1. Elicitation Techniques

3. Overview
The requirements serve as the foundation for the solution to the business
needs .It is essential that the requirements be complete, clear, correct, and
consistent.
Typically, requirements are identified throughout the elicitation, analysis,
verification and validation activities.

5. 1. Preparation for Elicitation
2. Elicitation technique.
3. Documentation .
4. Confirm Elicitation Results
Topics covered

6. Prepare for Elicitation
Build a detailed schedule for a particular elicitation activity, defining the specific
activities and the planned dates.
Input
Business Need: Required to ensure that the business analyst understands
what
information should be elicited from the stakeholders.
Stakeholder List, Roles, and Responsibilities: Used to identify the
stakeholders who should participate in elicitation activities.

7. Here are the list of elicitation techniques defined by the BABOK for
business analysts:
Brainstorming
Interviews
Prototyping
Focus Groups
Document Analysis
Interface Analysis
Observation
Survey/Questionnaire
Root Cause Analysis
5 Why’s
Fishbone Analysis

8. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an excellent way to foster creative thinking about a problem.
The aim
of brainstorming is to produce numerous new ideas, and to derive from them
themes for further analysis.
 Clustering
 Listing
 Freewriting
Three Activities

9. Clustering
1. Start with the main topic of your essay. Write that word in the center of
your paper.
2. Write down any sub-topics that are connected to that main topic. Draw
arrows to the sub-topics from the main topic.

10. Listing
1. Start with the main topic of your essay. Write that word or words at the
top of your paper.
2. Write down any word or phrase that might relate to your main topic
underneath.
•Practice speaking with others
•Take classes
•Guess at the meanings of words
•Listen to radio or TV
•Observe others
•Set reasonable goals
•Don’t be afraid to experiment
•Study vocabulary in related topics
How to be a Successful
Language Learner

11. Freewriting
1. Start with the main topic of your essay. Write that word or words at the
top of your paper.
2. Freewriting is like talking to yourself on paper. Write as much as you
can in connected sentences (not lists) about your topic. Write as
quickly as you can without stopping to think about grammar or
organization.
My Favorite Book
My favorite book… I don’t know where to start. I read so many books
that are interesting that it’s hard to choose just one. I guess I could
start by talking about the kinds of books I really like. I like biographies
and autobiographies the best. I really enjoy reading about another
person’s life. One of my favorite books is called Roots by Alex Haley.
How the author was able to trace his family history all the way back to
Africa was amazing! Another book I really enjoyed was Carl Sandburg’s
biography of Abraham Lincoln. What an incredible president!

12. Pros and cons
Pros Cons
Brainstorming helps to reduce conflicts – it helps
participants to see other points of view and
possibly change their perspective on problems.
Can take too much time if the
group is not properly controlled
and is allowed to run for too long
Brainstorming brings new ideas on how to
tackle a particular problem – the
freethinking atmosphere encourages
creativity, even imperfectly developed
thoughts may push the thinking of other
participants.
Opponents may refuse to consider
each other's ideas. It is important
to explain to participants how the
results will be used to underline
that they are not wasting their
time.
All participants have equal status and an
equal opportunity to participate.

13. Interviews
An interview is a systematic approach designed to elicit information from a person
or
group of people in an informal or formal setting by talking to an interviewee,
asking
relevant questions and documenting the responses.
For the purpose of eliciting requirements, interviews
are of two basic types:
▶ Open end question.
▶ Closed end question.
**Make the interviewees aware of the goals of the
interview

14. Interviewing is not simply a matter of asking questions; it requires development
of some general social skills, the ability to listen, and knowledge of a variety of
interviewing tactics.
Four phases
• Identifying candidates
• Preparing for an interview
• Conducting the interview
• Following up
General guidelines
• Improve your understanding by summarizing, rephrasing,
showing implications
• Be an active listener
• Be courteous; keep the interviewee at ease
• Remain in control; bring the interview back on track
• Use non-verbal communication techniques

15. Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
Encourages participation and
establishes rapport with the
stakeholder
Interviews are not an ideal means of
reaching consensus across a group
of stakeholders.
Simple, direct technique that can be
used in varying situations.
Requires considerable commitment
and involvement of the participants.
Allows the interviewer and participant
to have full discussions and
explanations of the questions and
answers.
Training is required to conduct good
interviews. Unstructured interviews,
especially, require special skills.
Facilitation/virtual facilitation and
active listening are a few of them.

