Target
Audience:Business Analysts, Project Managers, End Users, Developers, Testers and Software Quality Assurance staff
Description: Lack of adequately defined requirements is often the single biggest factor when projects become stalled, exceed time and budget, or deliver systems which do not meet the users' needs. Decades of experience in systems development have uncovered the fundamental tasks necessary to build quality requirements and thus provide a solid foundation for the rest of the project. This class introduces Requirements Engineering as a true professional discipline. It discusses the concepts that pertain to Requirements Development and those that pertain to Requirements Management.
Students study what constitutes 'good requirements' from a theoretical standpoint by learning about the IEEE standards for high quality requirements including characteristics of good writing and systems quality attributes. They then learn a practical "User Centric" approach to elicit, analyze, specify and validate requirements in order to achieve these standards.
Use Case methodologies have become the favored means for documenting business requirements. Yet many business analysts and even project managers are not familiar with the concepts or may believe that the technique is useful only for highly technical specialists. This course gives the practitioner the necessary skills and information to efficiently and effectively develop high quality business requirements, using Use Case techniques and a User Centric approach to requirements development. Students will learn how to gather business requirements, analyze those requirements for functional and system attribute deliverables, document the requirements thoroughly and unambiguously, and validate that those requirements, once developed and delivered, will satisfy the success criteria of the business.
Additionally, the students will learn the principles of UML (Unified Modeling Language), and will learn how to build Test Cases from Use Cases to ensure proper testing coverage of business requirements.
A single case study approach is used throughout the course. It provides a carefully orchestrated series of hands-on exercises and class practice examples to reinforce learning of all concepts. A generic case is used for public classes. Organizations can have the case study customized for in-house
purposes. Hands-on exercises and
class practice examples reinforce learning in every topic.
What
you will learn:
The relationship between Requirements Development and Requirements Management and the sub-components of the entire Requirements Engineering discipline.
The essential features of good requirements by examining the IEEE standards for high quality requirements.
How to gather and document requirements thoroughly and unambiguously including how to build the model types essential to every requirements document.
The concepts, vocabulary, process, and benefits of Use Cases.
The principles and objectives of Requirements Engineering and how Use Cases are employed.
How a good set of Use Cases, with associated business rules, should drive the preparation of models, Test Cases, and a Software Requirements Specification.
How to build Test Cases from Use Cases to ensure proper testing coverage of business requirements.
