Tag: Requirements

In business today, any project is ultimately measured by one thing: return on investment. There are dozens of metrics to be measured along the way, from budget and deadline to scope and stakeholder satisfaction. However, at the end of the day, ROI trumps all.

Remember the movie Titanic? It overshot its budget by a nautical mile and took much longer to make than originally scheduled. However, a lifeboat full of Oscars later, the movie grossed about a billion dollars around the world.

Unfortunately, with your current projects, you probably won’t be able to lean on Leonardo DiCaprio to drive profits. That’s why, from a business standpoint, it makes sense to give your projects the best chance of success from the very beginning of the project life cycle. In other words, don’t sink your chances at profitability before you even leave the harbor. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

The best way to do this is to mix business analysis into your project management efforts. For years, professionals have been realizing that the infusion of business analysis can dramatically improve the likelihood of project success. Business analysis is essential for establishing project requirements, ensuring that your stakeholders are on board and eliminating the countless hours of rework that can wreak havoc on your budgets and timelines.

To help guide you in the integration of business analysis into your project mix, I’ve listed five key tips. From requirements gathering to communication to validation, think of it as your crash course in the value of business analysis. Each tip can be mapped back to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)

1. Ensure That Requirements Support Your Overall Business Needs

Having a list of business requirements is certainly an integral part of your long journey toward project success. However, before celebrating, you need to be absolutely certain that those requirements support your organization’s overall business objectives.

For example, if a company is looking to increase the efficiency of its call center by 20% over the next 12 months, it must first determine whether the requirements for achieving that goal fall within the business needs in terms of benefit and cost. If the requirements call for too much time and money to be spent, then the validity of the project should be called into question.

To determine if requirements support the business needs, analysts can use one of the most central business analysis functions: enterprise analysis (EA). EA accesses an organization’s internal environment from multiple perspectives in order to gain a thorough understanding of the business as a whole, and identify how that business can meet its strategic objectives.

2. Clearly Understand the Requirements Gathering Process

Throughout the business community, it is widely agreed that about 50% of troubled projects are troubled because of poor requirements definition. So obviously, at the beginning of a project, it is vital to effectively gather all of the requirements needed for success. This is accomplished by relying once again on our old shipmate, enterprise analysis.

EA, when performed correctly, will help you go beyond simply understanding the as-is state of the business and clearly define your stakeholders. There are several business analysis practices that will aid you in this process:

• RACI Charts offer a means for identifying different types of stakeholders – responsible, accountable, consult and inform – and offer strategies for dealing with each. 
• User Profiles provide insight into the different classes of stakeholders and what their interaction will be with the intended solution. This ensures that all interested parties are included in the process. 
• Stakeholder Questionnaires help narrow your pool of potential stakeholders to the true decision makers. Too often, business analysts, project managers and project sponsors discover in the middle of a project that they’ve left someone off the stakeholder list or included someone who doesn’t belong. Going backwards and bringing new stakeholders into the fold is time consuming and expensive.

3. Avoid Analysis Paralysis

Once you’ve successfully identified your stakeholders, you’re then tasked with choosing the most effective elicitation techniques. The key here is to be flexible and open enough to consider different techniques for different audiences. Techniques should be chosen based upon the different stages (vision, definition, analysis and decision) of solution development, the type of project, the size of the project and the experience of the team members involved.

At the Vision Stage, brainstorming and brain writing are effective. The Definition Stage is well supported by focus groups and joint-application-development sessions. During the Analysis Stage, gap analysis, root-cause analysis and force-field analysis are preferred. And, finally, during the Decision Stage, you should encourage multi-voting, criteria-based grids and impact/effort grids.

4. Deliver the Right Message to the Right People

The communication of your business requirements is nearly as important as the development of those requirements. To effectively communicate requirements to your stakeholders, you need to develop a communication plan that will determine who will communicate with your stakeholders, what they will say and when and how they will say it.

Of the who, what, when and how of your communication plan, you should pay particular attention to the who. Your designated communicator or communicators should obviously have solid business communication skills; however, you must think beyond that. Everyone has a different communication style, and it’s your responsibility to ensure that you’re communicating to your stakeholders the right way. This begins with determining whether you’ll be communicating with a homogenous or a heterogeneous group of stakeholders. If you find that you’re dealing with a homogenous group of C-level stakeholders, it’s best not to send your most meticulous thinker into the room. Chief executives tend to think in big-picture terms; bog them down in the details and you could be asking for conflict—particularity if you’re trying to prove the case against moving toward a proposed solution.

