I think there should be more staffs in and around the zoo to explain further information on the kind of animals we are looking at and provide some interesting details on how they eat or the kind of food that they eat and many more. These are the things that they should focus more on, and who wouldn’t like list ening to interesting stories of animals? Likewise, I can also observe the backgrounds of people who were there, so that a wider view can be seen on the people who we can put more focus on. I must say that, most of the visitors were foreigners and only a nu mber of Malaysians were there.This might be because of the past experience they had at the zoo. Therefore, I conducted interviews and ask them a few questions related to the zoo to know exactly what they think of the place and get some opinions and ideas from them. In my opinion, the interview gave us a lot of useful information on what the zoo can improve on and the things that should be maintained for them to get a better experience of the zoo. And hopefully, this will result in an increase in the numbe r of visitors and a better review from everyone Part 3 Practicalities of field study Anonymous1 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 42Gender: Male Race: Malay Date of Birth: 12/05/1979 Occupation: Teacher Location: Ampang Marital Status: Married Anonymous2 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 18 Gender: Male Race: Chinese Date of Birth: 06/12/1993 Occupation: Student Location: Kampung Pandan Marital Status: Single Our group went to the National Zoo for up to almost 6 hours, including the journey of going to the zoo and coming back from the zoo. Later on, we went for a late lunch in Burger King which took us about half an hour to get there a nd left at approximately 30 minutes later. Then, we went back to our campus which took us another 40 minutes.In total, the duration of the whole trip was about 8 hours. There are a few data that we gathered which includes photos, informal interviews and field notes. From the informal interview, we interviewed two different people from completely different background, thus the answer from both of them gave us the idea of how people in their respective age think. When we did an interview with anonymous1, he complained about the number of staffs who were working in the zoo. It results in a poor service and maintenance of the place and also dirty cages and walkways that are fu ll of leaves.In addition, anonymous also complained about the lack of choices when it comes to food. There were only one restaurant inside the zoo and the price of the snacks is more expensive than outside. I think they should provide better facilities all around the zoo and increase the number of restaurants or j ust improve the quality of the restaurant that is inside there. There should be more places where people can sit and r elax in an airconditioning environment especially when time comes noon, it would be very hot in Malaysia nowadays.Other than that, we experienced the bad condition of the toilet where the water were flushing out from the floor and clogged sinks and toile t bowls. This issue should be resolve for it to be a better place. Part 4 Activities observed and their sequential orders The main activities involved in visiting places are finding a place to visit, planning the trip, performing the journey or going to the destination, doing the actual visiting, leaving and returning home, and after visit. The activity of finding a place to visit is composed of not only deciding where to go but also when to go. This activity is closely related to planning the trip.As a product of this activity, we will get a confirmed destination of visit and confirmed time-frame for the visit. The activity of performing journey is the process of actually going to the decided destination. This activity has to be carried out as planne d in the first activity. The product of this activity is that, we actually reach to planned destination. The processes in the activities of doing actual visiting are the processes carried out at the planned place. In our case, the processes like going ar ound and seeing the zoo and conducting the interviews are the processes that form the actual visiting activity.Data for ethnographic analysis can be obtained as the product of this activity. The activity of leaving and returning trip is the processes in volved in returning home from zoo. The product of is that, we get back home. The processes that made up the activity â€Å"after visit† are like transferring the pictures from cameras and writing the report base on the experiences from the above activities. T he products are saved pictures in pc and a report to submit. Sequential order of a ctivities –Deciding and planning the trip Performing Journey Doing the visit Leaving and returningAfter Visit Part 5 Work Practice 1 (Deciding where and when to go and planning the trip) The work of visiting places begins by deciding where to as a group. We sat down in SA and decided where to go by using information from the internet. The first suggestion by Khidhir to choose as a visiting place was â€Å"D-paradise and A’ Famosa in Malacca†. But we the main problem with going to Malacca was the distance from our places. Malacca is 130 km from our place and the driving time to get there is 2 hours with no heavy traffic . The round trip will take approximately 4 and half hours.So, with the time frame we got, we will not have much time to do the actual visiting in Malacca. So, we decided not to go to Malacca and the other option is to visit a place near Kuala Lumpur. We s earched on the internet for places to see in KL. We got 3 options to visit in KL, namely, Bat u Caves, Aquaria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, and Zoo Negara. We chose zoo Negara because two of the group members have not been there and thought it would be int eresting to see Malaysia major zoological park. We decided to go there on Saturday and to depart from Nottingham at around 9am.One of the group members own a