Requirements Gathering Techniques

Anurag

Overview

Requirements gathering techniques provide project team members with a choice of methods for eliciting needs or requirements from stakeholders and for validating requirements with stakeholders.  Certain techniques are appropriate in gathering stakeholder needs, while other techniques are most helpful in defining high-level and detailed requirements, or validating detailed requirements with the stakeholders.

Three Techniques

The three recommended techniques are Interview, JAD Session, and Survey Method.  This document will explain the characteristics of the recommended requirements management techniques and when the techniques are appropriate for use within the requirements management process.

Interview Technique

Summary	An interview is a conversation with stakeholders to elicit or validate needs and requirements.  An interview may include one or more stakeholders.  The interview may also involve a question and answer session used to discover other potential stakeholders and any discrepancies between needs; the high-level requirements derived from those needs; and the resulting detailed requirements.  Interviews facilitate obtaining approval from stakeholders on their needs, requirements, and any changes to them.
Advantages	·        Generally easy, because it can be done with minimal preparation. ·        Interviews of individuals and small groups require less planning and scheduling effort than large workshops. ·        Interviews of individuals and small groups require less stakeholder commitment than large workshops. ·        Interviews provide an opportunity to explore or clarify topics in more detail.
Disadvantages	·        The questions used in the interview may reflect the interviewer’s preconceived ideas, which can influence the responses. ·        For projects with a large number of stakeholders the interviews technique can be time-consuming and inefficient. ·        Conflicts and inconsistencies between stakeholder information need to be resolved in additional interviews. ·        This technique does not allow different stakeholders to hear and elaborate upon the information being relayed.
Formal Interview Process Steps	1.    Identify stakeholders to be interviewed 2.    Obtain a general understanding of the customers business 3.    Develop interview questions using open-ended questions 4.    Set meeting time and location for the interview 5.    Provide a set of questions to interviewees prior to the interview (if they will need to prepare for the interview) 6.    Use one or more Recorders to accurately preserve results of the interview 7.    Provide results to interviewees for confirmation of content
Informal Interview Process Steps	1.    Identify stakeholders to be interviewed 2.    Obtain a general understanding of the customers business 3.    Develop interview questions (for interviewer’s use only) to make sure certain questions are answered during the session 4.    Set up a casual meeting or telephone conversation time for the interview. 5.    Takes handwritten notes during the interview; avoid using electronic data capture. 6.    Provide results to interviewee for confirmation of content
Sample Interview Questions	·         What would it look like? ·         What would convince you? ·         What have you already tried? ·         Why now? ·         What will you settle for?
Interview Leader Role	The Interview Leader may be responsible for identifying the stakeholders or by working with the appropriate project team member to get the list of stakeholders.  The Interview Leader is responsible for preparing questions ahead of the scheduled meeting and distributing the questions to the stakeholder or stakeholders.  The leader is also responsible to either record the notes or schedule a recorder to attend the meeting to record information discussed in the meeting and any decisions resulting from the meeting.
Recorder	The recorder is responsible for recording the information discussed in the interview and any decisions resulting from the meeting.  In informal interviews the leader is also the recorder.
Stakeholder	The stakeholder is responsible for providing their needs, expectations, priorities, and constraints.  They also validate the results of the interview.

