Course Outline: Specifying Client Requirements

Specifying Client Requirements

benefits | who should attend | learning points | content

Course Benefits for the Participants

This proven, effective, real world approach to Business Requirements Analysis is one of the most significant factors in ensuring the success of any system development project with your valuable Clients and users.
A defined and consistent method that is easily learned and easily applied leading directly to increased IS productivity and reduced systems development and maintenance costs.
This course provides a systematic approach with the skills and techniques necessary to begin effective requirements analysis immediately following the course.
Participants will learn methods, strategies and techniques that can be easily integrated into a company's existing methodologies and practices
As one participant said, " This is the most wonderful training session I've ever attended. This method to doing requirements will definitely give us better results and build a stronger relationship between IT and our business community."

This course is ideal for today's business analysts, project leaders, systems analysts, architects and any systems professionals who are involved in any phase of the development life cycle. The course is particularly relevant and ideal for those involved in defining requirements for projects related to:

Enhancement of existing or legacy systems
New systems development
Maintenance
Procurement of package software

Course Principles

Easy to understand - KISS; A non-complex approach
Easy to apply by the participants - a short learning curve
Designed for the average IT person - either a dedicated or occasional practitioner of requirements analysis
Instills confidence in one's ability to master the skills and techniques taught
Practical and applicable in the 'Real World' - not just theory - directly applicable to immediate project situations
Follows our training model of success: Explain, Demonstrate, Practice and Review

Participants Will Learn How To:

Analyze client business requirements
Produce requirement specifications
Organize and model the information requirements into Business Objects and data
Model business scenarios and define the functional specifications for required activities
Work directly and interactively with business clients in defining project requirements

And Get Specific Answers To:

"How do I determine the scope of the project?"
"How do I keep the clients on track and the requirements aligned with the agreed objectives?"
"How do I identify all the information requirements for the project?"
"How do I identify objects, and data items - and organize them so they make sense to the business users and are useable for database design?"
"How do I identify the activities and events for which functional specifications will need to be modeled?"
"How do I know when I've got all I need and can move on?"
"How do I deal with clients who don't know what they want?"

Course Content

Overview of Business Requirements Analysis Best Practices: Covers current development life-cycle concepts, information modeling & entity-relationship diagramming, object life-cycle analysis, event-based analysis, state-transition modeling; object-oriented analysis, use-case scenarios, process modeling, and the Requirements Discovery Session. The key success factors to doing analysis quickly, simply, and with a client/user business focus. Ensures the requirements are accurate, complete and clear for all users (business & IT), and resilient to change.

The Business Case Exercise: Throughout the course, participants will experience all the concepts, strategies and techniques they will need to conduct effective requirements analysis. The consultant will lead them through demonstrations of how these practices work with real world examples - from distribution systems to financial & insurance systems; from production to data warehousing applications. All participants will get numerous chances to practice these skills on a real business case throughout the session.

Determining a Project's Objectives & Scope: Includes "Objective-Oriented Analysis"; clarifying business, project and system objectives; aligning requirements with the company's and project's vision, mission, goals & objectives. How to use a Context Diagram effectively, building use-case scenarios; identifying business objects and identifying business events & activities - for detailed analysis.

Identifying a Project's Information Requirements: Information/Object Modeling. How to identify your project's objects, business rules, data items, and operations. Identifying object relationships and organizing the information into a Logical Data Model - normalization simplified.

Defining the Business Activity's Functional Specifications: Modeling the process and information flow. Defining an activity's triggering events and dependencies; describing the actions and operations involved. Applying and validating the business rules. Defining the activity's objectives and outcomes. Simplified data flow diagramming and other modeling techniques.

Conducting a Business Requirements Discovery Session (RDS): Facilitating a session to gather requirements with client/users. The process and logistics of holding a productive RDS. Producing clear and concise deliverables - Client Requirements Definition, Business Requirements Specifications, technical specs, request for proposals, etc.

Making it work - For you and your company: Applying these concepts in any development methodology. Dealing with your clients. Practical tips, hints, and traps - real world experiences from our consultants. Immediate next step strategies.

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