Data Gathering Program - Case Study Example

1) Explain how you would use each of the three data gathering techniques; interview, questionnaire, and observation in your data gathering program.  All the three data gathering techniques seem applicable in this scenario. The following discussion highlights the usage of each technique individually. Questionnaire: The questionnaire would help in gathering concrete data values like the names of staff members, menu items offered and their description and purpose of visit of customer etc. These are preferred to be composed of guided and close ended questions like MCQs. The likert responses would also be incorporated in order to have ordinal data values. The questionnaire would be deployed on two different levels that are for staff and for customers. These would also allow statements like suggestions and reasons of likeness and dislikes. Interviews: Despite the effectiveness of application of questionnaires the guided response feature may prove to be an anomaly via hindering true responses. The unguided and open responses may well be contained and curtailed through interviews. The expressions are recorded accordingly through this data acquisition technique. Observation: The interview results may also be fabricated and pre-meditated. This may happen due to the fact that the interviewee already gets prepared for responses. To grab the natural responses and real data it is recommended to perform observation. This also helps in authentication of data collected through questionnaires and interviews. The observation may be conducted as a supervised activity or an insider activity like using cover or getting camouflaged. The latter known as ethnography is most appropriate and authentic as there may be behavioral changes observed during supervised observations. In this scenario of a restaurant the value of service delay may appear to be incorrect due to controlled monitoring. (2) Plan your data gathering program in detail:  i. Decide what kind of interview you want to run, and design a set of interview questions for your study. Decide how you will record data, then acquire and test any equipment needed and run a pilot study.  In this scenario the preferred type of interview would be Semi Structured Interview. Being a hybrid version of structured and unstructured interviews it allows proper exploration of issues along with a guiding plan. This kind of interview is capable of encompassing the richness of responses along with the exhibition of replication. The two different interviews would be conducted for staff and customers respectively. The sequence is important to authenticate data that is acquired by the staff. A set of interview questions and targeted interviewee Questions Interviewee 1. For how many shifts does the restaurant function? Managers 2. What is the staff to customer ratio? Managers 3. What is the strength of staff per shift? Managers 4. What are the prevalent overtime trends among staff? Managers 5. Details of the peak and 0ff peak hours. Managers 6. Does the staff strength vary with respect to peak hours? Managers 7. What are the customer relationship management issues? Managers 8. Does the staff prefer to do overtime? If yes then why? Or why not? Staff 9. To what degree are you satisfied with your current job? Staff 10. What usually is the average delay in service? Service Staff 11. What is the average time of preparation for menu items? Chef 12. What in your opinion would be a better service staff/customer ratio? Customer 13. Are you satisfied with the customer relationship management? Customer 14. Is the staff performance same in every shift of the day? Customer 15. Is the availability of menu similar in each shift? Customer 16. What is the average service delay as per your experience? Customer 17. Any unpleasant feelings you want to share? Customer The preferred data recording method would be the audio recording with notes of transcription. A general sequence of actions and issues is as follows: There would be an introduction of the interviewer to signal the start of the interview. The introduction must address the issues of delivering proper rationale of interview to the respondent in a satisfactory manner. The assurance of maintenance of ethical aspects regarding confidentiality etc. is a must. Initial questions would be easier and friendlier to warm up the exercise. The sequence of questions would be well coordinated with suitable resting gaps through topic change etc. The audio recorder would be used on will of interviewer. To indicate the completion of interview a short thank note would be delivered. ii. Decide whether you want to include a questionnaire in your data gathering program, and design appropriate questions for it. Run a pilot study to check your questionnaire.  There would be two different versions of questionnaire each for customers and staff members. The question would mostly be closed to enable easier analysis. Despite unknown population size in case of customers the sample selection would not be a problem as it would automatically be created through willing participants. Appendix A contains a sample questionnaire version designed for customers. The sequence and relevance of question is intricately taken care of. Another version of questionnaire for staff would explore the static factors like personal and professional information. The questions would be mixed. A set of sample questions is presented in Appendix B. iii. Decide whether you want to use direct or indirect observation and where on the outsider―insider spectrum of observers you wish to be. Decide how you will record data, then acquire and test any equipment needed and run a pilot study.  