Recognize the role of documenting business requirements in the ultimate success of a project

Incomplete requirements are often cited as the number-one reason projects or systems fail. Accurately identifying the requirements and staying on course from the beginning is key to success in today’s business world.

This "how-to" course introduces the roles of the business analyst as they relate to the analysis and documentation of requirements. It familiarizes participants with the core knowledge and skills required to identify and document user requirements. It also addresses how these requirements are managed throughout the life cycle.

Recommendation: The material presented in this course provides the foundation necessary for building additional business analysis skills. If you plan to take additional courses in the Business Analysis Professional Development Program, you will need this foundation.

Course Topics

1. Roles, Definitions and Key Principles
   1. Critical role of the business analyst
   2. Creating and adopting a formal documentation strategy
   3. Roles and mutual expectations among team members
2. Capturing Requirements in a Business
   1. Requirements Document
   2. Identify critical stakeholders
   3. Structure of a Business Requirements Document
3. Vision, Scope and Quality
   1. How projects are initiated
   2. Importance of a solution’s scope statement
   3. Documenting project vision and scope
   4. Including quality measures
4. Identifying Users and Creating a Work Plan
   1. Project users and characteristics
   2. The value of creating a work plan
   3. The elements in a generic work plan
5. Types of Requirements
   1. Attributes and types of effective requirements
   2. What is an effective requirement?
6. Elicitation Techniques
   1. Apply four different question types
   2. Advantages and disadvantages of several techniques
7. Structuring End-User Requirements
   1. Techniques used to structure requirements
   2. Developing a basic use case
   3. The role of modeling
8. Validating User Requirements
   1. Requirements validation
   2. Methods used to validate requirements
9. Documenting User Requirements
   1. The purpose of documenting requirements
   2. Technical writing do's and don'ts
   3. Organizing your requirements for communication
10. Managing Conflict
    1. The nature and root causes of conflicts in projects
    2. The role of the business analyst in conflict management

“PMBOK”- is registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.