Course Overview
Information technology (IT) projects share a common thread. That thread is the relationship between effective requirements management processes and project success. Project managers need to develop a disciplined approach coupled with effective tools and techniques in order to enhance their development efforts. This three-day course walks participants through the entire life cycle of requirements management.
Designed for project managers with some experience, participants will gain an understanding of the strategies, skills, and tools that lend themselves to effectively managing technology requirements. Through the use of a sophisticated case study and individual exercises, participants will gain practical experience leading to higher levels of customer satisfaction and a more efficient requirements management process.
Key Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe the purpose of a requirements management plan
- Describe the impact of the software development life cycle model on project management and requirements management
- Identify the phases of the requirements management life cycle
- Create verifiable and reliable requirements
- Apply various approaches to identifying requirements
- Describe the importance of requirements documentation
- Outline the differences in requirements validation and verification
- Develop a change management strategy
Course Outline
Introduction
Foundations of Requirements Management
- Define a requirement
- Recognize the importance of requirements management (the impact of poor requirements management)
- Define roles and responsibilities for requirements management
- List the phases of the requirements management process
- Introduce the traceability matrix
Systems Development Models and Requirements Management
- Provide an overview of the pros and cons of popular software development life cycles
- Waterfall and modified waterfall
- Incremental
- Iterative
- Spiral
- Discuss how the requirements management process is effected by the life cycle model used
- Explain how the requirements management process is affected if the agile method is used for software development
Organizing Phase
- Describe the key activities that are accomplished during the organizing phase of the requirements management process
- Review the deliverables used in the organizing phase of the requirements management process
- Requirements management policy
- Requirements management plan
- Traceability matrix
- List tools that may assist in the requirements management process
- Introduce the characteristics of a well written requirement
Implementation Phase (Gathering Requirements)
- Describe key activities and deliverables that occur in the implementation phase of the requirements management process
- Explain key data gathering techniques
- Provide tips on performing successful requirement gathering interviews
- Introduce use cases
- Provide an overview of activity diagrams, entity relationship diagrams (ERD), and data flow diagrams (DFD)
- Outline tips for analyzing requirements
Requirements Documentation Approaches
- Discuss requirements documentation approaches
- Practice writing and identifying good requirements
- Outline strategies for identifying and prioritizing risks associated with requirements
- Describe types of specification documentation
- Stress the importance of client sign-off in the requirements management process
Verifying and Validating Requirements
- Outline the goals of requirements verification and validation
- Describe the differences between verification and validation
- Explain key activities associated with verification and validation
Managing Change and Sustaining
- Describe the importance of change management in the requirements management process
- Identify sources of change
- Discuss roles and responsibilities in the change management process
- Create a change management policy
- Summarize the activities associated with sustaining the requirements
