Eliciting requirements: getting past what people say they want

The hardest part of analysis isn't writing requirements down – it's getting to the real one in the first place. Ask people what they need and you'll usually get one of three things: a solution they've already settled on, a symptom of a deeper problem, or a wish that contradicts the person down the corridor. Elicitation is the craft of getting underneath all of that.

It's "elicit," not "collect"

Requirements aren't lying around waiting to be gathered. They're tacit – buried in habit, workarounds and "the way we've always done it." Good elicitation draws them out, which means choosing the right technique for the situation rather than sending a questionnaire and hoping.

The techniques I lean on

• Interviews – one-to-one, where people say what they won't say in a room. Best for sensitive areas, senior stakeholders and the real "why."
• Workshops – to build shared understanding and surface disagreement early, while everyone's present to resolve it.
• Observation – watching the work actually happen. The gap between the documented process and the real one is where most of the truth (and the risk) lives.
• Document & systems analysis – existing SOPs, screens, reports and data often quietly contradict what you're being told.
• Prototypes and walkthroughs – showing a draft so people react to something concrete instead of imagining in the abstract.

No single technique is enough. The skill is triangulating across several until the picture holds together.

Asking the question behind the question

When someone asks for "a report," I want to know what decision it drives, who acts on it, and what happens if it's wrong. That's the difference between building the thing requested and solving the problem underneath it. Five whys, not five features.

Why it matters even more now

Sloppy requirements have always caused expensive rework. With automation and AI in the mix, they cause it faster – you've now built the wrong thing at scale. Getting the requirement right up front is the cheapest quality you'll ever buy.

The bottom line

Elicitation is listening, structured. It's knowing which technique fits which stakeholder, hearing what isn't said, and having the discipline to keep asking "why" until you reach something real. Get that right and everything downstream – mapping, design, automation – finally has something solid to stand on.