Requirement Gathering Techniques

Imagine a company wants to develop a new software system. The customer says we want better solutions. This statement is not enough for the development team. So that business analyst talks with the users to ask questions, observe their work and study the existing documents. Through these activities the business analyst can find actual requirements. These activities are known as elicitation techniques. These techniques help business analyst what the business needs and what the customer wants from the system. Business analyst have no prior knowledge about the existing system if you directly tell them that we want features like this it will be hard for them to understand the requirements. So that to understand the requirements of the customer business analyst using the elicitation techniques. Without using these activities BA cannot understand requirements of the customer what exactly they want from the system hence elicitation techniques are most important in requirement gathering. Collection and discovery of the information means elicitation. Requirement elicitation means understanding requirements from stakeholders. Stakeholders include users, customers, managers, subject matter experts and product owners. Requirement elicitation helps to reduce misunderstanding between the customer and development team. Requirement elicitation helps to discover actual business problems. If a BA misunderstands a customer's requirement at the beginning, developers may build the wrong feature. Later the customer may ask for changes, resulting in additional time and cost. There are multiple types of elicitation techniques available we will discuss one by one. 1). Interview - this is the most common technique used by the business analyst in this technique business analysts directly talk with the stakeholders. When there are less number of stakeholders there at that time we use this technique. Business analysts understand their business needs, problems, and expectations. There are two types of the interview A structured interview and unstructured interview. Structured interview means the business analyst prepares a list of the questions in advance and asks the same question to all participants. Unstructured interview means not a prepared list of questions in advance to ask the questions on the response of the stakeholders. Also that included the two types of questions open ended and close ended, in open ended stakeholders can freely share their opinion freely and in close ended yes no type questions and in close ended true or false type questions. 2). Questionnaires - in this type business analyst prepares a list of the questions and sends it to the stakeholder, user, customer. When there are many users there in different locations at that time we use this type of technique. 3).Observation- in this technique business analysts observe the users while they are performing their daily work. Observation helps business analysts to understand practical situations. Two types of observation Active observation and Passive observation in active observation BA observe when performing work also ask the questions at same time and in passive observation only observing not asking questions to users. 4).Brainstorming- when there is a group of people who have a large number of ideas freely shared with each other to solve their problems. All ideas are collected and after that the best one is selected. This is informal and creative in nature. 5).Focus Group- when there is a small group of users and customers invited to people they share their feedback, expectations, opinion and experience. The user tells the answer like dislike or improvements they need. Particularly useful when developing a product for a specific group of users. 6). Document Analysis- In this type BA study the existing documents BRD,SRS, user manual and process documents to understand the current system. This one is a compulsory technique because BA has to understand the current process it will help BA while asking the question during the interview and workshop. Through this type we can gather accurate requirements and save time.7).Requirements Workshop- Participants discuss requirements together. Helps stakeholders reach a common understanding. Saves time compared with conducting many separate meetings. Different viewpoints can be discussed. 8). Prototyping- BA creates a basic model or visual representation of the proposed system. Users can see how the system may look or work. Reduces misunderstanding. Prototype doesn't necessarily mean the final working system.BA doesn't always use the same technique. Selection depends on the project type and situation. Requirement elicitation is an important BA activity. Different techniques work in different situations.