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New Post 10/14/2010 11:05 AM
User is offline GBusiness
35 posts
9th Level Poster


Requirements Gathering Steps 

Hello,

 

What is the best answer when asked the following question?

What are the steps that you take when gathering requirements?

 

Thanks for your help!

Nadia

 
New Post 10/14/2010 8:53 PM
User is offline Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net
4th Level Poster




Re: Requirements Gathering Steps 

Have a look at the books here.  Also follow the links to Amazon and read the related/recommended books.

http://www.businessanalyst.com.au/

That's such a braod question there is no simple answer.

 

 
New Post 10/16/2010 8:40 PM
User is offline Jarett Hailes
155 posts
6th Level Poster




Re: Requirements Gathering Steps 

Hi Nadia,

As Craig mentioned there is no one answer to your question.  Perhaps you could give more context to the question: is this for a job interview?  Are you looking for a set process you can follow?

The BABOK does speak to various activities that you perform as part of requirements elicitation but not necessarily in a particular order which can give you ideas of some of the techniques you can use and things that should be done more often than not as part of the process.

If you're looking for a practical answer to a real world scenario, I'd suggest answering these questions yourself:

  • What is it that you want to have completed when you're done gathering requirements (documents, etc.)

  • Who do you need to communicate with in order to gather requirements and how can you interact with them?

  • What sort of timeframe do you have to accomplish your desired outputs?

  • What tools do you have to help you gather and document information?

  • Who needs to see your outputs and what do they need to do with them (validate, review, approve, etc.)?

Once you have thought about the parameters that will influence what you need to do and how you need to do it, the actual steps you need to perform become pretty self-evident.  For instance, if you say you need to have a list of requiments that was elicited and vetted from your end users who live halfway around the world, and you have access to web conferencing tools and have two weeks to get things done, you quickly realize what sort of things you need to do in order to accomplish your goal (schedule online meetings, review what is needed in your requirements document, prepare questions and activities to elicit information, document results, prepare draft, review with group, etc.).

 
New Post 10/17/2010 10:53 PM
User is offline KJ
243 posts
6th Level Poster


Re: Requirements Gathering Steps 

Nadia,

I concur with Larimar.

You need to know what the "ask" is, which means you need to produce a Terms of reference (TOR) – a high-level statement of what the user/stakeholder’s needs. Also known as a Project Brief, Project Initiation Documents, Project Rationale etc.
 
The TOR identifies
  • WHO the stakeholders are; and what will satisfy their expectations of the "ask"
  • WHEN the “ask” must completed by
  • WHAT is IN scope; and WHAT is OUT of scope for the “ask”
  • HOW the “ask” will be achieved
  • WHY we are doing the "ask" (eg. motivations, justifications etc)
  • WHERE the activities will take place
  • the budget required/available to "make it happen" (repositories, resources(who, money) etc).
 
TOR must have a SIGN-OFF/Accountable Person. Not having this person is one of the main causes of project failure.
 
Note: The TOR is about 4-6 pages only.
 
The TOR will greatly constrain the "what" and "how" of requirements gathering and delivery.
 
Warm regards,
K
 
New Post 10/18/2010 9:45 AM
User is offline GBusiness
35 posts
9th Level Poster


Re: Requirements Gathering Steps 

Hello Craig,

 

Thank you for your response. I found a book; " Use Cases: Requirements in Context (2nd Edition) - Daryl Kulak." Looking at the content, it looks like a great book. What do you think?

 

Thanks,

 

Nadia

 
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