Information Gathering Techniques

Information Gathering Techniques

BSA/375

Information Gathering Techniques

Senior Employee Interview Questions

Which IT System(s) do you feel are the biggest opportunity for improvement? Select one or many.

Point of Sale

Inventory

Branch Manager Computer

Accounting

Other (please specify):

What is the largest pain point for the system you specified?

Which IT System(s) do you feel will be the largest factor in success of the campaign?

Point of sale

Inventory

Branch Manager Computer

Accounting

Other (please specify):

Are there any additional employee processes you believe can be replaced by an IT system to improve the success of the campaign? Explain.

Will your inventory system manage the additional flow of the desserts inventory?

Yes

No

Does your current inventory system send alerts when inventory levels are depleted for products?

Yes

No

Does your current system, when an order is placed, notify the cooks in the kitchen either by printout or monitor of the new order? If not, do you feel this would speed up delivery to customer?

Does your current POS have a way to track the time between order in and order out?

Yes

No

Will you need to provide additional training of employees for this campaign?

Yes

No

If so, do you plan to train them using an existing or new IT system? Explain.

Survey/ Questionnaire

Is your IT software system good to go for this marketing campaign?

Yes

No

Which portions of the IT systems are ‘most equipped’ for this campaign?

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Any detail you want to include (write inside this box)

Which portions of the IT systems are ‘least equipped’ for this campaign?

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Any detail you want to include (write inside this box)

Which module(s) of the IT systems will be the biggest bottleneck in operating this campaign?

Point of Sale

Inventory

Branch operation

Accounting

Other (write inside this box)

Which module(s) of the IT systems will be the most efficient in operating this campaign?

Point of Sale

Inventory

Branch operation

Accounting

Other (write inside this box)

What’s the duration of the IT systems breakdown on an average day?

5 min

more than 5 min but less than 10 min

more than 10 min but less than 30 min

more than 30 min

Other estimates (write in the box)

Select the most problematic area for ‘Point of Sale’

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Select the most problematic area for ‘Inventory’

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Select the most problematic area for ‘Branch operations’

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Select the most problematic area for ‘Accounting’

Hardware

Software

Network

Database and Data warehouse

Human Resource for Operating

Policy and procedures

Do you have adequate human resources and trained employees to operate the system while running the campaign?

Yes

No

What kind of training may be required to equip the employees to work effectively during the campaign?

Behavioral

Technical

No training is required

Do you need extra manpower during the campaign?

Yes

No

Executive Summary

Together our team has come up with a list of interview questions for senior restaurant employees as well as a survey/questionnaire for employees and managers. These questions were thought up to provide the best possible solution for the software needed to ensure food is served twenty minutes or less to patrons of the establishment.

As it pertains to the current marketing campaign initiative, we have developed a list of interview questions for senior employees who are familiar with current business processes. Leaving newer employees out of this interview process will ensure we are receiving solid input with good responses. The main goal of the first three questions is to get a better sense of what IT systems have room for the most improvement and which ones they feel are will be the pivotal to the success of the campaign. Additionally, they will be asked an open-ended question for the system(s) they feel would need the most improvement to get some more insight on why it needs improvement. Additionally, it asked of employees if they feel there are any other processes, they may feel could be replaced by an IT system. This might highlight certain areas where time could be saved to further make the goal attainable.

Questions will also be asked to the senior employees regarding the inventory. We would need to ask if the current system has the ability, in the event of the time not being met, to add the dessert to the order for free. Inventory would also need to be better tracked with the new system to ensure there would be no issues with customers ordering something that we do not have in inventory. With this, we need to figure out, from employees, if they currently have a system that ensures they have adequate inventory and if they are notified when levels are low.

Tracking order times could serve as useful so we would question employees to see if their current system has a way of tracking times between order in and out. Also, we would ask employees about their current order system and if it has the ability, when an order is taken, to send it to the kitchen with a printout or a digital screen so they can see it quickly. Since we would be adding an entirely revamped system we need to ask if employees would need additional training during and after the software launch.

Part of this process with the restaurant, we created a survey/questionnaire to be given to all employees and management. The idea behind this is to have them answer various questions about the business about the readiness of the current systems for the campaign. It is multiple choice close-ended questions that can be used to get the overall pulse of the readiness. We will ask questions relating to the current software and where the employees feel bottlenecks could be. Additionally, we will gather information on areas within the business such as inventory, point of sale, branch operations, and accounting as well as getting a feel on if additional man power will be needed during the campaign.

The entire goal of the interview process as well as the survey/questionnaire is to gather intelligence on the businesses current systems. It is used to determine what they feel needs improvement and what they see would help them meet the goal of 20 minutes or less from order entry to delivery to the table. Once completed we will take the results and compile into usable data that we can use to start the process of analysis to systems design.

References

Valacich, J. S., & George, J. F. (2019). Modern Systems Analysis and Design (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.