Contents

Brainstorming.......................................................................................................................................... 1
Joint Application Development ............................................................................................................. 3
Document analysis .................................................................................................................................. 6
Focus group ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Interface analysis .................................................................................................................................... 7
Interview ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Observations ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Prototyping ............................................................................................................................................. 8
Survey/Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................. 8
Paper white board prototyping .............................................................................................................. 8
Decision analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Process Modelling ................................................................................................................................... 9
User Task Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 9
Reverse Engineering................................................................................................................................ 9
Delphi Technique .................................................................................................................................... 9
Nominal Group Technique ...................................................................................................................... 9
Stakeholder analysis ............................................................................................................................... 9
Use case and scenarios ........................................................................................................................... 9
Reused Requirements ............................................................................................................................. 9
Card Sorting ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Questions ................................................................................................................................................ 9

https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/BAF/Elicitation+Techniques#ElicitationTechniques-
DocumentAnalysis

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a requirement gathering technique that involves generating and contributing ideas
by a selected group of members in a group session. The objective of a brainstorming session is to
look at a system design problem in a group setting and come up with creative ideas through having
constructive discussion in the session. Brainstorming not only involves design experts but a diverse
group of stakeholders of varied skills and experience. It involves spontaneous generation of ideas
from all relevant stakeholders and therefore the participants are encouraged to be as interactive as
possible and come up with ingenious solutions to complex design problems. There are no observers
in a brainstorming session. Everybody is a participant except the facilitator who coordinates with the
participants, directs proceedings and records ideas. Brainstorming has following broad rules:

1. More Encouragement, less or no criticism

Ideas are encouraged and participants should never be hesitant to express an idea, no
matter how unfeasible it might look initially. Criticism can wait until the evaluation phase of
a brainstorming session.

2. Quantity of ideas
The initial phase of a brainstorming session focuses on quantity. Therefore, the more ideas
are received, the better it is for the session. Diversity of ideas is welcomed and out-of-box
thinking is encouraged.

3. Collaboration
As the participants come up with new ideas, they are expected to discuss it with everyone
and make it better. Therefore, the ideas expressed in a rudimentary form are supposed to
be refined through discussions.

Phases of a Brainstorming Session

1. Objective
The participants must understand the main purpose of the brainstorming session. The
purpose of the session has to be clear and announced by the facilitator before it starts. The
problem description should be made clear prior to the start of the session.

2. Brainstorm ideas
The Ideas have to be written down and further refined. The facilitator should encourage
ideas from every member of the team.

3. Collaborate
Each idea has to be thoroughly discussed and each participate encouraged to give his own
opinion so that a more evolved version of the idea is generated.

4. Evaluate

We have to keep all the ideas visible to all members and allow them to critique them.

Each idea has to be evaluated for their feasibility and cost. We can use a scoring system like
the following :
 Generated Idea Low Cost Feasibility Scalability TOTAL
6 6 7 19/30
6 5 7 18/30
5 5 5 15/30

We can use scoring systems for other abstract factors.

Develop
Generated Idea Inhouse Outsource Hire consultant

5. Prioritize
We have to consolidate all the ideas along with their scores and prioritize them.

6. Agree on the action plan

We have to shortlist ideas based on the prioritization of ideas and go ahead with the agreed
upon plan. Voting can be used to reach a consensus.

Thus, Brainstorming of properly used can be helpful in generating innovating ideas leading to an
increase in overall efficiency in the system design process.

References

[1]. http://www.tutorialspoint.com
[2] http://www.businessballs.com
[3] Wikipedia.org
[4] http://www.brighthubpm.com
[5] http://www.modernanalyst.com

Joint Application Development

Joint Application Development (JAD) is a requirement gathering and prototyping technique
that uses the input provided by end users in a collaborative setting or a workshop for
system design. Relevant stakeholders are involved in the discussion along with end users
and product owners until the requirements are narrowed down and agreed upon. It is a
considerable improvement upon the more commonly used requirement-gathering
technique, namely interviewing. Interviewing takes the personal point-of-view of every
stakeholder and tries to piece together a picture for the overall system design. Joint
application Development is faster and provides a better group perspective combining the
views of an end user as well as a system design architect.

History

It was conceived by New York telephone Co’s system development centre in mid 1970s.
Following its success, IBM further developed it and defined processes and methodologies
associated with JAD for best results.

Participants

Here is the list of key participants in a JAD session:

1. Sponsor: His/her job is to make key decisions regarding the project like defining the
functional features, approving design documents, setting the purpose for JAD
sessions etc.
2. Facilitator: His job is to organize and conduct the JAD session. This role is extremely
important as the success of the session/workshop depends on the communication
skills of the facilitator. His should be free of any bias or any preconceived notions.
3. User: Their job is to help the design process and provide expert feedback and
guidance on their domain area. They represent all potential users that are affected
by this project.
4. Scribe: Their job is to document the proceedings and the meeting minutes.
5. Observers: They are usually silent observers who are members of development
team.
 Fig. 1 Phases of Joint Application Development
Phases of JAD
1. Purpose
It defines the overall goal of the session/workshop. An overarching scope of the
session has to be established and the agenda prepared. Project sponsors and JAD
session team members should be identified at this stage.

