ELICITATION
Elicitation is an integral part of the business analysis process. It encompasses various processes that involve drawing out vital information related to needs, requirements, and other product details from diverse sources. The purpose of elicitation is to understand the underlying needs of stakeholders and translate them into tangible requirements.
Key Concepts
Elicitation is not merely a process of collecting or gathering data. The terms "collecting" and "gathering" give an impression that the information is readily available, just waiting to be picked up. In reality, stakeholders often possess needs, desires, and thoughts, but articulating these in a clear and concise manner can be challenging. Therefore, elicitation goes beyond mere data collection. It involves an interactive exchange between the business analyst and stakeholders to achieve mutual comprehension of the product details.
Another essential feature of elicitation is its cyclical nature. The process is revisited multiple times at various abstraction levels of product information. For instance, the same elicitation process is used for defining business requirements, and subsequently, to detail out specific product requirements, such as stakeholder or solution requirements.
Elicitation and analysis are intertwined processes. As the business analysis data undergoes analysis, non-essential information gets pruned, leading to a reduced data set. If results are ambiguous, further questions arise, necessitating more in-depth elicitation.
Lastly, the frequency and mode of elicitation vary depending on the project's life cycle. Projects following an adaptive life cycle approach will see frequent, shorter elicitation and analysis cycles throughout the project. In contrast, projects using a predictive life cycle tend to concentrate most of their elicitation and analysis at the project's beginning.