car, so we decided to go with his car. Then, we discussed about the time allocation for the trip and what to do during the visit. Zoo Negara is only 43 km from Nottingham and can be reached within an hour drive. So, we will be at the zoo at around 10, and then we planned to do visiting and stay at zoo until after 3 pm because there is animal show at 3 pm. We planned to do some interviews at the zoo for the ethnographic analysis. We also discussed about what should be interview questions and we finally agreed for ten questions which will be stated in â€Å"Work Practice 3†.The products of this activity are that, we have definite idea of where to go and we have a plan for what to do during the trip. Work Practice 2 (Undertaking the journey) We met up on Saturday as planned and went on to have breakfast at the SA building. Then, we departed for zoo at 9:35 am. Khidhir was driving and Rhu Zen took the front seat beside him and Hein Min Htike was at the back seat. The driver knows KL routes insi de out, so, we didn’t need to any work of way-finding. We went to zoo directly except one pit -stop for fuel. It took us 50 minutes to get there and we were at zoo at 10:30.The problem when we reached zoo was that we could not find a parking space easily. Since we visited there on Saturday which was not only normal public but also eve of Hari Raya, there were so many visitors’ cars. We have had to park our car six streets away from entrance. The product of this activity is that, we really reached the zoo. Work Practice 3 (Arriving at the zoo and doing the visit) We took some photos at the entrance and then bought tickets and entered zoo. The ticket price for Malaysian is 20RM and for foreigner is 30RM. We first went to visit the â€Å"hornbill center† where they keep many hornbill species, monkeys and hippopotamus.Then, we visited the â€Å"bee museum†. Bee museum is a Kiosk selling honey and other bee related souvenirs. It also features displays of all the integrated honey industry activities from bee breeding to honey extracting. Then, we went on to see the Indian cows and the bears’ complex. Then, we took the Savannah Walk and saw a variety of African animals like Sable antelopes, Scimatar oryx, giraffes, ostriches, zebras, and white rhinoceroses. At the end of Savannah Walk road, we sat down at train stop 5 to give a rest to our legs and to make some interviews.We firstly interviewed â€Å"Anonymous1† from KL who was there with his family. Khidhir conducted the interview in Malay Language. We then interviewed â€Å"Anonymous2† who also lives in KL and he was there with his fri ends. We will write the main points of those interviews in â€Å"Question and Answer† format to save word count and to avoid repetition. Question: With whom you came here today and how many peop le are there with you? Is there any particular reason to come here? Anonymous1: I am visiting here with my family and there are total of 4 people with me, my wife and my two kids and myself. We are just having our week-end day out.Anonymous2: I am here with my friends and there are total of 5 people in my group. We have not been here for very long time, so we just wanted to see the changes inside the zoo. Question: How did you come here? Was there any problem getting here like parking problem? Anonymous 1: I drove here and there was not any particular problem to get here. We arrived here really early and so, we could manage to find a parking space easily. Anonymous 2: We came here with LRT and taxi. We reached Wangsa Maju station and we took taxi to get here. This place is easily acce ssible and there was no problem to get here.Question: Any comments about the animals in zoo? Anonymous1: Quite a lot of varieties of animals are kept in this zoo and the animals seem happy. Anonymous2: We have been walking around the zoo for only 2 hours and we have been to almost all the places inside the zoo. There are not much interesting animal in here except penguins. I have not seen penguins before. Question: How do you think of animal show available in this zoo? Anonymous1: The animal show at 11 am was quiet good, they spoke in Malay, so my kids could understand very well, and they really enjoyed it. Anonymous2: We arrived here at around 11 am.So we missed the morning show. But we really are not into seeing the animal show as there will be a lot of people at the show. Question: Any comments about staffs? Anonymous1: I didn’t see much of staffs. Only staffs I saw were at the entrances of zoo and aquarium world, and the staffs conducting the animal show. I th ink the num ber of staff is inadequate compare to the size of zoo because the animal cages are dirty and walkways are full of dry leaves and did not see anyone cleaning them. Anonymous2: I have nothing special to say about staffs from here. I rarely see the m inside the zoo.Question: How do you think of food shops and souvenir shops inside zoo? Anonymous1: As things inside the zoo are very expensive and I did not buy anything. Moreover, there is only one restaurant to have lunch or breakfast. Anonymous2: We were just discussing to go and have lunch. There are quite a lot of snack shops, but there is only one restaurant for lunch. I think there should be more restaurants, so that, visitors can choose their favorite meal. And drinks here at the snack shops are slightly expensive than outside. Question: Transportation inside zoo? Did you use it?Anonymous1: We preferred to walk to get closer look at the animals. Anonymous2: We planned to stay here until evening, so we are not in hurry. We decided t o walk around the zoo. Question: How do you describe your overall experience at zoo? Things you like most? Things you like least? Anonymous1: We are having a fun time; especially for my children. It has been a good day out so far. What we liked most is Savannah Walk, which is like a small version of African landscape with the animals roaming freely, especially giraffes. Anonymous2: There is nothing much for adults to do in zoo.For sure, this is not one of our best days out. The good point