REQUIRMENTS ELICITATION AND ANALYSIS

TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Term Definition

analysis Examines data elicited to understand where the gaps and impacts are

brainstorming Gathering a group of stakeholders to produce a whole bunch of ideas around

a specific topic; inspires creative thinking, new ideas, and new approaches

context diagram Analysis technique used to identify scenarios, users, user goals, and external
systems

elicitation Set of techniques used in discovery and progressive elaboration of

understanding the needs of stakeholders and customers

mindset State of mind that keeps attention focused on building the right product for
customers, users, and business

process model Multipurpose tool used as a dialogue starter to create a visual to explain the
process or sequence of activities; involves visualization, organization, and
analysis

Decision about how the business and technology will work together on a
requirement project

requirements Tool used to strategically draw out information from stakeholders and
workshop customers

Person with interest in the performance of a company or outcome of a project

stakeholder

INTERVIEWING QUESTIONS

Engaging Questions

1. What does success look like for this project?

2. What would happen if we did not go through with the project?
3. What do you see as the biggest risks the team needs to consider?
4. What are the pain points we are trying to alleviate with this project?
 5. Who will benefit most from this project being completed?
6. How will you measure the success of the project?
7. What would you change about the way you carry out your responsibilities?
8. What do you see as the major critical issues facing the organization?
9. What areas for improvement have you observed?
10. That seems really important to you; help me understand why.

Probing Questions

1. Tell me more about…

2. Can you explain how that happens?
3. What sort of situations would that occur?
4. Could you give an example of that?
5. So, what I hear you saying is…
6. What makes you feel that way?
7. What do you think is the cause of…?

Domain-Specific Questions

1. In what ways does the current system or process work well?

2. In what ways could the current process or system be improved?
3. What are the processes in your organization, team, or operation?
4. What business decisions (business rules) are made in your processes?
5. Who owns the processes?
6. What process measurements are used?
7. What regulations are abided by?
8. Who are your suppliers and what do they provide your organization?
9. Who are your customers (internal/external) and what does your organization provide
them?
10. How does the organization or team measure its success?
11. In your opinion, what are the project risks?
12. What are the chances of failure? Why?
13. How will you measure the success of the business impact of the project?
14. Who will the project impact and how?
15. What things should we keep intact and not change? Why?
16. What things should we start doing we are not doing today?

User and Subject Matter Expert (SME) Questions

1. What team do you work on and how do they fit into the bigger picture?
2. What are your major responsibilities?
3. What business decisions (business rules) do you make in your job?
4. With whom do you interact to carry out your responsibilities?
5. What information, resources, and documents do you use in your job?
6. What forms (online, system, or paper) do you use?
7. What computer systems do you use in your job?
 8. Are there any events for which the system provides alerts?
9. Are there any new alerts needed?
10. How do you measure success in your job?
11. What is occurring that is helping or inhibiting you to do your job?
12. What skills are needed in your present job?
13. What training did you receive for your present job?
14. What training should someone starting this role have?
15. What would you change about the way you carry out your responsibilities?
16. What do you see as the major critical issues facing the organization or team?
17. What areas for improvement have you observed?

Process and Detail Questions

1. What is a typical scenario for this process?

2. When do you use workarounds? What are they?
3. What might start this scenario?
4. What are the main events that might happen next?
5. Who is responsible for the activities in the process?
6. How is progress measured?
7. How do you know if things are on track?
8. What different conditions must the business deal with in the course of doing this
process?
9. Are there any other processes that need to be done to support this process?
10. Are you dependent on other teams or systems?• Are other teams or systems dependent
on you?
11. Who is involved?
12. Who supplies information and in what format?
13. Who uses or interacts with the system or process?
14. What must happen to achieve this goal or outcome?
15. What does (the actor) need to do next?
16. What might happen next?
17. What needs to be done to accomplish this step?
18. What information do you need to know to accomplish this step?
19. What needs to be done with the information?
20. Identify variations in the process.
21. What might affect this process?
22. What happens when…?
23. Will this variation cause you to do anything differently?

