INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS REPORT

Student Attendance Management System (SAMS)

Course: System Analysis and Design

Project Type: Web-Based Information System

Prepared By: [Student Name]

Student ID: [Student ID]

Department: Computer Science and Engineering

Submitted To: [Teacher's Name]

Institution: [University Name]

Submission Date: [Date]

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

Attendance management is an important administrative activity in educational institutions. Teachers must record student attendance, maintain historical records, calculate attendance percentages, and prepare reports for academic purposes.

In a manual attendance system, teachers may use paper sheets or spreadsheets. These methods can make record retrieval difficult, require repetitive calculations, and create opportunities for data-entry errors.

The proposed Student Attendance Management System (SAMS) is a web-based application intended to centralize attendance records and simplify attendance-related activities.

1.2 Purpose of the Report

This report aims to:

Identify the stakeholders of the proposed SAMS project.
Analyze their roles, interests, and information needs.
Prepare interview questions for the major stakeholder groups.
Present an illustrative interview report and potential findings.
Convert potential findings into proposed system requirements.
Develop a plan for validating findings with stakeholders.

1.3 Project Objectives

Maintain student, teacher, course, and section information.
Allow authorized teachers to record student attendance.
Calculate attendance percentages automatically.
Generate student-wise and course-wise attendance reports.
Control access to attendance records.
Support authorized attendance corrections.
Maintain a history of significant changes.

2. Project Overview

2.1 Project Name

Student Attendance Management System (SAMS).

2.2 Proposed System

SAMS will be a web-based application that allows authorized users to manage student attendance through a centralized database.

The proposed technology stack is Java Server Pages (JSP), Java, JDBC, and Oracle Database. These are preliminary technology choices and may be revised after technical feasibility analysis.

2.3 Project Scope

Included features:

User login and role-based access.
Student and course information management.
Section and teacher-course assignment management.
Attendance recording.
Attendance percentage calculation.
Attendance report generation.
Authorized attendance correction.
Audit history for significant changes.

Excluded from the initial version:

Facial recognition.
Biometric attendance devices.
GPS-based attendance.
Online tuition fee payment.
Integration with external ERP systems.

These features may be considered in a future version.

3. Stakeholder Identification

A stakeholder is any person or group that uses, manages, approves, supports, or is affected by the proposed system.

Stakeholder	Role	Main Interest
Teachers	Record attendance and review reports.	Fast and accurate attendance entry.
Students	View their own attendance, if enabled.	Access to accurate attendance information.
Academic Administrator	Maintain academic records and course assignments.	Consistent and organized records.
Department Management	Review authorized attendance summaries.	Reliable information for academic decisions.
System Administrator	Manage accounts and system permissions.	Secure and controlled access.
IT Support Staff	Maintain the application and database.	System reliability and recoverability.

3.1 Primary Stakeholders

Teachers and academic administrators are primary stakeholders because they directly interact with the attendance process and its supporting records.

3.2 Secondary Stakeholders

Students, department management, and IT support staff are secondary stakeholders. Their needs influence reporting, privacy, security, and maintenance.

3.3 Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder	Power / Influence	Interest	Engagement Strategy
Teachers	High	High	Interviews, workflow observation, prototype review.
Academic Administrator	High	High	Detailed interviews and policy validation.
Students	Low to Medium	High	Questionnaires and usability feedback.
Department Management	High	Medium to High	Requirements review and approval.
System Administrator	High	High	Security and account-management discussions.
IT Support Staff	Medium to High	High	Technical feasibility and maintenance review.

The influence levels are preliminary estimates for this example project. They should be reviewed according to the actual institution and its decision-making structure.

4. Interview Plan

4.1 Interview Objectives

The interviews will investigate:

The current attendance-recording process.
Problems with the existing method.
Required information and reports.
Rules for correcting attendance.
User roles and access permissions.
Security, reliability, and usability expectations.
Constraints affecting implementation.

