Requirements Elicitation

The purpose of Requirements Elicitation in IMPULS3 is to systematically identify and document all relevant Stakeholder Needs, ensuring completeness, clarity, and traceability before transitioning to Requirements Analysis. This step also involves Stakeholder Identification and Stakeholder Analysis, providing insight into the priority of Stakeholder Needs and the underlying business drivers.
By understanding stakeholders’ motivations, the elicitation process ensures that system requirements align with business goals, operational needs, and strategic priorities.

Core objectives of Requirements Elicitation

Identify & Analyze Stakeholders – Ensure all relevant stakeholders are considered and analyzed.
- Why is this an important activity?
  - Comprehensive Coverage of Needs: Every stakeholder may bring unique perspectives and requirements. By identifying all stakeholders, you ensure a broad and diverse input, leading to more complete and balanced requirements.
  - Avoiding Bias: Including only a subset of stakeholders can lead to bias in the requirements, which might reflect only a specific group’s needs and overlook others.
  - Ensuring Compliance and Alignment: Certain stakeholders, like regulatory bodies or legal advisors, may be necessary to ensure that the product or system complies with external regulations and internal policies.
  - Minimizing Changes and Rework: Engaging all stakeholders early helps identify potential conflicts and unmet needs. This reduces the risk of discovering missing requirements later, which could lead to costly changes or project delays.
  - Building Stakeholder Trust and Engagement: Involving stakeholders early in the process fosters transparency and trust. It also increases the likelihood of stakeholder support throughout the project lifecycle.
- What could be the risk of missing Stakeholders?
  - Unmet Needs and Requirements: Missing a stakeholder could mean overlooking critical requirements, leading to a final product that fails to meet all intended use cases or regulatory standards.
  - Project Delays and Increased Costs: If a missed stakeholder is identified late in the project, their input might necessitate changes to design, development, or even strategic decisions, causing delays and additional expenses.
  - Reputational Damage: If important stakeholders, such as end-users or regulatory bodies, are not considered, the final product might not meet market or compliance expectations, potentially harming the company’s reputation.
  - Operational and Safety Risks: For systems with safety-critical elements (e.g., medical devices, public infrastructure), missing a key stakeholder (e.g., safety experts) could introduce significant operational and safety risks.
Perform Stakeholder Analysis – Gain insight into:
- The priority stakeholders assign to their needs.
- The business context and drivers behind their needs, ensuring a deeper understanding of their motivations.
Capture Stakeholder Needs Completely – Identify and document all expectations, demands, and constraints from stakeholders.
Ensure a Structured Approach – Use systematic elicitation techniques (e.g., interviews, workshops, observations, document analysis) to avoid missing critical needs.
Avoid Premature Evaluation – Focus solely on understanding and documenting needs without assessing feasibility.
Identify Potential Conflicts & Ambiguities – Recognize inconsistencies early and prepare for resolution in the Requirements Analysis step.
Lay the Foundation for Requirements Specification – Ensure that Stakeholder Needs are clear, unambiguous, and traceable, so they can later be translated into system requirements.