Equaling or exceeding requirements is the very definition of project success. At the same time, unspoken needs, misrepresented essentials, and ignored realities are all potential disasters for teams, their projects, and their enterprises.

Requirements Gathering Essentials helps everyone get clear about the outcomes that matter. Using proven techniques and tools, you’ll learn to ask questions that inspire trust and full disclosure. With trust established, you and your team can span the true breadth of the project, efficiently detailing needs that might be human, technological, or circumstantial. The course also helps individuals and teams with the steps after discovery: clear documentation, efficient validation and scoping, and insightful analysis. 

Armed with the essentials, requirements facilitators will ready their colleagues for sound project execution, including smooth procurement.

Session Objectives

By the end of the session, attendees will be better able to:

  • Prepare for requirements gathering
  • Lead stakeholders to new thinking with insightful questions
  • Identify conflicting positions for negotiation and resolution
  • Document requirements for multiple audiences
  • Trace requirements back to their source when questions arise
  • Prioritize results for planners, sponsors, and change agents
  • Validate proposed requirements and assess proposed solutions
  • Verify deliverables

Audience

Any project practitioner will benefit from this seminar, and it is especially helpful for those who are making a transition from a planning and execution focus to the fuzzier, more people-oriented world of the front end. Teams benefit by developing a shared vocabulary and a common vision for the outcomes of a requirements-elicitation process.  Engineers and technologists will gain a more holistic perspective on project requirements, while big-picture thinkers will have greater appreciation for the power of detail.

Source Materials

Examples will be drawn from projects in fields such as telecommunications, education, food processing, and energy. Some will deal with the private sector, others with the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring challenges they face on the job, to share and participate.