Defining and Managing Business Requirements

Upcoming Class Dates

Successful projects are highly dependent on well-defined and well-understood requirements. This includes business requirements, product requirements and specifications. Investments in requirements processes have proven to be key contributors to delivering projects on time and on budget with the required product functions and features that meet or exceed business requirements.

Poor business analysis processes and inadequate requirements management processes have been identified as a leading cause of project failure. Organizations attempt to deal with this problem by using different approaches in discovering and defining requirements. However, requirements activities, as employed in many organizations today, are unstructured, ineffective or simply performed incorrectly.

This program focuses on a requirements management process that contributes to project success. Using a real case for a workshop exercise, you will practice defining the real problem, assessing the impact on the business, and identifying and managing stakeholders’ expectations. We will practice using various elicitation tools and techniques to discover real requirements that contribute deliverable solutions that produce desired business outcomes. You will learn how to develop itemized deliverable lists and how to discover overlooked requirements. We will discuss requirements verification, traceability and change management. Finally, you will learn how to prioritize and select the best requirement solutions and present those solutions in a business case format.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe and give examples for 5 types of requirements
• Write detailed requirements
• Critique requirements for quality characteristics
• List and define nine characteristic of good requirements
• Define stakeholders of a typical project
• List the steps in completing stakeholder analysis
• Evaluate stakeholders on a project to identify their attitude, influence and authority
• Construct a SWOT diagram
• Complete problem analysis using 3 techniques
• Describe two types of gap analyses
• List the steps to complete a gap analysis
• Write a problem / opportunity statement
• Compare question types to select the most appropriate for the objective
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of using different elicitation techniques
• Prepare for an interview
• Critique a questionnaire for improvements
• Construct a questionnaire to elicit requirements
• Develop a plan for a requirement workshop
• Plot and present a process model to stakeholders
• Describe three types of process models
• Define and give examples of core, support and management processes
• Define acceptance and evaluation criteria
• Describe qualitative and quantitative measures
• Categorize decision criteria
• Develop measures for decision criteria
• Construct a decision matrix
• Assess risks associated with each solution option
• List internal and external drivers of change
• Recognize the different change control documentation
• Assess the impact of a change on a project
• Produce a change request
• Recall and define common requirement attributes

Who Should Attend

The Business Analysis Essentials course is appropriate for individuals who are:

• Project Managers
• Senior Managers
• Subject matter experts
• Product Managers
• Developers
• Quality Assurance resources
• Other project resources
• Business Analysts, both junior and senior, who want more comprehensive business analysis knowledge should consider our Comprehensive Business Analysis Seminar Part 1 & 2, or Certificate in Business Analysis and Advanced Certificate in Business Analysis

Prerequisite

There is no prerequisite for this course. It functions as a standalone course.

Materials

Each participant will receive a course binder containing copies of presentation slides, case studies, exercises, and suggested solutions

What You Will Learn

• The International Institute of Business Analysis
• The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
• Definitions of business analysis and business analyst
• Differences between:
• Project management
• Financial Analysis
• Quality Assurance
• Business Analysis
• Key skills of a Business Analyst
• The role of the BA in a project

• Scope and Requirements
• Where do requirements come from?
• Types of requirements
• Differences between high level and detailed requirements
• Characteristics of a good requirement

• What is a stakeholder analysis?
• Impact and value of stakeholder analysis
• Steps in completing stakeholder analysis
• Techniques to analyze stakeholders
• Affinity diagram technique

• Business goals and objectives
• Business problem or opportunity statement
• Cause and effect diagram
• SWOT Analysis
• Completing Gap Analysis
• Uses of gap analysis
• Gap analysis process
• Gap analysis techniques

• Structured and unstructured interviews
• Preparing for an interview to make it effective
• Question types to use and avoid in an interview
• Organizing questions in an interview
• Questionnaire response types
• Developing an effective questionnaire for elicitation
• Types of observation
• Process for preparing for observation
• Data that can be collected during observation

• Types of processes that exist in an organization
• Elements of a process model
• Four types of process models
• SIPOC
• Functional process flowcharts
• Cross-functional process flowcharts
• Context Diagram
• Using a context diagram to elicit and document scope of a solution
• Create a quality context diagram
• Identify areas for improvement within a process

• Defining the solution approach
• Viable options for solution
• Assessing the proposed solutions
• Identifying requirement risks
• Developing risk plans
• Acceptance and evaluation criteria
• Decision Matrix

• Why scope/requirements change
• How to manage scope
• Managing changes to requirements
• Traceability

This course is delivered by Procept Associates Ltd., a Charter Endorsed Education Provider with the IIBA.