Requirements Elicitation Techniques for Business Analysts

Business analyst is a person who acts as a bridge in between a client and organization more likely organization's technical team in order to align the business needs and technical needs to achieve a organizational goal. In this process it is very important and crucial to list what are the clients requirements. Business analyst uses different elicitation techniques to find and extract requirements. There are several elicitation techniques available as per the availability of situation and process, those elicitation techniques are brainstorming, document analysis, reverse engineering, focus group, observation, workshop, joint application development, interview, prototyping and questionnaire. Brainstorming is a technique which is conduct with many to many approach for collecting information. It is used for generating and getting new ideas from a team. Brainstorming is generally uses at the initial phase of SDLC such as requirement analysis. Document analysis is a technique in which there is no direct interaction for gathering requirement but a process followed to gain the current process idea, to know the rules. In this document analysis previous data such as contracts, SOPs and compliance are understood to get requirements. Document analysis is done in early stages like requirement analysis. Reverse engineering technique is used when there is no documents available to know the functionality of current system or the document is outdated. It is also used in the early stages such as requirement analysis. Focus group is conducted with one to many approach, where opinions and feedbacks are collected from users to get requirements. It is used in early stages like requirement analysis. Observation is technique uses one to one approach. It it used when actual work is different than documented, also used at early stages for requirement elicitation. Workshop can be done at design stage in order to align or collaborate the team to get the requirements. It has many to many approach. Joint application development is a interaction in many to many approach. It is a fast techniques to elicit the requirements which generally conducted in the initial stage of cycle. Interview technique is used when individuals inputs are required so it is a one to one interaction for gathering requirements, it is generally conducted at the early stage like requirement analysis. Prototyping is technique used when stakeholders are not able to clearly maintain the requirements. Prototyping could be one to many or many to many interaction. In this technique the wireframes can be shown to stakeholders to elicit hidden requirements. Questionnaire is technique of elicitation requirement using one to many approach in this technique requirements are collected from a large group. This technique could involve feedback and survey forms for stakeholders. In organization several elicitation techniques are used in combination to get the final requirement list. User stories and Use cases are used to document the requirements from user perspective. These ensure the requirement are align with end user experience. Business analyst along with project manager strategically understand the business need and type of stakeholders to select the elicitation technique. A correct elicitation technique when conducted in effective manner helps to get accurate, correct and complete requirements. It also helps the SDLC to operate smoothly, less ambiguity and more clarity is obtained. These elicitation techniques helps to achieve organizational goal and ensure project success.