The situation here requires the conduction of both the direct and indirect observations. The indirect observations would be performed through the scanning of different restaurant documents including, Shift wise duty roster. Time in and Time Out records of staff. Transactional logs containing order details like item ordered, order date/time and service personnel etc. Menu details (Items Offered and Respective Prices) Regular items Seasonal items Sales volume of restaurant The indirect observation would be helpful in data acquisition regarding several aspects that are highlighted below. Identifying the role of different actors in the system. Understanding the organization of business process Tracking the sequence of activities. The behavioral analysis of actors in the system can best be done through the application of ethnographic observation. However in this scenario it would not be preferred as the application development task is intended to more towards automation of business processes. The data required for development of appropriate automated application would sufficiently be acquired through direct observation in controlled environment. (3) Decide on what prototype you will be using? Why did you choose such a prototype?  Both Low Fidelity and High Fidelity prototypes would be applicable in this scenario. To finalize the application interface details, paper based interfaces would be used as low fidelity prototypes. A sample prototype is shown in figure 1. This would allow appropriate modifications and design suggestions before finalizing the application interfaces. The changes in low fidelity prototypes can be quick, easy and cost effective. Restaurant Order Management System Customer Name Service Personnel Order No Order Date Order Time Menu Items Order Details Item ID Item Name Item Description Price/Item Quantity Amount Total Order Amount Figure 1: Low Fidelity Prototype for application interface High Fidelity Prototype for application interfaces would be incorporated in the form of actual application forms. This prototype would be of Evolutionary Type. The execution of low fidelity prototypes would result in high fidelity prototypes that are almost near to final design and would not require major changes. A sample high fidelity interface prototype for an expected touch based operative application is presented below in figure 2. Figure 2: High fidelity interface prototype There would be compromises involved in high fidelity interface prototypes. The discussion of few is as follows. The response time for these prototypes would be deceiving due to the absence of real associated functioning workload. This may give user the wrong idea about speed and performance of application. Shallow depth of transactional processing causes horizontal compromises. In this case the standalone system based prototypes compromise on network based centralized functionality constraints. The usability content of these prototypes would be higher and the final design is expected to be robust and reliable. (4) What are the steps of Contextual design that you would take for your application? You might consider the issues that organization might face when putting the Contextual Design into practice?  The basic idea is to design a centralized restaurant order management system that is capable of processing orders with a touch screen interface. This system would enable the counter staff and customers both to operate the system directly for order placements. The system is expected to maintain internal priorities on first come first served basis with reasonable preparation time assigned on the basis of study conducted. The system would also mark the service of order as completion of transaction. Steps of contextual design include, Data collection through interviews, questionnaires and observations. Data Interpretation in terms of different models like process and data models and designs. Analysis of data and process models for visioning. Prototyping (Low and High Fidelity) and testing. Expected issues faced by organization: A change over from conventional to new or exceptional system always demands some cost. In this scenario the Interactive Touchscreen based Order Management System may originate the following issues. The stakeholders wouldn’t get fully acquainted with the operations of new system. This may raise the requirement of hiring additional support staff for helping out users that are staff and customers both. REFERENCES Holtzblatt, Karen and Beyer, Hugh R. (2012). Contextual Design. In:Soegaard, Mads and Dam, Rikke Friis (eds.), Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Available online at http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/contextual_design.html. Appendix A Questionnaire for customers: First Name Middle Name Last Name Address Phone 1: Phone 2: Email: Age: Gender: Choose any one of the following answers. 1. Are you a regular customer? a) Yes b) No 2. Your weekly visits to the restaurant? a) Once a week b) More than once a week c) Less than once week d) Occasional 3. Usual timings and purpose of visit? a) Breakfast b) Lunch c) Dinner d) Any time 4. Are you satisfied with the prices? a) Yes b) No 5. Are you satisfied with the service? a) Yes b) No 6. Are you satisfied with the food quality? a) Yes b) No 7. Average amount that you spend per visit? a) $ 20 b) $20+ c) Less than $20 d) Above $40 8. Are you satisfied with the variety of food offered? a) Yes b) No 9. List your most favorite menu items. a) b) c) d) 10. Suggestions for improvements regarding service, food and prices. Appendix B Questionnaire for staff: First Name Middle Name Last Name Designation & Job Specification Timings? Status? Experience? Age? Gender? Permanent or Not? 1. Do you enjoy working here at the restaurant? a) Yes b) No 2. How many hours in a week do you work? a) 40 b) More than 40 c) Less than 40 d) fluctuating 3. Preferred shifts of duty? a) Breakfast b) Lunch c) Dinner d) Any shift 4. Are you satisfied with your service? a) Yes b) No 5. Are you satisfied with the service delay? a) Yes b) No 6. To what extent are you satisfied with the management? a) Extremely Not Satisfied b) Not Satisfied c) Satisfied d) Extremely Satisfied 7. Any apprehensions? Read More

