Requirements Elicitation (kravinsamling)

Describe the perspective-based reading technique shortly

It's a proven technique for assuring the quality of documents - "the reader" (engineed/stakeholder) reads a document from previously defined perspective (such as a user or a tester) and thereby elicit requirements.

How to follow up with a focus group?

Protocol and potential other recordings are reviewed.

How to conduct perspective-based reading?

Read sequentially, or top-down (focus on a perspective)

How to follow-up an interview?

- Analyze the results of the interview - Ask the interviewers to confirm the results - Keep in contact - yu might need them in later iterations.

What are some established techniques for requirements elicitation?

- Interview - Workshop - Observation - Questionnaire - Focus group - Perspective-based reading

What are the responsibilities of a stakeholder?

- Introduce requirements engineer to the application domain and give the necessary background information - Tell the requirements engineer about desired requirements - Prioritize requirements - Inspect the requirements in the requirements specification (review the documented requirements and check if both parts are on the same page) - Make timely decisions

What are the critical success factors for the questionnaire technique?

- Motivated/skilled stakeholders - Good questions - Pilot

How are requirements elicitation techniques used in real world?

A combination of techniques is used. One of the key tasks of a requirements engineer is to choose suitable techniques.

Describe the workshop technique shortly

A group of stakeholders, max 15 people, develops requirements. In contrast to interviews, the requirements are the results of group work. It has to have a goal and an agenda.

Describe the focus group technique shortly

A panel of stakeholders focuses on a chosen "item" (such as work procedure (new schedules, new issues etc.)) to identify it's requirements. The goal could be to elicit new requirements, or to prioritize already elicited, or to identify missing and so on. Similar to workshop, but more formal.

Describe the questionnaire technique shortly.

A stakeholder writes down their requirements for the system by themselves. In contrast to an interview, the time of elivitation is more flexible, and does not include discussions. It aims to obtain the views of a alrge number of people in a way that can be analzed statistically. It can be postal, web-based or sent via email. Used to gather both opinon and facts.

Describe the observation technique shortly.

An observer elicits requirements by observing stakeholders, and/or exiting systems. People are better to provide descriptions of their activities while they perform them.

How to follow up a questionnarie?

Analyze the results, contact (gather) stakeholders to resolve inconsistencies and contradictions in answers.

How to conduct a focus group?

Deal with discussions that are too calm or overheated

What are the benefits of a workshop for requirements elicitation?

Discussions of ideas (using brainstorming) are well-suited for identification of requirements sources, as well as for elicitaion of new and innovative requirements. Results - clearer requirements, increased understanding of the situation, and better committment to decisions.

How to follow up a perspective-based reading?

Elicited requirements are consolidated and trasfered into a target document format.

What is the effort of a workshop?

High to very high, because of long duration and (big) number of participants.

What does requirements elicitation identify?

It identifies functional and non-functional (quality, constraints) requirements.

Describe the interview technique shortly?

It is a meeting of people face to face, where interviewers, the requirements engineers ask questions to the interviewees (stakeholders, domain experts, developers). There has to be a goal of the interview. The purpose of it is to get to know the company, needs, project goals.

What is requirements elicitation about?

It is about discovering the needs of stakeholders for a system. We need to know what to build, why and how.

What is the goal of eliciting existing requirements from identified sources?

To elicit requirements from stakeholders, documents and existing sytsems using different requirements elicitation techniques.

What is the goal of eliciting innovative requirements?

To identify (new) requirements by utilizing a creative elicitation process.

What are the critical success factors for the workshop technique?

- All participants need to understand the workshop goal - Invite the right participants depending on the workshop goal - Give authority to the participants to adress the problem - Appoint an experienced and well-trained moderator - Avoid the groupthink effect, by e.g. splitting groups into sub-groups, or using assistance techniques.

What are the main creativity techniques used in eliciting innovative requirements?

- Brainstorming sessions: the goal is to generate a large number of new ideas for requirements. It is performed with a group of stakeholders, and a moderator. For each session, a clear goal must be defined, such as "how can we support accident-free driving?". - Osborn checklists: Put to other uses? Adapt? Modify? Magnify? Minify? Substitute? Rearrange? Combine?

What are some assistance elicitation techniques?

- Brainstorming: it's a creative, group-based technique intended to generate ideas (workshop, focus group) - Prototyping: it's an initial version of a software system which is used for demonstration and try-out (may help a stakeholder pinpoint more exactly what they are looking after with the project) - Elicitation checklist: it containts a number of items - questions or statements that need to be checked. - "Card" (K-J) method: it is used to elicit requirements or their sources from each participant of a group at the same time; ideas are sketched on file cards containing the keywords of the ideas; the cards are then grouped and presented according to their subjects (NOT the same as participatory modelling!) - Mind-mapping: it allows a compact and organized presentation of information by means of branding-based goals. In each mind-map there is a subject.

What are the critical success factors for the focus group technique?

- Choose the right participants (background and experience) - Participants need to know the focus and the goal - Experienced moderator to guide the discussion - Avoid the groupthink effect (aligning with who's perceived as most powerful atm)

What are the critical success factors for the interview technique?

- Communication skills - No leading questions - Clearly defined and communicated goal of the interview session - Terminology - Getting to know the interview partners - Avoid the groupthinking effect (following each others' opinions)

How to gather data for perspective-based reading?

- Corporate website: a great sourve in the beginning of the project to learn about the company and it's business. ... but we need more precise data about how the project works... - A document sample: Helps to identify data for accomplishing something.

How to conduct a questionnaire?

- Decide on a timeframe for the questionnaire - Have a contact person

How to prepare for an interview?

- Define the goal of the interview (stakeholder should know the goal, and the goal should be rational) - Select and invite participants (communicate the goal of the interview and rationale of the invitation) - Choose the interview location (undistributed environment) - Work out a list of questions (decide between open/closed, or Boolean questions, avoid leading questions) - Make yourself familiar with the participants (explain your role as RE, or explain the stakeholders' role in the project). - Know the participants' terminology - industry terms, corporate slang and so on.

How to prepare for a workshop?

- Define the goal, book a location - Select and invite participants. Communicate the goal to the participants, communicate the rationale for the system to be developed. - Appoint a skillful moderator (facilitator), appoint a minute-taker (documents what's being said) - Explain assistance techniques like Brainstorming or KJ method

How to prepare for an observation?

- Define the observation goal, such as "elicit all the information related to patients' visits to eye-care physician" - Define desired results, e.g. the scenarios covering the goal

How to prepare for perspective-based reading?

- Define the perspectibes, select the documents - Identify and invite participants

How to prepare for a questionnaire?

- Defined the goal and select the stakeholders - Define questions - Defined the documentation format for open questions - Define response options for closed questions - Test questionnaires by some stakeholders before using them ("pilot")

How to prepare for a focus group?

- Determine the focus item and the goal - Choose the right participants - Appoint moderator and minute-taker

What two kinds of observation are there?

- Direct: assumes watching stakeholders doing their tasks and asking questions - Ethnographic: assumes the observer to spend a long period of time with stakeholders and actively participate in their activities (be a part of their profession, e.g. if you are a trained nurse you may do observation in a hospital)

What are the benefits of an interview for requirements elicitation?

- Eliciation of existing requirements in a conversation - Standardized interviews help identifying relevant requirements sources - Develop new and innovative requirements with open interviews and using goals - Changed thinking (triggers the thinking on stakeholders's side "what do I really think?", makes them come forward with new ideas)

Who are the main players in IS development?

- End-users: those who will benefit from the system's outputs, directly or indirectly. Those who whille use the system directly. - Owners/sponsors: those who commission the project, pay for it or have the power to halt it, they have the wider picture of what the system is doing. - Developers: those who will produce the software, those who have interest in the technology - how the system will be integreated in the company? They have input in form of many non-functional requirements.

How to conduct an observation?

- Follow stakeholders that are experts - how do they do stuff? - Documenting immediately (in a chosen format), and details are of value - The observations should be conducted in an objective and neutral way

What are the two most common kinds of workshops? Describe them shortly!

- General workshop: can be used with many methods and approaches; stakeholders propose issues in a discussion form lead by a moderator - Participatory modeling workshop: uses a certain modeling method with explicit guidance; stakeholders create the model with help of a modeling facilitator.

What are some problems with elicitations and how can they be solved?

- Stakeholders may not be available - they need authority and resources to contribute. Do not start before you get the stakeholders onboard. - Stakeholders don't know what they want - work with them iteratively, show prototypes, models, discuss - Requirements engineers are not prepared correctly - may have been taught something else than what matters in the project - Influence of organizational issues and political factors - negotiate the project, identify stakeholders beyond the immediate reach and visibility. Do not give up easily - Insufficient time has been allocated for requirements elicitation - negotiate the effort needed, show what can be achieved with proepr RE, and what are the likely consequences of bad RE - A rational (motivation) for the new system is missing - discuss the business setting and the business scenarios

What other players, who may want to affect your project negatively need to be identified?

- Those who will be or feel threatened or challenged by the system - Those who might attempt "to sabotage" the project. - Those who are simply not interested

What are the critical success factors for the observation technique?

- Willingness of the stakeholders to cooperate (e.g. some may not want to do that bc they don't want to be filmed) - Good processing of results - Objectivity of the observer - Capability of the observer for observation - activities, processes, events, details.

What are the responsibilities of a requirements engineer?

- Work closely with the stakeholders - Have a perception/knowledge of the business (application) domain and the problem related to the need for a software system. - Use appropriate requirements elicitation (and documentation) methods - Create requirements specification - Ensure that the specification/system meets the requirements of the stakeholders. (- breach between developers and user needs)

What are the critical success factors for the perspective-based reading technique?

-Selection of correct perspectives and documents (know what you are looking at) - The top-down reading can be applied only with well-structured documents

What are the two purposes of identifying relevant requirements sources?

1. Discussing requirements 2. Political climate in the organization (status)

What are the sub-activities in requirements elicitation?

1. Identification of relevant sources for requirements 2. Eliciation of (existing) requirements from identified sources 3. Elicitation of (new) innovative requirements

How do you find potential requirements sources?

1. Identify potential requirements sources: 1a) Ask already identified stakeholders (e.g. problem owner, those that commissioned the project) 2a) Check existing business documents 3a) Analyze existing systems (to identify system users) 2. Record the identified sources in a list 3. For each newly identified source, repeat step 1 and 2 until potential sources are exhausted.

What are the session rules for brainstorming sessions?

1. Quantity over quality 2. Visionary thinking 3. Combining expressed ideas 4. Questions are allowed 5. Criticism is forbidden 6. Overcome deadlocks 7. Natural end.

How to follow up an observation?

Link the requirements with the recorded observations, and align results (requirements) with the observed stakeholders (through an interview/workshop)

What is the effort for perspective-based reading?

Medium to high. A high effort for sequential reading, medium for "top-down"

What is the effort of an interview?

Medium to high. It depends on the number of participants, the type of questions asked (open/closed) and the way minutes are taken; individual interviews may take a lot of time; additionally, there is an analysis effort.

What is the effort of a focus group?

Medium to high. Similar to workshops, but shorter in duration and with less participants.

What are the benefits of a focus group for requirements elicitation?

Not meant for a complete elicitation of existing reqiurements or for identification of sources - only for missing or additional; elicitation of new and innovative requirements make actual value of focus groups.

What are the benefits of an observation for requirements elicitation?

Not meant for identification of requirements sources, but mainly for elicitation of existing requirements; not directly suitable elicitation of new requirements, but only indirectly through observations. We can observe work practices and processes, physcial locations and installations, objects and their properties. We cna note how things change overtime.

How to conduct an interview?

Opening: explain the goal of the interview, introducing questions Work elements: provide feedback and ask questions, create simple models, use scenarios to get the imagination working, focus on the subject, document the results Finalization: sum uo, provide positive feedback and let the stakeholders what's gonna happen next, and thank the participants.

How to conduct a workshop?

Opening: present goals, intended results and agenda; explain the techniques; define explicit conversation rules (e.g. avoid interrupting others) Work element: moderator should check the adherence to the agenda; moderator controls adheernce to the conversation rules; results should be documented; decisions need to be documented Finalization: collect open issues; self-reflection; thank the participants.

What is a common issue with stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process?

Stakeholders often have difficulties expressin explicityl what they want/need. Therefore it's on requirements engineers to help them think, e.g. with prototypes for each iteration.

What are the benefits of a perspective-based reading for requirements elicitation?

Suitable for elicitation of exiting requirements by focusing on objects, business processes or events (in the document); to indetify sources - they need to be found through the reading; not suitable for elicitation of new requirements; can only give ideas to be discussed

What are the benefits of a questionnaire for requirements elicitation?

Suitable for eliviting an inital set of existing requirements from a large group of stakeholders quickly and easily; not suitable for elicitation of new requirements or the sources of requirements

How to follow up a workshop?

The "minutes" are re-read, and if there are contradictions/gaps, then the relevant participants are contacted or met again.

What is the goal of identifying relevant sources for requirements?

The goal is to identify all relevant requirements sources within system's context (scope) such as "managing patients' treatments in primary eye-care"

What is the goal of requirements elicitation?

The goal is to identify all the requirements for the system. Just not all of them at once, it should be done in iterations. Many diverse sources for requirements elicitation exist and they need to be identified.

What are the three kinds of interviews and what does the choice of interview kind depend on?

The kind of the interview depends on the goal of the interview. - Standardized interview: interviewer has prepares questions and will not deviate from them (used for specific things, e.g. what people think about x or y) - Exploratory interview: interviewer has prepared questions but may deviate from them if something interesting comes up - Unstructured interview: no prepared question set. Discussion-based, common at the beginning of the project.

Why do we call people or organizations in the project "stakeholders"

They have some interest in the IS to be developed. They have or know requirements for the system.

What is the effort of an observation?

Very high for direct observations, high for ethnographic observations

What is the effort for a questionnaire?

Very low to medium. Very low analysis effort with closed questions, to medium with open ones.