Question

What plan would you put into place before starting requirements elicitation activities? Explain each component of your plan.

Answer 1

Before starting requirements elicitation activities the plan that I will put into place will start by determining the underlying purpose of your requirements elicitation plans. This will entail developing an understanding of the business objectives as well as project deliverables that are required by starting the activity itself. This step will help in deciding which approach with regards to requirements elicitation should be taken with regards to number of stakeholders to be engaged. It will also look into the aspect of which stakeholder groups must be represented and the format for engaging the identified stakeholders.

The purpose of the above plan is to help to establish feasibility early. Focus will be on problem domain, solution system and their interface. Problem domain will include domain properties and requirements. Solution system will include hardware and software. Interface will include specifications like description of the solution and system needed to satisfy the problem.

The plan should include the following – objectives, strategies and processes, products of elicitation efforts, schedule and resource estimates and risks. Objectives will specify what the elicitation is for. Strategies and processes will focus on approaches that will be used. Different approaches are usually used for different stakeholders. Expected elicitation products will usually be a set of rough requirements in the form of documentation. Elicitation is incremental and is driven by information obtained. Schedule and resource estimates will look at identifying development and customer participants in various elicitation activities. Identifying elicitation risks will look at factors that will possibly impede completion of elicitation activities. Severity of each risk is looked at and mitigation strategy of each risk is then developed.