The key to any successful elicitation is asking the right questions. Based on an incredibly useful article I found by Mark Monteleone, this list of questions will help you successfully start any elicitation, regardless of scope.
Related articles:
How to Successfully Conduct Stakeholder Interviews
How to Become More Confident in Requirements Elicitation
Key stakeholder questions
Capture business requirements that trace back to the stated business needs in the project vision and scope.
- Describe how your organization fits into the company?
- How does your organization contribute to the strategic plan of your company?
- Where are your organization’s locations?
- What is your management organization structure?
- What are the processes of your organization? What business decisions (business rules) are made in your processes? Who owns the processes? What process measurements are used? What regulations are abided by?
- Who are your suppliers and what do they provide your organization? Who are your customers (internal/external) and what does your organization provide them?
- How does the organization measure its success?
- How does the organization obtain feedback from its customers?
- Are there any significant organization events during the year?
- What is the single item which will make this organization more successful?
- What is the single item which will make this organization less successful?
- On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest) where would you put this organization regarding the risk to the company and why?
- What doesn't get enough (or gets too much) attention in the organization?
User questions
Capture user requirements for later analysis
- Descibe your role in the organization?
- What are your major responsibilities? What business decisions (business rules) do you make in your job?
- With whom do you interact to carry out your responsibilities?
- What information do you use in your job? What forms do you use?
- What computer systems do you use in your job? Are there any events for which the system provides alerts? Are there any new alerts needed?
- How do you measure success in your job?
- What is occurring that is helping/inhibiting you to do your job?
- What skills are needed in your present job?
- What training did you receive for your present job?
- What would you change about the way you carry out your responsibilities?
- What do you see as the major critical issues facing the organization?
- What areas for improvement have you observed?
Condition questions
Capture the environmental conditions that are needed along with the capabilities of the system.
- How quick do you need the system to respond?
- How many users will use the system at the same time? What is the user growth expected?
- When does the system need to be available?
- Are there any environmental considerations for the system (weather, heat, cold, sunlight, humidity, power, etc.)?
- What type of on-line help is needed for novices? What short-cuts are needed for power users?
- What formal system training is needed? What formal system documentation is needed?
- What frequency of backups is needed? How long do transactions need to be retained? For extensive outages, what disaster backup and recovery are needed?
- What level of security is needed? What audit requirements are needed?
Legacy questions
Capture system transition requirements needed for a smooth system implementation.
- Does a legacy system need to continue for a period of time after the new system is implemented?
- Do any data files or business rules need to be conveyed upon implementation of the new system?
Sponsor questions
Capture feedback on how change needs to be managed.
- In your opinion what are the project risks? What are the chances of success vs. failure? Why?
- How will you measure the success of the project? How will you measure the success of the business impact of the project?
- If you received additional funding for this project, what would you do with it?
- If you received additional time for the project, what would you do?
- What items could be discarded from the project plan and no one would notice or care?
- If you could have anyone in the world work on this project, who would it be and why would you want that person?
- What information do you want to keep abreast concerning this project?
- How often and by what means would you prefer to be informed about the project?
Other related articles
How to Effectively Run a Requirements Workshop
How to Successfully Conduct Stakeholder Interviews
How to Become More Confident in Requirements Elicitation
Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement
- Mark Ridgwell
very good list of questions. thank you for sharing this
Posted by: sabina | March 18, 2010 at 02:18 PM