Eliciting and Writing Effective Requirements

Course details

In this course, students learn the technical writing techniques that apply directly to writing requirements documents and you'll learn to apply the five Cs of writing-correct, clear, concise, comprehensive, and cohesive-to writing requirements.

Course Outline

1 - Introduction

• Requirements and types of requirements
• Requirements in the product life cycle
• Project roles and requirements
• The role of the Business Analyst (BA)

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

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

4 - Preparing to Gather Effective Requirements

• Functional requirements
• Quality of Service (QoS) requirements
• Assumptions and constraints
• General techniques used

5 - Conducting Requirements Elicitation Activities

• Tracing requirements
• Metrics used
• Capturing requirements attributes
• General techniques used

6 - Confirming Elicitation Results

• Managing scope and stakeholder expectations
• Managing requirements that conflict
• How to structure requirements for review
• General techniques used

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

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

9 - Additional Information

• Useful books and links on writing effective requirements

Target Audience: This course is intended for Business analysts, requirements analysts, technical writers, systems analysts, developers, software engineers, IT project managers, project managers, project analysts, project leaders, senior project managers, team leaders, program managers, testers, and QA specialists.

Related Certifications:

• Certified Business Analysis Professional

Related Exams:

• Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)