Joint Application Development (JAD) Technique

Summary	The Joint Application Development (JAD) technique is an extended, facilitated workshop.  It involves collaboration between stakeholders and systems analysts to identify needs or requirements in a concentrated and focused effort.
Advantages	·         This technique allows for the simultaneous gathering and consolidating of large amounts of information.  ·         This technique produces relatively large amounts of high-quality information in a short period of time. ·         Discrepancies are resolved immediately with the aid of the facilitator. ·         This technique provides a forum to explore multiple points of view regarding a topic.
Disadvantages	Requires significant planning and scheduling effort. Requires significant stakeholder commitment of time and effort. Requires trained and experienced personnel for facilitation and recording.
JAD Process Steps	1.    Define Session: Define the purpose, scope, and objectives of the JAD session, selecting the JAD team, invite and obtain commitment to attend sessions from the appropriate stakeholders, and schedule the session. It is important to obtain management commitment to support the process and identify the appropriate stakeholders.  2.    Research Product: Become more familiar with the product or service, gather preliminary information, obtaining any models. 3.    Prepare: Prepare any visual aids, developing a realistic agenda, training the recorder, and preparing the meeting room. 4.    Conduct Session: Follow agenda to gather and document the project needs and requirements.  It is important to ensure all participants are given equal treatment during the process. 5.    Draft the Documents: Prepare the formal documents.  The information captured in the JAD session is further refined through analysis efforts, open questions or issues discovered through the sessions are resolved, and the final document is returned to stakeholders for review and validation.
Roles	The JAD team is the very heart of the JAD process and the selection and inclusion of stakeholders are critical to the overall success of a JAD session.  The team should consist of a mixture of skills from a variety of individuals.  The participants may include Business Process Owners, Operations Managers, Client Representatives, Business Analysts, Business Managers, End Users, Data Administrators, Systems Analysts, System Designers, Business Analysts, Advisors Project leaders, Auditors, Security, Standards, Vendors, Quality Assurance, Contingency Planners, Production Planners, IT Specialists, Human Resource Representatives, and Trainers.
Executive Sponsor	Management commitment is required for any needs or requirements gathering process to succeed.  It is very important for the JAD session team to have a management sponsor.  The executive sponsor may be a manager of the business area whose needs and requirements are being addressed during the JAD session.  The sponsor does not have to actively participate in every JAD session.  It might be advisable to attend the first JAD session to show support and, perhaps, the final JAD session to review the results and make comments.  The sponsor should be available throughout the period of the JAD process to solve any serious problems or issues that may arise.  The JAD facilitator must work closely with the management sponsor and provide full briefings on progress.
Facilitator	The facilitator is the key person in the group and is responsible for planning, executing and managing the session.  They should be a respected, skillful leader with a good reputation within the organization.  JAD facilitator skills do not happen by chance, and the skills may have to be learned through specialized training and experience.  The choice of facilitator may mean the difference between a good session and a poor one.  It is essential that the facilitator be given authority to work closely with the executive sponsor to achieve the objectives of the JAD session.  The facilitator will know how to direct people, to be able to get the best information from them.  JAD Facilitators should be able to: 1.    Focus on the process, not the information content, of the JAD session. 2.    Be unbiased and neutral, and remain impartial.  It is important that the reporting structure is such that the facilitator cannot be influenced or biased. 3.    Use organizational skills to lead groups and keep the sessions on track. 4.    Ensure each subject under discussion is accurately recorded and completed to the stakeholders’ satisfaction before proceeding. 5.    Stop sideline conversations.
Recorder	The recorder is responsible for documenting the JAD sessions.  This must be done in an interactive fashion and the recorder must work closely with the JAD facilitator.  Many ideas and suggestions will be discussed. A large session may need multiple recorders.  The recorder must capture the important discussion and decisions made, who made them and why.  Laptop computers, white boards, flip charts, or overhead devices are particularly useful. It is the responsibility of the recorder to distribute and file the documentation at the end of each JAD session or as soon as possible after the session or topic has concluded.  It can be a difficult task and should not be underestimated.  The recorder should have the following skills: 1.    Knowledge of the stakeholder business area.  In order to record the results properly, the recorder needs to understand the concepts of what was discussed. 2.    Excellent analytical skills.  The recorder needs to be able to analyze what was discussed and presented in the JAD session. 3.    Experiences with JAD tools if any are used.  The JAD tool may be a word processing software, an electronic whiteboard, or a CASE tool.  Whatever tool is used, the recorder has to have a good knowledge of how to use the tool effectively. 4.    Good technical writing skills.
Stakeholder	The participation of stakeholders in the JAD session is widely accepted as essential to its ultimate success.  Without their involvement, the JAD session will not be productive.  The whole point of a JAD session is to bring stakeholder and performing organization together in a structured environment.  Stakeholders will rapidly gain a sense of involvement and ownership in the product or service development where a JAD session is used.  This is vital to its overall success.  Most important, the stakeholders will get the product they want and not one that has been designed poorly for them.

Survey Method

Summary	The Survey Method is an electronic or paper based method of soliciting needs or requirements from stakeholders.  The survey method is a list of questions, directed at identifying stakeholder needs or requirements.
Survey Method Advantages	1.    A survey can reach a large number of stakeholders or other sources of information. 2.    A survey is an excellent tool to gather a significant amount of focused data in a short period of time. 3.    Survey method can provide good results when used to validate assumptions after the use of the interviewing technique. 4.    A Survey method is a good tool to gather statistical preference data. 5.    A survey requires little scheduling effort. 6.    A survey requires little stakeholder commitment of time and effort.
Survey Method     Disad-vantages	1.    The response level is often low, especially to large surveys. 2.    Responses are usually limited to the realm of the questions asked, which reflect the analyst’s preconceived ideas or assumptions of the survey designer. 3.    Well-made surveys require trained and experienced personnel to develop. 4.    Development time can be significant. 5.    Conflicts and inconsistencies in information from stakeholders require additional analysis to resolve.
Survey Method Process Steps	1.    Decide what you want to know and how you will analyze the data before you develop questions. 2.    Look for questions or ideas from other sources to inspire the writing of your method 3.    Write questions to be as specific as possible.  Use simple, straightforward language.  Avoid the use of jargon or terminology specific to a few people. 4.    Write short questions to ensure reader understanding, including: -          Limit the number of choices available to a question to five or less (if applicable). -          Offer a "don't know" or "no opinion" option, so people do not invent answers. -          Vary the format of the questions to keep people interested. 5.    When you have written the survey questions, it is important to test them to make sure that the language is current, the questions are not biased, and the questions are relevant to the purpose of the survey.  Deliver the set of questions to the stakeholder for their response.  Provide a date by which the answers are to be returned.
Survey Method - Author Role	The survey method author is responsible for crafting questions to solicit the needs and requirements from stakeholders.  Once the answers have been received, the author is responsible for recording the answers into a document for confirmation by the survey method respondents. To develop a useful method, the writer should be familiar with the purpose of the evaluation and ideally have some experience with developing surveys.
Stakeholder	The stakeholder is responsible for answering the questions and verifying the resulting information presented by the author for confirmation.