What questions to ask during requirement elicitation?

In project management one of the major roles of a BA is to gather requirements and apply the elicitation technique. For this first we need to identify the project scope questions or prepare  a requirement questionnaire with a list of questions that need for the project so that we can better use the stakeholder’s time. In the interview some stakeholder will give straight forward answers, some needs to lead through structured conversation. The questions should typically be organized by features or as per business requirements and project’s need. Investing time in preparing the questionnaire will help to run a more effective stakeholders meeting. And a proper questionnaire will help in eliminating several follow up meetings.

What requirements questions to ask?

While asking the requirements questions, we should probe into 5W and 1H concept ( Why, What, Who, When, Where, and How). And also confirm the requirements are SMART ( Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time- bound) before  accepting it for development. Setting SMART objectives is a good way to plan the steps to meet the long-term goal of the project.

When creating the requirements questionnaire, we need to work through each feature one at a time and prepare the questions like below mentioned:

How requirements questions are such as :

• How will be this feature used?
• Is this feature a process? If so, what are the steps?
• What questions need to be asked for this feature?
• How to meet the business needs?
• How to know the feature is complete?

Where requirements questions are such as :.

• Where does this process start?
• Where does this feature be used?
• Where are the users located while using this feature?
• Where would be the result visible?

When Requirements questions are such as :.

• When this feature starts?
• When this feature used?
• When this feature gives result?
• When this feature fails?

Who Requirements questions are such as :.

• Who will use this feature?
• Who will put inputs to the feature?
• Who will get the output of the feature?
• Who will get the result of the feature?
• Who will be benefited from the feature?

What requirements questions are such as :

• What is this feature?
• What I know about the feature
• What I assume about the feature need confirmation?
• What we need before this feature?
• What is needed after the feature?
• What is the usage of this feature?
• What result does it give?
• What needs to be tracked for this feature?

Why Requirements questions are such as :

Make why questions as a wrap up questions so that it will help to identify and confirm that the requirements are elicited are matching the project scope.

• Why this feature need for the project?
• IS there any other way to finish the project.
• Why is the feature important for the project.
• Why we did this project?

Once the questionnaire is prepared select few core questions and ask them to the stakeholders and let them talk. while they are talking about their vision for the product use the questionnaire and guide the conversation and ensure that sure that they are discussing the feature completely.