Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
Requirements elicitation techniques for the CAPM exam
Elicitation is how a team learns what stakeholders and users need. The main techniques are in-depth interviews, observing people in their own environment, small group workshops, focus groups and reviewing existing documents and data. Each suits a different question, and a team usually combines several.
Interviews
In-depth interviews are usually one user at a time, lasting 30 minutes to 2 hours. They help you learn about users' lives and work and get a deeper understanding of problems they report.
Prepare a discussion guide with an introduction script, topics with starter and follow-up questions, instructions for any activities and a planning checklist. It keeps interviewers covering the same topics. In the interview, ask open, neutral questions, focus on stories and real examples, and avoid generalities and talk about how things 'should' happen.
Observation
Contextual research means visiting people at home, work or school and watching how they do an activity with their own equipment and usual distractions. It also works for staff who operate a service, such as caseworkers.
There are three ways to observe. Observing silently keeps the activity natural but you may not understand what is happening. Asking occasional questions balances authenticity and understanding. Asking participants to explain each step changes how they work but gives the deepest understanding.
Workshops and focus groups
Small group workshops of 3 to 8 people help you learn how people work together to make a decision and understand people with a similar experience. Workshops with stakeholders are a good first step to get an overview of a new area and build trust.
Groups have costs: strong characters can dominate, and people may not speak openly, especially with mixed seniority. If nothing is gained from having people together, run individual sessions such as in-depth interviews instead.
A focus group is different from a research workshop. Focus groups are good for learning opinions, attitudes and likely reactions; user research aims to learn what works for users, not what is popular.
Document review and other sources
SEBoK lists elicitation methods including structured brainstorming workshops, interviews and questionnaires, focus groups, visual content, and review of technical, operational and strategy documents. During elicitation, ask stakeholders to give the rationale for what they ask for and to prioritise it, and record each need with a trace to the stakeholder register.
Where the exam catches people
- Believing a group session is always more efficient: doubling the people in a session does not double the findings, and mixed seniority can silence junior staff.
- Believing a focus group tells you what works for users: it tells you opinions, attitudes and likely reactions.
- Believing silent observation gives the deepest understanding: having participants explain each step does, at the cost of natural behaviour.
- Believing a good interview asks how a process should work: GOV.UK says to focus on stories and real examples instead.