5. Validate the Business Needs

Once your project is complete, and after your team has enjoyed a happy hour, you’ve entered the solutions assessment and validation stage of your project. Your main objective here is to ensure that your finished product meets the initial agreed-upon requirements and that it has fulfilled its original purpose. For many projects, this process will be aided by simply adhering to regularity standards. However, for those projects that aren’t overseen by such standards, traceability matrixes are helpful because they create unique identifiers for each requirement that maps back to the original business need.

Also, traceability matrixes will help you make sure that no unnecessary requirements have crashed the party along the way. For example, if your goal was to build the world’s best sports car, you’ll be able to identify the incongruity of the towing hitch on the back bumper and, more importantly, recognize that it shouldn’t be there.

In Conclusion: Iceberg Avoidance

Any project you launch will face challenges, and the bigger your project gets, the rougher the waters will be. However, by following these basic tips and integrating business analysis into your projects from the very beginning, you’ll be much more prepared to identify all the icebergs in your path and keep your projects afloat from beginning to end.

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Glenn R. Brûlé is Director of Client Solutions at ESI International (www.esi-intl.com) and IIBA Director at Large. He has more than 18 years experience in many facets of business, including project management, business analysis, software design and facilitation. At ESI, he is responsible for supporting a global team of business consultants working with Fortune 1000 organizations. As the Director at Large for the International Institute of Business Analysis, Brûlé’s primary responsibility is to form local chapters of the IIBA around the world by working with volunteers from organizations across various industries. These include financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, insurance and automotive, as well as government agencies.

I have three young children and we watch animated children’s movies together. They are full of action, with great heroes, nasty bad guys, and plenty of challenges to be overcome. The kids love them and get so caught up in them. So what has that got to do with requirements? Well, in many of the movies the hero is on a quest to reach a goal with very little information, a little like when we set out on a project with minimal information to reach our goal of a full set of business and IT requirements. Like the hero in the movie we might have a map or framework to follow but obstacles are always there and need to be overcome, and the means to do that is not defined within the framework. We must rely on our skills, experience and knowledge, much like the hero in the movies.

Now we don’t have to battle fierce monsters or have big sword fights with enemies in our projects (well not the ones I work on), but we may still face battles of a different kind. Like understanding what the users really want, their expectations, and what can reasonably be delivered within the project’s constraints. Budget and timeframe are obvious ones, but companies often have policies and standards that can create substantial constraints. We also need to know what the current IT capabilities are, and it is critical to understand what integration is required with other systems (some of these can be real monsters; now where did I put my sword?).

A movie it tells us a story. It all starts with a script and is developed into a storyboard which blends words and pictures into scenes. The scenes must work together and flow. Much like the way we model business flow, take our requirements and write Use Cases for how a particular aspect of the system will be used, giving it context.

So how do we make sure our requirements tell a complete story – and the right story, one our users will get excited about? And users do get excited about what the requirements will deliver. We need a business analyst that can act as a director and bring all the ideas, needs and requirements together, prioritise them and, in conjunction with an architect, identify where they all fit together with existing systems and business processes.

It is important for the business analyst to find the best way to communicate and deliver his or her interpretation and analysis of the requirements to the business and all stakeholders. Like the movies we must know our audience and present the information in a way that is right for them. Requirements must also be analysed then reviewed with key business representatives and other stakeholders, from all groups involved (including IT), to ensure understanding and acceptance. We must also accept that we don’t always get it right first time and be prepared to re-work the requirements, format, models, or presentation to gain that acceptance and, in some cases, signoff.

A balance must be found between the business needs and expectations and what is practical to deliver. Plus the solution proposed must suit the purpose. There is no point having a mighty sword if you can’t lift it, just like there is no point having really sophisticated security that lets no one in.

We see from the “making of” section on DVDs, that making an animated movie is a complex process taking many years. They have a team comprising many different groups of people working together in collaboration, and using iterative processes like storyboards and other design prototypes. Obviously a movie is very visual, but it too has integration issues like bringing music and spoken dialogue together with the computer generated images.

In the end all the animation and dialogue must be complete and it must all work together with the music. If something is missing, or poorly done, the film will not deliver the excitement and fun the children (and adults) expect. Using a collaborative approach with constant reviews and good communication, and iterative builds with constant review and testing can be applied successfully to most software projects. As with our projects we must make sure the requirements are well defined and understood, that developers create new or changed applications that look and function well, and are integrated correctly with other systems and all aspects of the agreed business, legal, security, quality of service and architectural requirements have been delivered and work well together. As business analysts we need to see beyond the requirements to the final solution.