4.2 Proposed Interview Participants

Interview Code	Participant	Proposed Duration	Purpose
INT-01	Course Teacher	20–30 minutes	Understand attendance recording and reporting.
INT-02	Academic Administrator	20–30 minutes	Understand academic records and approval procedures.
INT-03	Student Representative	15–20 minutes	Identify student information needs.
INT-04	System Administrator / IT Staff	20–30 minutes	Identify security and technical requirements.
INT-05	Department Management Representative	15–20 minutes	Understand reporting and oversight needs.

These are proposed interviews, not evidence that the participants have already been interviewed. Actual participants and durations should be documented after the interviews take place.

5. Interview Questions for Teachers

Interview Code: INT-01

Objective: Understand how teachers record attendance and prepare reports.

How do you currently record student attendance?
How do you obtain the enrolled student list for each course and section?
What information do you record during each class session?
How do you distinguish present, absent, late, or other attendance statuses?
How do you calculate attendance percentages?
What difficulties do you experience when recording attendance?
How much time does attendance recording usually take for one class?
How do you retrieve attendance records from previous classes?
How do you correct an attendance entry if a mistake is discovered?
Who should be permitted to approve or perform attendance corrections?
What types of attendance reports do you need?
Should the system allow report filtering by student, course, section, and date?
What should happen if the database or network becomes unavailable while attendance is being saved?
What features would make the system easier to use?
What additional requirements should the analyst consider?

Expected output: A documented teacher workflow, attendance-entry requirements, reporting requirements, and correction procedures.

6. Interview Questions for Academic Administrators

Interview Code: INT-02

Objective: Understand how academic records and attendance-related policies are managed.

How are student records currently maintained?
How are courses, sections, and course offerings defined?
How are teachers assigned to courses and sections?
How does the department obtain the official enrolment list?
How are changes to student registration handled?
What attendance reports are required by the department?
What attendance calculation rules must the system follow?
Are there institutional rules for excused absences or cancelled classes?
Who can authorize attendance corrections?
How should correction requests be documented?
What information must be included in an official attendance report?
Should reports be exportable to CSV, Excel-compatible formats, or PDF?
What records should be retained for historical reference?
Which users should be permitted to view or modify academic information?
What approval process should be followed before the system is deployed?

Expected output: Academic data requirements, business rules, report formats, access policies, and approval procedures.

7. Interview Questions for Students

Interview Code: INT-03

Objective: Identify student needs regarding attendance information.

How do you currently check your attendance?
How frequently do you need to check attendance information?
What attendance information would be most useful to you?
Would you prefer to see attendance by course or as an overall summary?
Should the system display the total number of classes conducted?
Should students be able to view individual present and absent records?
How should a student report a suspected attendance error?
Would notifications about attendance changes be useful?
What devices would you normally use to access the system?
What difficulties might you face while using an online attendance portal?
What security or privacy concerns would you have?
What improvements would you suggest?

Expected output: Student portal requirements, usability expectations, and a proposed process for reporting attendance discrepancies.

8. Interview Questions for IT Support Staff

Interview Code: INT-04

Objective: Identify technical, security, deployment, and maintenance requirements.

What server and database infrastructure is currently available?
Can the proposed application be hosted on the institution's existing infrastructure?
What authentication and authorization mechanisms are required?
How should passwords and sensitive information be protected?
What backup frequency is appropriate?
How will database restoration be tested?
What monitoring and error-logging facilities are needed?
What level of concurrent usage should the system support?
Which browsers and devices should be supported?
What are the expected availability requirements?
How should software updates be deployed?
Who will be responsible for ongoing maintenance?
What security risks should be addressed before deployment?
What technical training will users and administrators require?
What infrastructure limitations may affect the project?

Expected output: Technical feasibility information, security requirements, deployment constraints, and maintenance requirements.

9. Interview Questions for Department Management

Interview Code: INT-05

Objective: Identify management expectations and reporting requirements.

