Systems Analysis -- FAQ

Systems Analysis FAQ
Group Forming Assignment
Some FAQ's and their answers have been provided by former students.
If some advice seems inconsistent with what Dr. Sauter has said in class, please contact her for clarification.

Am I supposed to select the people to work in my group?

No. The goal of the assignment is for you to assign each person to a group.

How will I know how to assign people to groups?

As with the first assignment, think of this as an analysis of a system. Your goal is to assign each student to a group in such a way to create groups that are approximately equivalent in the likelihood that they will succeed in completing the group project.

How will I know about who can complete the group projects?

Look at the skill set that the group as a whole must bring to the analysis effort. Does each group have one or more people who satisfy all the skills? If not, the groups are not balanced.

How will it be graded?

The assignments will be graded as a function of how well you applied the material discussed in class and in the text. I will ask myself whether or not I believe you understand the functions of an analysis group.

Is time and days to meet the biggest factor to concentrate on?

No, with there being so many ways to communicate such as phone and e-mail it is not necessary to concentrate on one particular thing. The process should be a combination of everything.

What if the person didn't answer all the section titles that were required on the resume? How would I form those people with a group?

In the real world, you will not know everything about everyone. You will just have to look at the title they did answer and put them into group with that info.

How detailed of an explanation do you want on how I put the groups together?

Very detailed. I want to know every aspect considered when you formed these groups. I also want to know why you used these aspects to form your groups. I want to know any aspects you chose not to include and why. I will also need an explanation of how you ranked each resume and any other parts of the process of forming the groups.

How do I determine a student's "skill set"?

The resume assignment was intended to document skills that are important to Systems Analysts.

What methods can I use to assign people to a group?

Try to picture the person who created the web page. You will have to look beyond the words and try to picture their personality. From that list you need to categorize people by there work ethic and personality.

Availability seems like the most critical factor in creating groups, because if the members can rarely or never meet, I don't see how their combinations of skills can be put to use. Can I use this as my sole criterion for group information?

No, completely ignore availability (you'll notice that I will when I actually create the groups), because while deciding groups based on availability is pragmatic and logical, it doesn't demonstrate your understanding of the necessary skills of the systems analysts or how a group of analysts would accomplish their tasks.

Is there a right and a wrong way to do this? Or is this strictly opinion?

There is more to this assignment than just merely your opinion. You must consider all of the factors and all of the traits listed on every resume. You must match them together in order to meet requirements needed to fulfill the group's needs. Group the people together according to their skills. That is only half of the assignment though. You must suppose your arguments thoroughly.

What is required in the justification of the group forming assignment?

An explanation of what was and was NOT considered important when forming the groups, an explanation of the chosen size of groups, and whether or not your groups fit your said criteria.

Will I have a final say in who is in my group?

No. The instructor will assign the groups. But, if there are people that you absolutely cannot work with please e-mail Professor Sauter (Vicki.Sauter@umsl.edu). Make sure to include justification for your reasoning.

Are some aspects more important than others when creating groups?

Yes, for example it is not as important to consider schedules, as it is to consider computer experience because there are other forms of communication such as e-mail.

Is there any right or wrong way to separate people into groups?

No there is no right or wrong way but any way that you decide to break people up must be justified fully.

What should my justification include?

It should include a detailed explanation the methodology you used in creating the group. What skill sets you wanted to include in each group: was there a skill you were careful to place in every group? Were there other skills you didn't consider important? Why? What characteristics you tried to match: did you try to double-up certain characteristics or limit other characteristics to only one per group? Why? How did you critique the skills listed for each person's resume?

What criteria should I use to sort the resumes into groups?

The criteria that you use to sort the class into groups are up to you. You should have similar information on each resume; therefore, which items are the deciding factors is up to you. You must provide ample justification for the criteria you chose to use and use specific examples from groups you end up with.

What if the time availability for the group members conflict?

Don't worry about availability of the group members as much as their abilities to complete the project. A lot of the work and communication can be done through the telephone or e-mail.

Is there a right or wrong answer?

Your groups cannot be wrong as long as you can justify your selection process according to the principles discussed for system analysis groups.

What skill is most important? Should I group the teams by one skill over another?

The combination of skills within the group is the ultimate goal. You cannot group them by one quality or another. Any difference in schedule can be overcome via electronic meetings, so do not build your teams by schedule or residence.

Is the size of each group important?

Yes. In your justification, you should include why you chose the size of the groups as you did. You will be graded on whether you address such things as, wanting to avoid groups to big to be productive, odd number are good for voting, large enough to absorb people dropping, small enough to be manageable, and account for some people not fully participating, etc.