Like the line in a recent movie I saw, we must “keep moving forward” and continue to develop our skills and techniques to understand our audience better, and ensure better requirement delivery in software.

After all a requirement is only as good as the delivered functionality that results from it. That’s how to become a BA hero.

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Ross Wilson is a Senior Consultant with Equinox Limited in Auckland, New Zealand, specialising in requirements management. He has been working in IT for 23 years and has a wealth of varied project experience in a number of different industries. For the last 14 years, he has focused on business analysis, project management, and team leadership. Ross can be contacted at [email protected]

National and Global Identity Systems – An Opportunity for BAs to Make a Social Contribution the Likes of Which Have Not Been Seen in Over 200 Years, and Which Is Now Feasible, Given the Existence of Our Neutral Standards Body, the IIBA.

What contribution, you ask? How about establishing the scope, risks and requirements for Identity Systems?

What’s that you say? This work is being done already?

IT IS TRUE that Amazon, PayPal, Blue Cross, MySpace (and now MySpace lenders), VISA/MC, your local police, and the Transportation Safety Authority, among others, are “solving” the “problem” of identity every day. Did you know that DisneyWorld now takes your fingerprint when you enter their park? I will buy a free dinner for the analyst who can tell me why (I know they do; I interviewed them mercilessly until they admitted it).

WHAT IS MISSING from current identity systems projects (ah, the many thousands) is a committed effort to determine requirements of a whole group of stakeholders – “We, the Identified” (WI).

WI are primary users of Identity! If you doubt this, ask yourself who initiates the transaction requiring “identity”? What do we call it if someone else initiates this transaction instead?

In spite of the clear stake that WI have, the systems focus primarily on the needs of the organizations (understandably), and coincide with ours only where the organization also benefits (sure, we all like fast transactions, even if we are being messed with – just so it’s fast!).

The problem here is partly one of the unintended consequences of otherwise rational economic behavior (I missed this reason last month). It is an example of “hidden costs” like pollution, where no single party has an incentive to make improvements in the absence of any outside duress or any market for trading on the costs. An example of the “hidden costs” of poor requirements is the fact that the potential terrorist list has now exceeded 750,000, AND 60% of all “bombs” actually get through airport security (these are recent TSA tests).

So, given the scope of the enterprise (in this case the People of the United States, their constitutionally elected government, and the multitude of identity systems with which we are currently saddled), I issue the following challenge to all BAs:

• To perform a volunteer led, BABOK compliant elicitation, analysis and documentation of the many conflicting requirements related to identification systems within the United States of America “enterprise”.
• To successfully negotiate acceptance of these requirements by all stakeholders, public and private, in such a way that the requirements are adopted into public legislation, practice, and/or the constitution.

Remember that, just as in every project, management (WI, the people?) reserve the right to make any final requirements decisions, and to resolve any disagreements for better or for worse. The political acceptance or rejection of our work will be its acceptance test.

AND – I didn’t forget – we still have an agenda of “BA implementation” problems to discuss. This project will give us PLENTY of opportunity to explore these, in a hands-on way.

We begin next month with a statement of the problem, and an attempt to scope out the stakeholders and their interests.

What do you see as existing issues with personal identity in systems today? How recently have you tried to get your own medical records? Any victims of identity theft out there? Victims of planted DNA?

I, for one, have had enough! How about you?

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Marcos Ferrer, CBAP is an experienced teacher, public speaker and instructor with ESI International. He has over 20 years experience in the practice of business analysis and the application of Information Technology for process improvement. Mr. Ferrer began his BA career in 1982. While still a student at the University of Chicago, he developed a consulting practice with local property management and accounting firms. Following graduation in 1983, Mr. Ferrer joined IBM in Chicago, where he worked on requirements and systems implementations in a number of different fields. In 1990, Mr. Ferrer became an independent consultant, again working with a variety of clients, most notably in the family entertainment industry. He has also worked on multiple government systems projects and “business” projects, including.

In November 2006, Marcos Ferrer became one of the first 16 CBAPs certified by the IIBA. He as served as Vice-President for Certification at the DC-Metro chapter of the IIBA.

