Another key tool in our qualitative investigation technique toolkit is observation. Watching people carrying out tasks rather than just asking about them is a very useful way of getting information about the work practices and environment.

It allows us to get a feel for the situation, and a better understanding of problems and difficulties faced by business users. While stakeholders are willing and able to share with us lots of facts, figures, and maybe some of the issues, a lot of knowledge is taken for granted and they miss articulating this.

To avoid any issues, we must first get agreement from the organisation and those people we want to observe.

Being aware that self-consciousness might influence how people work, we emphasize to them that the observation is not a performance assessment, it's only to gain an understanding of the business processes, and we encourage people to work as they would normally.

Through formal observation, we watch people performing various tasks. In this case, registering a customer, collecting customer details, and managing driver bookings. We take notes, and we're careful not to interfere with anything.

We might also invite a staff member to carry out a specific task, such as customer background verification or vehicle maintenance checks, asking them to describe each step as they perform it.

This technique, called protocol analysis, helps uncover tacit knowledge in relation to that specific task, knowledge that is important but not verbally expressed.

We can also reach out to some of the key staff to arrange some time to shadow them as they go about their work, either in person or online. This is another powerful way to elicit tacit knowledge and capture additional details about what the role entails.

What are observational techniques?

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