2. Objectives
This stage involves more elaborate planning and defining various deliverables
broadly. The expectations and exit criteria of a JAD session has to be established at
this stage. A schedule has to be prepared and it should be ensured that all
participating members are familiar with the terminology. The risks encountered
during the project has to be discussed.

3. Lists/Research
This stage involves establishing and defining various business processes, teams and
other business entities that are going to be part of the project.

4. High-level Design session and final document

This stage involves kicking-off the design session, which is done by the executive
sponsor explaining the high-level requirements to all stakeholders. A High level,
technology agnostic design modelling is done at this stage by the end users several
of which are subject matter experts. This needs to be documented and reviewed.
 5. Low-Level Design
The requirements from the above stage have to be broken in smaller chunks into
several smaller actionable plans and a prototype developed. Further details and
technology specific details have to be added.

6. Finalization
The design has to be finalized by getting approval from the project sponsor,
demonstrating the prototype and signing off the design documents.

JAD Tasks

1. Identify all stakeholders and goal.

2. Project mission and product features into Business abstract
3. Project abstract
4. Context diagram
5. Preliminary business plan
6. Use cases
7. Prioritize using Delphi technique
8. Validate and review the use case scenarios
9. Organize the use cases into SRS
10. Design prototypes with technical help. Screens and report layouts.

In conclusion, JAD is comparatively faster than the interviewing techniques and provides
design value from customer’s perspective rather than individual point-of-view. It enables
faster design and quick conflict resolution. It also lowers the design and development cost.

Document analysis
Gives you the organizational perspective of the “as-is” processes.

Especially useful when there are no SMEs or they’re not expected to last the duration of projects.

Analyse contracts, business processes, MoUs, requirement artifacts, RFPs, statement of works,
procedure, product specifications etc.

Process:

1. Prepare for document analysis

2. Do the analysis
3. Post analysis system review

Intended audience  SMEs and Project team

Focus group
This is an elicitation technique where business users and SMEs come together in an interactive group
setting to provide ideas and attitudes about a specific product, service or opportunity. It can also
assess a customer’s satisfaction with a product or service.

Process:

1. Prepare the group (homogenous and heterogeneous).

2. Run the session.
3. Produce the report.

The moderator should be experienced in facilitating groups and analyze the agreements and
disagreements between focus group members.

Intended audience: stakeholders, BAs and marketing.

Interface analysis

An interface is a connection between two systems/components. This is a requirement gathering

technique to determine the number and type of interfaces.

Process:

1. Prepare for Interface analysis

2. Conduct interface analysis

UI includes human user directly engaged with the system to provide report to user

Includes to and from external systems and/or devices.

Interface analysis helps define the boundary of the system. It helps in establishing basic
interoperability needs. It is important to look at activities across al interfaces as one interface may
be connected to other system, which may affect activities there.

Intended audience: Bas and UI/UX designers; designers and data modelers

Interview

It is an elicitation technique to gather requirements from an individual or a group of individuals in a

formal/informal setting. The BA is the interviewer here.

Two types:

Structured(close-ended/open-ended) and unstructured.

Process:

1. Prepare for interview  design the interview

Success factors depend on: domain knowledge of BA; interviewing skills

Organization of questions in logical order.

2. Conduct the interview : opening, mid and closing

3. Post interview follow-up, review and feedback

Intended audience  BA

Observations

Go to a workplace and observe the processes. Sometimes a person does not know why he’s doing a
process

Two types:

Active and passive

Process: prepare for observation; Observe; post observation/review

Prototyping

Horizontal v Vertical

Throw-away (simple tools like pen n pencil) v Evolutionary (requires specialized prototyping tool or
language)

Survey/Questionnaire

Paper white board prototyping

Decision analysis
Process Modelling

User Task Analysis

Reverse Engineering

Delphi Technique

Nominal Group Technique

Stakeholder analysis

Use case and scenarios

Reused Requirements

Card Sorting

Questions

Difference between requirement gathering and requirement elicitation.

Requirement Gathering: This defines that the requirement already exists and the same can be used
to prepare the documentation. When a Business Analyst performs this activity to gather the
requirement from the client, the method can be termed as Requirement Gathering. A Business
Analyst who gathers the requirement, record them in the document.

Requirement Elicitation: The method can be termed as Requirement Elicitation when a Business
Analyst identifies the information, understand them and analyze to produce a set of requirement. A
Business Analyst who elicits the information is using his analytical skills to define the requirement
and form a document.

Requirement Elicitation should be the proper terminology used for a Business Analyst who can
gather the information and analyze them as well. Requirement Gathering can be performed by
anybody whereas Requirement Elicitation can only be performed by a Business Analyst.

What elicitation techniques would you use for a test environment app that has no documentation
and is being migrated to a new app?

a. Interface analysis alongwith reverse engineering and gap analysis.

How would you select the requirement gathering process?

After considering, Triple constraints