CommonSensical Requirements Gathering

This course focuses on the 2nd BABoK Knowledge area: Elicitation and Collaboration. Specifically sections 4.1 to 4.3 Preparing, Conducting, and Confirmation Elicitation.

Requirements elicitation is not simply gathering requirements. Requirements are not just laying around waiting for you to pick them up and write them out. Many times the users or clients themselves are not sure of what they want. All too often the most obvious requirements are wrong or incomplete. Requirements elicitation is all about learning & understanding the need by seeking, uncovering, acquiring, and elaborating.

CommonSense tells us if we want to elicit the requirements like the best of them, we need to learn from the experts.

Who are the experts at asking questions and getting answers? The top three answers:

• FBI Agents

• Mothers of Teenagers

• Curious 2 Year Olds

Like an FBI Agent: Understand basic human instincts and how to use them to your advantage; Which Techniques, Approaches, and Tools to use and when to use them; How to identify when someone is resistant to provide you with the information you need.

Like a Mother of a Teenage: Learn how to ask probing questions; When to use tough love; Let them know that you have their best interest at heart.

Like a 2-Year Old: Learn how to walk in the room with little or no assumptions; Don’t be afraid to ask the same question in different way; The power of why.