Do you struggle with finding the right questions to ask during requirements elicitation? If so,
I’ll be sharing the framework I use to develop questions for requirements activities.
Hi, everyone Dr. White here. The founder of The Business Analysis Doctor. Today we’ll be
discussing how to know what questions to ask during requirements gathering and elicitation.
But before we get started in be sure to subscribe and like this video if you find it helpful!!!!
So, I got a recent request to discuss the questions to ask during requirements elicitation.
The truth is, there’s no magic list of questions to ask because every situation is different;
however, there is a framework I learned several years ago that has proved to be
effective. And that framework is the 5 Ws and an H method. I originally learned this from the
book The Quest for Software Requirements but I’ve adjusted the framework a bit to derive
a richer set of questions. I’ll include a link to the book in the description. Now,
while 5 Ws and an H may seem like a pretty basic approach to requirements elicitation,
the key to optimizing this method is to adjust the focus of the framework based on the category
of requirements you are eliciting. The components in the framework include:
Who What Where When Why AND How
Now the 3 key Requirement categories to consider when eliciting requirements include
business requirements, stakeholder requirements, and solution requirements.
Business requirements – Identify “why” we are making the change. These are generally
presented in the form of goals, objectives, and expected outcomes.
Stakeholder Requirements – What stakeholders need in order to
meet the objectives. In Agile environments, these may take on the form of user stories.
Solution Requirements (Functional and nonfunctional requirements) –
What the system needs to do and how it needs to behave in order to support the
stakeholder requirements. In Agile these might be presented in the form of acceptance criteria.
So, let’s dig into this further.
Level 1 – Business Requirements Category
When you’re eliciting Business Requirements the framework should be applied to help you understand
why we need to make a change. For business requirements,
you might ask the following types of questions.
Why does a change need to be made? Business problem or opportunity – For this
W, it may also be useful to incorporate the 5 Whys method to ensure that you are
discovering the true problem or opportunity. What are we trying to achieve? Business value in
terms of goals, objectives, and outcomes? Who are the stakeholders? This may
include organizations, business areas, customers, external stakeholders impacted
by the change. Also, who is the sponsor? Where will the initiative be executed? This
question may be more or less complicated depending on the structure of the organizations, and the
geographic locations of the stakeholders involved. When does the chance need to happen by?
Allows for timebound objectives. How do we measure success? Allows
us to determine whether or not the needs were met once the initiative has been completed.
After you’ve used to questions above to build your business requirements.
Use the information to gather any applicable documents such as process maps, procedures,
organization charts to get some additional context to help you prepare the questions
for the next round of elicitation activities. Use the documents to prepare questions related
to the current state based on the information available to you. Once you start reviewing
the documentation, this will naturally stimulate curiosity that will allow you
to ask more rich and relevant questions during the next round of elicitation.
Level 2 – Stakeholder Requirements Category
Now you will use the 5 Ws and an H framework to flesh out the stakeholder requirements.
Again. Here we are trying to further refine the list of stakeholders, determine what each
stakeholder group needs to do in order to meet the business requirements for the initiative.
You will use this framework to analyze the current state during an activity such as an observation,
shadowing, or operational walkthrough to gain more context. Then you will ask
these questions again as you are defining the ideal future state.
For stakeholder requirements you might ask the following:
What processed or systems are involved or impacted by the initiative? What data or information
is required. What applications are involved? Why are these processes or systems performed?
Who are the contributors to these processes and systems? Who receives the deliverables
or outputs from these processes and systems? Where do these processed and systems take place?
Where are does the information live or come from? When do these processed and systems happen, when
do they occur, when does the information expire How are these processes and systems executed
(exact step and activities) – How is are the deliverable or outputs used
It’s usually best to prepare these questions in advance
and send them to the stakeholder prior to the elicitation session so that they are
prepared to think through these types of questions and have the answers available.
You want to give the stakeholders as much time as possible to prepare so they can
provide the best quality information possible during the session. If feasible,
you may ask the stakeholders to provide the responses prior
to the session, so that the meeting can be used where further elaboration or probing is needed.
Level 3 – Solution Requirements Category
Once the stakeholder requirements or user stories have been defined and verified. They will need to
be decomposed into solution requirements. Solution requirements communicate what the system needs to
do functionally and how it needs to perform in order to enable the stakeholder requirements.
For solution requirements, you might ask the following types of questions.
What does the system need to do,
what does the system need to display? What is the sequence of functional activities?
Why is this functionality needed? Helps determine the value of the requirement.
Who needs or is impacted by this functionality? Where does this functionality occur?
When does this functionality occur, when is it triggered, when does it end
How is the functionality initiated? How do we know when this functionality has been completed?
The framework is used to decompose each functional and nonfunction requirement
down to the most atomic level to ensure that it fully understood and represented.
Well there you have it folks, this is the Framework I use to Asking the
right questions during requirements elicitation.
If you have any questions or comments on this topic be sure
to leave a note below and I’ll get back to you!
Also, don’t forget to check out the resources available on my website thebadoc.com.
I hope you have a productive and prosperous week
and I wish you the very best on your BA journey, until next time!!! Bye now!