© 2007 Marcos Ferrer

Part 3: Recommending Solutions that Address Expectations

As discussed in the first two parts of this article, project professionals realize that projects fail when customer requirements are not clearly defined and customer expectations are not met. The consultative questioning presented in the earlier parts is essential to understanding the business problem and its limitations. The project manager or business analyst can then analyze root causes of the problem or opportunity, and will be able to recommend a solution to solve the business problem at hand. If the recommendation is accepted, we can then recommend the most effective implementation approach. The major steps involved in the consultative approach are:

1. Asking questions to uncover problems and synthesizing the responses
2. Analyzing those problems
3. Advising clients by recommending solutions.

This article focuses on analysis and recommendations.

Analyzing Problems

Once we have asked business, project, and product context questions, we should have an understanding of the business problem we’re trying to solve, as well as an idea of the project’s product or service that will result from successfully implementing the project. Before we can recommend a solution, however, we must analyze the problem, which requires the ability to break the large problem into smaller pieces and to get to its root cause.

Using Models And Prototypes to Analyze Problems and Verify Expectations

To understand the business problem, we need to understand the current situation and the limitations of the current situation.

Tip: Modeling provides the structure to ask the right questions at the right time during the project, and provides a basis for solid recommendations.

Models present a clear way to learn about and document the situation, known as the current state or “as-is.” Once we understand what is happening today, we can analyze how to improve the situation and recommend a better approach. Modeling provides the structure to ask the right questions at the right time during the project. We call those “question points” and they are valuable because the modeling technique prompts them. By graphically displaying the issues, we can more easily see the “gaps” between what is happening today and what is needed in the future. Models, then, provide a basis for solid recommendations.

Modeling also provides the means to ask questions that might well be forgotten, since the models’ structure forces thoroughness in questioning. Modeling also provides a way for business analysts to translate their interpretation of the requirements to both the business clients and the technical team.

There are a variety of models that can be used during the capturing of requirements. Below is an example of the kinds of models used in software development. Some of these, such as business process models and prototypes are useful in any project where the output is a tangible product, such as a new car, service, or process.

The following chart shows a table for requirements models used in software development

Model	Benefit of use	Main Use	Can be Used for Non-Software Components
Business process	Change management. How will use of the product cause business processes to change.	Document the current “as-is” and future “to-be” business processes, identify gaps. Determine ways to get to “to-be.” Use as a basis for other models to assess impacts.	Yes
Data model	Provides structure for getting information requirements.	Gather the information required to support the proposed process. Requires understanding the business rules enforced by data, and planning how to convert from the current to the future state.	No
Use case model	Defines how the new product (system) will work.	Documents interactions between the end-user and the system. Shows the interactions of other systems and time triggers to the system.	Yes
Prototype	Can be used to document navigation, design, usability, errors and messages, look and feel of the end product without investing the time and resources needed for full product development.	Prototypes are mockups that can be “paper and pencil” or mockups using technology, but without full functionality. Prototypes provide the ability to see and use a model of the product before full implementation.	Yes

Requirements Model Usage

Advising Clients by Recommending Solutions

The Recommendation. In addition to the more obvious recommendation structure (summary, body, attachments), the recommendation should carry the right tone for the intended audience. The tone can be formal or informal, folksy or precise, direct, or subtle. It’s important that the tone not distract its intended audience. Having the wrong tone and level of formality can distract the audience, break trust, and ultimately lead to the rejection of the recommendation and loss in credibility of the author.

In addition, the recommendation should include input from those who will be affected by its implementation, which will give the recommendation a far greater chance of acceptance if it is reviewed by key stakeholders and if their input is included in the final draft. The more stakeholder input is sought, the more likely that supporters will defend it against saboteurs. Ideally these stakeholder champions will also participate in presenting the recommendation, which will provide added credibility to the recommendation.

Presenting the Recommendation. Presenting the recommendation can be done formally or informally, in written or verbal format. No matter which format or venue is chosen, the structure of the presentation is important. Having a summary and details, for example, works in every venue. Even the most informal setting requires giving a great deal of thought to planning the presentation approach, including such things as choosing the right venue, how much in advance of the meeting to distribute it, roles and responsibilities during the presentation, the agenda, ground rules, when to take questions, and more.

