Lecture Notes: Developing Questions for Requirements Elicitation

Introduction

• Presenter: Dr. White, Founder of The Business Analysis Doctor
• Topic: Framework for developing questions during requirements elicitation
• Objective: Understanding what questions to ask during requirements gathering and elicitation.

Framework Overview

• Primary Method: Adapted 5 Ws and an H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How)
• Source: Inspired by The Quest for Software Requirements

Key Requirement Categories

1. Business Requirements

• Objective: Understand why a change is needed
• Forms: Goals, objectives, expected outcomes
• Questions to Ask: (Adjusted 5 Ws and H)
  • Why: Why does a change need to be made? (Consider using the 5 Whys method)
  • What: What are we trying to achieve? (Business value, goals, objectives, outcomes)
  • Who: Who are the stakeholders? (Organizations, business areas, customers, sponsors)
  • Where: Where will the initiative be executed?
  • When: When does the change need to happen by?
  • How: How do we measure success?
• Post-Elicitation: Gather documents like process maps, procedures, organization charts for additional context

2. Stakeholder Requirements

• Objective: Determine what each stakeholder group needs to meet business requirements
• Approaches: Observation, shadowing, operational walkthroughs
• Questions to Ask: (Adjusted 5 Ws and H)
  • What: What processes or systems are involved or impacted? (Data required, applications involved)
  • Why: Why are these processes or systems performed?
  • Who: Who are the contributors and recipients?
  • Where: Where do these processes and systems occur?
  • When: When do these processes and systems occur?
  • How: How are these processes and systems executed? (Steps, activities, deliverables)
• Preparation: Send questions to stakeholders in advance for better quality responses

3. Solution Requirements (Functional & Non-functional)

• Objective: Determine what the system needs to do and how it should perform to support stakeholder requirements
• Questions to Ask: (Adjusted 5 Ws and H)
  • What: What does the system need to do/display? What is the sequence of functional activities?
  • Why: Why is this functionality needed?
  • Who: Who needs or is impacted by this functionality?
  • Where: Where does this functionality occur?
  • When: When does this functionality occur (start, trigger, end)?
  • How: How is the functionality initiated? How do we know when it’s completed?
• Post-Elicitation: Decompose functional and non-functional requirements to an atomic level

Conclusion

• Contact: Leave comments or questions below the video or visit thebadoc.com for resources
• Closing Remarks: Best wishes on your BA journey!