Requirements Gathering & Development
(1-day, 8 PDU's)

More projects fail due to inadequate requirements than for any other reason. Every project manager learns the importance of “good requirements” during their initial training. Unfortunately, the term “good requirements” has never been clearly defined. Therefore, it is not surprising that projects suffer significant problems due to requirements that are vague, missing, or incorrect.

The most important result of attending this class is learning what is meant by “good” when talking about requirements. Students of the class should be able to leave the class and immediately start writing requirements that are “good”, meaning that they are highly effective in driving a project to an efficient and successful conclusion. The techniques taught in this class are simple techniques that can be, and have been, used to write requirements documents of a few pages up to 100’s of pages. By repeating these simple techniques over and over it is possible to drill down to the lowest possible level of detail and still provide information in a logical and organized

The class will emphasize the following topics related to requirements (not necessarily in this order):

• Why Develop Requirements?
• Gathering Requirements
• When to Develop Requirements
• Using Requirements to Drive Project
  • Design
  • Execution
  • Support
• Mistakes to Avoid
• Writing Requirements
• Requirements Contents
• Tips and Tricks

Exercises shall be provided to allow the students to practice the techniques that are taught. The exercises shall include:

• Class Project
  • Gathering Requirements
  • Writing Requirements
• Student Project
  • Writing Requirements

Course Instructor: Dow Presley, PMP