The art of elicitation
Elicitation activity is a combination of art and science. Science in the sense that you need tools and techniques to keep you to be organized and help you identify, capture, and understand what the users want and need. Art in the sense of subtly getting the true essence of the business requirements that provide meaningful information that adds anticipated short- and long-term benefits.
Getting the facts requires planning, practice, discipline, skill, and of course a lot of hard work. Let me list a few of the skills that I felt you may find useful:
- Understand your stakeholders. Get to know their strengths, influences, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and so on. You need to connect with the users to be able to gain their trust.
- Plan well in advance. Go with a purpose. You need to understand the culture, business, technology, and how they operate.
- Prepare and plan your conversation tailored to the participant’s style. Have the right set of questions...
