COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
Requirement elicitation is a crucial phase in the software development life cycle that involves gathering, understanding, and documenting the needs and expectations of stakeholders. It is the process of extracting requirements from stakeholders through various techniques and methods to ensure a clear understanding of what the software should accomplish
Requirement elicitation involves conducting meetings, interviews, workshops, and other interactive sessions to gather information from stakeholders. The goal is to identify and document the functional and non-functional requirements, constraints, and preferences of the system to be developed. Effective requirement elicitation ensures that the software solution aligns with stakeholder expectations and meets the desired business objectives.
During elicitation meetings, business analysts or other relevant team members facilitate discussions with stakeholders to understand their needs and capture their requirements. These meetings typically involve a variety of participants, including business users, subject matter experts, customers, and technical experts. The meetings may be held in person, virtually, or through a combination of both, depending on the availability and location of the stakeholders.
The process of requirement elicitation involves several steps:
Identifying stakeholders: The first step is to identify the key stakeholders who have an interest or influence in the software project. These stakeholders may include end users, managers, executives, customers, or regulatory bodies.
Planning the elicitation process: This step involves defining the objectives, scope, and timeline of the elicitation process. It includes identifying the techniques and tools to be used, scheduling meetings, and determining the roles and responsibilities of the participants.
Conducting elicitation sessions: In these sessions, the business analyst or facilitator engages with stakeholders to gather information about their needs, preferences, and expectations. This can be done through interviews, questionnaires, surveys, brainstorming sessions, or workshops. The focus is on understanding the stakeholders’ business processes, pain points, and desired outcomes.
Documenting requirements: As information is gathered, the requirements are documented in a clear and structured manner. This involves capturing functional requirements (what the system should do) and non-functional requirements (qualities or constraints the system should have). The documentation may include use cases, user stories, process flows, data models, or prototypes, depending on the complexity of the project.
Validating and verifying requirements: Once the requirements are documented, they need to be validated and verified with stakeholders to ensure accuracy and completeness. This may involve review sessions, feedback collection, and clarification of any ambiguities or conflicts in the requirements.
Managing changes: Throughout the elicitation process, it is common for requirements to evolve or change based on stakeholder feedback or changing business needs. It is essential to have a process in place to manage and track these changes to ensure the final requirements are up-to-date and reflective of stakeholder expectations.
