Enlightened Online

One of the five key stages to business modeling and analysis is requirements gathering. Requirements gathering is the task of finding out exactly what it is that a certain project is meant to achieve from the most senior people in the enterprise.

The stage of requirements gathering can be broken down into three phases; the use of existing documents, the running of strategic interviews, and the running of modeling workshops. The one-to-one strategic in-depth interview is considered the most effective way of gathering requirements from senior executives and senior directors. The main purpose of the interview is to find out from these key people what it is exactly that the business is supposed to be doing. The interview is also a way to find out the opinions of the senior executives and directors regarding the business functions in the business area in question as well as their opinion about the project itself. As senior directors and executives are key members of the enterprise, it is vital to know what they think is the most important thing about the business before proceeding with a project. In requirements gathering, it is essential that the interviewer knows how to really listen to what is being said and sometimes what is being unstated by the interviewee. Hence, it is advantageous that the individuals involved in the requirements gathering task have undergone business requirements training and attended some seminars that teach them how to use facilitated requirements sessions before performing business analysis.

It is advisable for the business analyst to prepare for the in-depth one-to-one interviews by reviewing all documents about the current strategy and familiarizing himself with the business’ strategic history leading up to the present time. All the knowledge gathered from the interview can help him formulate a forward strategy for the business modeling project.

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