Requirements elicitation techniques and rapid research in discovery
Key Takeaway
Many requirements are never written down, so you draw them out with elicitation techniques. Do your research first: review the customer's pre-reads and sketch a rough business process map from existing documents. Each session then builds on what you already know.
Discovery is the early project phase where you gather the information you need to understand a customer's business need before you design a solution. Many requirements live in people's heads and are seldom written down. You draw them out with techniques such as interviews, workshops, observation and process mapping. Quick research before those sessions keeps them focused, so you don't start from scratch.
Where discovery starts
Start discovery by asking every who, what, where, why, when and how question you can. For example, ask:
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What problem are you solving?
- Where is information entered, and where does it go next?
- Why does the work matter?
- How often does the work happen?
- How does it work now, and how should it work?
Discovery information falls into three high-level areas: project history, analysis and elicitation.