With your group members, role-play a series of interviews with various system users at Maverick Transport. Each member of your group should choose one of the following roles: company president, information technology director, dispatcher, customer service agent, or truck driver. Those group members playing roles of Maverick Transport employees should attempt to briefly describe their job responsibilities, goals, and informational needs.
Remaining group members should play the roles of systems analysts and devise interview questions for each employee. If there are enough people in your group, each analyst may be assigned to interview a different employee. Those playing the roles of systems analysts should work together to develop common questions that they will ask, as well as questions tailored to each individual employee. Be sure to include open-ended, closed, and probing questions in your interviews.
Maverick Transport is attempting to change from outdated and unreliable technology to more state-of-the-art, dependable technology. The company is seeking to move from dumb terminals attached to a mainframe because it wants to use PCs in some way, and is also interested in investigating a satellite system for tracking freight and drivers. In addition, the company is interested in pursuing ways to cut down on the immense storage requirements and difficult access of the troublesome handwritten, multipart forms that accompany each shipment.