A rezoning software project needs deep tacit knowledge held by a few senior planners. Which requirements-gathering approach fits best?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Tacit know-how lives in people’s heads, not in a checkbox survey. Sit down and interview those senior planners if you want the real rezoning rules.
Full Explanation
Deep tacit knowledge held by a few senior planners on a rezoning software project is best elicited through interviews. Interviews allow probing, follow-up, and clarification of unwritten rules that surveys and public artifacts miss. Civic land-use systems fail when tacit planner knowledge never enters requirements and only brochure-level rules are automated.
Sending only a mass anonymous survey and skipping expert conversations fails conceptually because surveys favor breadth and explicit questions, not deep tacit expertise concentrated in a few people. Observing the public website alone without talking to planners fails because the public site rarely encodes internal decision rules planners actually apply. Inferring rezoning rules solely from an outdated lobby brochure fails because stale marketing literature is not a reliable requirements source for current practice.
Exam caveat: Scarce tacit knowledge calls for focused interviews with experts, not only broad or passive techniques. Operational check: schedule structured interviews with the senior planners, document elicited rezoning rules and exceptions, validate them back with the experts, and place confirmed rules into requirements artifacts before configuration.