Course Specifications
Course Code	C311
Duration	3 Hours
Author	IAG Consulting
Pre-Requisites	None
Level	Intermediate

Course Summary

This course is a high-level overview of the entire Requirements Elicitation Process. It introduces the learner to all the steps in the process, along with terminology, modeling tools and techniques.

Primarily designed for new business analysts, this course is also ideal for Managers and Business Users who do not need to understand the technical nuances of requirements gathering, but rather, need only a high-level overview of the Best Practice concepts. If you are one of those analysts who will be delving into the nitty-gritty details of business analysis, then understanding these major building blocks is critical.

Imagine being able to walk into any business area and be able to elicit your client’ business requirements, completely, accurately & consistently, regardless of the amount of experience you have in that subject area, regardless of the years of IT experience or your education level. Imagine being able to communicate with your clients in business terms and language that they understand and relate to using non-threatening, non-technical techniques. And perhaps most important of all, imagine being able to obtain their agreement that what you are modeling is truly what they want and need, immediately securing their buy-in. That’s what this course is all about.

Delivery Options

Who Should Attend

Business Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, Systems Analysts, Project Managers, Business Managers

Sample Screen Shot

Learning Objectives

• Overview of a practical and easy-to-use set of steps, questions, tips and techniques using the Best Requirements Practices
• The high-level steps and questions to organize and model information requirements into business objects and data items
• The high-level steps and questions to define functional specifications using activity modeling and business scenarios
• Who should be involved in the process
• A simple, quick and proven process of best practices that will enable you to deliver clear, complete and accurate specs consistently on all your software development projects.

Features

Video			Flash
Audio			Interactive Components
Exercises			Live Instructor
Quizes			Printable Reference Material
Completion Certificate

Reviews

Impressive Quality Course Jan 1, 2003
Reviewer: from Louisville KT USA

This was a fantastic little course on the subject. I honestly didn’t expect much for the money – maybe some PowerPoint slides in web format. But I was impressed by the quality of this e-learning. And that’s not even covering the actual content - which was right-on. Some of it I’d heard before, but this was laid out in a very practical way that made me realize actually when and how to use this stuff. I would certainly recommend this either for the intermediate analyst, someone new to the role, or anyone who’s trying to put together a practical requirements process.

As good as sitting in front of the instructor
Reviewer: Charles from Swift Denim

I was skeptical of a web-base class but this was very good - practically as good as sitting in front of the instructor...I was impressed with the way everything was set up...I don't think I would have learned any more by sitting in front of the instructor .

Reaffirms what I knew and more
Reviewer: Brian from Eastman Chemical

This is a very good course. I will most definitely be able to use this process on my projects. It reaffirms what I already knew but put some structure around it as well.

Attention to Detail
Reviewer: Wendy from HON Industries

This course exceeded my expectations and the material was a good review of concepts, and introduced new ones in an effective way. We will use the approach as a basis for a standardized approach to requirements gathering. I have even been speaking to other people at a different company about it.

Course Content

Course Objectives
The Software Development Life Cycle
The Analysis Phase
The Requirements Discovery Process:

• Define Objectives and Scope
• Elicit the Business Requirements
• Review, Analyze and Validate the Requirements
• Document the Requirements
• Obtain Agreement and Manage the Requirements

The Elicitation Process:

• Discover and Describe Objectives
• Discover and Describe Scope
• Discover and Describe Business Activities
• Discover and Describe Functional Requirements
• Discover and Describe Information Requirements

Fundamentals of How to Discover and Describe Objectives

• Where it fits; Who is involved; Why do it; What are objectives; Discovering objectives; Describing Objectives

Fundamentals of How to Discover and Describe Project Scope

• Where it fits; Who is involved in defining Scope; What is Scope; Scope creep; The foundations to discover and describe Scope; The techniques used to discover and describe Scope

Fundamentals of How to Discover and Describe Business Activities

• Where it fits in the elicitation process; Who is involved; Why do it; What are Requirements; Discovering Activities; Describing Activities

Fundamentals of How to Discover and Describe Functional Requirements

• Where it fits; Who is involved; Why do it; Discovering Functional Requirements; Describing Functional Requirements
• Creating complete, modifiable, unambiguous, consistent, ranked, verifiable and traceable requirements

Fundamentals of How to Discover and Describe Information Requirements

• When to identify and describe the data; Who should be involved; Your Goal with discovering and describing information requirements; Discovering Objects; Describing Objects; Describing Data Elements

The Outcome of the Elicitation Process

• Components of a Requirement Specification; Using the deliverable throughout the development lifecycle

Reference Material Available

• Videos of each of the techniques in action including:

• • Determining Objectives
  • Discovering and Describing Scope using a Context Diagram
  • Discovering and Describing Scope using a High-Level Scenario
  • Discovering and Describing a Business Activity
  • Defining the Functional Requirements
  • Defining the Information Requirements

• A summary of The Requirements Discovery Process TM -- that you can print and take away as a quick reference sheet

• Additional supporting information available as part of the Ask The Expert feature including:

• • Types of System Development Life Cycles
  • References to IEEE and SEI-CMM
  • Writing SMART Objectives
  • The Context Diagram and The High-Level Scenario
  • What is an Activity?
  • What is an Object?
  • What are Data Elements?