Should I more heavily weigh some attribute over others?

You should form teams that you think will work well together. If you feel that some attributes are more important than other, I will leave that up to you. Keep in mind that the times that people are able to meet may plan an important role in your decision. The group could potentially work well together but if they are unable to meet on a regular basis, the likelihood of success is reduced greatly.

After looking at the resumes, there are a few resumes that have few or no skills to bring to the group. How do I assign these students to a group?

Since you want all groups to have the same level of skills, look for team members who can carry those students. At the end of the project you will be asked what everyone did and at that time those students should be graded by their participation with the project.

What is considered a good systems analysis team?

A group of people that are composed of different skills that fulfill the requirements of the project.

What are the important things I should look at while dividing people in groups?

Computer education and skills, business education and skills, relevant experience, self-rating on team projects, strong assets and weak assets, schedule and geographical area. All these things should be given equal importance while dividing people into groups. One more important thing to remember is give explanation why you think all above criteria will benefit the group and in what ways. What makes you think that way? Explanation is must even when you divided group efficiently with skills and education. You will lose points if there is not sufficient explanation for your group formation.

What if some information is missing or if a student doesn't have a web page?

If a student doesn't have a web page, they cannot be included in the group forming. If some information is missing, use the rest of their web page. Maybe some information can be found by what they included in other sections of the web page.

How do I decide what order of important to group people with?

Everyone rate different qualities of different importance. Figure out what order to do this based on what you feel is the most important. Just be sure to include all skills in each group.

How closely should you look at the individual attributes? Should you take everything into consideration when forming a team?

Take what you think is the most important. Use what was discussed in class as being the best things to form a team. Not all information on the resume will be important in determining a group.

How will I know who would work well together?

You must find people whose skills, strengths, and weaknesses you feel mesh well together. Also take into consideration the person's schedule and where they live.

If the Resume gives vague information about the person skills and Experience, Can we ask you to give us the contact of that person so that we can get more precise information?

No, You can't contact them. Use whatever limited information you have from the resume to put them into groups

How do we suppose to divide the group?

You should divide the group evenly, a good group should include someone good at computer, experience, creative. try to make the group strong in everything.

How is the best way to decide criteria for grouping people in this assignment?

There is no best way but it is important to be very clear about how you picked your criteria and how you rate each resume within that criteria. (Grouping Assignment)

What is the purpose of the groups?

The groups will not only form what they think are effective groups but it will also be an introductory lesson to our main groups

How big formed groups should be?

The groups should be between 4 and 6 members. You choose the size, but you need to justify your choice.

Our grouping formula has become too complicated to solve what should we do?

Re-evaluate your sorting criteria and then distribute based on scarcity first.

What kind of strategy should be used while forming the group?

Look for similar business related experience, education and other skills discussed in the resume.

What if some students did not talk too much about themselves or did not rate themselves well. How would you put them into groups?

Group that student with someone who has good communication skills. This person might have other qualifications such as technical or business experience.

What skill is the best one to group by?

There is no best skill. You should choose the skill which is the rarest among all of the resumes. If this is good communication, group by this first. If the rarest characteristic is knowledge of the business, then group by that.

If someone says they are a good leader, should we immediately assume they should be the leader of the group?

NO, you should really go by them saying they are and what experience they actually have.

In the paper, should we talk about each individual resume and how we graded it?

Break the paper into sections, and specifically, describe how you came up with each group.

Should we consider that some resumes may have canned content (content that is overly tailored to the requirments) in their resumes that does not really express the extent of their skill level?

No, whatever the applicant has stated about their skill level or experience is what should be evaluated and used as the basis for forming the groups.

How important is grouping the groups by location and availability?

I don't think that it's that important of an aspect when forming the groups. Reason being, people are just going to have to make accommodations regardless. The groups need to be formed based on qualities of individuals and then work on times to meet. You can always assign people things to be worked on at home and or communicate via e-mail or phone.

From where should I draw the criteria to start creating groups?

The information you should draw from is not only what is written on the resumes, but also what is not. Organization and _expression (pics / colors) can provide insight into the qualities of the student. Look at the resume as a whole and not only what you can read. Ultimately you need to justify whatever criteria you choose.

Why do we have to form people into groups if our group formations are not going to be used?

The goal for this assignment is to get students to think of this as an analysis of a system, and to get students acquainted with working in groups. After the grouping assignment you should be able to analyze the process that was used in the forming a group. Was your first team successful? Why or why not? You can use this information to make your future group successful.