During the elicitation session, it is important for the business analyst to understand the proposed representations of business analysis information (prepared during the preparation task) so that the elicitation session can be guided toward the anticipated results for the session at the relevant level of detail.

To help guide and facilitate these planned outcomes/results, business analysts consider the following:

• The elicitation activity goals and agenda.
• The scope of the change (and of the session).
• What forms of output the activity will generate.
• What other representations, the activity results will support.
• How the output fits into what is already known.
• Who provides the information?
• Who will use the information?
• How will the information be used?

It is the role of the business analyst to ensure that the elicitation session is executed in a way that is goal-oriented and produces the desired results as was planned for during the preparation task. 

Although it is recommended that the business analyst keeps a close eye on the goals and planned results for the session, it is worth remembering that the stakeholder engagement and relationships are also very important and hence the business analyst should remain flexible in their approach and means of achieving the elicitation goals and results.

Example of guiding the elicitation activity

An example could be when you are conducting your elicitation workshop with a clear agenda of validating the end-to-end business process for making an insurance claim. During the workshop some of the stakeholders start to discuss the non-functional aspects of a potential software package they are hoping will be chosen as the new solution. This line of conversation is not only hypothetical at this stage of the project but also completely out of scope for what was planned for your elicitation workshop. Although you would always like to encourage communication and ideas generated during your elicitation workshops, it would be your role to steer the conversation back to the agreed agenda to ensure you achieve the elicitation activity goals.