Agile Testing Requirements Gathering

Requirements Gathering is the process of generating a list of requirements (functional,etc.) from the various stakeholders (customers, etc.).

Requirements Gathering Techniques

Interviews – These are an invaluable tool at the beginning of the process for getting background information on business problems.

Questionnaires – One of the challenges with interviews is to get a limited amount of information. Therefore, carefully chose and probe the questions.

User Observation – The best way to determine the features of a system is to observe users actually performing their daily tasks. Moreover, you can record actions and activities.

Workshops – Work shows are a crucial tool that validates the initial requirements, generates additional detail, gains consensus and captures the constraining assumptions.

Brainstorming – This is a powerful activity, which takes place either in the context of a work show or on its own. Tools such as whiteboards can be very helpful in this phase.

Role-Playing – In situations where the requirements depend heavily on different types of user, formal role-playing can be a good way of understanding how the different parts of the system need to work.

Use Cases & Scenarios – It is always useful to develop different use-cases and scenarios to validate the functionality in different situations.

Prototyping – Often stakeholders will not have a clear idea about their requirements but if you put together several different prototypes, they will know which parts they want.

Gathering Information

There are many different ways to capture the information, from a simple Word document to sophisticated diagrams. Therefore, we recommend using a formal Requirements Management System to record the information from the whiteboard.

Precautions

The biggest risk is asking the existing users to help define the requirements. Therefore we recommend that you ensure that sufficient third-party research into industry-wide trends and observation research runs to ensure that the requirements take into account future opportunities.

Agile Requirements Gathering Challenges

During the requirement gathering process it is a common pitfall that stakeholders disagree or underestimate development efforts and design. Some of the common challenges in the requirements gathering process are:

Unclear success criteria – Stakeholders normally know about a problematic area or an opportunity but they don’t exactly know about it. To address this issue, the best approach is to break a bigger project into smaller chunks and start working from the area about which client is clearer.

Changing minds – It is a common problem that stakeholders change their minds during or after the process. You need to be flexible to address this issue and allow the change to occur.

The client does not want to speak up- In some cases, the client may not be comfortable in speaking up. Therefore, it is important to build a comfort zone and be ready to listen to them. Listening and understanding their problems may help to bridge the gaps.

Conflicting priorities – When various groups are involved in the development of a system, it is common to have conflicts in priorities and views. The solution to this problem is that the project manager and all stakeholders sit together to discuss and resolve the conflicts.

The client insists on a particular technical solution – This issue occurs when clients have limited technical knowledge. The best practice in this situation is to make the client understand the differences in projects and support your argument.

Get certified and unlock more opportunities. Practice and validate your skills to become a Certified Agile Testing Professional Now!