Successfully planning and running fact finding interviews in business analysis is key to success. Having a great interview technique is therefore a core skill for a business analyst.

Even if you work in an environment that focuses on collaboration in facilitated workshops, you will find that ‘one to one’ interviews are a useful supplement. This is particularly true when dealing with senior managers and when needing detailed information from someone. They can be planned by the team and the results fed back to them.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Structure of a fact finding interview

From planning to delivery – The building blocks of an interview

The building of an interview are common to all types, not just fact finding. They are,

• Plan
• Prepare
• Conduct
• Follow up

The above diagram shows the building blocks in sequence. We’ll go through from left to right.

Planning a fact finding interview

BOSCARD is a great way to start any planning session. I have written previously about using the technique for planning a standup presentation for a live audience. It works equally well for interviews.

By the way, there is usually no need to plan alone. Use your team and/or your manager.

Elements of BOSCARD

‘B’ – ‘Background’ to the interview

Be crystal clear about who you want to interview and why you want to interview them in particular.

What are the circumstances that have led to this? For example, is it part of an analysis into falling subscription rates for the company’s key product?

‘O’ – ‘Objectives’ for the interview

Being clear on the objective(s) for the interview will help you, and your manager/team, to know what you need to come away with. It will help you to,

• Compose a compelling invite to the interview
  • Busy people like a good reason for being taken away from their job
• Structure the interview into topics and questions
• Focus

To help clarify your objectives, write down ideas based on the following prompts.

• What you want the interview to achieve
• Reasons for selecting your interviewee
  • Are they the ideal person to help meet your objectives?
  • Do they see the importance of the interview?
• The information that you expect to obtain
• The objectives of your manager and fellow team members
  • Have you asked them?
    • Have they told you, clearly?
• The impact of not succeeding to get your objectives

When you think you know all this, ask yourself if an interview is the best technique to use in this case. Would a workshop or questionnaire be better?

‘S’ – ‘Scope’

It is important to go into an interview with a clear set of prioritised and sequenced set of topics that you want to cover. When planning the interview, identify and prioritise your topics. All topics should relate to the overall objective of the interview. We will return to this when considering the timings for the interview. Also, decide on the level of detail that you need and ensure that this is appropriate to the role and position of the interviewee.

‘C’ – ‘Constraints’

This relates particularly to the date, the time and the location. The date needs to be agreed with the interviewee or their PA. Normally an interview will last between 30 and 60 minutes. Agree this with the interviewee. Another constraint is the number of interviewers; normally this is just one person but occasionally it may be advantageous to have two – we will return to this point later.

‘D’ – ‘Deliverables’

What needs to come out of the interview? Physically this will be the notes and perhaps sample documents gathered from the interviewee. Also consider what you want to come away with in non-physical terms; for example, if you have just interviewed the project sponsor for the first time, you probably want them to go away confident that you are the right person for the job.

Preparation

Elements of an interview

In planning and preparing to interview anyone, there are a number of elements to consider:

• The introduction
• Topic areas
• Sequencing of the topics
• Timing of the topics
• Questions for each topic
• The summary (‘Outro’)

The topics

Decide on the set of topics that you want to discuss. Give each topic a name and create an opening question for it.

Write the topic names and opening questions on a sheet of paper or tablet. The text should be large enough to see when the paper or tablet is on the desk in front of you. These are your prompts to help the flow of the interview.

You can also occasionally check the time and where you have got to.

Sequencing

Sequence the set of topics that you identified during planning. When preparing the interview, start with the most important topics in case you run out of time. Try to ensure that there is a logical flow between topics and, if you have them, between sub-topics.

Opening questions

Once you have the topics in sequence, consider what your key, or opening, question will be for each topic. Try not to write down too many questions in advance; an interview is about listening and responding, so keep detail to the minimum necessary for achieving your objectives. However, if there are important supplementary questions, make a note of those too. This is shown on the accompanying diagram.

Sensitive topics

If there are sensitive topics to be covered, you will probably want to tackle them later in the interview, once rapport is established. If you started a series of interviews by speaking to the sponsor, they might have warned you about potentially difficult areas; ask the sponsor directly if they are aware of any difficult or sensitive areas.

Timings

You should also create a time plan. During the interview, it is important that you do not exceed the time allocated for each topic. When planning the timings, you can quickly and easily see if your scope is too ambitious. Consider the accompanying diagram which shows the interview plan in the form of a grid.

Priority order

The topics are laid out left to right in priority order. As mentioned earlier, the typical time for an interview is between 30 and 60 minutes. You will normally allow a brief period for the introduction and a slightly longer period for wrapping it up. For the example, I have allowed a total of fifteen minutes for these two items.

The example in the grid indicates that I am planning to cover three topics, and, to simplify the example, have allocated an equal amount of time, i.e. fifteen minutes, to each of them. If I have sub-topics, you can easily see from the grid that I could be pressed for time.

Keep it brief without rushing

An interview should be as brief as possible but you do not want to rush it; better to reduce the scope and, if necessary, plan a series of interviews to capture all of the required information; perhaps each will involve different staff and different degrees of detail, as appropriate to the particular interviewees.

Before meeting the interviewee

You can of course send your interview plan and key questions in advance to the interviewee. They can tell you if they are the best person to talk to. They might, for example, tell you that for the information you require you need to speak to a more senior person. Alternatively, they may suggest someone with a better understanding of the detail that you need. Perhaps your intended interviewee might even send you an immediate answer to all or some of your questions as well as possibly providing other information that they feel is relevant.

Introduction and summary

It is often useful to plan the introduction and summary for your interview after you have completed your planning for the body of the interview.