16. Prototyping
A software requirements prototype is a mock-up or partial implementation of a
software system
• Helps developers, users, and customers better understand system requirements
• Helps clarify and complete requirements
• Provides early response to “I'll know it when I’ll see (or won’t see) it” attitude
Prototyping is effective in resolving uncertainties early in the development
process
• Encourages user participation and mutual understanding

17. Prototypes can take many forms:
• Paper prototypes
• Screen mock-ups
Interactive prototypes
• Using high-level languages (e.g., Visual Basic, Delphi, Prolog)
• Using scripting languages (e.g., Perl, Python)
• Using animation tools (e.g., Flash/Shockwave)

20. Process for Prototyping
• Use Cases
•Activity Diagram
•Sequence Diagram
• Data Flow Diagram

21. Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
A prototype allows for early user
interaction and feedback.
Assumptions about the underlying
technology may need to be made
in order to present a starting
prototype.
Supports users who are more
comfortable and effective at
articulating their needs by using
pictures, as prototyping lets them
"see" the future system's interface.
A prototype may lead users to set
unrealistic expectations of the
delivered system's performance,
reliability and usability
characteristics.
It quickly uncover and confirm user
interface requirements.

22. Focus Groups
A focus group is composed of pre-qualified
individuals whose purpose is to discuss and
comment on a topic or a process . This is an
opportunity for individuals to share their own
perspectives and discuss them in a group setting.
This could lead participants to reevaluate their
own perspectives in the light of others'
experiences.

23. Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
Ability to elicit data from a group of
people in a single session saves
time and costs as compared to
conducting individual interviews
with the same number of people.
In the group setting, participants
may be concerned about issues of
trust, or may be unwilling to discuss
sensitive topics.
Effective for learning people's
attitudes, experiences and desires.
Data collected (what people say)
may not be consistent with how
people actually behave.
If the group is too homogenous the
group's responses may not
represent the complete set of
requirements.

24. Root cause analysis
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving used for
identifying the root causes of faults or problems.

25. 5 Why’s
The 5 whys are around asking ‘why’ to a problem , getting the answer
and then asking why again and again , until you come up with the real
root cause of a problem.
There can be more than one cause to a problem as well. In
an organizational context, generally root cause analysis is
carried out by a team of persons related to the problem.

26. Problem: Your client is refusing to pay for the leaflets you printed for
them.
Why? The delivery was late, so the leaflets couldn't be used.
Why? The job took longer than we anticipated.
Why? We ran out of printer ink.
Why? The ink was all used up on a big, last-minute order.
Why? We didn't have enough in stock, and we couldn't order it in quickly
enough.
Counter-measure: We need to find a supplier who can deliver ink at very short
notice.

27. Fishbone Analysis
Visual display of possible causes
Helps team reach common understanding of why loss
exists
The fishbone will help to visually display the many potential causes for a
specific problem or effect. It is particularly useful in a group setting and for
situations in which little quantitative data is available for analysis.

28. Cause and Effect Diagram Loading My Computer
PEOPLE METHODS
MATERIALS MACHINERY
OTHER
Cannot
Load
Softwar
e on PC
Inserted CD Wrong
Instructions are Wrong
Not Enough
Free Memory
Inadequate System
Graphics Card Incompatible
Hard Disk Crashed
Not Following
Instructions
Cannot Answer Prompt
Question
Brain Fade
CD Missing
Wrong Type CDBad CD
Power Interruption

29. Document Elicitation Results
For an elicitation event (brainstorming, focus groups, interviews, observation,
prototyping, requirements workshops) a summary of the output from the event,
including issues is produced.
Input
Elicitation Results: Includes the information provided by stakeholders that will be
recorded and structured.
Documentation can take a number of forms, including:
▶ Written documents describing the outcomes, such as meeting minutes
▶ Visual or audio recordings
▶ Whiteboards (either actual or virtual) where notes are retained until they are
transferred to another medium.

30. Confirm Elicitation Results
Some elicitation techniques benefit from reviewing the documented outputs with the
stakeholders to ensure that the analyst’s understanding conforms to the actual
desires
or intentions of the stakeholder.
Input
Requirements [Stated, Unconfirmed]: Represent the business analyst’s
understanding
of the stakeholder’s intentions.
Stakeholder Concerns [Unconfirmed]: Represent the business analyst’s
understanding
of issues identified by the stakeholder, risks, assumptions, constraints, and other
relevant
information that may be used in business analysis.

31. Q & A