Overview:

This is a two-day hands-on course for new or experienced system analysts, business analysts, project managers and technical writers and is focused on capturing, writing and completing quality requirements specifications that are based on industry standards. In this hands-on workshop participants will learn and practice documentation and modeling techniques using standard templates, worksheets and checklists. The course is a mix of presentation, demonstration, and hands-on exercises and is dedicated to achieving successful knowledge & skills transfer from a Senior Consultant with years of analysis, documentation and facilitation experience

The role of a BA using Best Requirements Practices™ is characterized by the ability to capture the right requirements completely, accurately and in its proper context. All this must be done in real-time without interrupting the dynamics of the user meeting, or Requirements Discovery Session. This course is full of practical tips, checklists, principles and techniques to help capture, write and review requirements specifications. This session covers everything you need to product quality specifications built on the principles and concepts of Best Requirements Practices™, Specifying Client Requirements, and IEEE's Recommended Practices and Documentation Templates.

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Course Content:

• Documentation Fundamentals
  The Role of a Documentation Practitioner
  The Key Objectives of Requirements Documentation
  The Seven Factors to Successful Documentation

• Preparing For the Session
  Preparing Yourself
  Preparing Your Team
  Preparing Your Environment
  Preparing the Participants

• Capturing Requirements During a Discovery Session
  Listening Skills
  Organization Techniques
  Knowing What to Document

• Writing Quality Specifications
  Dealing with Missing, Contradictory and Unclear Information
  Handling Complexity
  Identifying and Resolving Incorrect Information

• Documenting Requirements
  Different formats for Writing Use Cases
  Writing the Use Case Steps
  Writing Functional Requirements
  Writing the Information Requirements/Data Definitions

• Refining, Completing & Packaging the Specification
  Refining and Completing the Documentation
  The Five "C’s" to Quality Specifications
  Packaging and Producing the Documentation
  Using Requirements Documentation/Management Software

Learning Objectives:

• How to capture use cases, process discussions, business rules and data requirements live during a requirements meeting
• How to apply the seven factors to successful documenting -- listening, capturing, writing, clarifying, organizing, suggesting & teamwork.
• How to write requirements specifications using proven and practical best practices—built on the framework and standards from IEEE, SEI’s Capability Maturity Model (CMMI), and the BA BOK
• How to document using the five "C’s" to writing quality specifications -- clear, concise, concrete, complete, consistent

• Listen and document the requirements -- capturing what was said, not what you heard!

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