Conducting an interview

Introduction

The statement that ‘You only get one chance to make a first impression’ is normally true. If the interview will be the first time that you have met the interviewee, you should take that statement to heart, particularly if your interviewee is a senior manager. Apart from anything else, it is basic politeness to turn up on time; it is also professional behaviour.

At the outset, check that the interviewee understands what the interview is about. The interview may have been put on the calendar by their PA so do not take anything for granted about the interviewee may or may not know or have remembered. Check that they are still ok for time.

The body of the interview

This is the heart of the interviewing. All fact finding interviews are used for one main thing – To get facts. Fact finding interviews in business analysis are intended to obtain information that will help with

• Understanding the problem situation
• Gaining insights into providing acceptable solutions to the problem

Follow the plan

Follow your interview plan. Place it on the desk in front of you so that the interviewee can see it; this will also remind them, if necessary, about how much time has passed and how much you still wish to cover. Having the plan on the desk, rather than clutched close to your chest or chin, should allow you to talk more freely and naturally; it also makes it easier for you to take notes on a separate note pad.

You have a timing plan to follow but be relaxed and do not pressurise the interviewee. Build up a rapport as quickly as possible.

Open and Closed questions

Ensure that your questions are open. Open questions are those that allow the interviewee to speak. Examples of open questions are,

• “Could you take me through the steps of this task”.
• “Could you tell me how you manage to control all that activity during the busy periods”.

Ok, they may just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the above, but they are unlikely to.

Closed questions are those that invite yes or no answers. For example, “I understand that you always check 100% of the samples – is that correct?

Be very careful with certain forms of closed question. For example, a statement such as, “I understand that there have been big problems with stock control since you took over. Is that true?”, is unlikely to do anything positive for the rapport!

Listening and body language

Listen carefully at all times. Let your body language show that you are listening and that you interested. If you start thinking about other things or are distracted by something happening outside the window, you may well miss something vital and it is hard to recover from that; you may not even realise that you have missed something vital. Periodically confirm your understanding verbally, or by nodding; be aware that different cultures may interpret a nod differently from how you do.

When to go off plan – Leads and Feeds

Whilst following your plan and your timings,  be prepared to respond to something that was said and go off plan when necessary. You are listening for ‘leads’. A lead is something that prompts you to ask for additional information. It will not be on your plan. In fact, it may conflict with information that had before coming to the interview.

Also be prepared to supply feeds. These are prompts to the interviewee to supply information, perhaps based on something they said earlier. Feeds will not be on your plan.

If you do not understand something that the interviewee said, it is vital that you ask for an explanation. Do not be afraid of saying that you do not know; far worse is to pretend that you do. Always remember that whole purpose of a fact finding interview is to get the facts – That means understanding and recording what is being said to you. If you don’t this, you will soon lose credibility – With the stakeholders, with your manager, and with your team.

Note taking

The challenge

Note taking can be a challenge, particularly if the interviewee talks a lot and/or talks rapidly. However senior the interviewee, you are in charge of the interview. Where necessary, ask the interviewee to give you a moment to make a note of something; apart from anything else, it shows you are interested in what is being said. Once again, fact finding interviews in business analysis are intended to get relevant information that will help to solve the stakeholders’ problems.

Do not forget to ask the interviewee if it is ok with them that you take notes. They may ask what you intend to do with them and who might see them. You reassure them by telling them that you will let them see the write up of the interview before releasing the information. At certain points in the interview, they may tell you that something is ‘Off the record’.

If you have the resources available, it can be effective to have two interviewers, one to ask most of the questions and one to take most of the notes. If you are the one asking the questions, occaisionally ask the note taker if they are keeping up, or if they captured a particular point.

Note taking with diagrams and models

Diagrams and models can be great ways of note taking. Keep the diagram visible to the interviewee; even if they have never previously seen a particular form of model.

I am often impressed at how quickly business stakeholders will pick up the technique and start using it with me. It is often claimed, for example, that you should not try to teach data modelling or state modelling to business stakeholders because they cannot possibly understand it. If you are modelling their business, and your model reflects the language that they are using, I have seen them not only understanding it, but coming up with some great insights based on an instant analysis that the model allowed them to make. I have had business stakeholders at the end of such a session telling me that the model and the act of modelling gave them fresh insights into their own business.

You may find that what started off as an interview at a desk becomes a stand up affair at a white board or a flip chart. Don’t forget to photograph or otherwise capture the detail on the whiteboard.

Using a recording device

When I worked with dealers and money brokers in the city, I often found that it was helpful to record the detail of the interview, particularly when the dealer spoke very rapidly in the language of the dealing room; by ‘language of the dealing room’, I’m talking about financial terminology, not some of the other language you hear. If you want to record, ask the interviewee if they mind.

Summarising a fact finding interview

End the interview at the agreed time unless the interviewee says that it is alright to continue. Go through your notes with the interviewee and ask them to confirm that what have written is correct. Amend any misunderstandings immediately.

Remind the interviewee that you will provide them with a write up of the interview and that you will wait for their acceptance before circulating them.

Thank them for their time and ask if it will be alright to come back to them if necessary for follow up information.

Follow up

Write up your notes immediately. For this reason, you should always ty to avoid having ‘back to back’ interviews or planning for interviews at the end of the day; this is especially true if the day is Friday or there is a public holiday the next day.

As well as writing up the notes, incorporate your findings and analysis into the other work that you and your team are undertaking. Your analysis might indicate that you need to have further meetings with your interviewee or that you need to see other stakeholders to gather supporting information.