Information Gathering Techniques
Effective information gathering is the most basic perspective-widening tool an effective leader requires. Good quality information marks out the context in which the leader operates, creates the information patterns from which ideas emerge, and provides the criteria by which ideas are screened and assessed. When you successfully gather information and assess questions or problems, you will increase your first-level resolutions. As you perfect your assessment skills, you’ll enhance your problem-solving efficiency and effectiveness.
Various Information Gathering Techniques
• Review documentation
Documentation serves to clarify understanding, and perhaps most important, it provides the audit trail of the
These work well for measuring awareness, gathering usage statics and investigating market share.

• Interview
The most common technique for gathering requirements is to sit down with the clients and ask them what they need. The discussion should be planned out ahead of time based on the type of requirements you’re looking for. There are many good ways to plan the interview, but generally you want to ask open-ended questions to get the interviewee to start talking and then ask probing questions to uncover requirements. Group interviews work well when everyone is at the same level or has the same role. These interviews require more preparation and more formality to get the information you want from all the participants. You can uncover a richer set of requirements in a shorter period of time if you can keep the group focused. In a facilitated session, you bring a larger group (five or more) together for a common purpose. In this case, you are trying to gather a set of common requirements from the group in a faster manner than if you were to interview each of them separately.

• Joint-application design (JAD) session
JAD (Joint Application Development) is a methodology that involves the client or end user in the design and development of an application, through a succession of collaborative workshops called JAD sessions. JAD sessions are similar to general facilitated sessions (larger group together for a common purpose).