Collect Requirements Tools and Techniques – Interviews, Focus Groups and Facilitated Workshops

We have already discussed the Collect Requirements Process and in this article we will go over some of the tools and techniques used in this process viz. Interviews, Focus Groups and Facilitated Workshops.

Do note that these are not the only three tools used in this process but covering all of them in a single article could be quite boring! With that out of the way, let’s get down with the first one,

1. Interviews

As obvious as it sounds. One-on-one interviews with the stakeholders are the best way to collect requirements and tap into the expectations from the product or service that the project is creating

2. Focus Groups

Think of this as interviewing a group of people together. In your one-on-one interviews, you might notice conflicting requirements and the best way to keep these at bay is to have a group of stakeholders work as a focus group to come up with requirements. As a Project Manager, conducting these focus groups meeting could very well be in your kitty

3. Facilitated Workshops

Ever heard of Joint Application Design or JAD session? These are typically full day workshops that last for a couple of a days or more. These are conducted by moderators resulting in structured group conversations brainstorming the requirements. It minimizes issues, misunderstandings, conflicting or duplicate requirements as all the stakeholders are part of the workshop

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