The audio recorder would be used on will of interviewer. To indicate the completion of interview a short thank note would be delivered. ii. Decide whether you want to include a questionnaire in your data gathering program, and design appropriate questions for it. Run a pilot study to check your questionnaire.  There would be two different versions of questionnaire each for customers and staff members. The question would mostly be closed to enable easier analysis. Despite unknown population size in case of customers the sample selection would not be a problem as it would automatically be created through willing participants.

Appendix A contains a sample questionnaire version designed for customers. The sequence and relevance of question is intricately taken care of. Another version of questionnaire for staff would explore the static factors like personal and professional information. The questions would be mixed. A set of sample questions is presented in Appendix B. iii. Decide whether you want to use direct or indirect observation and where on the outsider―insider spectrum of observers you wish to be. Decide how you will record data, then acquire and test any equipment needed and run a pilot study.

  The situation here requires the conduction of both the direct and indirect observations. The indirect observations would be performed through the scanning of different restaurant documents including, Shift wise duty roster. Time in and Time Out records of staff. Transactional logs containing order details like item ordered, order date/time and service personnel etc. Menu details (Items Offered and Respective Prices) Regular items Seasonal items Sales volume of restaurant The indirect observation would be helpful in data acquisition regarding several aspects that are highlighted below.

Identifying the role of different actors in the system. Understanding the organization of business process Tracking the sequence of activities. The behavioral analysis of actors in the system can best be done through the application of ethnographic observation. However in this scenario it would not be preferred as the application development task is intended to more towards automation of business processes. The data required for development of appropriate automated application would sufficiently be acquired through direct observation in controlled environment. (3) Decide on what prototype you will be using?

Why did you choose such a prototype?  Both Low Fidelity and High Fidelity prototypes would be applicable in this scenario. To finalize the application interface details, paper based interfaces would be used as low fidelity prototypes. A sample prototype is shown in figure 1. This would allow appropriate modifications and design suggestions before finalizing the application interfaces. The changes in low fidelity prototypes can be quick, easy and cost effective. Restaurant Order Management System Customer Name Service Personnel Order No Order Date Order Time Menu Items Order Details Item ID Item Name Item Description Price/Item Quantity Amount Total Order Amount Figure 1: Low Fidelity Prototype for application interface High Fidelity Prototype for application interfaces would be incorporated in the form of actual application forms.

This prototype would be of Evolutionary Type. The execution of low fidelity prototypes would result in high fidelity prototypes that are almost near to final design and would not require major changes. A sample high fidelity interface prototype for an expected touch based operative application is presented below in figure 2. Figure 2: High fidelity interface prototype There would be compromises involved in high fidelity interface prototypes. The discussion of few is as follows. The response time for these prototypes would be deceiving due to the absence of real associated functioning workload.

This may give user the wrong idea about speed and performance of application. Shallow depth of transactional processing causes horizontal compromises.

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