Finally, the consulting approach requires presenting a recommendation that best serves the organization, even if the

Tip: Be courageous. While we want to keep the audience in mind, we need to present what we think is the right thing for the organization, even if we perceive that our audience is not receptive. By doing our homework, analyzing impacts and alternatives, we can present with confidence.

recommended solution differs from what was initially presented by the stakeholders. Those listening to the recommendation do not need to be completely in support of the proposal, but they will more likely accept it if the project manager is thoroughly prepared and the recommendation crafted with care. That means ensuring that the recommendation addresses the business need identified and analyzed, that the recommended solution addresses that need, and that impacts of the solution to all areas in the organization have been taken into account. Remember, project managers and business analysts do not need to make the decision to accept the recommendation. That’s for the sponsor and executives. However, project professionals do have an obligation to be consultants to the business by having a clear understanding of the problem, and developing a thorough recommendation for a solution that’s the right thing for the organization.

In addition to your main recommendation, be prepared with alternatives and some analysis of why they were not your proposal.

Summary

In this series, we explored how to uncover client expectations and why this is so important to delivering the right product. Uncovering expectations takes time and requires the art of consultative questioning. It demands patience with clients who have difficulty articulating their requirements. Uncovering expectations takes a commitment to defining requirements in sufficient detail to understand what those expectations truly are. It requires a process for eliciting the requirements, and also for analyzing, documenting, and validating them. Finally, the consultative approach we presented acknowledges that the expectations we uncover may require recommendations for shifting the business to adopt and embrace them.

(For parts 1 and 2 of this series, return to the Home Page, click on Articles and then on September 2007 and October 2007)

 

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Elizabeth Larson, CBAP, PMP and Richard Larson, CBAP, PMP are Co-Principals of Watermark Learning (www.watermarklearning.com), a globally recognized business analysis and project management training company. Each has presented numerous workshops, seminars, and training classes to thousands of participants on three different continents. They regularly speak on business analysis and project management topics at Business Analyst World conferences and Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congresses. Elizabeth and Richard are frequent contributors of articles to international trade publications such as CIO; ComputerWorld; BA Times; PMI PM-Network Magazine; the University of Houston book, IT Project Management Readings; Certification Magazine, ICFAI Professional Reference Book – Project Management-Emerging Perspectives; and many others. Elizabeth and Richard are also contributing to the Fourth Edition of the PMBOK in a section on collecting requirements.

 

Part 2: Using Consulting Skills to Uncover Expectations

As presented in Part 1 of this article, project professionals realize that projects fail when customer requirements are not clearly defined and customer expectations are not met. Project managers and business analysts face a number of challenges in developing the kind of usable products that customers expect.

In Part 1, we mentioned five pitfalls to uncovering expectations: 1) the Time Trap, 2) Stated Requirements Don’t Meet Expectations, 3) Ineffective Questioning, 4) Using the Wrong Techniques and 5) Accepting Solutions Presented by the Business. This article continues the discussion by addressing how these common pitfalls can be addressed by using a consulting approach and focuses on consultative questioning.

Using Consulting Skills to Overcome Requirements Pitfalls

Overcoming the many pitfalls described in Part 1 requires a consultative approach. Why is that? Being a consultant to the business helps ensure that expectations are met. The background of a situation is assessed by understanding the business problem, analyzing the current state, understanding the limitations, and gathering supporting statistics that detail the exact impact of the current situation. The project professional is then in an excellent position to recommend a solution that will solve the business problem at hand. Effective consultants have learned that the key to success includes:

1. Asking questions to uncover problems and synthesizing the responses
2. Analyzing those problems
3. Advising clients by recommending solutions.

This article explores Step 1 and focuses on consultative questioning.

Asking the Right Questions

Asking the right requirements questions can be challenging, because we need the right context for asking good questions. Being a consultant requires asking questions to obtain the right perspective, before trying to understand the details of the end product. Once we have the context, we can then move on to questions related to our product.

A few good consultative questions to ask, regardless of the product or service of the project, always include the business context with such questions as:

1. What business problems are being solved with the project?
2. What opportunities is the organization taking advantage of?
3. What are the external threats that this project addresses?
4. How does the project take advantage of the organization’s strengths or compensate for its weaknesses?
5. What is the product description and project vision?
6. How does this project link to the organization’s strategic direction?
7. How will this product be perceived in this organization?

A few good questions for understanding the project context can include such things as:

1. How much are you willing to spend on this project?
2. What is the priority of this project in relation to the other projects in this portfolio/program/organization/division?
3. What are your time constraints and what causes them?
4. What risks do you see with this project?
5. Who/who else should we talk to?
6. Who are the subject matter experts and what experience do they have?
7. If you had to choose among time and cost, scope, and quality which is the most important to you? Least?

