Getting Through the First Requirements Session

Business Analysis Tips

What to do if you don’t know where to start

Does the first session with stakeholders sound intimidating?

What if you are new to the job?

What if you just joined and don’t know much about the project yet?

What if you get thrown into the deep end without any preparation time?

We all know that real life is not like a textbook. We have to adapt, and you can’t always get a gentle start in a new company, especially if you are on a contract. So it’s better to have a few strategies up your sleeve.

Let me suggest one.

Imagine that you have to get into that meeting room tomorrow and start somewhere. You have a vague notion about the project from a general scope statement, but not much else yet. You are supposed to know what to do.

One of the ways to make it easier — for yourself, and for your audience, is to start by creating a model.

It could be a context model, a business use case diagram, or a high-level process flow (just boxes and arrows).

Whatever it is, it can help kick-start the conversation, structure it as you add elements to the model, and depict the progress of the discussion.

It can give the new business analyst a way to facilitate their way into the new project.

It can help stakeholders provide you with an overview incrementally, box by box, which takes the pressure off and gives them time to think.

While you add a stick person or a box to a picture in front of them, they can make the next neural connection, and give you the next idea, element, or use case to add to the model.

How can you introduce this idea at the beginning of the meeting? Here is what you could say:

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