Write Better Requirements

Why Do We Need Better Requirements?

The following article is a frank, open and surprising discourse on why we need better requirements.

According to Standish or Gartner reports and other case studies, nearly “two-thirds of all IT projects fail” because of poor requirements and other causes.

Why Do Projects Fail?

Consider that a project fails when it overruns the budgeted allocation of resources, time or money or fails to deliver the intended business requirements or value.

Some teams are so deep into this, that throwing more money, people or extending the shipping date is their default solution to scope creep, budget overruns or project failure!

But project failure doesn’t have to become the norm for you.

With this in mind, the following post on “Why We Need Better Requirements” is designed to help business analysts, project managers, web managers or technical leads make a case for preventing project failure by gathering better business requirements.

1. The True Cost of Fixing Bad Mistakes

   Gathering better requirements helps avoid fixing issues further down in the project when mistakes are guaranteed to be more expensive.

   Consider a product feature that is not developed to the customer’s specifications because of incomplete requirements documentation.

   The incomplete requirement is left to an open or wide interpretation from each member of the development team.

   Depending on when the improperly coded requirements are discovered; (development, software testing or production), the cost of fixing these defects is guaranteed to be much higher than the cost of gathering, validating or documenting the complete or correct requirements at the project’s inception!

2. The Opportunity Cost of Missing Requirements

   Discovering requirements late results in delays to the project or in shipping products that don’t meet or fall below the customer’s expectations!

   This results in missed market opportunities, unhappy customers or an improper allocation of resources, time or money.

   Why because, it costs more money to retool your product at later stages of the product development cycle than at inception.

   And regardless of what you do, you will be late to market or reduce your customers positive experiences of your product.

3. The Cost of Working Incorrect Requirements

   Perhaps, you’ve worked on a project where requirements are dispensed as favors because the Requirements Analyst lacks the authority or training to validate requirements properly.

   This is the practice where requirements are imposed on the project team without meeting the business case or scope.

   The cost of such a practice is that the project resources (people, money, time, infrastructure) are high-jacked to satisfy a few egos to the detriment of the organization’s strategic objectives, goals, missions or success!

Making The Case For Good Business Requirements

Note that when it comes to executing projects successfully you will always have the constraints of time, money or resources (people).

And regardless of who you work for, your project cannot be handled as if your organization has an infinite supply of these inputs.

So gathering incorrect, poor or wrong requirements will result in the improper allocation of resources and at the same time increase the risk of project failure.

Armed with this, don’t be a doormat, make a proper case to your management, stakeholders or project advisory team on the need or strategic importance of gathering better business requirements.

Action Plan: How To Gather Better Requirements

I’ve shown you why gathering better requirements matters and explained how you can make a case for sound requirement management practices at your organization.

Here is how you can help your organization adopt a better requirements management practice.

• Empower your Requirements Analyst

  Hire a capable requirements analyst for your project and then empower the resource to do their job.

  Adding a Requirements or Business Analyst to your team without empowering the resource is a practice in self-deception at best.

  So don’t start down that part, if your organization is not ready to rally behind their Requirements Lead.

• Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!

  Your Requirements or Business Analyst is there to help your project or organization succeed, so don’t make that resource into the enemy!

  Educate your stakeholders, management team or customers on the benefits of following a sound, documented requirements management plan.

  Find a champion who can lead that effort … then follow your chosen leader or get out of the way!

  The Requirements analyst’s job is not to dispense requirements as favors but to be a custodian of the organization or customer’s strategic vision, aspirations or expectations.

By understanding, communicating, leading or championing better requirements practices, you reduce the risk of project failure and help your organization achieve a better Return On Investment (ROI).

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Business Analyst Boot Camp Training Curriculum

Business analysts come from a wide variety of industries and from varying backgrounds. Because of this, you need to be flexible in your expectations of the type of work you will perform as a business analyst.

More than 50 major domains or industries that hire business analysts including the web development, web design, e-commerce, software development, information and marketing industry.

As the business analysis industry matures, software developers, database designers, software architects, project managers and professionals with diverse backgrounds are taking on formal business analysis jobs.

As a software development team begins to improve its development processes, many people become Business Analysts simply because they begin picking up the requirements gathering and analysis tasks that are left lying undone on their team.

These are the Accidental Business Analysts. They did not plan to take on the title, and in some circumstances, many still bear titles other than “Business Analyst”.

Like programmers, business analysts seem to come from different backgrounds.

