How to Write Effective Business Requirements for IT Projects

1. General Introduction

• Why are good requirements necessary?
• Causes of IT Project Failure
• The Uncertainty Principle
    The Fate Chart
    Open Items (Questions) List
• The Three C’s of Requirements Definition

2. Writing Good Requirements

• A Problem with Language
• Write a "Good" Requirement Sentence
• Do’s
    Interaction: What’s good about these requirements?
    Interaction: How would you make them better?
• Don’ts
    Interaction: What’s bad about these requirements?
    Interaction: How would you fix them?
• Making a good requirement better
• Peer Reviews Clarify Requirements
• Applying: Rewriting and Posting Your Requirements for Review

3. Writing Measurable Requirements

• Q&A Session
• Is your requirement testable?
    How will you test it?
    Interaction: Testable requirements
• Quality Requirements (e.g., reliability, usability, etc.)
• Writing Measurable Quality Requirements
    Interaction: Using a Quality Requirements Template
• Analysis and Definition — Focus of a Requirement
    Interaction: Identifying Focus of a Requirement
• Applying: Measuring and Posting Your Requirements for Review

4. Writing Understandable Requirements

• Q&A Session
• How to Interpret a Requirement
    Interaction: Reviewing and Challenging Requirements
• Major Subjects of Requirements
• Functional Requirements
    Interaction: Identifying Processes and Data Requirements
• Performance Requirements
    Interaction: Identifying Performance Requirements
• Business Rules and Constraints
    Interaction: Identifying Rules and Constraining Requirements
• Using Requirements Subjects to Test Your Understanding of a Requirement
    Interaction: Using a Template to Decompose a Set of Requirements
• Applying: Decomposing and Posting Your Requirements for Review

5. Writing Comprehensive Requirements

• Q&A Session
• Useful Requirements Groups
    Interaction: Organizing Requirements into Groups
• Verifying Completeness
    Interaction: Using Requirements Focus
• Summary: The "Rules" For Effective Requirements
    Interaction: Putting It All Together
• Roadmap for the Future: A Requirements Taxonomy
• Job Aids

1.5 Days

Business Process Managers
Business Process Users
Business Subject Matter Experts
Business System Analysts
User liaison personnel
An intact project team who will work together to define the requirements for a specific project
Anyone who would like to understand their customer’s needs before they develop the solution

NONE

Our instructors have extensive experience in applying these techniques on projects with business experts from a wide variety of fields.