Interviewing for info. gathering

Subject: Interviewing for info. gathering
From: Carl Stieren <ag231 -at- FREENET -dot- CARLETON -dot- CA>
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 07:19:42 -0400

LaVonna Funkhouser's query made me jot down a few techniques
I use when interviewing SMEs (in our case, program developers
within our own software firm):
1. List the subject and the documentation modules into which you
think you will include the information.
2. List the knowledge level of the user for whom you are writing,
and sketch out some terms she/he will know (maybe list also what
the quebecois call an "anti-dictionnaire" of words you will
definitely NOT use).
3. List a ballpark figure of how many pages or frames you THINK
you will need in finished documentation.

At the interview itself
1. Let the SME start with the medium they feel comfortable with
(If it's whiteboards, bring lots of paper and start sketching
when they write). End the questionning on each topic in the
medium YOU need (words of an ordinary computer user, for example).
2. Let the SME start in the language in which they feel comfortable,
and make sure you understand and are able to map all concepts
they use to the user's level. If not, ask the SME ("Say, how do
I explain 'object class' and 'inherited properties' to users who
are NOT programmers?"). Again, bring the SME back down to the
language level YOU need.
3. Note any concepts the SME throws around that YOU don't understand
and interrupt with ("Say, I really don't understand the term MDI -
what does it mean? What would an average Windows 3.1 user call it
if they weren't a programmer?").
4. Above all, get on the same wavelength as the SME (At a smaller
company, you get to know which SMEs like Star Trek and which don't,
what makes them laugh, how to know when they've had a Bad Code Day
and thus when to reschedule an interview).

The list is far from complete. Anyone, please add/amend!

--
When peace that passes understanding : Carl Stieren
reigns on earth and on the sea, : Simware / Ottwawa, Canada
will lions bow to lambs' commanding : ag231 -at- freenet -dot- carleton -dot- ca
the pounding tide will cease to be." - Goethe, Novelle


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