Eliciting and Writing Effective Requirements Training

Certificate: None
Duration: 3 Days
Course Delivery: Classroom or Virtual Classroom

Accreditor: None
Language: English
Credits: 21 PDUs, 21 CDUs

Course Description:
You will learn to identify your audience, determine their requirements, and provide them with adequate and appropriate information. You will learn the technical writing techniques that apply directly to writing requirements documents and you will learn to apply the five Cs of writing-correct, clear, concise, comprehensive, and cohesive-to writing requirements. You will use lists, tables, and graphs to structure requirements information for clarity. And you will use white space, information chunking, and headings to improve readability. This course covers the “Requirements Documentation” knowledge area of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®).

Learning Objectives:
Individuals at this level will have demonstrated their ability to:
● Write well-formed and validated user requirements
● Organize and sequence requirements into a user requirements document
● Prepare a plan for completing a user requirements project
● Conduct efficient user requirements elicitation meetings
● Analyze requirements using a process mapping methodology
● Manage changes to the user requirements

Prerequisites:
None – This course suitable for both novices and experienced people who need to elicit and write effective requirements. It is recommended that participants complete the BA01 – Business Analysis Essentials course prior to enrolling or have equivalent experience.

Course Materials:
You will receive the following as part of this course:
● Full Student Guide
● Requirements Templates

Course Outline:

Section 1: Introduction
● Requirements and types of requirements
● Requirements in the product life cycle
● Project roles and requirements
● The role of the Business Analyst (BA)

Section 2: Writing Effective Requirements
● Attributes of effective requirements
● Audiences of the requirements and the audiences’ needs
● Level of detail
● Business vs. technical point of view
● Need for formality

Section 3: Knowing Your Audience and Their Needs
● Specific needs of business stakeholders and management
● Specific needs of Subject Matter Experts (SME)
● Specific needs of the technical team (developers, testers, etc.)
● Establishing a roles and responsibilities matrix

Section 4: Preparing to Gather Effective Requirements
● Functional requirements
● Quality of Service (QoS) requirements
● Assumptions and constraints
● General techniques used

Section 5: Conducting Requirements Elicitation Activities
● Tracing requirements
● Metrics used
● Capturing requirements attributes
● General techniques used

Section 6: Confirming Elicitation Results
● Managing scope and stakeholder expectations
● Managing requirements that conflict
● How to structure requirements for review
● General techniques used

Section 7: Capturing and Communicating Requirements
● The 5 Cs
● Bulleted and numbered lists
● Tables and graphs
● Models and other graphics
● Using white space and fonts
● Chunking requirements information and the use of headings

Section 8: Assessing Requirements Have Been Met
● Validation vs. verification
● Goals and participants in verification activities
● Goals and participants in validation activities
● Holding formal review sessions

Section 9: Additional Information
● Useful books and links on writing effective requirements

Audience:
● Business Analysts
● IT Project Managers
● Requirements analysts
● Technical writers
● Systems analysts
● Developers
● Software engineers
● Project leaders
● Senior project managers
● Team leaders
● Program managers
● Testers
● QA specialists