MANAGEMENT

5 - REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION
5.1.2 Active Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholders are a principal source of requirements, which places them at the center of many project and
program issues related to unrealistic expectations, lack of user involvement, and ambiguous, unclear requirements.
For this reason, active support and participation of key stakeholders should be fostered and maintained throughout
the elicitation process. Input should be collected from a broad, diverse set of stakeholders to confirm that varying
perspectives are captured and to reduce the risk of missing requirements.
5.1.3 Defined Business/Organizational Need
A properly conducted needs assessment lays the foundation for achieving the goals and objectives of the
business or organization. A comprehensive understanding of the business need, problem, or opportunity helps to
determine that the right information is elicited and the appropriate stakeholders and elicitation techniques to obtain
that information are selected.
5.1.4 Domain Knowledge
The person responsible for elicitation should be competent in the domain or have access to subject matter
experts for support so as to ask the right questions during elicitation activities. Understanding the relevant terms,
processes, and procedures within a specified domain greatly increases the ability to accurately define and examine
requirements.
5.2 Requirements Elicitation Activities
At this point, eliciting requirements for the solution is performed to address the defined problem/opportunity.
Elicitation involves the discovery and translation of needs into requirements and includes the following activities:
selecting the appropriate elicitation techniques, conducting the actual elicitation, and documenting the outputs.
5.2.1 Plan for Elicitation
Before the actual elicitation, more detailed preparation is required such as drafting agendas, scheduling
conferences for elicitation workshops, inviting stakeholders, etc.
Careful consideration should be given to the following elements:
• Activities. Even though activities were previously defined in Requirements Management Planning, now
that more is known about the problem/opportunity to be solved or addressed and the stakeholders
involved, the techniques to be used are revisited. Generally, a combination of techniques is employed
depending upon the organizational culture, schedule constraints, and relevant knowledge and skills of
the person responsible for eliciting requirements.
26 ©2016 Project Management Institute. Requirements Management: A Practice Guide