Requirement Elicitation

In this advanced business analysis training session, you will learn Requirement Elicitation. Topics covered in this session are:
• What is Elicitation?
• The elicitation methodology
• The stakeholder connection
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Brainstorming
• One-to-One Interview
• Group Interview
• Document Analysis
• Focus Group
• Interface Analysis
• Observation/Social Analysis
• Prototyping
• Use case and scenarios
• Requirements reuse
• Pre-Project Activity
• Request for Proposal
For more information, click here: https://www.mindsmapped.com/courses/business-analysis/advanced-business-analyst-training/

1. Advanced Business Analysis Training
Requirement Elicitation

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Agenda
•What is Elicitation?
•The elicitation methodology
•The stakeholder connection
•Stakeholder Analysis
•Brainstorming
•One-to-One Interview
•Group Interview
•Document Analysis
•Focus Group
•Interface Analysis
•Observation/Social Analysis
•Prototyping
•Use case and scenarios
•Requirements reuse
•Pre-Project Activity
•Request for Proposal

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Some basic points
•Elicitation is not acquisition
•Requirements are not available like sensor data Not
just read them systematically!!
•Elicitation is not specification and modeling

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What is Elicitation?
•Process of identifying needs
•Front End to systems development
•Involves social, communicative issues and Technical
issues
•It helps to express the requirements systematically

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A common problem
What is your need?
I need a systemthat
works OK
Robust andrespond
to mywishes

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As a problem in social life
AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING !!

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Elicitation: a subset of goals
•Identify the relevant parties . The stakeholders
•Gather the Wish List for each stakeholder
•Document and refine the Wish list
•Expected properties
•Unambiguous
•Complete
•Verifiable
•Consistent
•Modifiable
•Traceable

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Common generic problems
•Scope : too much or too little
•Understandings : Users and developers
•Users have an incomplete understanding of their
needs
•Analysts and SE have a poor knowledge of problem
domain

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The scope problem
•Establish a boundary conditions for the target system

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•56 % of errors were due to poor
communication between user andanalyst
•Such errors cost 82% of the available stafftime
•Three mainissues
•people involved comes from different
backgrounds
•Language used may be too informal or too
formal
•A large amount of information to be
communicated are not reallystructured

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The elicitation methodology
Factfindings
ReqGathering
Evaluation
Prioritisation
Integration
andValidation

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The stakeholder connection
•Involves technical staff working with customers to
find out about the application domain, theservices
that the system should provide and the system’s
operationalconstraints
•May involve end-users, managers, engineers
involved in maintenance, domain experts,trade
unions, etc. These are calledstakeholders

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Specific Elicitation Techniques
StakeholderAnalysis
Brainstorming
OneOnOneInterview
Group Interview
Document Analysis
FocusGroup
Interface Analysis
Observation SocialAnalysis
Prototyping
StakeholderAnalysis
Brainstorming
OneOnOneInterview
Group Interview
Document Analysis
FocusGroup
Interface Analysis
Observation SocialAnalysis
Prototyping
Facilitated sessions
Joint Application Development (JAD)
Questionnaire
Survey
Use cases and scenarios (UCD)
Reused Requirements
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Reverse Engineering

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Stakeholder Analysis
impactedbythe
system.
Stakeholder analysis identifies
all users and stakeholders who
may influence or be
impacted by the system. This
helps ensure that the needs
of all those involved are taken
into account
Benefits
1.Ensures thatall relevant
stakeholders areconsidered
2.All important stakeholders
arecaptured, and yet that
irrelevant actors are not
included
Drawbacks
There is a danger that toomuch
time is spent on
identifying rolesand
relationships,andtheteamis
swamped withdata.

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Brainstorming
BasicRules
1.Start out by clearly
statingtheobjective
of the
brainstorming
session.
2.Generateasmayideas
as
possible.
3.Let your
imagination soar.
4.Donotallowcriticism
or debate while you
are gathering
information.
5.Once information is
gathered, reshape
and combineideas.
It is utilized in requirements elicitation to
gather good number of ideas from a
group of people. Usually brainstorming is
used in identifying all possible solutions
to problems and simplifies the detail of
opportunities. It casts a broad net,
determining various discreet possibilities.

