Requirements Elicitation - Part 1

By Katlego Raboshakga

Requirements elicitation is regarded by many IT practitioners as the first step in any systems development project. The success or failure of any computerized system depends on how well this process is undertaken, amongst other things. Simply put, requirements elicitation is the process of getting the requirements of a system from the user community and other stakeholders. According to Christel and Kang, requirements elicitation is ““the process of identifying needs and bridging the disparities among the involved communities for the purpose of defining and distilling requirements to meet the constraints of these communities”

Within the requirements elicitation process there are a few key activities that have to be performed. These activities include but are not limited to, defining the product vision and project scope, identifying customers, stakeholders and users, selecting product champions and choosing elicitation techniques. In eliciting the requirements the analyst has to ensure that the requirements are consistent and feasible and also has to validate them to ensure that they are an accurate reflection of the user’s needs. Requirements elicitation is an iterative process that takes place throughout the development life cycle and in this way changing and new emerging requirements are taken into account.

As mentioned above one of the primary activities of requirements elicitation is choosing a technique or a number of techniques that will optimally enhance the requirements gathering process. Some of the more common techniques are brainstorming, document analysis, focus groups, interviews, prototyping and requirements workshops. Thorough preparation has to take place before any of these techniques can be used. Detailed schedules have to be compiled and all the necessary resources should be properly organized to achieve the best results.

Finally, once the requirements are in place a CASE tool should be used to document them. This documentation should be updated as and when the requirements change. The analysts must ensure that there is good communication between them and the stakeholders to ensure that any other requirements are not left out.

References

Christel M., And Kang K, Issues in Requirements Elicitation, Available from http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/92.reports/pdf/tr12.92.pdf, (Accessed 25 August 2009)

Borland (May 2009), Effective Requirements Definition and Management

International Institute of Business Analysis, A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide), Version 2.0