One business analyst that I worked with in the past had a degree in computer science. He worked as a programmer for many years on our team.

He eventually became our business analyst because none of the rest of us wanted to spend time with the customers. For some strange reason, he was eventually promoted to team manager!

Another business analyst I worked with had a degree in business. He was hired as a systems analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank.

Even though he had no real background in technology, his role was to talk to managers about what they needed in the systems and translate and communicate those needs to the IT personnel.

Other business analysts I am acquainted with have backgrounds in biology, literature and even theatre!

While those business analysts who took college classes in business and computer science may have been introduced to the process of requirements gathering and business modeling, most did not. Where do they get their skills from?

As an Accidental Business Analyst, chances are that you start out simply winging many of your tasks and responsibilities. Even in situations such as these, your ability to lead, understand and communicate with customers, your understanding of your business domain and your ability to express customer needs to IT and vice versa will serve you excellently.

However, as the business analysis industry comes to maturity and you begin to grow your career, you should take the time to understand what a business analyst really does.

You should move towards excellence by finding out what makes a good business analyst, sharpen your requirements gathering and analysis skills, your business understanding and even your interviewing skills.

A little UML and Use Cases wouldn’t hurt you either? You will want to understand how to balance the business side of a project with the IT side of the project.

You should grow your value to your company by learning how to take a high level view of business issues as well as getting down to understanding processes and how systems support these processes.

The Business Analyst Boot Camp provides complete end to end training for business analysts.

The Business Analyst Boot Camp training is designed to be an in-depth online business analyst training that takes you from beginner to mastery in all the skills and competencies you need to be a great business analyst.

The high level summary of the Business Analyst Boot Camp curriculum is below. If you would like to download the detailed curriculum, request for the detailed business analyst training curriculum here:.

INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYSIS COURSE

1. INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYSIS

REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING COURSE

1. REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING
2. ADAPTING PRACTICES TO PROJECTS
3. AGILE REQUIREMENTS METHODOLOGY

CREATING THE BUSINESS CASE COURSE

1. DEVELOPING VISION AND SCOPE
2. MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE

RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION COURSE

1. RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION STRATEGY

ELICITING REQUIREMENTS COURSE

1. STAKEHOLDERS & REQUIREMENTS SOURCES
2. ELICITATION TECHNIQUES

ANALYZING REQUIREMENTS 1 COURSE

1. THE REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS LIFE CYCLE
2. PRIORITIZING REQUIREMENTS
3. BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING CONCEPTS & PRACTICES

ANALYZING REQUIREMENTS 2 COURSE

1. RELATIONSHIP MAPS
2. PROCESS MAPS
3. CONTEXT DIAGRAMS
4. EVENT-RESPONSE TABLE
5. BUSINESS POLICIES
6. ACTOR TABLE/MAP
7. USE CASES I
8. USE CASES II
9. STORYBOARDS
10. DATA MODELING
11. STATE DIAGRAMS
12. BUSINESS RULES

SPECIFYING & DOCUMENTING REQUIREMENTS COURSE

1. CREATING A USER REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT
2. CREATING A SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
3. SPECIFICATION DOCUMENT

VALIDATING REQUIREMENTS COURSE

1. CREATING TEST CASES
2. CONDUCTING PEER REVIEW
3. USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING

MANAGING REQUIREMENTS COURSE

1. CHANGE CONTROL
2. ATTRIBUTES & TRACING

MODELING WITH UML 2.0 COURSE

1. UML ONE
2. UML TWO
3. UML THREE
4. UML FOUR
5. UML FIVE
6. UML SIX
7. UML SEVEN
8. UML EIGHT

INTRODUCTION TO OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTS COURSE

1. OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTS

Click here to request the detailed business analyst training curriculum

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No doubt you already know how the recession affects the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Unemployment Rate or Stock Market. So, I won’t waste your time by repeating all that bad news.

What I would talk about is what really matters:”how you or your loved ones can protect your finances by staying employed in this recession!“

The best way to keep your job in a recession or to find a new job easily is to become “The Most Over Qualified, Under Paid Professional” on your team.

Here is why becoming over-qualified and under-paid work hand in hand to protect your career:

1. The Least Qualified Professionals Are Laid-Off In A Recession:The employees at risk of being down-sized are the least valuable professionals (business analysts, software developers, etc.) on the team.

   The least valuable professionals are the least effective, productive, skilled, trained or experienced people on their jobs.

