Requirements Gathering : Business Analysts and System Analysts FAQ

Most of the projects run under a very tight deadline and successful completion within the specified time at the specified cost is required. To achieve this the system that is being built has to be built right the first time! It is often the inconsistency between requirements expected from client side and the one that is being understood by the system developing organization that causes projects to fail or extend. For this inconsistency to go away, there is only one solution- a perfect requirements gathering phase to kick start the project on the right note.

Requirements gathering in the normal terms, just stands accumulation of the customer’s requirements. But it is not as simple as it sounds, for the customer always knows what he wants but never expresses it as clearly as it should be. It is your responsibility as the Analyst to get into the customer’s shoes and see it from his perspective. Be it a very expressive client or one who just has fair idea as to what he wants- you should get a clear, complete, accurate requirement set from him. This should be perfectly giving you all the activity and event descriptions for the system design to proceed smoothly later.

The techniques:

The interviewing of the client, interaction with various users of the system, analysis of the present scenario- all of these are really essential skills for an analyst. The perspective in the form of representations required for clear idea has to run through his mind when he gets details from the customer. The requirements gathering is not just over with single talk with the customer. You can just improve and successively add up to the level of clarity by having your vacant spaces of activities and objectives clarified and filled with customer’s views on the scenarios. This will most often help you get the comprehensive requirement list.

The representation:

The depiction of the requirements into the Usecase models and UML diagrams are vital to have the concise account of the requirements. These diagrams can give lot more information than a 10 page document with all requirements in it. The underlying thing though, is that you have to what customer requires! The various requirements gathering tools available out there can make this transformation from text to pictorial representations easy and manageable. These can be the guide that can help everyone involved in the development throughout the life cycle.

Once every requirement is gotten and represented in the perfect manner, it is time to get the requirements prioritized and act on those accordingly during the design and developmental stages of the system. Requirements gathering can be very much efficient if there are presentations and discussions with the client showcasing the understanding from the Analyst’s side. This will make sure that both are on the right track. Prototyping is also seen as an effective way of storing the requirements information. But the tool and the manner of requirement representations mostly are tailored according to the system development methodology that is going to be pursued. Nevertheless the underlying fact is the requirements have to be garnered and taken care off well for the entire project to be successful and in accordance with the customer’s expectations.