Dialogue Identification

The identification of dialogues is part of the wider technique of dialogue design - obviously you have to identify them before you can design them. However, with a supplier involved, they'll be responsible for the design aspects, eliciting required interaction from the users and doing design either in JAD / RAD / Prototyping workshops or by using some other approach.

You won't be looking to identify every single dialogue needed, just the critical ones. What makes one "critical" in the users' eyes can be down to many criteria. Characteristics to look out for are most used functions, function subject to seasonal peaks, shared between many user roles, large amounts of data, access many entities.

One of the matrices developed and built on during the project is the user role matrix. As function definition progresses, you will be able to build a user role / function matrix. Users representing each role will confirm the access to the functions they need, possibly identifying ones they don't need after all.

Each intersection identifies where a dialogue is needed, so you should have a starting point for identifying the critical ones. The I/O descriptions and volumetrics in the DFM should by now be in the Function Definitions and will help inform the selection of critical functions.

It's now over to the supplier to continue into dialogue design.