Project Management

Group Creativity Techniques to Collect Requirements

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In my previous post, I discussed gathering requirements through a facilitated requirements workshop, conducted as part of the scoping phase.

A few creative group techniques allow a project manager to get the most out of a requirements workshop. They include mind mapping, brainstorming, affinity diagram, nominal group technique and Delphi technique. (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) Chapter 5.1.)

The rigor, the number of applied techniques and the sequence in which these techniques are applied depend on the project's complexity, the workshop audience and the available time for gathering and prioritizing requirements.

Nevertheless, the following approach can be constructive and fruitful for collecting project requirements in a facilitated workshop:

1. Start gathering requirements by using the mind mapping technique.
Start with a topic, an issue or an area that you want to collect requirements for and develop ideas around it. Group the ideas visually, as a mind map, by writing down each idea and drawing how it relates to the initial topic. Ideally, you let anyone in the workshop create his or her own mind map.

2. Continue the process with a brainstorming session.
Allow anyone in the workshop to generate an unstructured requirements list for each idea captured on the mind map. To ensure that the brainstorming remains focused on the initial topic, lay basic ground rules and let anyone freely generate fresh ideas and requirements on the topic.

3. Use the list of unstructured ideas and requirements to build an affinity diagram, where your ideas are organized into groups based on their natural relationship. Let anyone in the workshop participate in organizing the items in the most natural group they can.

4. Identify the most important requirements by applying the nominal group technique. Allow each member or group in the workshop to identify which requirements are the most important for him or her. Rank each requirement on the affinity diagram with a priority: low, medium, high or from one to five. To avoid conflicts, facilitate an anonymous priority appraisal and ranking. Finally, tally the results and identify the most important requirements.

5. Close the process by running several rounds of independent feedback through the Delphi technique. Let any individual or group revise the list of requirements. Share an anonymous outcome from each review round and continue with further rounds, keeping in mind the objective to reach consensus and convergence.

Which of the group techniques are you using for collecting requirements? How do you apply them on your projects?

PMI Members: Learn more about mind mapping in our Knowledge Center.


Posted by Marian Haus on: July 13, 2012 03:41 PM | Permalink

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