Requirements Elicitation Techniques

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Requirements ElicitationTechniques
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Interviewing and questionnaires
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Interviewing

• Important
• Straightforward
• Simple and direct
• Can be used in any situation
• Can lead to Use and Developer syndrome
• Must eliminate biases and predispositions
• We each bring our world filter

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Context-free question

• A context-free question helps us gain an
  understanding of the real problem without biasing
  the users input
• Who is the user?
• Who is the customer?
• Are their needs different?
• Where else can a solution to this problem be
  found?
• Listen !!

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Context-free question

• These questions allow us to fully understand the
  customers problem
• Also what solutions, if any, the customer already
  envisions

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Value added context

• After the context-free questions are asked,
  suggested solutions can be explored
• After all thats what we are here for!
• Page 96-98 contains good examples of context-free
  and non-context-free questions

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The interview

• Prepare an appropriate context-free interview and
  write it down for reference
• Research the background of the stakeholder and
  the company to be interviewed
• Record answers
• Refer to template as necessary

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The interview

• Ok to wander off course, as long as the
  interviewer keeps the goal in mind
• Keep dive dialogues by the customer are ok!
• This data forms the basic user needs that go near
  the top of the pyramid

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Compiling the need data

• Summarize the three most important needs or
  problems
• Ten interviews may produce 10-15 different needs
• There is really no substitute for the interview
• Do it first
• Do it for every new class of problem
• Do it for every new project

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Questionnaires

• May seem to be more efficient
• Think about the time/effort you spend in doing a
  questionnaire
• Personal contact, report building, etc is too
  important
• Problems with questionnaires
• Relevant questions cannot be decided in advance
• Assumptions behind questions bias results
• Difficult to explore new domains
• Unclear responses hard to follow up on

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Requirements workshops
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Accelerate the decision process

• Powerful techniques for gathering data
• Designed to encourage consensus
• Rapid agreement on course of action
• Key stakeholders participate
• Short 1 to 2 days
• Facilitated

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Benefits

• Assists in building an effective team committed
  to the project
• All stakeholders get their say
• Forges agreement between stakeholders and
  developers
• Expose and resolve political issues
• Output is preliminary system definition at the
  features level

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Preparing for the workshop

• Selling the concept
• Communicate the benefits
• Ensure participation of the right stakeholders
• Important to have the right people
• Logistics
• Structure the proper invitation
• Travel arrangements
• Meeting room

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Preparing for the workshop

• Warm up materials
• Send materials out in advance
• Project specific information
• Drafts of requirements documents
• Lists of suggested features
• Copies of interviews
• Analysts reports
• Marketing data
• Out of box thinking materials
• Rules for brainstorming, etc

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Role of the facilitator

• Should be experienced in requirements management
• Should have some training
• Demonstrated consensus building or team building
  skills
• Well respected and personable
• Strong enough to chair
• Preferably not a team member

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Possible agenda

• Introduction
• Context
• Brainstorming
• Lunch
• Brainstorming
• Feature definition
• Idea reduction and prioritization
• Wrap up

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Running the workshop
Problem Solution
Time management Facilitator keeps a kitchen timer for all breaks, etc
Grandstanding, domineering positions Use a 5-minute position statement to regulate input. Use a parking lot for later discussion
Lack of user input from stakeholders Encourage at least one idea per person
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Running the workshop
Problem Solution
Negative comments, petty behaviors Various techniques to use
Flagging energy after lunch Light lunches, midafternoon snack breaks, rearrange room, change lighting or temperature
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Brainstorming and idea reduction
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Key points

• Brainstorming is a collection of techniques that
  are useful to use when the stakeholders are
  collocated
• Primary benefits
• Encourages participation by all parties
• Participants can piggy back on others ideas
• Maintain a written trail of all discussion
• High bandwidth and broad solution set

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Brainstorming Rules

• Do not allow criticism or debate
• Let your imagination soar
• Generate as many ideas as possible
• Mutate and combine ideas
• What features would you like?
• What services would you like?
• What things to keep track of ?

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Write down the ideas

• Make sure they are captured in that persons
  words
• Make sure they are not lost
• Enable them to be posted for later piggybacking
• Prevent delays in the creative process

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Idea reduction

• Pruning eliminate those ideas not worthy of
  future investigation
• There should be some out of box thinking ideas
• Any disagreement means it stays on the list
• Similar ideas grouped

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Grouping ideas

• New features
• Performance issues
• Enhancements to current features
• User interface and ease of use issues
• Further idea generation may be needed on the
  grouped ideas

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Feature definition

• Write a short description of the idea that was
  proposed
• Ensure common understanding
• Should not take long to do

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Example
Application context Brainstormed feature Feature definition
Home lighting automation Automatic lighting settings Homeowner can create preset time-based schedules for certain lighting events to happen, based on the time of day
Sales order entry system Fast Fast enough response time to not interfere with typical operations
Defect tracking system Automatic notification All registered parties will be notified via e-mail when something has changes
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Prioritization

• Probably cannot do everything on the list
• Cumulative voting the hundred dollar test
• Can only be used once for biasing reasons
• Critical (indispensable), important significant
  loss in customer utility), useful ( nice to
  have) categorization