Hi All,

I am new to this forum. I have been assigned new project and my role will be some what like business analyst that includes, 

• Meetings with the client for requirement gathering
• Analysis of the requirements
• Design the system

I have 8 years of experience in developing the software, but this is my first project as requirement gathering and driving the business meetings. But I am not clear how should I proceed. I am reading few books for Business Analyst but all members on this forum are BA and having practical experience. 

First step I think, I should start understanding the business as I am not much aware with what they doing and how. 

Please let me know what should be my approach and steps ?

Hi Raj, 

Here's my advice, hope it helps. 

Gather as much information about the client's current processes that you can prior to hosting a workshop (eg work instructions, system screenshots, relevant legislation, also if your workplace has developed similar solutions for other clients have a look at these, ie WHATEVER you can get your hands on) and try to understand what the process is trying to achieve.

Ultimately however, the workshop is your opportunity to understand the process properly. Don't worry if you don't know enough about the process before you commence workshops; it's EXPECTED that you don't know about it. 

Get a general idea of what topics you need to discuss, estimate how long each will take, and fit them into a schedule. Make sure you allocate a good chunck of time at the end for additional discussion (you'll likely discover topics that need further discussion; make sure you can fit it in). 

During the workshop, try to stick to the schedule (you won't, but try anyway). Start from the very start of the process (ie, ask the clients what the triggers of the process are) and work through the process pragmatically. Ask questions. LOTS of questions. Make sure you have a method of documenting them; I usually write everything on the whiteboard then take pictures with my phone. It's usually VERY helpful if you have someone else in the room to document their own notes as well that they can hand over to you, as they'll have more time to document (you'll be busy hosting the room). Plus, if you have a second person in the room, it's nice to have them ask some extra questions. 

When writing things on the whiteboard, pictures are good. Visualisations work much better than text-only. So draw processes, diagrams, etc. 

With 8 years experience in dev, your at risk of focusing on possible solutions as you're collecting the requirements. My suggestion is to make sure you understand the difference between requirement and solution, and focus squarly on requirements. I've noted that you're designing the system as well, so this will be difficult! But remember that before you develop a solution you MUST understand the requirements. 

If your workshop runs over multiple days, ensure you give yourself an hour at the end of each day for review. You should actually start trying to document the process at a high level (ie, building the process flow diagram). During this process you'll likely realise that you missed some information in your workshop; it's much better to realise this when you still have a chance to clarify with the client. 

Hope this helps, and good luck, Raj!

Mark