Focus Group

Focus Groups

http://www.ejeisa.com/nectar/respect/3.2/index.htm#2.07

Primary Reference Sources

Blomberg, J., Giacomi, J., Mosher, A. & Swenton-Hall, P. (1993) Ethnographic field methods and their relation to design. In: Schuler, D. & Namioka, A. (eds.) Participatory Design: Principles & Practices. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Caplan, S (1990) Using Focus Group methodology for ergonomic design. Ergonomics, 33.5, 527-537.

Summary description

A focus group brings together a cross-section of stakeholders in an informal discussion group format. Views are elicited by a facilitator on relevant topics. Meetings can be taped for later analysis.

Typical Application Areas

Useful early in requirements specification. Helps to identify issues which may need to be tackled and provides a multi-faceted perspective on them.

Benefits

Allows the analyst to rapidly obtain a wide variety of views from a range of people with widely differing but relevant perspectives.

Limitations

Social factors such as peer pressure may lead to inaccurate reports. Techniques such as Delphi groups can be used to compensate for this.

Cost of use

Meeting facilities and A/V recording facilities if a video record is desirable.

Costs of Acquisition

Facilitators require training in order to keep meetings focused.

Suitability for requirements engineering in Telematics:

Useful, in that focus groups can be applied to a wide range of situations. However, the role of the facilitator is relatively constrained in this kind of technique and more interactive techniques are available.

How to get it

Widely practised. There are a few simple ground rules that the facilitators must adhere to (see below).

Detailed description of method

The facilitator is selected from technical personnel who have a stake in the successful development of the product. A range of issues to be addressed is drawn up. A group of between 6 - 8 representative users is invited to attend. Each focus group meeting should last between 45 and 60 minutes. If the product exists in a demonstrable version, the users should be given a chance to experience it before the meeting.

The facilitator introduces the issues to be discussed, and clarifies his role as an observer and facilitator of free discussion between the users. He may attempt to `draw out' users who say little, and to suggest that users move to another topic. However he should not intervene directly in the discussion, should not attempt to `explain' issues which have arisen, and should certainly not be seen in an evaluative role. He should stress that his primary role is `to listen'.

It is common to tape-record the meeting, but an experienced facilitator should be able to reconstruct a meeting of this length from memory with a few

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