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REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION TECHNIQUES AS COMMUNICATION CHANNELS 31
Figure 3.3 Requirements Elicitation Techniques Mapped to Knowledge Bases and
Communication Focus

In order to develop the contextual knowledge required to address the clinical coding process in
the local context, the analyst could use Table 3.1 to select a combination of elicitation techniques
that will provide the collaborative, negotiative, and/or generative capacity to optimize communica-
tion with the users and thus to fully appreciate the significance of the otherwise “inconspicuous”
clinical coding scheme.
Without this insight, there is a strong possibility that analysts might choose to use questionnaires,
structured interviews, and other techniques with which they are familiar. However, this example
suggests that rather than relying exclusively on these more verification-focused techniques, the
requirements elicitation process would be enhanced by incorporating contextual inquiry, cognitive
mapping, or one of the other “generation” techniques in order to increase the “bandwidth” of the
communication channel between the analyst and users.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION PRACTICE
AND RESEARCH

Our review of requirements elicitation techniques—summarized in diagrammatic form in Figure
3.3—shows that they have potential to constrict or narrow the focus of the requirements elicitation
process. The predetermined content of questionnaires and other verification techniques can be
compared to newspapers: although they do not tell you what to think, they do direct what analysts
and users think about.
It is our hope that the conceptual framework presented in Figure 3.3 will enable researchers