inside the zoo is the tall, shady trees which provide shade for leisure troll. Things I do not like here are that, animals are kept in very dirty environment. The worst thing is aquarium where you cannot even see the fish clearly because of the dirty water and grubby mirrors. Question: What should be done to improve the overall quality of zoo? Anonymous1: More staffs should be stationed inside the zoo, to p rovide information and interact with visitors. And they should also prioritize the cleanline ss of zoo.Anonymous2: There are so many rooms to improve in this zoo. Zoo maps are available for 2RM, which should be given free to every visitor. The signages ar e not around every corner, and even when you see them, they are not quite clear in their pointing direction. With no free map, and no clear signage, I am pretty sure that, visitors will get lost quite often. Moreover, there are no staffs to be seen inside the zoo to ask information or to ask direction. Another important thing there is that they should focus more on the cleanliness of environment. Everywhere inside the zoo is stinking.The toilets are very dirty. Question: Do you plan to visit the zoo again or would you recommend this to your friends? Any tips to organize a good day out to zoo? Anonymous1: My kids would like to come back here, so we might be coming again like 2, 3 months later. I would definitely recommend this place for a family day out fo r those with small kids. I would advise anyone to bring along their own food and drinks as things inside are twice the price outside. Anonymous2: No, we are not coming back here anytime in the future. And we will never recommend a friend to visit here.As a tip, don’t come here. Even when they come, come here early, to avoid extremely hot temperature inside zoo and to avoid heavy crowd. After the two interviews, we continued our visit inside the zoo. We went to mammal kingdom and then went on to see the tigers and lions. After that lion place, we went inside the reptile house and spent around thirty minutes inside. Then, we went inside bird house where so many species of birds are kept inside different compartments. We then sat bough some cold drink and sat down under the shade for about 15 minutes.Then, we went to see the aquarium world which is very dull and boring place. Fishes inside are nothing much interesting. Then we watched the animal show for a while because there were so many people and we could not see or hear the show very well fr om our place. We then went to penguin house and we have completed visiting the whole zoo. We made our way out from entrance B and found out that it was not far from the street where we parked our car. The products of this activity are that, we could enjoy the zoo, we could manage to finish the interviews and we got data for ethnography.Work Practice 4 (Return and getting home) We left zoo at around 3:50 pm and we drove to Damansara Burger King to have a late lunch. Damansara Burger king was 25 km far from zoo and it took us around 30 minutes to get there. Then, we have had lunch until around 4:50 and then we left for Nottingham University. It took us around 30 minutes to reach school and the distance was around 30 km. Once we reached Nottingham, we parted our ways to our houses. The products of this activity are having lunch, and getting back home. Work Practice 5 (After Visit)When reach our houses, we rested for some time. At night, we copied the pictures from camera memories cards to PCs. And we all started writing the report to submit. The products are the saved pictures and the report. Part 6 The Requirements Problem During our trip, we had a hard time navigating the zoo as we did not bring a map and also there were occasions that we had to use some of the facilities that were not well maintained. Another problem while doing the trip was that we may have missed some of the attractions because we did not have a map in the first place.We decided we need a system to be keeping track of what we had seen, what attractions we may have missed, and because there were not many staff members seen inside the zoo to maintain the facilities, which places to avoid. It should also update the group about any show times inside the zoo and keep a watch handy to check how long we were visiting some of the attractions. As a task scheduling system, it should be able to display some main attractions that we should see within the zoo itself, although the place itself is sm all, and not just simply walk around and attempt to understand what every animal is or does.Any group would definitely get bored walking under the hot sun only to see that the animals are sleeping during the mid-day. It should also be able to sort and notify the user or users of any events or shows that are going to start. That way, the group could plan on which places to visit in the zoo before walking back to see the animal show. This will also prevent the group from rushing around as the zoo has some very odd placement of some of the facilities, including toilets. Besides that, it hould have a mapping system so that it will display the locations of all the main attractions, the bus stops, resting spots and the toilets within the zoo as it was difficult to find a sign with the entire map of the zoo easily and therefore avoid wasting time going rounds inside the zoo. Other than that, because there were many places that had the same attractions, which eventually made one of our group mem bers bored, the ta sk scheduling system should also have a notepad for any individual in the group to write their own comments about the zoo.This is to avoid having to see the same attraction under the very hot sun the next time he visits the zoo. Lastly, for any group members who were not familiar with the animals and find the description beside the animal cages confuse them even further, there should be a translator or encyclopedia to make it more understandable. It will also help other tourists who were busy looking for directions from us as they could not read some of the signs.