Sam Walton, the founder of the extremely successful retail chain Wal*Mart wrote “10 Rules For A Successful Business’, this article outlines great basic ways to get and keep your workplace running and running well.

Among his well thought out rules are Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking and Rule 10: Swim upstream. These two rules are part of what make his company remain making a profit well after he passed away and even in some of the most horrible economic climates.

At Pierson Requirements Group they too believe in listening to everyone in your company and can help you to ‘find a way to get them talking’. In their User Acceptance Testing Seminar they aim to train management to do just that.

The objectives of this seminar are to:

• Provide an understanding of the different testing techniques and methods and when to use them
• Learn how to identify and write test scenarios and test cases using UML and Use Cases
• Learn how to quality check requirements documents and use cases
• Define a repeatable process for User Acceptance Testing
• Understand the roles and responsibilities of the Business Analyst in UAT and where UAT fits in the SDLC
• Provide practical exercises for quality checking requirements documents, using testing techniques and methods, writing test scenarios, creating UAT plans and strategies and writing detailed defect reports
• Perform usability testing techniques and formal acceptance reviews for better customer satisfaction

Contact Pierson Requirements Group to schedule your next seminar today!

Business requirements gathering and writing works best when the business analyst doesn’t throw the requirements over the cubicle wall to IT!  Using collaborative requirements gathering sessions for scoping, high level requirements and detailed requirements should be conducted.  If you involve the technical team in the detailed requirements sessions, you will have less churn and less chaos.  Below is a description of the focus group sessions the Business Analyst can conduct:

• The first step would be to review the requirements use cases from the requirements sessions previously conducted.
• Once you have reviewed the high level requirements, you are ready to identify how the system will work with the SMEs, and Technical Leads.  Using the requirements use cases, develop the detailed steps of the flows on the use cases.  Using a ping-pong method, identify what the user will do and what the system response should be and document.  The Business Analyst can use an Activity Diagram with swimlanes technique to help identify the detailed steps in the use case.
• While you are identifying the detailed steps, you can also note where you have screens and reference them on the use case.  The Business Analyst should lead the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and the Technical Team in a brainstorming session using the storyboarding technique to collaboratively build screen mock-ups.
• The Business Analyst should then further define the screen specifications by capturing the details of the data fields on the screens with the team. 

A good article that supports the importance of collaborative detailed requirements sessions as described above is as follows:  http://advice.cio.com/jim_vaughan/10442/project_managers_need_to_engage_it_at_the_right_time

Pierson Requirements Group, Inc. has trained Microsoft project teams in JAD Facilitation using Use Cases and the Unified Modeling Language (UML).  Pierson has also provided training to the Program Managers at Microsoft in Business Requirements Gathering & Writing using JAD, Use Cases and UML.

For more information please contact wpierson@piersonrequirementsgroup.com or call 203-322-1606.  Check out the website for www.piersonrequirementsgroup.com.

Pierson has trained and mentored the U.S. Census Bureau Re-design division on their templates, requirements process tools and methods.  Pierson has trained all the project teams including the Project Managers, Subject Matter Experts, Business Analysts, Technical Managers, Programmers and Branch Chiefs in the new Re-design requirements gathering and writing process.

Click on the course name to view the course content.   Business Requirements Gathering & Writing using JAD, Use Cases and UML.

For more information please contact wpierson@piersonrequirementsgroup.com or call 203-322-1606.  Check out the website for www.piersonrequirementsgroup.com.

In this economy it’s hard to stay affloat and ahead of the game. This past year so many companies have gone out of business and the ones that are predicted to go under this coming year are astonishing. T Mobil, Reader’s digest, and Blockbuster are but a few of the listed companies that are in too much trouble to dig out of.

However, one of the best ways to make sure you have a superior company with better customer service is to constantly test and re-test your employees and your methods.

Employing a business analyst within your company is a great way to keep day to day tabs on what is being done well and what needs improvement. These individuals are sharp, focused, and diligent. The great ones are trained by Pierson Requirements Group.

Pierson aims to make you and your people run at their absolute best through targeting weak areas, retraining and even overhauling of old processes and methods.

Review the many ways in which they can offer your business the tools needed to stay in the black for years to come by making sure no one out there does what you do better or more efficiently.

Contact Pierson Requirements Group for more information on seminars and training classes today.

The term outsourcing has become on that people feel negatively about. However as a business owner the concept is hugely profitable and helps the global economy.

Simply put the idea is that you can put some of your call centers and the like in countries where labor is cheaper than it is here in the states. The families able to procure employment from American businesses in poorer areas are able to make far and away more than what other families in the area are. By providing jobs you are truly changing the face of people who have been impoverished for as long as most can remember.

The Pierson Website explains:

Pierson Requirements Group, Inc. has divided the services into three phases of tasks. The phases are preparation, workshop and follow-up.

During the Preparation Phase, Pierson Requirements Group, Inc. will include the following activities:

• Interviews and orientations of key stakeholders (SMEs) from each business unit to review and uncover seed material and identify project issues for the session
• Teleconference and on-site interviews to review the current documentation practices and templates used for business requirements
• Review of sample documents for a similar project
• Planning the session logistics, deliverables and agenda with the project team
• JAD Facilitator and JAD Documenter prepare the JAD Documentation to be used in the session

Contact Pierson Requirement Group for a full and complete explaination and the steps toward making this type of situation a reality.