An interview is a planned conversation for discovering what a database must support. It is the most important task in requirement gathering because people reveal their goals, workflows, data, and reporting needs. section 3.15 section 3.16
Use this practical sequence when preparing and conducting interviews:
- Group interviewees as stakeholders, subject-matter experts (SMEs), and IT or technical staff. section 3.15
- Prepare questions for each group: goals and features for stakeholders; current data practices and workflows for SMEs; storage, retrieval, reports, and calculations for technical staff. section 3.15
- During and after the conversations, record subjects, characteristics, and relationships. Subjects are people, places, things, or events; characteristics are their features. section 3.15 section 3.16
- When interviews alone are not enough, ask an SME to demonstrate the process step by step and provide data samples for checking attributes and data types. section 3.14
Replacing an inventory spreadsheet
For The Sci-Fi Collective, interview more than the purchasing manager. Ask the purchasing team to walk through ordering a product, entering a new product, and updating or removing inventory records. The walkthrough exposes the real process, while sample records help verify the future database's attributes and data types. section 3.14
