Hi there
I was wondering if anyone has successful interview techniques for a subject matter expert who responds to questions with very brief responses. After several meetings and trying different questioning techniques (which I'll list below), I have found that my SME will reply to everything with only a few words and seems to assume that I am deeply familiar with his entire domain. In discussing this with another BA on the team, he said that he had the same experience in the past and was lucky that he did have some familiarity with our SME's work.
I have tried:
Basically, I'm looking for any suggestions for how I can conduct interviews/ellicitation with this SME without having to ask 10 questions for each response.
Thanks!
Julianna,
If possible, you might try another eliciation technique instead of the interview which clearly isn't working well for this SME. An alternate technique that I've found invaluable is job shadowing. I don't use job shadowing as a primary technique, but it can be very useful to gather much information about business processes and requirements as a complement to the information gathered through interviews or group workshops. If you're not familiar with this technique, it involves sitting and observing the SME while he / she performs typical activities in the process areas being elicited. The SME gives a running commentary of what they're doing, and why at the same time.
I've found that business participants are usually very happy to participate this way. It lets them work productively while giving requirements, which is a big plus for busy SMEs. And it gives them a chance to demonstrate their expertise and accomplishments on the job, which most people enjoy as well. One of the main considerations before planning to use this technique is ensuring that there are no privacy or security concerns in having the BA see all the data and information used by the SME during the session.
Sandy
Good suggestions so far. I'll add one more for a technique that was born out of my own extreme frustration with an SME like that. I created my deliverable for his business area and filled it up with unknowns and assumptions. I gave him that in advance of our next meeting. When next I met with him, he had actually written out a lot of the information I needed before I arrived. Of course, additional questions spawned, and he was right back to with-holding. So I went away, documented what I had learned, sent him another version with outstanding unknowns and assumptions, and we met again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I don't know why he worked best with me this way, but perhaps having the questions in black and white in front of him in advance gave him time to think through what he needed to contribute. Or maybe he needed to be in a particular frame of mind in order to contribute, and he couldn't reach that state with me in front of him. For me, it was more painful than it needed to be and took longer than it should have, but for him it became a successful encounter.
HI Julianna
It sounds like you're doing everything you can. Can you tell what type of personality is at work and play to those strengths? (is the stakeholder a Red, a green etc...) Your stakeholder might be visual and would do better looking at a diagram. I think someone already mentioned this but try different elicitation techniquest if you can. I love that you're asking why and how. Sometimes you have to just keep going with that line until you get to the level of detail you need. Read your SME personality type and try to cater, keep going with your questioning, and maybe try a different setting. Good luck!
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