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Brainstorming

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One-to-One Interview
Themostcommon
techniquefor gathering
requirements is to sit
down with the clients and
ask them what they
need. The discussion
should be planned out
ahead of time based on
the type of requirements
you’re lookingfor
•Privacy ofeveryone
•in-depth astakeholder’s
thoughts and get his or
herperspective
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•TimeConsuming
•Misunderstandings

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Group Interview
If there are more then
one person during
interview usually 2 or 4
these people must be on
somelevelmustbeon
somelevel less time
required
•wecangethiddenrequirements
•uncover a richer set of
requirementsinashorterperiod
of time
•Uncoverambiguities
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•Not relaxedenvironment
•Conflicts
•Theallottedtimehavebeen
exhausted

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Document Analysis
Document Analysis is an
important gathering
technique. Evaluatingthe
documentationofa
present system can assist
when making AS-IS
process documents and
also when driving the gap
analysis for scoping of the
migrationprojects.
•validating therequirement
completeness.
•Chunksofinformationaremostly
buried in presentdocuments
•A beginning point fordocumenting
all currentrequirements.
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•TimeConsuming
•Conflicts
•Exhausted
•Not Found RealFigures

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Focus Group
A focus group is actually gathering of
people who are customers or users
representatives for a product to gain
its feedback.Thefeedbackcanbe
collected about opportunities,
needs, and problemstodetermine
requirementsor itcanbecollected
torefineandvalidate thealready
elicited requirements.
•Managed process withparticular
participants
•refineandvalidatethealready
elicitedrequirements
•Allowsanalysttorapidlyobtaina
wide variety of user views and
possibly aconsensus.
Benefits
•followingthecrowdandsome
peoplethinkthatfocusgroups
areatbestunproductive
•endupwithiswithleastcommon
denominatorfeatures.
•Recruitment effortto
•Assemble groups. Dominant
participants may influence group
disproportionately
Risks &Drawbacks

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Interface Analysis
Interface for any software product will either be human or
machine. Integrationwithexternaldevicesandsystemsis
anotherinterface.The user centric design approaches are quite
effective to ensure that you make usable software. Interface
analysis-analyzing the touch points withanotherexternal
system-isvitaltoensurethatyoudonotoverlook requirements
thatarenotinstantlyvisibletotheusers.

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Observation/Social Analysis
Social analysis is also known as
Observation.Observationisthe
method of collecting requirements
by observing thepeopledoingtheir
normalwork.
Thismethodisgenerallyusedtofind
the additional requirements needed
by the user, when the user is
unable to explain their expected
requirements from the new product
and problems with the existing
product
•The ability to record and
reportallfindingsthatare
true
•it is morepractical
•nolongcalculationhastobe
done
Benefits
•Theviewer'sorresearcher's
ownperception
•few trials/studies/orobjects
observed to make an end
conclusion
•results may containhuman
error
Risks &Drawbacks

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Prototyping
Prototypingisarelativelymoderntechnique
forgatheringrequirements.Inthisapproach,
yougatherpreliminaryrequirementsthatyou
usetobuildaninitialversionofthesolution—
aprototype.Youshowthistotheclient,who
thengivesyouadditionalrequirements.You
changetheapplicationandcyclearoundwith
theclientagain.Thisrepetitiveprocess
continuesuntiltheproductmeetsthecritical
massofbusinessneedsorforanagreed
numberofiterations.
•prototypes can beideal
reduce designrisk
•it is morepractical
•Screenmock-ups
•Using animationtools
•provides anunderstanding
offunctionality
Benefits
•takes time tobuild
•morecostly to build
•false sense ofsecurity
Risks &Drawbacks

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Facilitated Sessions
In a facilitated session, you bring a larger
group (five or more) together for a
common purpose.Inthiscase,youare
tryingtogather asetofcommon
requirementsfromthegroup in a faster
manner than if you were to interview
eachofthemseparately.
•LessTime
•Reach Group OfPeople
•Brainstormingsessions
(virtual orface-to-face)
Benefits
•MoreExpensive
•needforextrafacilities
toallowforgroupwork
etc
•Handouts,readings
Risks &Drawbacks

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Joint Application Development
JAD or joint application design, these
workshops can be efficient for
gathering requirements.The
requirements workshops are more
organized and structured than a
brainstorming session where the
involved parties get together to
document requirements. Creation
of domain model artifacts like
activity programs or static diagrams
is one of the ways to capture the
collaboration.Aworkshopwithtwo
analystsis moreeffectivethanone
inwhichonworksasa facilitator
and the other scribes the work
together.
•grouptypicallystaysinthe
session until the session
objectives arecompleted
•participants stay insession
until a complete set of
requirements
•documented andagreed to
Benefits
•takes time tobuild
•morecostly to build
•false sense ofsecurity
Risks &Drawbacks

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Questionnaire
Questionnairesaremuchmore
informal,and they are good tools
to gather requirements from
stakeholders in remote locations or
thosewhowillhaveonlyminorinput
intothe overallrequirements.
Questionnairescanalso be used
when you have to gather input from
dozens,hundreds,orthousandsof
people.
•Lesscost
•Reach Large No ofPeoples
•Theresponsesaregathered
inastandardizedway
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•Difficult filling forusers
•participants mayforget
importantissues
•Stockholdersmaynotbe
willing to answer the
questions

