Has anyone tried gathered requirements by conducting a Deep Dive Session with Business Users? How do these sessions work? Was it productive and a good way to gather requirements? Are there any issues this?
From what I understand so far, in these sessions you ask the business users to define parts of the system and how it should work from their perspective. After a set amount of time, you rotate their ideas with someone else in the group, then refine and repeat.
Generally, I find it's best to go to each major stakeholder and get what they want out of the system, and where their pain points are. Granted, my business is typically analytical information, not input systems, but I think the main tenets are the same.
Find out what they spend their time doing. Find out what they really dislike doing (the more of these you can squash, the happier your users are). Find out what they really want out of the system. I think too often we expect technical requirements from end users, when they really don't have a clue nor care. They just want a system that works and gets them what they want. Make it as painless as possible for them to do their job.
If you focus on those things in requirements sessions, you tend to get a much better picture of what you need to build than if you try to have the users design the system.
here's something called Deep Dive brainstorming technique, an innovative process for organizational development
Here's an example from a Web Space Deep Dive interview and presentation
I hope this helps! :)
The method I use (whether you want to call it deep dive or not) is to have the users design the system. But not a computer system, a paper system. I do this via interviews, walkthrus, and occasionally group meetings. They understand paper. They know what it is capable of, and what it is not capable of, so that they can succeed.
Now while this is going on, listen very carefully. The limits of a paper system are not the same limits of a computerized system. The data flows however will be very similar. The roles and permissions will be almost identical.
From this you can create your system.