elicitation

Elicitation

(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the Best! 2

Is elicitation same as requirements gathering?

What has been your experience with elicitation?

Why elicitation is difficult?

How can we do a better elicitation?


Zohari Window for BA

BA Knows

Yes No

Client Knows

Yes

No

How do we reduce the segment?Requirements unknown to Client and Business Analyst?

Picture perfect…

5(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the Best!

Conversation between business and IT• Users: Can’t they speak plain English?• Programmers: Why can’t they cross their t-s and

dot their I-s?• Users: Why should we spell out the

kindergarten stuff for them?• Programmers: They are incapable of making

their mind once and for all!!!• Users: They can’t grasp the reality of changing

business environment.• Programmers: They don’t understand what IT

can or can’t do for them.• Users: They are computer freaks, unfamiliar

with the business needs• Programmers: Talk to three users and you get

six contradictions.• Users: They can’t deal with the needs of our

entire business community.• Programmers: We’ve done it right.• Users: We do not want what they gave us! Any

solutions?• Programmers: We hate them.(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the Best!

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Challenges in elicitation• Users omitting to identify

requirements• Users and Analysts taking

certain knowledge for granted and failing to ensure that there is a common understanding

• Lack of clarity in the wordings

• Ambiguity of written language

• Conflicts between requirements

• No way to test• Providing a solution rather

than stating requirements• Lack of consensus among

business users• Getting into solution domain

(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the Best!

7

Elicitation

Prepare for elicitation

Conduct elicitation activity

Document elicitation

results

Confirm elicitation

results


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Elicitation Tools..01• Observation

– Observation relies on studying people performing their jobs, and is sometimes called 'job shadowing' or 'following people around'.

• Data dictionary and glossary– Data dictionaries or glossaries are

used to formally identify and define all terminology used by the organization or organizational unit

• Document Analysis– Document analysis includes

analysis of business plans, market studies, contracts, RFP, SoW, training guides, product literatures etc.


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Elicitation Tools..02• Data model

– A data model usually takes the form of a diagram supported by textual descriptions. It visually represents the types of people, places, things and concepts that are important to the business, attributes associated with them, and the significant business relationships among them.

• Data flow diagrams– Data Flow Diagram (DFD) provides

a visual representation of how information is moved through a system.

• Sequence Diagrams– A sequence diagram shows how

classes and objects interact during a scenario. (c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the

Best!10

Prepare for elicitation• Assemble the elicitation team• Acquire domain knowledge

– Read about the organization on web– Read proposal document– Go through the communications for

the project• Identify stakeholders and

anticipate their requirements/wish-lists

• Plan for elicitation• Communicate the plan to all

stakeholders and obtain buy-in• Identify and communicate ground

work that the customer can perform before start of the elicitation activity


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Prepare for elicitationPurposeEnsure all needed resources are organized and scheduled for conducting elicitation activities.

Element• Clarify specific scope for

selected elicitation technique.• Schedule all resources. • Notify appropriate parties of

the elicitation plan.


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Elicitation techniques• Interviews• Workshops• Observation• Scenarios• Prototyping• Brainstorming• Document analysis• Interface analysis• Focus groups


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Interviews• Benefits

– Build personal rapport– Understand individual concerns

and expectations– User data collection– Underlying political factors

• Disadvantages– Time and effort consuming– Unverified opinions– Largely qualitative inputs

• Preparations– Who– Why– What– When – and Where


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Tips for conducting interviews• Be prepared• Be punctual• Set-up time in advance• Do background reading• Ask for leading

questions• Keep tab on time• Collect associated

artifacts which may be useful later

• Take notes• Clarify, do not assume


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Would you like to add any other tips for conducting interviews?

During elicitation• Self introduction• Explaining the purpose of the

discussion• Understanding the process• Challenges of current

process• Asking for existing policies,

processes, templates and

reports• Understanding business rules• Users of the system• Interactions with other

systems• Identify non-functional

requirements• Time frame of implementation


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Workshops• Advantages

– Broader view– Increased speed and

productivity– Obtain consensus on

requirements– Help in prioritization

• Disadvantages– Difficult to organize– Without proper authority,

decisions taken can be changed

• Preparations– Who– Why– What– When – and Where


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Facilitating workshops


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Workshop

Stepwise refinement

Post-it exercise

Brainwriting

Brainstorming

Round robin

Discovery Documentation

Process Models

Use case diagrams

Task Scenario

Rich pictures

Mind Maps

Context Diagrams

Observation• Advantages

– Observe real work– Develop workable solutions

• Disadvantages– People may behave differently

when they are under observation


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Prototyping• It is difficult for users to

envisage new systems unless they experience it

• Advantages– Clarify requirements– Get new requirements– Feedback on usability

• Disadvantages– Unless controlled, can get

into end-less iterations– Raise user expectations– Users may think prototype is

the final product


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Non-functional requirements (NFRs)• NFRs are also known as Quality

