COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
What is Requirement Elicitation?
Requirement elicitation is the process of interacting with the stakeholders, customers and end users to elicit the information/requirements. There are total ten requirement elicitation techniques which includes Brainstorming, Document analysis, Reverse Engineering, Focus Groups, Observation, Workshop, JAD, Interview, Prototyping, and Questionnaire (survey). We will discuss in detail the workshop and questionnaire requirement elicitation technique.
Workshop (Requirement elicitation technique):
Purpose
- A structured method of capturing requirements that are used to look into, identify, define, prioritize and complete the needs of stakeholders
- A Proven Method for Quickly Delivering High-Quality Requirements, Fostering Mutual Understanding and Effective Communication Among Stakeholders and Producing Deliverables that Structure and Guide Future Analysis
Description
- Key stakeholders and subject matter experts were invited to participate in this highly productive and focused event, which was facilitated by a team member.
- The scribe/recorder documents the elicited requirements and questions and should be the facilitator or scribe, or function as a participant of the workshop (with caution, to not influence/confuse)
- Come to a consensus on a problem or change the requirements.
- Come up with suggestions for new features or products.
Elements Prepare for the workshop on requirements
- Clarify the workshop’s goals and the needs of the stakeholders.
- Identify the key stakeholders who should attend the workshop.
- Establish the agenda. Decide how the session will be documented.
- Schedule sessions and plan the room, seating, and equipment beforehand.
- Send materials to participants in advance so they are prepared and able to be productive during the workshop.
- Conduct pre-workshop interviews to make sure everyone is clear on the workshop’s goals.
Conduct the workshop on requirements
- Elicit, evaluate, and document requirements
- Obtain consensus on conflicting views
- Remain focused by regularly validating the activities with the workshop’s stated objectives to ensure agreement on divergent viewpoints.
The Facilitator has the following responsibilities:
- Establish an objective and professional tone for the meeting
- Present the meeting’s objectives and agenda
- Impose discipline, and basic rules and manage the meeting
- Facilitate decision-making and build consensus
- Ensure that each one’s views were heard and that all stakeholders participate
- Ask the proper questions, and analyze the knowledge provided by the stakeholders at the workshop. It is the responsibility of the Scribes to record the requirements in the format required.
Closing post-workshop of requirements
- Track open items of recorded actions within the meeting
- Complete and distribute documentation to stakeholders
Advantages:
- A way to elicit detailed requirements in a short period of time
- It provides a collaborative environment for stakeholders to make decisions and mutual understanding.
- It is typically less expensive to conduct numerous interviews.
- It helps to work together to reach a consensus.
- It provides rapid feedback and interpretation.
Disadvantages:
- Stakeholders are readily available
- Success depends greatly on the facilitator’s skills and participants’ knowledge
- A large number of participants could make the process lengthy
- Some participants can ignore the requirements
Questionnaire:
When there are many stakeholders or when stakeholders are geographically distant and you need to collect the same information from everyone, a survey or questionnaire is the elicitation approach employed. You can also use a survey or questionnaire to collect requirements in an anonymous manner. Stakeholders are given a questionnaire or survey to collect data on their opinions. Data is evaluated to identify the areas of interest to stakeholders after stakeholder responses have been gathered. Direct and clear questions are best. As soon as the survey is ready, let the participants know and ask them to take part.
Here, you can utilize any of two kinds of questions:
- Open-Ended: Instead of choosing from predefined responses, the respondent is free to submit their own answers. Although this is frequently helpful, it takes time because it can be challenging to interpret the responses.
- Close Ended: The respondent must select from a predetermined set of replies because it has prepared responses for each question. Questions are usually Multiple-choice questions or questions that can be scored from not important to extremely important.
Tips for developing a survey or questionnaire:
- Determine the survey’s target group first. This can enable you to streamline the questions you need to make in order to achieve the goal. Keep in mind that shorter surveys receive greater response rates, so stop trying to accomplish too many goals with a single survey.
- Determine who will be sampled from the stakeholders. Sample as many individuals as you can from extremely small groups of no more than 150. In larger groups with thousands of members, pick a sample of people who are representative of the user population.
- Putting users into multiple groups will make sense in some circumstances. An illustration is creating a survey that is focused on the various ERP program modules and asking users of each module to answer particular questions.
- Choose the resources that will be required for the survey. There are many technologies created expressly for surveying. Survey Monkey is one example. There are many different survey kinds that you might consider. Web-based, email-based, telephone-based, and paper-based surveys are a few common examples.
- Create a rough copy of the questions, then assess whether the survey’s goals will be met by the responses. This stage is crucial since it will define how your results are analyzed based on the level and kind of questions you utilize. Include instructions on how to complete the survey and a way for anyone with questions to get in touch with you
- Utilize the results to test and modify the survey. This can need conducting a pilot test in order to effectively validate it. To acquire an accurate timing for your survey, watch how long it takes for the respondents to complete it.
- Give out the survey and follow up with a follow-up reminder before the due date.
Advantages:
- Less time is needed for the participants to respond
- A simple way to gather data from a broad audience.
- Compared to interviews, you can obtain more accurate information.
Disadvantages:
- Not all of the stakeholders will take part in the surveys.
- Not all participants may understand the questions.
- More analysis is necessary for open-ended questions.
- Depending on the participants’ responses, follow-up surveys may be necessary.
