What type of interview is the most common as part of requirements elicitation?

Many-to-one interviews - where multiple interviewers question a single subject - are uncommon in business analysis elicitation and can create an adversarial or intimidating atmosphere for the stakeholder.

Many-to-many formats such as workshops or focus groups serve collaborative elicitation purposes but are not classified as interviews since they involve group dynamics rather than individual dialogue.

One-to-one interviews pair the business analyst with a single stakeholder, allowing the analyst to build rapport, tailor questions to that individual, and probe deeply without peer influence or group dynamics affecting responses. This format is the most widely used elicitation interview technique because it maximizes the quality and depth of information gathered from each stakeholder. The IIBA BABOK Guide identifies one-to-one structured and unstructured interviews as the standard interview approach for elicitation.

One-to-many formats such as surveys or presentations are broadcast in nature and lack the interactive, bidirectional dialogue that defines an interview.