Simple understanding of Requirement Elicitation Techniques for Business Analysts

Understanding the requirements of stakeholder is main task for Business Analyst, we came across many people with different professional backgrounds for project requirements gathering ,here it is very important to use correct and appropriate elicitation technique to gather requirement, Because we cannot use a same elicitation technique to each and every project to gather requirement. So here we will understand some elicitation techniques to gathering requirement for, A clear and smooth run of Business Requirement Gathering process . Let understand elicitation techniques ,when BA want a to gather many ideas , opinions in limited time then BA should use Brainstorming where BA gathers everyone i.e. stakeholder, user ,Testing team, Developers etc. to share there ideas ,opinions without Criticism or Judgment Allows ,However when BA want opinion from experienced and actual users then Focus group technique should be used where discussion happens on there experience and challenges they have faced. BA uses technique of Document analysis for understand the current policies ,rules and to better understanding of gap and catch the area of improvements, However when the document are not available of current system then reverse engineering technique is used to understand how an existing system is worked by breaking down into component there are two types of reverse engineering 1.Black box reverse engineering where system is understood from outside without knowing internal structure , 2.White box reverse engineering where system is understood from inside with complete access of internal structure ,logic, source code. Requirement workshop is technique used when BA wants to discuss ,clarify and finalize the requirements However, when stakeholder not able to explain the requirement clearly, then BA use observation elicitation technique, BA watches how the users are performing the tasks in real working environment. There are two types of observation technique 1. Active observation where BA actively participate in the process 2.passive observation where BA observe system without participating in process. BA uses the technique of JAD(Joint application development) where users, stakeholder ,Developers and Tester team come together in workshop like session to gather the requirement collaboratively. when BA want to have directly one on one conversation with stakeholder than interview technique is user where BA can clearly communicate with stakeholder and understand requirement and clears doubt there are two type 1. structured interview where question are predefined and formal 2.Unstructured interview where question are not predefined and free flow of conversion . When stakeholder needs to visualize the requirement then BA uses prototyping method where BA shows a visual or working model that how the actual system will look a like to stakeholders. However, when BA has a task to get information from large number of group or if stakeholder are not present at same time for interview or BA has limited timeline to collect requirement and questions are standard or yes /no types then Questionnaires technique is used. The use case elicitation technique where BA understand how users will interact with the system to achieve the goal . So here are some elicitation technique that we have discussed which are used to gather requirement .However BA should use the all techniques according to need of project and urgency.