Study Guide
Module 2 – Project Evaluation
Survey Method
• The essence of survey method can be explained as “questioning individuals
on a topic or topics and then describing their responses”.
• In business studies survey method of primary data collection is used in
order to test concepts, reflect attitude of people, establish the level of
customer satisfaction, conduct segmentation research and a set of other
purposes.
• Survey method can be used in both, quantitative, as well
as, qualitative studies.
Advantages of Survey Method
• Surveys can be conducted faster and cheaper compared to other methods
of primary data collection such as observation and experiments.
• Primary data gathered through surveys are relatively easy to analyse
Disadvantages of Survey Method
• In some cases, unwillingness or inability of respondents to provide
information
• Human bias of respondents, i.e. respondents providing inaccurate
information
• Differences in understanding: it is difficult to formulate questions in such a
way that it will mean exactly same thing to each respondent
Categories of Survey Method
• Survey according to instrumentation
• The types of surveys according to instrumentation include the
questionnaire and the interview.
• Survey according to the span of time involved
• the types of surveys according to the span of time used to conduct
the survey are comprised of cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal
surveys.
Types of Survey Instrumentation
• Questionnaires
• a questionnaire is a paper-and-pencil instrument that is administered
to the respondents. The usual questions found in questionnaires are
closed-ended questions, which are followed by response options.
• Advantages: Ideal for asking closed-ended questions; effective for
market or consumer research
• Disadvantages: Limit the researcher’s understanding of the
respondent’s answers; requires budget for reproduction of survey
questionnaires
• Interviews
• are more personal and probing.
• An interview includes two persons - the researcher as the
interviewer, and the respondent as the interviewee.
• survey methods that utilize interviews.
• personal or face-to-face interview,
• the phone interview,
• the online interview
• Advantages: Follow-up questions can be asked; provide better
understanding of the answers of the respondents
• Disadvantages: Time-consuming; many target respondents have no
public-listed phone numbers or no telephones at all
Sampling
• is the process of selecting units (e.g., people, organizations) from a
population of interest.
• is a statistical procedure that is concerned with the selection of the
individual observation; it helps us to make statistical inferences about the
population.
Random Sampling
• In data collection, every individual observation has equal probability to be
selected into a sample. In random sampling, there should be no pattern
when drawing a sample.
• Significance: Significance is the percent of chance that a relationship
may be found in sample data due to luck. Researchers often use the
0.05% significance level.
Types of Sampling
• Random Sampling and Non-random Sampling
• Probability and non-probability sampling
Types of Random Sampling
• Simple random sampling
• By using the random number generator technique, the researcher
draws a sample from the population
• Equal probability systematic sampling
• a researcher starts from a random point and selects every nth
subject in the sampling frame.
• Stratified simple random sampling
• a proportion from strata of the population is selected using simple
random sampling.
• Multistage stratified random sampling
• a proportion of strata is selected from a homogeneous group using
simple random sampling.
• Cluster sampling
• occurs when a random sample is drawn from certain aggregational
geographical groups.
• Multistage cluster sampling
• occurs when a researcher draws a random sample from the smaller
unit of an aggregational group.
Types of Non-random Sampling
• Availability sampling
• occurs when the researcher selects the sample based on the
availability of a sample.
• Quota sampling
• This method is similar to the availability sampling method, but with
the constraint that the sample is drawn proportionally by strata.
• Expert sampling
• This method is also known as judgment sampling. In this method, a
researcher collects the samples by taking interviews from a panel of
individuals known to be experts in a field.
Probability and Non-probability Sampling
• Probability sampling is the sampling technique in which every individual
unit of the population has greater than zero probability of getting selected
into a sample.
• Non-probability sampling is the sampling technique in which some
elements of the population have no probability of getting selected into a
sample.
Sampling Size
• is the number of completed responses your survey receives. It’s called a
sample because it only represents part of the group of people (or target
population) whose opinions or behavior you care about.
Understanding Sample Size
• Population size
• The total number of people in the group you are trying to study.
• Margin of error
• A percentage that tells you how much you can expect your survey
results to reflect the views of the overall population.
• Sampling confidence level
• A percentage that reveals how confident you can be that the
population would select an answer within a certain range.
FURPS
• is a checklist for requirements, which help maintain a Software Quality
Standard. It compromises of :
• Functional (features, capabilities, security)
• Usability (human factors, help, documentation)
• Reliability (frequency of failure, recoverability, predictability)
• Performance (response time, throughput, accuracy, availability,
resource usage)
• Supportability (adaptability, maintainability, internationalization,
configurability)
