Requirements Discovery: A Crash Course For Business Analysts

Introduction to Requirements Discovery for BAs and POs: Team, Preparation, Execution, Analysis & Transition, Outcomes.

What you'll learn

What is Requirements Discovery and why successful companies run it for their digital initiatives

Understand stages of a Requirements Discovery: Preparation, Execution, Analysis & Transition

Identify and manage people on your Discovery Team: Consulting Lead, Business Analyst, Solution Architect, Project Manager

Learn about the typical Outcomes or work products prepared as the result of the Requirements Discovery

How to create and maintain the Agenda for Discovery workshops and interviews

What are the different types of Discovery meetings: show-and-tell, workshops, interviews

Typical Mistakes that need to be avoided at your Disvovery engagement

Requirements

No previous experience is needed.

Description

LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS OF REQUIREMENTS DISCOVERY IN A SINGLE 38 MIN CRASH COURSE!In less than 1 hour, I teach why successful Business Analysts and Product Owners run Requirements Discovery sessions for their Digital Projects, the purpose of the Preparation, Execution, Analysis & Transition phases of Discovery, and what deliverables are typically produced as a result of Discovery.  All in One Course!Have you ever been wondering - why we, business analysts, product owners, or other folks on the team,  keep asking the client the same old questions about the project scope, business goals, or specifics of the client's workflow … again and again? Shouldn’t we already know it or shouldn’t someone in our organization have captured this before? And I bet you have heard the client telling you, frustratedly: “We have already told it!”, or “You guys need to align with your other team that’s been asking us the same thing!”Some project teams and business analysts, sometimes tend to think of requirements gathering and elicitation as an ongoing process, something that doesn’t have a definite end. We are constantly discovering new requirements, aren't we? Well, though this is partially true, and in Agile we keep refining the backlog as we go, the sober reality is that clients don’t necessarily think the same way. They pay us - vendors, consultants, and agencies - to ensure that project requirements and expectations are captured, understood, estimated, and communicated to the project team early on. Clients also expect us to start software development projects and consulting initiatives with a deep dive into their subject matter, and specifics of their business to define the exact problem they are trying to solve. Industry professionals call this deep-dive - Requirements Discovery phase of the project, or simply - Discovery.I have been involved in software development projects for Healthcare, Retail, Automotive, Energy, and Public sector companies for more than 17 years,  and have been blessed to lead project teams in my roles as a Business Analyst, Consulting Lead, and Project Manager. I have seen it many times as teams and sometimes clients repeatedly make the same mistake - neglecting the importance of properly conducting the Discovery phase. Or they may be doing Discovery but are not getting the best results out of it, or not sharing results across various members of their teams and client organization.I have created this crash course to help teams better understand the purpose of Discovery and give practical recommendations about planning, building an agenda, scheduling, gathering the team, capturing results, and sharing these across the organization. This course is based on years of hands-on experience in planning and leading successful discovery engagements for Fortune 500 organizations, in the United States and Europe.This course is designed for Business Analysts, Product Owners, Project Managers, Solution Architects, and other project leaders involved in the planning or executing software development and consulting projects.Here's what you'll learn:How to prepare, execute and wrap up discovery engagementsWhat is a Discovery team and what is the role of the Business Analyst on the teamHow to create discovery Agenda and prepare for the meetingsDifferent types of discovery meetings: show-and-tell, interviews, workshops, etc.What artifacts should be created as a result of a discovery: backlog, user stories, Sprint #1How to run the knowledge transfer and transition artifacts to the delivery teamSpecifics of online/offline discovery workshops.Extra: Discovery checklist Extra: Further courses and recommended readingENROLL TODAY and join me and many others on the path to successful Requirements Discovery!

Overview

Section 1: Course Introduction: What is Requirements Discovery?

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Discovery in Software Development Lifecycle

Lecture 3 Roles on the Discovery Team

Lecture 4 Avoid these Mistakes

Section 2: Phases of Requirements Discovery

Lecture 5 Phase 1 - Preparation

Lecture 6 Phase 2 - Execution

Lecture 7 Phase 3 - Anlaysis & Transition | A few words on a Remote discovery

Section 3: Typical Discovery Outcomes

Lecture 8 UX/UI Deliverables - Wireframes, Personas, User Journeys

Lecture 9 Product Backlog - Epics, Features, User Storieds

Lecture 10 User Stories for Sprint #1 and Other project artifacts

Section 4: Course Wrap-up

Lecture 11 Course Wrap-up and What's Next for the Discovery Team?

Lecture 12 Extra: Recommended Reading | Discovery Checklist

IT Business Analysts,IT Product Owners,IT Project Managers,IT Solution Architects