(c) BA should consider if stakeholders of the future business processes differ from those of the
current business processes, and whether the former group has involved in interviews,
workshops or validation sessions.
(d) It should be noted that requirements are often unclear and not comprehensive at the beginning.
BA is to help dig out the details of the requirements and uncover hidden requirements through
progressive deliberations and elaborations. Additional requirements will be derived as more
information is collected about the business.
(e) If a large amount of information is required to be quickly collected from a large number of
stakeholders, survey is an efficient tool to use. On the other hand, workshop is an efficient
way to gather information from a diverse group of stakeholders.
(f) During elicitation of requirements, the following difficulties may be encountered. Some
solutions are also suggested below for reference.
i) Insufficient user commitment
Low attendance or occasional absence of users in meetings can jeopardise the
completeness, accuracy and consistency of requirements in the elicitation process. In
the worst situation, this may lead to changes of requirements subsequently. As a
preventive or remedial measure, BA should secure buy-in from the business users in
the first place by arousing their interest and making them aware of the needs and
benefits to attend the meetings. Further verification of requirements with users may
also help to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the elicited requirements. If
necessary, support from PSC may be sought to request dedicated users to attend the
meetings regularly.
Some users may be reluctant to share information or contribute constructive ideas in
meetings. Rather than pushing them for active participation, BA should seek to
understand their concerns. As for users who are resistant to change, BA may ascertain
their contribution to the existing and future business environment, and solicit their
suggestions on minimising the impact to business processes to alleviate their worry.
Whereas for those who do not understand the purpose of collecting the information, BA
may explain the project background and benefits of the new system as well as the
objectives of the process to them to gain their confidence. Standing in the shoes of the
users is one of the keys to success in requirements elicitation.
ii) Distinguish genuine needs from perceived needs
Genuine needs are what users need to address, i.e. changes that the business requires or
identified issues that are required to be resolved, while perceived needs are what the
users think they need to have, which are often subjective.
BA should perform deeper research and ask probing questions to identify the genuine
needs instead of the perceived needs of users. BA should first ask questions about the
current situation including business, processes and problems, and then ask questions to
draw out the effects, consequences or implications of their problems that need to be
eliminated in order to achieve the anticipated business benefits. The idea is to get users