Make Up Your Mind!: How To Capture & Refine REAL Product Requirements
Managing the creation and launch of a successful IT product requires that a good set of product requirements be created early on and updated as the product is created. Why does this seem to be so hard for IT teams to do?
The gathering and maintaining of requirements is a form of communication that most IT teams have never been taught. Additionally, once the requirements have been assembled, nobody in IT seems to really know what to do with them.
We might use them as guidelines when creating the IT product, but we’ll probably rely more on discussions with other team members in order to solve day-to-day problems. This means that soon the published requirements will no longer look anything like the product that we’re building. That’s when the problems start!
You have a great team of technical professionals, but you need to find a way to get them to create good requirements, use those requirements as they create the product, and update the requirements as product changes are agreed on. Although they may not be responsible for creating the first version of the requirements, they need to be involved in reviewing them in order to ensure that they can be implemented as well as identifying areas that need further clarification.
Establishing IT product development processes and procedures that ensure that the requirements are used to drive development in a way that is not seen by staff as being too controlling is key. Finally, setting up a system that rewards your staff for promptly updating the requirements as design decisions are made will ensure that the requirements accurately reflect the product’s true capabilities.
This unique program from Blue Elephant Consulting has been designed with your IT team’s special needs in mind. We’ll work to motivate your team to become active participants in the requirements process. The program will start by discussing the role that requirements plays in your IT product development process right now. We’ll build on that and show that, if done correctly, requirements won’t slow the process down and in fact might just speed things up. We approach this from an IT worker’s viewpoint, analyze the problem using their vocabulary, and then teach requirements management techniques that make sense to them.
The combination of insights and tools presented in this program will equip your IT team with the practical skills that they will need in order to create, use, and update IT product requirements.
Course highlights include:
- Why Bother With IT Product Requirements?
- What’s Wrong With The Requirements You Have?
- Good Starts: How To Create Fantastic Initial Requirements
- Read The Map: How To Use Requirements To Create IT Products
- It Never Ends: How To Update Requirements As Decisions Are Made
- What To Do With Requirements As The Product Is Completed
This material can be presented in multiple formats that can be further customized to meet your event’s needs: keynote (30/45/60 minutes), breakout session (30/45/60 minutes), interactive group dialog (60 minutes) or as a full or half day workshop.
Contact Blue Elephant Consulting today for a free consultation call in order to find out how our training services can help to make your IT department more effective.