TOOL AND RESOURCES

Books
Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
https://www.amazon.com/Gamestorming-Playbook-Innovators-Rulebreakers-
Changemakers/
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques
https://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking-Techniques-
2nd/dp/1580087736/
ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=80G69A4TRRV1THQA34WP
Online Tools
Mind Tools: Brainstorming
https://www.mindtools.com/brainstm.html
Lucid Meetings: Tools for Online Brainstorming and Decision Making in Meetings
http://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/25-tools-for-online-brainstorming-and-decision-
making-in-meetings
Virtual Brainstorming
CardBoard It: http://www.cardboardit.com/
Conteneo Weave: https://weave.conteneo.co/a/innovationgames/1
Stormboard: https://stormboard.com/
MODEL WORDS

In your models, dialog, and written requirements, you must use powerful words that describe
the actions users take when using the system or product.

Use powerful words that are...

• Concise

• Testable

• Easy for customers, developers, and business people and leaders to understand

Avoid words that are...

• Ambiguous

• Can mean many things

BLENDING

Goal of Conversation Elicit Model Tips

Discover all the users Workshops Context diagram Context diagrams focus
who are impacted by the on interactions and
Brainstorming Process model
process or function being integrations, and process
changed or added Interviews Story maps flows focus on sequence.
Both are great views into
identifying the user roles
impacted.
Discover the data that Observation Data flow diagrams
Remember to think
users rely on for about what data the user
Interviews Process models
performing their goals expects to see and use,
Workshops Context diagrams and when. Where is the
same data used
repeatedly in the same
end-to-end user goal?

Discover new features Experiments User stories Using collaborative

and designs that will games in workshops will
Brainstorming Story mapping
delight the users help expose new ideas.
Workshops Context diagrams

Process models

Discover the sequence of Interviews Process models Remember to

activities a user performs consciously model and
Observation Sequence diagrams
or a workflow discuss the user point of
Workshops view.

Discover and learn what Experiments User stories Using collaborative

matters to users games in workshops will
Observation Story mapping
help expose new ideas.
Workshops

Discover what external Interviews Context diagrams Remember to look at the

systems and partners are integrations from a
Workshops Process models
needed to integrate with “value to the user” point
of view.
 Discover the logic is Interviews Decision tables Remember you can use
complete for a decision decision tables to reduce
Workshops Process models
the system will make the complexity in the
Observation process flow.

Experiments

Discover the triggers Interviews State models or Process models here

and status of an object diagrams may start the dialog.
Workshops
State and sequence
Sequence diagrams
Observation diagrams will get to the
Process models details.

Discover the points of Interviews User stories Remember to break

user interaction and user them down from big
Brainstorming Story maps
goals with the system or goals to smaller goals
product Observation Context diagrams users have.

Workshops Process models

INTEGRATION

The following considerations are important for integration requirements. Many of these are
related to the business context of the integration, which many teams struggle with. Without the
business context, teams make poor assumptions about the data and data transformation, which
result in defects and poor user experience.

Integration title What is the team calling this integration? This should be a
name understandable to the business stakeholders.

Purpose of integration What is the business value this integration provides? How
does it enhance the user experience? What would the user
experience be like if the integration were not in place?

Value of integration How would the business operate if the integration failed and
had to resort to manual processes rather than automated?
Source system What system is the data coming from?

Target system What system is the data going to?

User/customer touchpoints What customer touchpoints are impacted if this integration

does not work as intended? What high-level business
processes does it support?

Trigger for integration data to be What triggers the data to be pulled and sent? Business
processed triggers?

Timing Is it real time or batch? Describe what is meant by real time?

And why is real time needed if real time is specified? Is it
one transaction at a time or a group of transactions?

Known data quality issues Are there any known data quality issues with the source
data?

Common data errors What common data errors typically happen with the data
being pulled or sent?

What does the target system do with the What does the target system do with the data it receives
data? from this integration?

What is a record of data for this interface? In plain language terms, describe what a record or
transaction of data consists of for this interface?