Business Analysis Practice: Evaluating Data Collection Methods

This business analysis assignment explores various data collection methods, including interviews, surveys, and online tools. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of interviews, highlighting the benefits of detailed information gathering and clarification, while also acknowledging the time-consuming and potentially biased nature of this method. The assignment then discusses the use of surveys, outlining situations where they are helpful and comparing their advantages, such as ease of administration and wide reach, with their disadvantages, such as the potential for inaccurate or limited responses. Furthermore, it assesses the suitability of online tools for eliciting requirements from a large number of people, emphasizing their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The assignment also addresses the importance of data privacy when using online tools, stressing the need for transparency and secure data handling.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS PRACTICE
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The strengths and weaknesses of interviews for business analysis
The strengths
The interviewer gets more information from the interviewee and asks for elaboration
where he/she did not understand well. This will help to perform good business analysis as
enough information is obtained.
In the interviews, the interviewer can clarify to the interviewee any point or idea which is
not clear, and this will help to obtain better results from the interview.
By using interviews for business analysis, we get good rates of response from the
interviewees as the interviewer will interact with each interviewee either directly or indirectly.
Interviews allow the interviewers to choose different questions for the interviewees
depending on the different situations of the interviewees. This helps to understand the
interviewees better which is very helpful in making some business decisions.
The weaknesses
The interview method consumes a lot of time as the interviewer has to spend some time
with the individual interviewees.
The interviews may be expensive especially in cases where the interviewer has to travel to
go and meet interviewees who are located in different places which are far from his/her place.

We may have some interviewers influencing some responses of the interviewees which
leads to biased responses which can affect the process of business analysis negatively (Survey
Data Analysis, 2017).
A BA needs some skills to be effective in interviewing people. Some of the skills needed
by the BA include:
Good communication skills. The BA needs to have good speaking and listening skills for
him/her to communicate with his/her interviewees well.
Good time management skills. The interviewer should have good time management skills
to make sure he/she gives each interviewee enough time to respond to the interview questions
and also make sure he restrains himself/herself to the allocated time of the interview.
Good researching skills. The interviewer should have good researching skills and should
do some research about his/her interviewees to know them more before conducting the interview
(Haden, 2013).
Circumstances where a survey would be helpful to be used by a business analyst
Where the required data is not available but can be obtained through a survey (Anon.,
2017).

A survey would be useful where the available data is not enough to conduct the necessary
analysis.
Where the available data is not suitable or is unreliable for the necessary analysis, a
survey would be helpful.
The strengths and weaknesses of using surveys
The strengths
Surveys can be administered easily.
Surveys take less time as compared to some other methods like interviews.
They can be administered remotely using mobile devices, emails, telephone or other
methods.
The remotely conducted surveys help to avoid the geographical dependence problems.
They can be used to collect data from many respondents.
The weaknesses
The respondents can provide inaccurate information.

The respondents may feel uncomfortable with the surveys and refuse to provide the
necessary information.
The surveys with close-ended questions may limit the respondents from giving all the
necessary information.
Some survey questions may be interpreted wrongly by the respondents, and they end up
giving unclear responses (Wyse, 2012).
The suitability of online tools used to elicit the requirements from a large number of
people
The online tools used to elicit the requirements from a large group of people are very
suitable in the sense that they collect the information which is required to make the right
decisions. These tools are very efficient, and their costs are low which make them popular in
organizations or other groups which wish to collect some data from large groups of people.
How the online tools address the privacy concerns
To address the privacy of the data of people, it is good to explain to them the use of the
data being collected and seek their permission to collect the data. After collecting the data, it is
necessary to maintain the necessary privacy of the data by storing it securely and avoiding the
leakage of the data to the unauthorized people (Soni, 2015).

References
Anon., 2017. Survey methods (Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, Queensland
Treasury). [Online]
Available at: http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/about-statistics/survey-methods/
Haden, J., 2013. Harrisonburg, Virginia: s.n.
Soni, R., 2015. Privacy Concerns: 8 Best Practices in Online Data Collection. [Online]
Available at: https://blog.loginradius.com/2015/02/online-data-collection/
Survey Data Analysis, 2017. Strengths and Weaknesses of Survey Research | Survey Data
Analysis. [Online]
Available at: http://www.surveydataanalysis.net/strengths-and-weaknesses-of-survey-research/
Wyse, S. E., 2012. Snap Surveys, s.l.: s.n.