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Virtual Requirements Meetings - Your Time Is Now!

Guest post by: Tom Hathaway

Article Overview: Getting subject matter experts together with business analysts can be a time-consuming and expensive process, especially when travel is involved. Virtual meetings have been around for a while - but how do you determine what the trade-offs are?

Virtual Requirements Meetings - Your Time Is Now!

The Up Side of Virtual Requirements Meetings Do you think that the time has come for virtual requirements gathering meetings? I mean, think about the advantages:

1. They can be held anywhere, anytime (as long as all required participants have access to the web).
2. They offer a new dimension in instant, electronic documentation (capture–as–you–speak).
3. Virtual meetings save a ton of travel costs (that should get the bean–counters on board).
4. The previous 2 points mean that virtual meetings are environmentally friendly (that should get the environmental vote — maybe we should call them "green meetings").
5. They are safer by far (no risk of airplane, train, or automobile accidents if you don’t travel!)
6. They are healthier (proven to limit the spread of viruses — I mean, the human kind, not electronic. Given the variety of bugs currently circulating around the world, this one alone would be enough to cause me to give this technology a try.)
7. They are reasonably weather–independent (no more nights snowed in at airports, hallelujah!).
8. They are considerably less intrusive on your private life.
9. Nearly everyone has become accustomed to virtual meetings in some form or the other.
10. Everyone involved can access and share any kind of electronic material to emphasize the need for a specific requirement (or to refute it).

This is starting to sound like it is a too–good–to–be–true idea, which usually means it’s a scam. What, then, are the disadvantages?

The Down Side Obviously, there are significant disadvantages that need to be weighed to decide if virtual requirements meetings are for you:

1. People miss the face-to-face dimension (camaraderie, synergy, socializing - we are, after all, still human).
2. Jokes and humor are riskier on–line (and never underestimate their role in human communication).
3. Because you cannot read people’s body language (non-verbal communication), there is a higher potential for misinterpretation — both ways.
4. People do not always stay on task in the meeting (unless they are well facilitated).
5. Some people enjoy traveling to new places to see airports and hotel rooms they have never seen before.
6. It is difficult for some to express their thoughts in front of people they cannott see.

I must be biased because I cannot come up with as many bads as goods and I can think up a virtual way of combating every bad on the list. If you have tried virtual requirements meetings and have had experiences (good or bad), please email me at Tom.Hathaway@reqsol.com and share.

The True Test — Experience We at RSG have been doing quite a few of these types of sessions lately and I have to acknowledge that I am hooked. You can access our extensive knowledge and experience in eliciting, analyzing, managing, and communicating business requirements that saves you time and money. We have a ton of techniques designed specifically to support virtual requirements gathering sessions (call us at 813-319-5851 to learn more!).

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Article Tags: business analysts, requirements elicitation, subject matter experts, virtual meetings



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