The four research methods
Analysis is the first stage of the systems life cycle: the analyst researches the current system before a new one is designed. Four methods: observation (watch staff at work; also lets tasks be timed), interview (face-to-face questioning, one at a time; results depend on the interviewer's skill), questionnaire (fixed written questions for many) and examination of existing documents. Combine several — each one's weakness is covered by another's strength.
Inputs, outputs, processing, problems
Record what the current system takes in (inputs — the fields on an order form, details typed at a counter), what it produces (outputs — a printed invoice, a stock report) and what it does in between (processing — calculating a total, checking stock, sorting records). Then name the specific problems those three reveal. Together they are the evidence that a new system is needed, and they feed directly into the system specification.
The system specification
The document analysis produces. It states user requirements (tasks the new system must let people carry out) and information requirements (the data or information it must output) — two different things — and it identifies and justifies suitable hardware and software against them. Justifying means naming the item, linking it to a stated requirement, and giving the reason that requirement needs it.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Interview ≠ communication or dialogue
Asked to name or use interview, candidates instead write "communication", "conversation" or "dialogue". Those describe talking in general, not the structured face-to-face question-and-answer session the syllabus names, so they do not identify the method and score nothing. Use the exact term interview.
w23 P13 Q10
"A survey" is not a questionnaire
"Survey" is regularly offered in place of questionnaire and is marked too vague — a survey can mean any kind of investigation, including a round of interviews. The named method is a questionnaire: a written, fixed set of questions distributed to many people to fill in, usually without the analyst present.
w23 P13 Q10
Observation and the Hawthorne effect
Staff who know they are being watched work more carefully or more quickly than usual, so the analyst sees a tidied-up workflow and misses the everyday problems. Examiners report this disadvantage is poorly understood. "People might not like being watched" is not the answer — the marks are for the changed behaviour hiding how the job is really done.
s22 P12 Q12
Reading documents is a real method
Examining the paperwork already used by the current system — forms, reports, manuals, invoices — is one of the four methods, and examiners find it the least well understood. It shows the exact data items and layouts in use. Its drawback: documents can be out of date, and never show problems that only appear once the system is in use.
s22 P12 Q12
"It is slow" is not a problem
A problem with the current system must be specific to that system's inputs, outputs or processing. "The system is old", "it is slow" or "it is old-fashioned" name no weakness and score nothing. Write what actually goes wrong — "the same customer details are typed into three separate forms" — and then what that causes.
User ≠ information requirements
A user requirement is a task the new system must let a person carry out ("staff must be able to search for a customer by surname"). An information requirement is what the system must produce as output ("a monthly sales-by-region report"). Giving two of the same kind, or treating them as one thing, covers only half the specification.
Naming hardware is not justifying it
"The new system needs a server", or "a database", is a bare assertion. Justification marks need the full chain: name the hardware or software, tie it to a specific stated requirement, then say why that requirement demands it — a networked server because several tills must update the same stock data at the same time.
Say which system you mean
Requirements questions ask about the new system, but candidates describe the current one, or blend the two without saying which. Label every point explicitly: "the new system must…".
Explain and justify need a "because"
A bare statement is half an answer. Start the second half of every explain, describe or justify response with "because…", and point it at the scenario given in the stem rather than at general knowledge about computers.
Compare feature by feature
A compare question wants matched points — the same feature on both sides. Reach: a questionnaire covers 200 staff quickly, whereas an interview reaches one person at a time. Two separate lists of advantages is not a comparison and caps the marks.
Over-revise analysis: it is set often
Examiners record research-method answers as surprisingly weak given how frequently this topic is set on Paper 1. It is a short, reliably examined, fully learnable four-item list, so learning the exact names plus one advantage and one drawback of each repays the effort.
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