data collection

One of the major topics deals with the data collection for requirements gathering for a new proposed system. Welcome to week 3.  Five characteristics that will come in handy during the requirements determination stage are impertinence, impartiality, relaxing constraints, attention to details, and reframing. Impertinence questions everything. Impartiality describes your quest to find the best solution to a business problem or opportunity. Assuming anything is possible, and eliminating the infeasible defines the third characteristic, relaxing constraints. By making sure that every fact fits with every other fact, the analyst is paying attention to details. Since analysis is a creative process, the analyst should challenge himself to look at the organization in new ways. This characteristic is referred to as reframing. 

It has been said that when determining system requirements, "data collection takes a lot of time." (from devryu.net). Therefore, it is not worth the time and trouble. What do you think? What are some faster ways to accomplish data collection?  

NOTE: This is talking about collecting data for business requirements