What is the problem you’re attempting to solve

What is the opportunity you’re trying to take advantage of

What is the information/data you need to record and store
What information do you
need in order to make decisions in your daily operations

The answers to “who” questions help you understand not only

the people but also the systems within the scope of the project
Who will be creating the information?
Who will be using the information?
Who is impacted by the solution

If you want to understand the reason behind the project (or maintenance
request), ask a “why”
question
“Why is the company pursuing this opportunity over another?”
“Why did the company decide on purchasing that software over other
available options?”
“Why are we rolling out a requirements management tool right now?”
What you may really mean by this question is “Why are we buying a
requirements management
tool when we haven’t even defined our internal processes yet?” but phrasing
it the second way
may be politically volatile. The former version addresses the same issue in a
more neutral way.
“Why is the ROI (return on investment) 2 percent over 10 years for this
project?”
“Why are we furloughing people with the highest intellectual capital in
the company?”
“Why isn’t the company changing to keep up with the times?”
What was the reasoning behind . . .
.” This approach gets you to the answers you need, without making
someone try to defend his
or her rationale

Where is the data coming from

At what point is the process most inefficient?

At what point is the process most inefficient?

How will these changes affect your business area

You generally direct “why” questions to the higher-ups in an

organization, while the
lower-level employees doing the day-to-day work are a fit for “what” and
“how” questions.