You are a member of the user interface team. You are responsible for designing and implementing forms collecting information about users of the system (e.g., first name, last name, address, E-mail address, level of expertise). The information you are collecting is stored in the database and used by the reporting subsystem. You are not sure which fields are required information and which are optional. How do you find out?

What will be an ideal response?

This is an open-ended question whose purpose is to have the student think of all the communication paths available.
The side effect of this question is that the student will also have to think about the information sources associated with
a project. A correct answer should contain at least two of the following points:
• The user interface team member should first check the requirements analysis document, described in Chapter 1.
• If the answer is not in the requirements analysis document, or if the answer is not clear, the document is
incomplete or does not exist yet, in which case the user interface team member should ask the responsible analyst
on the project. This is a request for change or a request for clarification.
• If the analyst does not have the answer, he or she should investigate with a potential user and possibly get
approval from the client. This is also a request for clarification.
• In all cases, the answer should eventually make its way into the requirements analysis document.