2. The Most Over Paid Professionals Are Laid-Off In A Recession:The other type of employee at risk of being down-sized are the over paid software development professionals (project managers, web designers etc.).

   The over paid information technology (IT) professionals typically earn far above their contemporaries with the same skill sets or far above the historical costs associated with a position in a specific business. Firing over paid workers qualifies as cost savings for managers concerned about cutting payroll costs in a recession.

3. The Better Qualified, Least Paid Employees Keep Their Jobs In A Recession:

   The employees who keep their jobs or get hired easily in a recession … are the better trained, highly skilled and relatively inexpensive employees.The employees who advance their skills though hard work and training without always asking for more money … tend to stay employed even during recessions.

The Secret To Staying Employed Even In A Recession

The best way to stay employed especially in a recession … is by training to “become the best skilled person … and not the best paid!”

You need to cultivate the attitude of champions … “who train daily to be the best!“.Champions do not obsess about money! Champions understand that … proving their mettle is the only thing that really matters!

Champions are rich, famous and successful … because they ignored the pursuit of money … to become the best

So, will you accept this challenge: “to recession proof your career” … by training to become the best or are you going to leave your career at the mercy of the coming financial storm?

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In every information technology discipline, there are people who outperform
others.

You probably know some of them; computer programmers who write better
code, faster than their colleagues or data analysts who can research and
identify trends in data faster, easier and better than their colleagues or
business analysts who are ten times as productive as their colleagues!

I have been studying top performers ever since I left high school and I am
now starting a free online study group on top performers with the goal of
identifying:

i. who are top performers?
ii. how do you become a top performer?

If you interested in this topic, read on: Top performers in every
industry can out-perform their colleagues by as much as a factor of
ten-to-one and so they are recognizable by their productivity.

Top performers are experts, smart, focused, passionate,
energetic and talented people.

Top performers are found in every profession including software testing,
business analysis, software development, IT management, recruiting, web design,
internet marketing, etc.

Studying Top Performers

1. Do you know someone who is a top performer at work? Please post a comment
saying why you think the person is a top performer.

2. Do you have any criteria for choosing or selecting top performers? Please
post a comment saying what your criteria for nominating or selecting someone as
a top performer is.

3. Do you have any idea on "how to become a top performer"? Please post a
comment here saying how ordinary people can grow their skills and become top
performers in their industry.

4. Do you have managers at work who will be interested in discussing why they
consider one employee or the other top performers, please contact me with their
name and email address and I will email them a brief questionnaire on the "top
performers" on their team.

I am starting a study group on top performers and I would like your
participation in the discussions on the topic. All you have to do is post a
comment, question, feedback or nominate someone you know as a top performer and
tell us why you choose the person.

Thanks,

Kingsley Tagbo, IT Career Coach – http://www.it-career-coach.net

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

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ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

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• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

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One of the questions submitted by a reader to the

target="_blank" title="it career questions and answers">Myths Debunked
Burning IT Career Questions Answered post deals with "how to get your
employer to pay for your computer programming courses" and I want to answer
that question in detail on this post.

Let me start by asking you "have you ever thought of asking your employer or
manager to pay for your professional training at

title="the software developer boot camp">the software developer boot
camp?"

Yes, you can ask your employer to pay for any of our online training courses.
After you complete your training, you can present your certificate of
completion or transcript to your human resources (HR) department or
your IT manager and get reimbursed depending on your employer's benefit program.
To get started now all you have to do is ask your employer if you can get
reimbursed for job related training.

Why Would Your Employer Pay For Your Training?

Here is why your employer may want to pay for your computer programming
training. Your employer or manager would pay for your technical training or
reimburse you for it, if you can make a good case for it. I will help develop
the case for you and you can adapt it as you want and present it to your
employer for feedback.

1. Job Related Training

If you are an IT professional, the technical training we provide to you
is job related and your IT manager or HR department would classify it as a job
related training.

The target="_blank"
title="online computer programming classes">software developer boot camp
is a professional level software developer training class covering the
programming language skills a professional software developer needs. Since your
IT manager has a training budget which needs to be spent before your 2008
training year is over, now is a really good time to have the discussion on "what
you want to be trained on and how much your training will cost your company".

2. Professional Career Advancement

After you complete the software developer boot camp training, you get a
professional software developer certificate which your IT manager will love
to stick in your file as proof that his or her employees are moving ahead with
their career.

You may not realize it, but, you actually make your IT manager or IT director
look good by taking professional software development courses. It proves that
your manager is hiring and working with capable, talented, motivated employees
and guess what, your professional software developer training also improves your
chances of getting a promotion or salary raise.

