Prepare the elicitation plan

- Michelangelo said, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it "and it's the task of the sculptor to discover it." And that's very similar to what we're trying to do when we elicit project requirements because stakeholders and businesses have requirements for our project hidden inside of them and it's our job to find out what they are. We prepare for that by creating a requirements elicitation plan. Elicitation is just a fancy way of saying data gathering. There are lots of ways to elicit requirements, so the elicitation plan should describe what information you're trying to gather and how you're going to get it. For example, you can conduct interviews with stakeholders. In that case, the elicitation plan should identify which stakeholders you plan to talk with and what questions you'll ask them. You can also elicit tasks in group sessions. Then, the plan should identity who you intend to include in the group and how you'll facilitate the discussion. Another way to elicit requirements is by watching people work and documenting what you observe. You might be able to see ways to make their jobs easier and that's often how we recognize the challenges and constraints that people deal with in their daily work. Last, but not least, you can elicit requirements by studying process documentation and analyzing business data. Documents like standard operating procedures, flow charts, and reports can all provide information that you could use to generate requirements. I've included an elicitation plan template for you in the course downloads. No matter which techniques you use for eliciting requirements, you should include them in your elicitation plan and then review the plan to make sure that you're asking the right questions and looking in the right places to accurately define the requirements for your project.