Problem definition
What is it?
This is where you find out what problems/issues your user has and decide on which ones you are going to try and fix. It is NOT how you are going to fix the problem.
What you need to include
- An overview of who your user is.
- What sector do they work in?
- How many people work for them?
- What is their current ICT infrastructure?
- What is their level of competence in ICT?
- The origins of data or where does information come from? It could be from emails, phone, face to face, scanning or even MICR or OCR.
- Where does the data come from?
- How is it CURRENTLY stored?
- Is it backed up?
- The problems the user currently is facing. This should be focused on the area you are looking at creating a system for. There is no point writing about all of the financial issues if you are going to be focusing on marketing!
- What are the main problems?
- How do they affect the business?
- Does it cost time / customers or is it a limitation to expansion?
- What happens next? You must state how you are going to proceed. This tends to be a interview with the main user but could be any combination of fact finding.
Mark descriptions
3 marks |
Excellent description with all elements present. |
2 marks |
Some description of both the stages of study and end user involved. |
1 mark |
Vague description of the end user or area for development. |
Top mark boundary
- There will be no confusion over what the business does or how the business works.
- Technical terms used by the business will be explained or will be included in a glossary.
- Clear description of problems which are not vague or generic. Every problem must be specific to the company.
- Clear origins of data specifying exactly where the data came from and how it is used.
- Clear statement of how analysis will be conducted.
Middle mark boundary
Will contain MOST of the following-
- Clear description of business and how it works.
- Technical terms used by but not always explained.
- Problems are specified but may not be detailed or specific.
- Clear origins of data specifying exactly where the data came from and how it is used.
- Clear statement of how analysis will be conducted.
Low mark boundary
Will include a brief description of some of the following –
- Description of business and how it works.
- Problems are specified but may not be detailed or specific.
- Statement of how analysis will be conducted.
Top tips
It is critical that, at this stage, you fully understand how the business works. If you take your time to understand this then the rest of the project becomes MUCH easier.
You should aim to get 2-3 marks on this section as it is a good indication on how well you understand the whole problem. Projects which get less than 2 tend to be poorly defined and poorly understood.