Business Analysts : How to ask right kind of questions.

This is the story of Birbal, the intelligent minister from the court of Akbar who was known for his presence of mind and sharp wit.

Now the story goes like this since Birbal was popular in Akbar’s court and also a favorite of Akbar hence there were few other ministers who were jealous of him. Mulla Nasiruddin was also one of Birbal’s rivals in court. Once it so happened that Mulla comes to Akbar to complain that he favors Birbal and then Akbar decides to take both of them through a test to judge and show his impartiality.

One fine day when Akbar is relaxing in his balcony and there was a marriage procession on the street and being curious Akbar wanted to know more about the marriage in the city and called Mulla to find more about it.

Mulla goes down, gets more details and comes up to Akbar.

Akbar – Who is getting married?

Mulla – Noor is getting married.

Akbar – Who is Noor getting married to?

Mulla – Let me go and find out.

Mulla runs down and finds out that Noor is getting married to Salim.

Akbar – Where is Salim from?

Mulla – Let me go and find out.

Mulla runs down and finds out that Noor is getting married to Salim from Fatehpur.

Akbar – Where is the marriage happening?

Mulla – Let me go and find out.

Mulla runs down and finds out that the marriage is happening in the city Convention hall.

Now Akbar calls Birbal and asks him to find out the same thing.

Birbal goes down and gets more details.

Akbar - Who is getting married?

Birbal – Noor is getting married to Salim from Fatehpur and the marriage ceremony is happening in City Convention hall at evening 8 PM.

Now the test and the results are obvious why is Birbal Akbar’s favorite.

Now the question to all of us is do we want to be a Birbal or do we want to be a Mulla.

Most of us Business Analyst Professionals, need to ask questions and collect relevant details from the stakeholders while conducting the requirements gathering exercise.

How often are we prepared well enough for this and ask the right kind of questions and collect enough details?

The skill also lies in using the right tools if we use an appropriate and detailed template for the requirements gathering exercise we may come out as Birbals and become the favorite of the Akbars in our workplace/client assignment/Project/engagement.

Here is a sample of something that we have developed over the years and found useful and successful in most of our projects. Take a look for a detailed presentation on an SRS template.