Attributes• Unlike functional Requirements,

NFRs state constraints to the system as well as particular behavior that the system must have

• Qualities and Constraints of the application – Qualities of Application -

Performance, Usability, Security, Portability etc

– Constraints – conditions/limitations on the application due to its environment or the qualities of service

– Windows/Intel compliance, average throughput cannot ever be less than 100 transactions/second(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the

Best!22

Nowadays, the market demands more and more non-functional aspects to be implemented in information systems besides its functionality. Errors due to omission of NFRs or not properly

dealing with them are among the most expensive type and most difficult to correct.

Types of NFRs• Scalability• Performance• Portability• Reliability • Maintainability• Usability• Security


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• Availability• Manageability• Extensibility• Re-usability• Internationalization• Localization

Video on Non-functional requirements

Other approaches• Questionnaires• Special purpose records• Activity analysis• Document Analysis• Advantages

– Quick– Cost effective

• Disadvantages– Low response rate– No personal touch


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Conduct Elicitation Activity

PurposeMeet with stakeholder(s) to elicit information regarding their needs.

Element• Trace requirements.• Capture requirement

attributes.• Construct metrics.

[Note: The term construct metrics in BABOK refers to collecting effort data to plan future BA activities.]


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SMART requirements• Specific

– Without ambiguity, using consistent terminology, simple and at the appropriate level of detail

• Measurable – It is possible to verify that this requirement has been met.

What tests must be performed, or what criteria must be met to verify that the requirement is met?

• Attainable– Technically feasible. What is your professional judgement

of the technical 'do-ability' of the requirement?• Realizable

– Realistic, given the resources. Do you have the staffing? Do you have the skill? Do you have access to the development infrastructure needed? Do you have access to the run-time infrastructure needed? Do you have enough time?

• Traceable and Testable– From its conception through its requirement specification

to its subsequent design, implementation and test(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the Best!

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Document elicitation results

PurposeRecord the information provided by stakeholders for use in analysis.

Element• Minutes of meeting.• Visual or audio recordings.• Whiteboards.


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Document Elicitation Results

Requirements Specifications

Requirements Specifications

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Why 2 versions – Excel and Word???

Words to be avoided• Incomplete lists ending with

'etc'., 'and/or', and 'TBD'.• Vague words and phrases

such as 'generally', 'normally', 'to the greatest extent', 'properly' and 'where practicable'.

• Imprecise verbs such as 'supported', 'handled', 'processed', or 'rejected'.

• Implied certainty, flagged by words such as ‘always’, 'never', 'all', or 'every'.


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Words to be avoided• Passive voice, such as 'the counter is set'. (By

whom or what?)• Pronouns, particularly 'it' or 'its'. Each should

have an explicit and unmistakable reference.• Comparatives, such as 'earliest', 'latest',

'highest'. Words ending in 'or' or 'est' should be suspect.

• Words and phrases that cannot be quantified, such as flexible, modular, achievable, efficient, adequate, accomplish, possible (or possibly), correct (or correctly), minimum required, minimum acceptable, better, higher, faster, less, slower, infrequent, to the extent specified, to the extent required, be compatible, to be associated with.(c) Adaptive Processes Consulting Be with the

Best!32

Words to be avoided• Words and phrases whose meaning can be

disputed between developer and customer, such as instantaneous, simultaneous, achievable, finish, degraded, a minimum number of, nominal/normal/aver-age, minimum, steady-state, coincident, adjacent, synchronous.

• Contractually troublesome phrases:– 'Design goal'. The developer will spend money

and other resources with no guarantee of goal accomplishment.

– 'To the extent practicable'. A decision in the eyes of the developer.

– 'Where applicable'. There are no criteria for judgment.

– 'Shall be considered'. The developer will think about.

– 'A minimum of X'. The developer will provide exactly X.


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Confirm Elicitation Results

PurposeValidate that stated requirements expressed by stakeholders match stakeholder’s understanding of the problem and their needs.

Element• Confirm elicitation results.


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Role play on elicitationTime : 60 Minutes


elicitation

Documents

business usersgetting

business analyst

business needsprogrammers

elicitation tools

analysis of business

better elicitation

entire business community

data modela data model