Sam Kennedy-Hine

Once we have our plan and approach done, we can then begin to consider Amanda needs. Specifically we need to communicate with Amanda, and all of the stakeholders for that matter, to make sure we know exactly what she needs in a bike and what she is looking to be able to do with it. This is called elicitation, as we are eliciting more information from Amanda, our stakeholder. Effective Elicitation leads to better products and happier stakeholders so it is crucial to get this step right. We are undoubtedly going to need to run many sessions wish all of our stakeholders and discuss all aspects of the project. Bellow we discuss a single session, but throughout this project we will have to run this process again and again to get all the information we need.

Core Concept

Prepare for elicitation

Before we can have a chat with Amanda we need to prepare. We want to make sure that we have all the information we need so that we can appropriately discuss Amanda’s needs.

We will need to understand the scope of the project and the scope of our elicitation. We know we are building a bike, but are we custom fabricating it? It is more likely we are going to build a bike using pre built parts. Equally what do we want to get out of this chat in particular. If we only want a preliminary chat which focuses on fundamental needs, it might not make sense to ask about Amanda’s thoughts on disc brakes. When we understand the size and scope of both the project itself and the chat or elicitation we are going to have we can start to think about the techniques we are going to use.

The techniques we use can become quite involved. In projects with larger scopes tools like surveys, experiments and data analysis may be the primary way BA’s interface with elicitation. Understanding Scope in all domains is vital for efficiency. In our case we will doing a one on one chat with Amanda. Ever with the relative simplicity of the elicitation happening in this case we still need to think about what specific techniques we want to use. Are we just asking questions? Playing facilitation games? or are we just listening during a chat?

Once we know what we want to chat about (scope) and how we are going to chat about it (techniques) we can set up any logistic, like which café we are going to meet at and have a think about any other information we need to get the most out of the session. Inputs as a basic unit of information in business analysis, we need to make sure we have everything we need to conduct a great sessions. Depending on the techniques used we may also need to create some documents and supporting material.

We also need to make sure that Amanda is prepared and that we are not surprising her with questions she has never considered. Once we are fully prepared we need to make sure she is fully prepared. This will give us the greatest experience in pulling out valuable information.

Conduct elicitation

Now that we and Amanda are fully prepared it’s time to have a chat about her bike! This sessions should be straightforward as we are following our preparation.

While we are guiding the conversation ensure we get great information there are some thing we can be thinking about.

Are we getting what we set out to
is there anything we misunderstood in our initial prep
What are we learning and how will this effect the work that needs to be done in the future

Much of the thinking we did when preparing for the chat are still relevant as we engage in the conversation. The most important element of this chat is that we record what is said and capture the outcomes. Elicitation will be the cornerstone of all the work we do in the future. If we start out working on bad information. Information that was misunderstood or captured incorrectly we are going to produce bad analysis. Ultimately we want to make the best outcome for Amanda and that starts at the elicitation.

Remember that There are tree types of elicitation Collaborative, research and experiments. Understanding which you are currently operating will help you get better results.

Confirm Elicitation Results

As mentioned above it is vital that the information we work on going forward is accurate and consistent. To ensure this we need to confirm the results. We may need to have another chat with Amanda where we go through what was said to make sure we got it all and captured it accurately. We may also need to check our results against other information we have, our preparation, other chats we have had with our stakeholders and any other information to make sure this session is consistent with all other information.

Communicate BA Information

When we have conducted an elicitation session and confirmed the results it is time to communicate what we found to the stakeholders. We will first need to determine why we are communicating this information and how we should be communicating it.

For instance, say we are sending Amanda a list of findings for her approval. A series of text messages sent in a long string does not allow her the space to understand everything effectively. In this case a slightly more formal document might help. Perhaps a collaborative online software like a notion board may be applicable.

Equally when we are communicating our findings to Bob a presentation may add more value. As Bob will be able to ask question and engage in the content more.

When thinking about how to communicate our findings we should be thinking about the audience, preference, prioritisation, level of detail, abstraction and contractual obligations.

Manage stakeholder collaboration

Through out the entire project it is vital we manage our stakeholders and the way they collaborate. We are working with them, they are working with each other. Poor relationships on any level will have detrimental effects on the whole project.

We should try to get agreement on how we are all going to work together early on in the project and then monitor how every body is doing through out. Priorities may change, interest may wain, people may be working on other things, we may be using bad information which is causing friction. We need to be on top of the collaboration and relationships in case we need to change the way we are working to better support the team and the project.