Summary

When all is said and done, one of the easiest ways to find out what a system needs to do is to ask the prospective stakeholders! If we approach this requirements gathering activity in a structured way ”we know who the stakeholders are likely to be and what questions we need to ask of them ”we are likely to discover real requirements (though they may well be specified variously as needs, features, or technical specifications). In other words, if we ask the right stakeholders the right questions in the right way, we'll build that solid understanding we need. In the next chapter, we'll elaborate on some additional techniques we can use to augment this fundamental process.