Developing User Requirements:
The Key to Project Success

What is this course about?

Real-world, pragmatic experience is what this course offers. In the role of an analyst at a fictional organization, you gain hands-on experience in the process of identifying and confirming user requirements. In this course, you face the challenge of planning a requirements project from start to finish. You learn how to sharpen your interviewing and analysis skills and write the most well-formed, testable, and verifiable requirements in the industry.

The result? You'll find yourself back at the office with the confidence, ability, and process to do requirements right. You'll be more efficient in your work and be able to effectively describe what customers and users really want. And your deliverables will be easy to read and easy to manage, with just the right amount of detail so engineers, quality assurance professionals, and others can create and manage the solutions you've specified.

How is this course structured?

This course is structured around a dynamic style of learning created by Learning Tree called RealityPlus^TM - an immersive experience that engages you in authentic tasks within a simulated real-world context. Through media-rich case studies, role playing, and video/computer-based activities, you are immersed throughout the course in an evolving scenario where the decisions you make affect the outcome of the simulation. The RealityPlus learning method is presented in a safe environment where you gain new skills and practice the most effective techniques to bring back to your job. At the end of your course, you are prepared to immediately and successfully apply these new skills within your organization!

Who will benefit from this course?

This course benefits those involved in the development of products or services and those who participate in the early stages when projects are initiated and their business and user requirements are defined. Targeted class attendees include developers, users, intermediaries, managers, project managers, end users and customer service representatives.

What background do I need?

This is an introductory requirements development and documentation course. This course does not require any knowledge of computer systems or specific technologies and is appropriate for new business analysts or project team members involved with defining user requirements.

This course is also beneficial for experienced attendees who would like to explore different requirements development approaches and best practices than they may be accustomed to. One of the main objectives of the course is to broaden the participants' views of the requirements development process.

What practical skills and templates does the course provide?

This course provides numerous practical skills, including:

• Preparing a plan for completing a user requirements project
• Conducting efficient user requirements elicitation activities
• Analyzing requirements using a process mapping methodology
• Writing well-formed and validated user requirements
• Organizing and sequencing requirements into a user requirements document
• Presenting requirements to stakeholders for understanding, confirmation, and acceptance
• Managing changes to the user requirements
• Planning your organization's creation or enhancement of a user requirements process, including the adoption of the right requirements management tools and standards

In addition to the course slides, a comprehensive Reference Manual is provided to attendees containing templates, checklists and techniques applicable to all phases of the requirements development process. Key worksheets and checklists are also provided in soft copy on a student handout CD.

The Reference Manual and CD are unique to Learning Tree and provide extensive information and requirements-related material for use both in the course and back on the job.

How much time is spent on each topic?

What kinds of workshops/case studies are involved?

The course provides individual and team workshops that give you the opportunity to apply the concepts, templates and techniques presented in the course. The workshops and associated case study provide practical experience in building and writing requirements and content for both business and user requirements documentation.

About 75 percent of the course time is devoted to the workshop sessions, which include:

• Creating requirements documents based on authentic examples
• Preparing for stakeholder interviews with video scenarios that put you at the meeting table
• Analyzing, writing, validating and testing requirements via production simulations
• Collaborating with others to foster new ideas and innovations
• Analyzing different requirements approaches from various points of view to improve your own process

Can I use my own projects within the course framework for an on-site event?

Yes. You can bring your organization's project requirements documents, processes and experiences to this course, in addition to the case study project, in an on-site environment. The instructor will use the custom video to enforce the lessons and allow you and your team to apply the techniques and approaches to your own requirements-focused deliverables and existing processes.

Do we use the IEEE requirements methodology and templates in this course?

The business and user requirements documents used in the course are customized from the IEEE requirements document templates and methods to fit all project types, not just IT. For coverage of IEEE requirements methodology and templates, you may be interested in Course 218, User and System Requirements for Successful Software Development.

Is this course applicable toward a Project Management Institute (PMI) certification?

Yes. Though this course is not designed as preparation for an exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward, or maintaining, a PMI certification. Most PMI certifications require a specific number of PDUs in order to obtain and maintain the credential. Completion of this course provides 23 professional development units (PDUs).

Learning Tree offers several courses that help you prepare for PMI certifications, including Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® Exam, which prepares you for PMI's most popular certification. For more details on these courses and PMI certifications, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A.

Is this course endorsed by the IIBA^®?

Yes. Learning Tree is an Endorsed Education Provider (EEP^TM) by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA^®). This course has been approved by the IIBA^® as supporting core concepts and knowledge outlined by IIBA^®'s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge^® (BABOK^®). Completion of this course counts as 23 continuing development units (CDUs) that will assist you in qualifying for or maintaining the Certified Business Analysis Professional^TM (CBAP^®) certification. For more information about CDUs and how to register them with the IIBA^®, please see the Learning Tree IIBA^® EEP^TM Q&A or http://www.theiiba.org.

The IIBA^®, an independent, nonprofit professional association for business analysts, created the BABOK^®, which is a collection of knowledge for professional business analysts. The BABOK^® reflects generally accepted practices and describes business analysis areas of knowledge, their associated activities and tasks, and the skills necessary to be effective in their execution.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses?

Learning Tree offers a wide variety of courses related to software development and project management.

Software engineering courses include:

• 1801, Modern Object-Oriented Software Design: Hands-On 
• 316, Software Testing Foundation: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 

Additional related courses include:

• 211, Introduction to Business Analysis: Defining Successful Projects 
• 212, Building an Effective Business Case 
• 3503, Preparing for the IIBA® CCBATM Certification Exam 
• 319, Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 219, Business and Report Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction 
• 381, Business Process Reengineering for Competitive Advantage 
• 912, Creating a High-Impact Work Plan for Business Analysts 

Additional courses to consider include:

• Course 296, Project Management: Skills for Success
• Course 287, Complex Project Management
• Course 346, Project Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams
• Course 901, Introduction to Business Intelligence: Designing a Successful BI Program