Gathering and Documenting User Requirements with Use Cases (with UML and BPMN)

Duration: 2 days

Description

Trainees learn state-of-the-art practices for gathering and documenting requirements based on the use case approach. Over the course of a case-study workshop project, trainees gain experience facilitating requirements-gathering sessions and creating textual use-case documentation (with supporting diagrams).

The course covers what the Business Analyst needs to accomplish in each requirements-gathering session (goals, agenda, who to invite, artifacts, etc.) as the project progresses - starting from business use-case sessions that focus on the business context through to system use cases that focus on user-IT interactions. Trainees also learn advanced techniques (extension, generalized and inclusion use cases) for structuring use cases that result in requirements documentation that is easy to revise as business rules change.

The course employs use cases, today’s most widely accepted method of requirements capture. The clear style and organization of use cases makes them well-suited as a source of test cases and for communicating with both business stakeholders and developers. In addition, use cases are a central aspect of iterative development methodologies such as IBM’s RUP and Microsoft’s MSF. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is also introduced as an alternative to activity diagrams, for documenting the way business use cases are implemented.

Why?

• Inexperienced BAs are often unclear about what level of requirements to capture at each phase of a project.
• This course provides clear guidance by pacing the trainee through the requirement-gathering process from high-level business use cases down to low-level requirements.
• BAs are often unclear how best to divide up the requirements documentation for a large project.
• Trainees learn how to divide the project into end-to-end business process requirements as business use-cases and how best to decompose these into smaller units as system use cases.
• BAs need clear guidance in documenting the text of user requirements.
• This course provides explicit, detailed instruction in the writing, numbering and organization of the textual requirements.
• Small changes to the business environment often lead to big changes in the documentation.
• This course provides detailed instruction in the use of advanced documentation features (extensions, inclusions and generalizations) that reduce redundancies in the documentation, making it easier to revise.
• BAs need experience to be effective facilitators of requirements-gathering sessions.
• Trainees gain practice acting as facilitators for their group as they advance the case-study project.

• The best course for learning what questions to ask when.
• Learn what you need to find out from stakeholders at each stage of the project.
• Trainees learn by doing - by developing a case study in ‘real time.’
• Group facilitation sessions provide in-depth experience in using a team-based approach to development.
• 2 courses in one:
  

• Many of our competitors offer one course in requirements gathering and another in use-cases. Rather than teach you hard-to-apply general rules for requirements analysis that require a follow-up course, we teach the topic once – the right way. In one course you learn how to capture requirements with detailed guidance for doing it using today’s most popular approach - use cases.

• Includes valuable take-home materials: Comprehensive printed material including valuable job aids, examples, glossaries, tips, the ATN Path, as well as agendas and lists of questions for each type of interview session.
• In keeping with the practical nature of the course, the course content draws from direct experience working in a variety of sectors, including banking, accounting, call centers, education and NGOs.
• Focused content: includes the practical tools and techniques most commonly used to get the job done.

Audience

• IT Business Analysts
• Project Leaders
• Facilitators who will be leading requirements gathering sessions
• Business Users who will be explaining business requirements to software developers
• Systems Analysts expanding their role into the business realm.

Class Format

• Working in small interview teams, trainees facilitate requirements-gathering sessions and document requirements for an end-to-end case study, learning what types of interviews, questions and techniques are appropriate for each phase of the IT project.
• The approach is presented in an easy-to-follow step-by-step plan.
• Each step is introduced and demonstrated by the instructor. Trainees follow by actively facilitating and participating in requirements-gathering sessions.

Objectives

• Facilitate requirements gathering sessions (with Business and System Use Cases).
• Examine the impact of the project on the enterprise through business use-case analysis.
• Create detailed textual requirements with the Use Case Description Template.
• Decrease software bugs and omissions introduced in the analysis phase of your project – by employing powerful use case techniques that reduce redundancies and inconsistencies in the documentation.
• Communicate effectively with the development team.
• Model high-level requirements with use case diagrams.
• Understand how use cases are used in the context of iterative development.
• Link other relevant material to use cases – such as business entities, non-functional requirements and activity diagrams.

Course Content

• Introduction to Use Cases
• History of Use Cases
• Use cases and the Business Requirements Document
• Link to other technologies:

• OO, Iterative development

• Criteria for selecting projects
• Facilitating Requirements –Gathering Sessions with Use Cases
• Rules for conducting use case workshop sessions
• Preparation
• Who should attend
• Roles
• Defining the Deliverables: When to best introduce and create:

• Stakeholder Interest Table
• Use Case Packages
• Role Maps
• Use Case Diagrams
• Use Case Text

• Analyzing the impact on the Enterprise with business use cases.
• Eliciting and documenting end-to-end business processes with business use cases
• Business use-case diagrams
• Documenting business use cases

• Modeling business use-case workflow with activity diagrams
• Modeling business use-case workflow with BPDs (BPMN standard)

• Eliciting and documenting detailed user requirements with system use cases
• Use Case Description Template for textual documentation
• Writing guidelines
• How to number the requirements
• Defining the users of the system:
• Role Map
• Defining actors, “generalized” and “specialized” actors
• Working with stakeholders to discover and document the textual requirements:
• Triggers
• Preconditions
• Postconditions
• Basic (Normal) Flow
• Alternate and Exceptional Flows
• Organizing the documentation for maximum reuse with inclusion, extension and generalized use cases.
• Links to other documentation
• Data dictionary
• Entity classes and class diagrams
• Activity Diagrams
• Non-functional requirements
• Avoiding common errors
• Standard solutions for common situations:
• Customer IVR identification
• CRUD (Create/ Read/ Update/Delete)
• Login
• Technology variations
• Customer self-service
• Geographical sub-sites within an e-commerce application
• Job Aids containing:
• Templates
• Tips
• Examples
• Glossary of technical terms

Daily Schedule

Day 1:

• Lesson 1: Introduction to Use Cases
• Lesson 2: The Kick-off Meeting
• Analyze stakeholders and interests; identify high and mid-level objectives
• Lunch
• Lesson 3: Analyze Business Use Cases
• Introduction to activity diagrams and BPDs
• Lesson 4: Structure System Use Cases

Day 2

• Lesson 5: Elicit and document System Use Cases/ Context and Basic Flow
• Lesson 6: Elicit and document Alternate and Exception Flows
• Lunch
• Lesson 7: Document inclusion, extension and generalized use cases
• Lesson 8: Link use cases to other project artifacts (documentation and models)

On-site requirements:

Room set-up:

Set up tables (e.g., round tables) so that trainees are sitting in groups of 3-5. Each group should have 1 flipchart. Each trainee requires 1 pad or paper + pen + 1 copy of the course material. The course material comes in one binder and contains:

• Detailed course notes (printed PowerPoint presentation)
• Workshop and Job Aids (Word document) with:
• Full workshop solutions
• Job Aids booklet containing:

• Templates
• Examples
• Glossary of technical terms

• Alternative case study (separate Word document)

The workshops may be run with or without a modeling tool (e.g., IBM Rational ROSE). Generally, for public classes, modeling tools are not used and, therefore, no PCs are required for trainees.

For the instructor:

• Whiteboard
• Overhead screen projector or large colour monitor, connected to instructor’s PC
• PC loaded with:

• Windows XP Professional
• PowerPoint
• Modeling tool, e.g., Rational ROSE Enterprise Edition (Evaluation or other)
• PowerPoint presentation
• Workshops and Job Aids file (1 Word doc)
• Case study software (ROSE .mdl files)