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New Post 12/1/2007 10:09 PM
User is offline Adrian M.
764 posts
3rd Level Poster




Re: Could you suggest how to facilitate a fact finding planning session to Gather requirements ?? 

Hi Kumar,

Great!  Now I have a better understanding of you are trying to accomplish.  It sounds like a great opportunity to practice and improve your skills.

The types of stakeholders, requirement gathering methods, project duration, types of documentation vary greatly from team to team and project to project.  There are so many factors that dictate how the BA should approach fact finding and requirements gathering.

Given that you only have 30 minutes you won't be able to get into too much detail so here is what I would do if I were you:

  • I would demonstrate that I have good organizational skills by preparing an agenda in advance with duration attach to each agenda item (ex: Project overview - 2 mins, etc.) Personally, I would create a Power Point presentation with the first slide (after cover slide) being the agenda.
  • I would demonstrate that I have good meeting facilitation skills by sticking to the agenda and the allocated duration for each item.  You can even announce upfront that you will have to stick to the agenda and that if you have to interrupt the conversation you will do so for the sake of time. 
  • While Microsoft CRM is your platform, I would not spend too much time in the session to discuss the features of the Microsoft CRM platform but may want to create a few slides in the Appendix of your presentation which include (at high level) information about what is Microsoft CRM, what features does it support, and how it can be extended/customized.  But do not go over those details in the session.  Just tell your audience that is just info for them to review later after the meeting.  You might also want to include links to internet resources about Microsoft CRM for more details.  Example: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb676084.aspx
  • Another thing that you can do before the meeting is create a questionnaire for the key stakeholder(s) to fill out in preparation for the meeting.  This will give you the opportunity to play with one more method of requirement gathering (questionnaires) and it will ensure that you have more information/direction before the meeting.  I would send this out and request that the stakeholder(s) return the it to you at least 1 week before your session so that you have time to review the answers and consolidate the information.
  • To create the questionnaire I would:
    • Ask the stakeholder to describe in one or two sentences what is the business problem that needs to be solved by the system.
    • Take a look at the some of the key CRM features of Microsoft and ask the stakeholders to identify those which are a high priority (a must), those which are medium priority (nice to have), and those which are not needed at this time.
    • Ask them to tell you any other features not listed and which are important to them.
    • Ask them to give you the list of roles (types of people) who will be using the software.
    • For each role (type of person) ask them to give a list of the types of things (the key things) which the user will be performing.
    • etc.
  • Once you have the answers back, you can consolidate them and create a draft of the vision/project charter (before the meeting) and publish this to the attendees (and ask them to read it before hand).
  • Since you don't have much time, you won't be able to gather all the requirements for the CRM solution in on 30 minute session so here how I would structure the actual meeting (using a power point presentation) - the main goal of your meeting is to gain consensus on the key features (use cases) to be supported by the system (you should have a draft of this in the vision document based on the questionnaire):
    • Overview of the Meeting Purpose and Agenda - 2 minutes
    • Read the Problem Statement from vision document and discuss/refine with stakeholders - 5 minutes
    • Read the list of roles/users who will use the system and discuss with stakeholders (which are the they ones and are there others) - 5 minutes
    • Discuss the key Use Cases (features) to be supported by the system - 15 minutes
    • Present Next Steps: your chance to tell them what you would do next - 3 minutes:
      • Discuss further in detail each use case and identify key requirements for each use case
      • If applicable, create process flows for how the CRM solution will be used in the bigger business context
      • Give/ask for a demo for the Microsoft CRM and its key features
      • Compare the key use cases and key requirements against Microsoft CRM and determine the gaps
      • etc.

Hope this helps you get started!

Best regards,

- Adrian


Adrian Marchis
Business Analyst Community Blog - Post your thoughts!
 
New Post 12/2/2007 6:21 PM
User is offline K
4 posts
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Re: Could you suggest how to facilitate a fact finding planning session to Gather requirements ?? 

Dear Adrian:

Your idea sounds really great,,,, Thank you so much. I am going to work on it. Let you know how it goes.

Thanks once again......

 
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