In this paper we show that interviews between IT co nsultants and clients are considered best practice in terms of methods for eliciting IS requireme nts as part of IS development projects. The process of conducting successful conversations with clients as part of requirements elicitation interviews is not well understood. The paper report s a literature survey which established current understanding. To date this understanding has been achieved through research which: considered conversations as black boxes; proposed and implemented treatments to be applied by consultants; and then measured the quality and quantity of the r equirements elicited. The treatments have not been successful as poor requirements elicitation co ntinues to be a major problem in IS development. Our analysis of current understanding indicat ed that consultants’ experiences of the nature of conversations with clients and approach to condu cting conversations have not been studied. It would seem imperative to look inside the black box of consultants’ experiences of conducting conversations with clients if improvements to the o utcomes of requirements elicitation are to be made. A study is proposed which aims to examine variation in how consultants experience requirements elicitation conversations. Through analy zing the variation in the light of current best practice it is aimed to identify the critical aspec ts of successfully conceived and conducted conversations. These critical aspects can then be used in IS education and practitioner training programs.