What decisions should attendance reports support?
Which attendance summaries are required for departmental review?
How frequently should these reports be generated?
Who should have access to summary and individual-level reports?
What institutional policies must the system follow?
How should attendance disputes be handled?
Which system features are essential for the first release?
What are the major project constraints?
What criteria will be used to evaluate project success?
Who will approve the final requirements and authorize deployment?

Expected output: Management reporting needs, priorities, governance requirements, and acceptance criteria.

10. Illustrative Interview Report

Important: The following is a sample report showing how interview results could be documented. The findings are illustrative and must not be presented as actual interview results unless they have been confirmed through real interviews.

10.1 Sample Interview Summary

Interviewee Role	Illustrative Finding	Potential Requirement
Teacher	Preparing attendance summaries may require repetitive manual work.	Generate attendance reports automatically.
Teacher	Finding old records may be difficult when records are kept separately.	Provide searchable attendance history.
Academic Administrator	Course and student lists must be consistent.	Maintain structured student and course records.
Student Representative	Students may want to check attendance without repeatedly contacting teachers.	Provide a personal attendance view, if approved.
IT Support Staff	Access to attendance records should depend on user responsibilities.	Implement role-based access control.
Department Management	Reports should be available for authorized academic review.	Provide controlled summary reports.

10.2 Sample Interview Notes: Course Teacher

Interview Code: INT-01

Topic: Attendance Recording Process

Status: Illustrative example only

Question: How is attendance currently recorded?

Illustrative response: Attendance may be recorded using paper sheets or spreadsheets, depending on the current departmental process.

Analyst's interpretation: The system should support structured digital attendance entry.

Proposed requirement: The system shall allow an authorized teacher to record attendance for a selected course, section, and class session.

Question: How are attendance percentages calculated?

Illustrative response: The teacher may calculate percentages manually or use spreadsheet formulas.

Analyst's interpretation: The calculation process should be consistent and follow approved institutional rules.

Proposed requirement: The system shall calculate attendance percentages using the approved attendance calculation policy.

Question: How should attendance mistakes be corrected?

Illustrative response: A correction procedure may be required to prevent unauthorized changes.

Analyst's interpretation: Corrections should be permission-controlled and traceable.

Proposed requirement: The system shall record authorized attendance corrections with the responsible user's identity, timestamp, and relevant change details.

10.3 Sample Interview Notes: Academic Administrator

Interview Code: INT-02

Topic: Academic Data and Reports

Status: Illustrative example only

Question: What information is needed to maintain course and section records?

Illustrative response: The system may need course codes, course titles, academic terms, sections, assigned teachers, and enrolled students.

Analyst's interpretation: The database should represent courses, course offerings, sections, teachers, and students using appropriate relationships.

Proposed requirement: The system shall maintain course-offering and enrolment information so attendance can be linked to the correct academic context.

Question: Which reports are needed?

Illustrative response: The department may require student-wise, course-wise, section-wise, and date-range reports.

Analyst's interpretation: Reports should support the required filters and access restrictions.

Proposed requirement: The system shall generate attendance reports using approved filters and user permissions.

11. Analysis of Interview Findings

Issue Identified	Analysis	Proposed Action
Manual attendance processing	May create repetitive work and calculation errors.	Develop a digital attendance-entry module.
Separate attendance records	May make retrieval and consolidation difficult.	Use a centralized database.
Inconsistent correction practices	May affect data reliability.	Define a correction workflow and audit trail.
Difficulty obtaining reports	May delay academic review.	Provide searchable, filterable reports.
Different user responsibilities	Users need different access levels.	Define roles and permissions.
Unclear attendance policies	System calculations may not match institutional rules.	Obtain formal policy clarification before implementation.

These issues should be confirmed through interviews, observation, document analysis, or other appropriate fact-finding methods before they are treated as established facts.