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Survey
When gathering information from many
people: to many to interview with time
constraints and less budget: a
questionnaire survey can be used. The
surveyinsists the userstochoosefrom
thegivenoptionsagree/ disagreeor
ratesomething.Donotthinkthat you
canmakeasurveyonyourownbuttryto
add meaningful insight in it. A well
designed survey must give qualitative
guidance for characterizing the market.
It should not be utilized for prioritizing
of requirements or features.
•Lesscost
•Reach Large Noof
Peoples
•A detailedcritical
inspection
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•Difficult filling forusers
•participants mayforget
importantissues
•Stockholders may notbe
willing to answer the
questions

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Difference between questionnaire and survey?
The Oxford dictionary defines them as quoted below:
Survey:
A general view, examination, or description 2. An investigation of the
opinions or experience of a group of people, based on a series of
questions. 3. An act of surveying. 4. A map or report obtained by
surveying.
Questionnaire:
Noun a set of printed questions, usually with a choice of answers, devised
for a survey or a statistical study.

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Use case and scenarios
Use cases are basically stories that
describe how discrete processes
work. The stories includepeople
(actors)anddescribehowthe
solution works from a user
perspective. Use casesmaybe
easierfortheuserstoarticulate,
although the use cases may need
to be distilled later into the more
specific detailed requirements.
•providethebestreturnon
investedeffort
•explainhowthatsystemwill
beimplemented
•Each use case provides a set
of scenarios thatconvey how
thesystem should interact
Benefits
Risks &Drawbacks
•Poor identificationof
structure andflow
•Time-consuming togenerate
•Scenario managementis
difficult

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Requirements reuse
In the field of software
engineering reusing the
requirements of the existing
systemiscommon methodof
requirements elicitation. Using
the existing knowledge to
develop the new product has
many advantages thatinclude
lowcostandlesstime.
Though each product has their
own typeofstakeholdersand
users,there is still number of
situations that the reusing of
the requirements take places
•Reusedrequirements
are already validated
and analyzed thus
reducing the time of
testing
Benefits
•Some time proposed
product iscompletely
different form the
existingproduct
Risks &Drawbacks

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Pre-Project Activity
•Client realizes his need for a
software application.
•He will do an initial analysis on the
required features of the Software
Application and will prepare
Requirements Document.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
RFP is a document in
which Business need
appear.
Request for Information
(RFI) is a form that is
attached to RFP
Request for Quotation (RFQ)
A request for quotation
(RFQ) is a standard
business process whose
purpose is to invite
suppliers into a bidding
process to bid on specific
products or services
Statement of Work (SOW)
A document that defines
project-specific activities,
deliverables, and
timelines for a vendor
providing services to the
client.

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Request for Proposal
If you are a vendor, you may receive
requirements through an RFP. This list
of requirements is there for you to
compareagainstyourowncapabilities
to determine how close a match you
are to the client’sneeds.
The RFP presents preliminary
requirements for the commodity or
service, and may dictate to varying
degrees the exact structure and
format of thesupplier's response.
Effective RFPs typically reflect the
strategy and short/long-term
business objectives, providing
detailed insight upon which suppliers
willbeabletoofferamatching
perspective

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Reverse Engineering
Isthisalastresortorstartingpoint?Whenamigrationproject
is not having enough documentation of the current system,
reverse engineering will determine what system does? It will
notdeterminewhatthethingwentwrongwiththesystemand
whatasystemmustdo?
AcriticalactivityforanyERPimplementation isgathering
businessrequirements
Often we spend too much time and effort focusing on
gathering requirements that do not support key business
resultsandthenglossoverthekeybusinessactivities
because of implementation time constraints. Prioritizing
business results is an activity that we need to initiate
before gather requirements, not during fit/gap when
expectations are hardertomanageandnegotiate.

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Effectiveness of method used for requirement
elicitation

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Selecting Appropriate Techniques
InterviewJAD Question
-naires
Documen
tAnalysis
Observati
on
Type of
information
As-is,
improves,
to-be
As-is,
improves,
to-be
As-is,
improves
As-is As-is
Depth ofinfoHigh High Medium Low Low
Breadth ofinfoLow Medium High High Low
InfointegrationLow High Low Low Low
User
involvement
Medium High Low Low Low
Cost Medium Low-
medium
Low Low Low-
medium
As-is : understanding currentsystem
Improves: identifiesimprovements
To-be: developing the newsystem

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Summarize
•The meaning of requirement elicitation
•The people involved in elicitation
•Requirement elicitation methodology
•The requirement elicitation techniques

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Thank You!