Summary

Elicit stakeholder needs, expectations, constraints, and interfaces for all phases of the product lifecycle.

Description

Eliciting goes beyond collecting needs by proactively identifying additional needs not explicitly provided by stakeholders. Relevant stakeholders who represent all phases of the product lifecycle in the acquirer’s intended environment should include business as well as technical functions. Using this approach, needs for all product related lifecycle processes are considered concurrently with concepts for acquired products.

An analysis of business processes is a common source of stakeholder needs, expectations, constraints, and interfaces. Additional needs typically address project lifecycle activities and their impact on the product.

 

Examples of techniques to elicit needs from stakeholders include the following:
  • Questionnaires and interviews
  • Scenarios (operational, sustainment, and development) obtained from end users and other relevant stakeholders
  • Operational walkthroughs and end-user task analyses
  • Quality attribute elicitation workshops with stakeholders
  • Prototypes and models
  • Observation of existing products, environments, and workflow patterns
  • Technology demonstrations
  • Interim project reviews
  • Brainstorming
  • Quality Function Deployment
  • Market surveys
  • Extraction from sources such as business process documents, standards, or specifications
  • Use cases
  • Business case analyses
  • Reverse engineering (for legacy products)
  • Customer or end user satisfaction surveys


 

Examples of sources of requirements that might not be identified by the customer include the following:
  • Government regulations
  • Policies and standards
  • Technology
  • Legacy products or product components (for reuse)


Example Work Products



  1. Stakeholder needs, expectations, constraints, and interfaces


Subpractices



  1. Engage relevant stakeholders using methods for eliciting needs, expectations, constraints, and external interfaces.