Introducing the stakeholders,
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The day begins
| Nancy | Bobbi arrives at the office, grabs a cup of coffee, sits down and reads her email. | |
| Bobbi | hmm… This afternoon, I’m meeting with Farouk, the VP Finance. I need to prepare. I can’t just talk off the top of my mind. I need to be mindful of his busy schedule and plan the questions that I want to ask him. | Prepare for Elicitation |
| Nancy | Bobbi plans for the interview. Identifies the questions. And does some quick data analysis so that she can reference the appropriate numbers and trends during the conversation. | Prepare for Elicitation |
| Nancy | Bobbi finished her preparation by 1030am. She wonders if now would be a good time to visit the IT Team in the basement. She knows Dave and Oliver well. She knows they appreciate a break from their work and will take time to talk with her. | Manage Stakeholder Collaboration |
Bobbi visits the IT Team
| Bobbi | Hi Dave. Good day Oliver. How are things today? | |
| Dave | We’re good. How about you? | |
| Bobbi | I’m fine, thanks.
I was talking with Valerie yesterday. There are problems with communications between the inventory management system and the supply chain management system. These problems are creating delays in order fulfillment. |
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| Oliver | The systems have been up and running fine. For once, I don’t think the problem is with IT. | |
| Bobbi | You’re right, the the problem is not with IT. But the problem is multifaceted. There is no automated information flow from one system to the other. The inventory management system signals that inventory is low, but the folks in supply change management are so busy requesting new shipments from suppliers and negotiating new supply arrangements, that they may not notice an alert until several a hours later. Valerie wants us to consider an automated interface between the inventory management system and the supply change system so that the process is no longer dependent upon humans to initiate the refill order. | |
| Dave | Sounds like a simple task. When do we get started? | |
| Bobbi | Not so fast, Dave. I need to collect some requirements first, and present Valerie with a list of options to consider. | Manage stakeholder collaboration |
| Bobbi | I know that IT could develop an interface, so I’ll present that as an option. The reason for my visit today is to discuss requirements from IT Operations. Requirements from IT Operations will apply no matter whether the solution is developed internally or via a third party. | |
| Bobbi | Bobbi, thanks for thinking about us. I’m happy to have a conversation with you about our requirements. |
The conversation takes place
| Narrator | Bobbi knows that the best way to start an elicitation activity is to set the context, and start with open ended questions. As she knows Oliver and Dave well, she keeps the conversation light and free flowing. It is more like a conversation, than an interview. She keeps the conversation focused on capabilities and services. She avoids conversation about specific vendors and technologies. She uses paraphrasing to confirm interpretation and understanding during the conversations. | Prepare for Elicitation |
| Bobbi | So, as I mentioned, Valerie is interested in automating the interface between the inventory management system system and the supply change management system. Without getting into terms of specific vendors, can you help me understand the pros and cons of a custom solution that would be developed by Dave and his team vs a third party solution? | Conduct Elicitation |
| Dave | Money and time. Those are the two factors. Something to be developed in house requires an our time to code, test, and support. If there are any enhancements or customizations are required, we can do it ourselves, which is a good thing… but again, it requires our time. | |
| Oliver | Dave’s right. Building something in house, does mean that the solution can be a tight fit with the existing systems, but it usually means that it is more difficult for us to support operationally. Third party solutions have big teams and lots of capabilities in their admin console that make it easier for us to maintain. | |
| Bobbi | Good point. So, while investing in our own solution will mean a tight integration with the existing systems, it will also mean more effort for the development and operations teams. Did I understand you correctly? | Confirm Elicitation Results |
| Oliver | Correct. | |
| Nancy | Bobbi asks another open ended question to gather additional information. | |
| Bobbi | Are there any other items we should consider from an operations perspective? | Conduct Elicitation |
| Oliver | Of course, there are the standard set of operations requirements. It has to support our current load of 1 million transactions an hour. It must fit into our current architecture. And it must have an operations console that allows us to tune and customize the performance of the interface. | |
| Bobbi | Wow, there is a lot that I hadn’t thought of. | |
| Nancy | Bobbi realizes that she doesn’t know much about the current architecture. There may be some important requirements here. She asks a few more open ended questions to gather additional detail. | |
| Bobbi | Oliver, please tell me about our current architecture. I’m sure that there are some critical details here that must be considered if we send this out to tender. | Conduct Elicitation |
| Oliver | Bobbi, there are too many details to mention in conversation. I’ll send you an architecture diagram that summarizes the architecture as well as the technical specifications for the inventory system and the supply chain system. | |
| Bobbi | Thanks Oliver. Is there anything else we need to consider in the solution? | Conduct Elicitation |
| Dave | Don’t forget that the interface must be able to support different character sets (because we have book titles in 25 different languages)… and the admin console must be bilingual with support for English and French. | |
| Narrator | Bobbi makes note of the different requirements. She notes that some are functional and others are non-functional, but she doesn’t worry about separating out these details now. She also knows not to mention the terms “functional requirements” and “non-functional” requirements with her stakeholders. Those terms confuse people who are not business analysts. | |
| Narrator | The conversation continues. Additional questions are posed and points are discussed. Some questions are open ended to seek insight and understanding. Some questions are more specific and detailed to gain clarification. | Conduct Elicitation |
The conversation concludes…
| Bobbi | Oliver, Dave. thanks for meeting with me today. I’m going to review my notes from our conversation and put them into the requirements management system. | |
| Nancy | Bobbi knows that a high level requirement gathering sessions, such as this one, is a really just the beginning of the her research. It is important to see if there are any other leads that she should investigate. So we asks for other contacts. | Prepare for Elicitation |
| Bobbi | Just wondering, is there any one else in the IT department that you think I should speak with? | |
| Oliver | Now that you mention it, Selena is out of the office today. I’m sure that there will be special IT security requirements… particularly if we are considering introducing a third party system. You know how careful she is. | |
| Bobbi | Thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to drop by tomorrow. | Prepare for Elicitation |
| Bobbi | Oliver, I’ll tag you as a reviewer of the requirements. When you get the notification, please connect to the system and confirm the requirements that I have written. Please add comments if you think there are any requirements that have been missed and need to be added, requirements that have been captured incorrectly, or if there are requirements that are no longer necessary. | Confirm Elicitation Results
and Communicate BA Information |
| Bobbi | After I have completed my preliminary requirement gathering sessions and entered the requirements into the system, I’ll review my notes. I’ll compare and analyze the requirements received from the various stakeholders. I may visit again to confirm any specific details that require clarification. Then, I’ll call a meeting so that we can begin brainstorming options. | Communicate BA Information
and Confirm Elicitation Results and Manage stakeholder collaboration |
| Oliver | Will do. Thanks for dropping in. I’m interested in seeing how this unfolds. |
Back at Bobbi’s desk
| Bobbi | I will record my notes and thoughts from my meeting with Oliver and Dave while they are still fresh in my mind. | |
| Nancy | Bobbi enters the requirements into the requirement management system, but stops about 45 minutes before her meeting with Farouk. She knows that she needs to clear her head and prepare for the meeting with the VP. The tone of this elicitation session will be much different from the one she just had with Oliver and Dave. Farouk is a serious, no-nonsense gentleman. She will need to be prepared, confident, and articulate. She reviews her questions while she nibbles on her lunch. | Prepare for elicitation |