Case Method : Business Interviewing

Rating:
Summary: Improve communication with your clients!
Review: As an IT consultant I spend a lot of time keeping abreast of technical information, refining my understanding of techniques and acquiring new skills. Like my colleagues I tend to focus on the technical side, forgetting that "soft skills" are just as important.

This book is about those "soft skills" and it has greatly influenced how I approach one of the most important activities in which consultants engage - interviewing and elicitation. Prior to reading this book I viewed this activity as an art and, to be honest, as a necessary evil. As a group IT consultants have traditionally failed at effectively communicating with business users. There has been much written about aligning IT to business, but little has been said about how to go about it. This book changes that - at least from a requirements gathering and communications point of view.

To begin, it takes a methodical approach to the interview process by defining deliverables. We consultants seem to do this for every activity *except* interviewing. It then gives an example situation, and covers the basics of interviewing.

As you go through this book you will find sound advice on note taking, managing interview material, and advanced techniques.

Among the advanced techniques are how to read non-verbal communications (body language), how to match conversation styles with your subjects, and how to manage the interview. This is excellent material that should be read by any consultant who has customer contact.

I especially liked the chapter on facilitating workshops and groups, managing feedback sessions and eliciting knowledge (as opposed to eliciting information). I also found the checklists provided throughout the book to be excellent aids and have copied them for my own use.

This book should be required reading for all consultants and IT professionals regardless of their level of experience. It gives us a set of tools to use to align IT and business, starting with the most basic of activities: effectively communicating.

Rating:
Summary: Improve communication with your clients!
Review: As an IT consultant I spend a lot of time keeping abreast of technical information, refining my understanding of techniques and acquiring new skills. Like my colleagues I tend to focus on the technical side, forgetting that "soft skills" are just as important.

This book is about those "soft skills" and it has greatly influenced how I approach one of the most important activities in which consultants engage - interviewing and elicitation. Prior to reading this book I viewed this activity as an art and, to be honest, as a necessary evil. As a group IT consultants have traditionally failed at effectively communicating with business users. There has been much written about aligning IT to business, but little has been said about how to go about it. This book changes that - at least from a requirements gathering and communications point of view.

To begin, it takes a methodical approach to the interview process by defining deliverables. We consultants seem to do this for every activity *except* interviewing. It then gives an example situation, and covers the basics of interviewing.

As you go through this book you will find sound advice on note taking, managing interview material, and advanced techniques.

Among the advanced techniques are how to read non-verbal communications (body language), how to match conversation styles with your subjects, and how to manage the interview. This is excellent material that should be read by any consultant who has customer contact.

I especially liked the chapter on facilitating workshops and groups, managing feedback sessions and eliciting knowledge (as opposed to eliciting information). I also found the checklists provided throughout the book to be excellent aids and have copied them for my own use.

This book should be required reading for all consultants and IT professionals regardless of their level of experience. It gives us a set of tools to use to align IT and business, starting with the most basic of activities: effectively communicating.