Some good questions for learning high-level product requirements includes such things as:

1. To what extent will this new product cause business processes to change? Which ones will change and in what way?
   

   Tip: avoid questions related to detailed features and functions until the business, project, and product context are clearly understood and documented.

2. What do people need to know in order to use this product?
3. How will internal and external customers use the product
4. How will the product be sold? Maintained? Supported?
5. What impacts to other areas are you aware of?
6. How stable are the product requirements?
7. Tell me about the best/worst product feature you’ve encountered? Easiest/hardest product to use that you’ve had to use?

Synthesizing Responses

Synthesizing responses uses active listening skills to take a great deal of disparate information and organize it in a way that is useful to the appropriate stakeholders. It starts with active listening, which involves ensuring that what is said by the speaker is actually heard correctly and completely by the listener. The listener needs to ask clarifying questions and paraphrase what is thought to be heard. Asking good and relevant questions builds confidence in the speaker that there are no assumptions or misconceptions on the part of the listener.

To effectively synthesize information, critical thinking skills are needed along with the ability to:

• Process large amounts of information. Similar past experience can be useful, but care should be taken to avoid making assumptions based on past project experiences.
• Organize, discriminate, and discern disparate pieces of information, putting them together in concise and useful ways.
• Distinguish between what’s important from what is not, and discard the unimportant. Experience is invaluable in making this determination. Analysis tools can also be extremely helpful. For example, Pareto analysis is a helpful technique for determining the major factors causing a business problem. It uncovers the critical 20% of causes that lead to 80% of the results.

Traceability and Creating Structure from Chaos

A useful tool in synthesizing a large amount of information is the traceability matrix, which is a table for recording requirements. The structure of this table is hierarchical, so that high-level requirements can be documented in the beginning of the project and details can be added as more is learned. In addition, requirements attributes, such as a unique identifier, textual description, requirements source, rationale, priority and many more can help categorize requirements as they surface. , a globally recognized business analysis and project management training company. Each has presented numerous workshops, seminars, and training classes to thousands of participants on 3 different continents. They regularly speak on business analysis and project management topics at Business Analyst World conferences and Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congresses. Elizabeth and Richard are frequent contributors of articles to international trade publications such as CIO; ComputerWorld; BA Times; PMI PM-Network Magazine; the University of Houston book, IT Project Management Readings; Certification Magazine, ICFAI Professional Reference Book – Project Management-Emerging Perspectives; and many others. Elizabeth and Richard are also contributing to the Fourth Edition of the PMBOK in a section on collecting requirements.

Tip: Use traceability to help ensure that each requirement is linked with project deliverables, project objectives, business problems, and business objectives, preventing rogue requirements from sneaking into the project.

Although there are many techniques for creating structure from chaos, traceability provides the most effective way to organize large amounts of disparate pieces of information, ultimately helping to ensure that every requirement adds value, that what was approved is actually implemented, and that changes are controlled. It does so by providing a structure that allows requirements to be linked to business and project objectives, business problems, and deliverables. Traceability also helps ensure that the product can be built, tested and verified after implementation. Finally, logical groupings of the table help manage changes more easily.

Summary

Uncovering expectations takes time and requires the art of consultative questioning. In this article, we focused on tips for effective questioning. We presented several ideas and examples of asking the right questions, regardless of the product or service of the project. We stressed the importance of synthesizing the information obtained to make it relevant. We also showed how a traceability matrix can be a useful tool for synthesizing sizable amounts of information like requirements. Part 3 will conclude the series with the remaining steps of the consulting process, and will focus on analysis and recommendations.

 

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Elizabeth Larson, CBAP, PMP and Richard Larson, CBAP, PMP are Co-Principals of Watermark Learning (www.watermarklearning.com), a globally recognized business analysis and project management training company. Each has presented numerous workshops, seminars, and training classes to thousands of participants on 3 different continents. They regularly speak on business analysis and project management topics at Business Analyst World conferences and Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congresses. Elizabeth and Richard are frequent contributors of articles to international trade publications such as CIO; ComputerWorld; BA Times; PMI PM-Network Magazine; the University of Houston book, IT Project Management Readings; Certification Magazine, ICFAI Professional Reference Book – Project Management-Emerging Perspectives; and many others. Elizabeth and Richard are also contributing to the Fourth Edition of the PMBOK in a section on collecting requirements.