12. Proposed System Requirements

12.1 Functional Requirements

ID	Requirement
FR-01	The system shall allow registered users to log in using valid credentials.
FR-02	The system shall allow authorized administrators to create, update, and retrieve student records.
FR-03	The system shall maintain course offerings, sections, teacher assignments, and enrolment information.
FR-04	The system shall allow authorized teachers to record attendance for a selected class session.
FR-05	The system shall calculate attendance percentages according to the approved institutional policy.
FR-06	The system shall generate attendance reports by student, course, section, and date range.
FR-07	The system shall allow authorized users to correct attendance records according to the approved procedure.
FR-08	The system shall maintain a history of significant attendance changes, including the responsible user and timestamp.
FR-09	If approved, the system shall allow each student to view their own attendance information.
FR-10	The system shall restrict operations and reports according to user permissions.

12.2 Non-Functional Requirements

ID	Category	Requirement
NFR-01	Security	Protected functions shall require authentication and appropriate authorization.
NFR-02	Usability	The attendance-entry interface shall be understandable and efficient for trained teachers.
NFR-03	Reliability	The system shall provide clear feedback when an attendance operation fails and shall not report success unless the data has been saved.
NFR-04	Maintainability	The application shall separate presentation, application logic, and database operations.
NFR-05	Backup and Recovery	The database shall be backed up according to an approved schedule, and restoration shall be tested periodically.

These are proposed requirements. Specific performance targets and institutional rules must be validated before approval.

13. Stakeholder Validation Plan

After the interviews, the analyst should share the findings and proposed requirements with the relevant stakeholders.

Validation Activity	Responsible Participants	Expected Outcome
Review attendance workflow	Teachers	Confirm or correct the documented process.
Validate academic data	Academic Administrator	Confirm required fields and relationships.
Review student access	Student Representative and Management	Decide whether a student portal is required.
Review security requirements	IT Support Staff and System Administrator	Confirm access and protection requirements.
Review reports	Teachers and Department Management	Approve report contents and filters.
Approve business rules	Authorized institutional representatives	Confirm attendance calculation and correction policies.
Final requirements review	Project Supervisor and stakeholders	Identify approved requirements and unresolved issues.

Requirements should be updated when stakeholders identify missing, conflicting, or incorrect information.

14. Ethical and Professional Considerations

During fact-finding, the system analyst should:

Explain the purpose of each interview.
Obtain appropriate permission before collecting information.
Respect participant confidentiality.
Avoid collecting unnecessary personal information.
Record responses accurately without changing their intended meaning.
Separate actual findings from assumptions and recommendations.
Avoid presenting illustrative responses as real interview evidence.
Confirm important business rules with authorized stakeholders.

15. Conclusion

This report identifies the major stakeholders of the proposed Student Attendance Management System and provides structured interview questions for teachers, students, academic administrators, IT support staff, and department management.

The stakeholder analysis helps the system analyst understand different expectations and responsibilities. The interview plan supports systematic information collection, while the illustrative interview report demonstrates how responses can be analyzed and converted into proposed system requirements.

The next step is to conduct the interviews, document actual findings, validate the requirements, and use the approved requirements to guide system design and implementation.

16. References

Dennis, A., Wixom, B. H., and Tegarden, D. Systems Analysis and Design: An Object-Oriented Approach with UML. Wiley.
Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B., and Burd, S. D. Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World. Cengage Learning.
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148. Systems and Software Engineering — Life Cycle Processes — Requirements Engineering. Consult the applicable edition for requirements engineering guidance.
Oracle. Oracle Database Documentation. https://docs.oracle.com/

17. Submission Checklist

Replace the cover-page placeholders.
Conduct interviews if the assignment requires primary research.
Replace illustrative responses with actual, accurately documented findings.
Include interview dates and participant roles where permission allows.
Confirm institutional attendance policies and report requirements.
Review and approve the final requirements with the relevant stakeholders.

Academic integrity note: Sample answers and findings in this report are illustrative. Do not represent them as actual interview evidence unless you have collected and verified the information.

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