3. Scarcity Of Software Development Talent

The competition for software developers is high right now. It is by far easier
for your employer to either pay for your software development training or
reimburse you after you complete your training than to hire more software
development resources.

The cost of attending the professional software developers boot camp is
peanuts in comparing to the cost that would be incurred by your IT director, IT
manager or HR department by looking for or hiring additional software
development resources which can be as much as $150,000/yr. per additional
programmer. In other words, you are saving your company a lot of money
by attending the software developer boot camp and the programming class is a
win-win for both you and your manager.

So now you know why your employer may want to pay for your software
development training at the
target="_blank"
title="online computer programming classes">software developer boot camp,
I hope you act on this information and not just sit on it!

If you have a question you want answered on the software developers boot camp,
business analyst boot camp or any of the professional IT career training
programs on this website, submit it to: href="http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/02/21/myths-debunked-burning-it-career-questions-answered/"

target="_blank" title="it career questions and answers"> Myths Debunked
Burning IT Career Questions Answered post.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I?m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

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ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


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• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

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There is a high demand by IT managers for good, competent and skilled software
developers right now.A good number of software development job postings for
leading or cutting edge software development skills are taking longer and longer
to fill.

1. The demand for experienced, skilled software developers in Java, C# .NET,
Visual Basic .NET, SQL Server, SharePoint and ASP.NET exceeds the supply of
available, skilled and competent computer programmers.

2. Software job postings are taking longer to fill. In some cases, they are not
getting filled at all. I have seen IT directors, IT managers and hiring managers
post "job wanted" advertisements for .NET programmers or C# programmers that
take months to fill.

3. When IT directors, IT managers or hiring managers use recruiting firms, they
have to pay a premium to find competent computer programmers. IT staffing
agencies bill $70/hr. or more for finding and placing skilled temporary
Java, C#, ASP.NET and SQL Server computer programmers. Employers sometimes have
to pay as much as a hefty 20% placement fee to convert skilled temporary
software developers into a permanent employees.

Here a few tips that can help you with finding or hiring good, competent or
expert software developers.

How to find and hire competent software developers

1. Telecommuting:

Offer your software developers the option to telecommute as a perk.

I am amazed at how in 2008, not enough IT managers are offering telecommuting as
a benefit. Offering partial or full telecommuting will allow you to attract more
highly skilled and competent software developers because it is getting harder to
compete for and win software developers based on offering better salaries, 401K
or medical benefits. But you can more easily attract the attention of software
developers by offering telecommuting as a benefit.

2. Software Development Tools:

Invest in enterprise software development tools to attract and keep the right
software development talent. If you are an IT manager, project manager, IT
director, hiring manager, software development manager or you have the authority
to hire and manage software developers, make sure that you have a budget for
software development tools such as testing tools, requirement management tools,
database development tools, web development tools, source code management and
versioning tools and software build management tools.

If you don't or you skip buying the professional tools your software developers
need, you may find it more difficult to hire, attract or retain good software
development talent. Good, experienced or competent software developers expect to
use these software development tools for their day-to-day tasks and rank
employers who provide them with professional software development tools higher
than employers who don't.

3. Train your programmers:

Invest in the training of your computer programmers and other information
technology workers who are interested in learning computer programming.

Don't lose sight of the fact that computer programming is a skill that can be
learned just like any other skill. With the shortage of skilled, competent and
experienced computer programmers, you need to explore training employees who are
interested in learning programming knowing that you can get the return on your
investment (ROI) within a year.

Training has the effect of raising employee morale because it demonstrates that
you care and believe in the employee. It also provides you with a means of
standing out in the industry as an employer who invests in their employees.
Training your existing computer programmers also signals to senior, experienced
and competent software developers that you are the kind of employer who looks
after the career of your software developers.

These tips will make it is easier, less expensive and faster for you to find,
hire or retain good software developers. If you need assistance with
implementing any of these tips,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

About The Author

My name is Kingsley Tagbo and I’m a technical expert living in Saint Louis,
Missouri. I write about the training, coaching, mentoring
and personal development of software development professionals including
business analysts, computer programmers, testers, project managers, web
designers, data analysts, report writers, software developers and other
information technology professionals .

My firm, Exacticity, performs software development consulting and training for
clients throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and
New Zealand. If you are in need of software development consultants or training,
target="_blank"
title="contact the author">click here to get in touch with me.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart