Business Analysis For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7

Hunting for the Right Information, Part 2: The Techniques

IN THIS CHAPTER

Uncovering information by using different elicitation techniques

Figuring out which techniques work best given your audience

Determining which elicitation techniques work better for different requirements

Although every BA has their favorite primary elicitation method, all BAs should be comfortable with and adept at all the methods in this chapter. Chances are you’ll need to use more than one technique every time you elicit requirements. Which one(s) you use depends on the size of the group, the company culture, and the types of requirements you need to elicit. Pick the right approaches for the given conditions, and you will successfully glean the info you need to move forward. Elicitation techniques can be grouped into three basic categories:

• Research-based
• Collaborative
• Experimental

In this chapter, we cover 15 techniques within those categories, telling you when each technique is most appropriate, how to use it, and more. This information not only forms the foundation of your info-extraction business, but it is also tremendously helpful in the requirements-planning phase (see the details ...