Business Analysis - Elicitation - Preparation

It has been a while since I post article related with business analysis. The menu for today is about elicitation. The words is so unfamiliar for me. So let's check out the meaning for elicitation first from Wikipedia :

Elicitation may refer to:

• Elicitation (intelligence), collecting intelligence information from people as part of human intelligence (intelligence collection)
• Elicitation technique or elicitation procedure, any of various data collection techniques in social sciences or other fields to gather knowledge or information from people
• Expert elicitation, the synthesis of opinions of experts on a subject where there is uncertainty due to insufficient data
• Requirements elicitation, the practice of obtaining the requirements of a system from users, customers and other stakeholders

Conclusion : Elicitation = collecting collection about information or subject or requirements.

Before we move into the main article, please check the previous chapter about business analysis : overview and approach. The main article is taken from BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) and summarized by me.

Chapter 3 - Elicitation

Elicting requirements is a key task in business analysis. Because the requirements serve as the foundation for the solution to the business needs it is essential that the requirements be complete, clear, correct, and consistent. Leveraging proven means to elicit requirements will help meet these quality goals. The definition of elicitation is :

• to draw forth or bring out (something latent or potential)
• to call forth or draw out (as information or a response)

Eliciting requirements is not an isolated or compartmentalized activity. Typically, requirements are identified throughout the elicitation, analysis, verification and validation activities.

To full examine and define the requirements a combination of complementary elicitation techniques is typically used. A number of factors (the business domain, the corporate culture and environment, the skills the analyst and the requirements deliverables that will be created) guide which techniques will be used.

Elicitation deliverables depend on the elicitation techniques used, e.q., interview notes, survey responses, glossary terms, and so forth.

It is expected that at some point while performing elicitation that sufficent material will have been elicited from the business experts to allow analysis activities to begin. The combined result of all the elicitation techniques used will serve as input to building the selected analytical models. Missing, incomplete or incorrect requirements will ideally be exposed during the analysis activities, thus requiring additional elicitation.

Note : the performance of all elicitation activities are governed by the business analysis plans (see 2.3), and business analysis performance metrics should be tracked (see 2.6).

3.1 Prepare for Elicitation

#Purpose
Ensure all needed resources are organized and scheduled for conducting the elicitation activities.

#Description
Build a detailed schedule for a particular elicitation activity, defining the specific activities and the planned dates.

#Input
Business Need : Required to ensure that the BA understands what information should be elicited from the stakeholders. This input is used when eliciting business requirements.

Solution Scope and Business Case : Required to ensure that the BA understand what information should be elicited from the stakeholders. These inputs are used when eliciting stakeholder, solution and transition requirements.

Stakeholder List, Roles, and Responsibilities : Used to identify the stakeholders who should participate in elicitation activities.

#Elements

• Clarify the specific scope for the selected elicitation technique and gathers any necessary supporting materials.
• Schedule all resources (people, facilities, equipment).
• Notify appropriate parties of the plan.

For event-based elicitation (brainstorming, focus group, interview, observation, prototyping, requirements workshop) ground rules must be established. Agreement is reached with the stakeholders as to the form and frequency of feedback during the elicitation process as well as the mechanism for verifying and signing off on the elicited results.

#Techniques
Additional information on the performance of this task can be found in the description of relevant techniques.

• Brainstorming (9.3)
• Document Analysis (9.9)
• Focus Groups (9.11)
• Interface Analysis (9.13)
• Interviews (9.14)
• Observation (9.18)
• Prototyping (9.22)
• Requirements Workshop (9.23)
• Survey / Questionnaire (9.31)

#Stakeholders
All Stakeholders : Depending on the requirements of the elicitation activity, any stakeholder may be a participant.

Project Manager : The PM will assist in ensuring that the needed resources are available.

#Output
Schedule Resources : This includes the participants, the location in which the elicitation activity will occur, and any other resources that may be required.

Supporting Material : Any material required to help explain the techniques used for perform them.

...

Next : Conduct Elicitation Activity