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

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.

The key to understanding where you want your business to go is simple. Set goals and then aim for them. Don’t stop until you have your company in the position where you want it. However, the key to getting from goal setting to goal reaching is more difficult to define. Pierson Requirements Group out of CT is a company of experts on bridging that specific gap.

Pierson will aid your company in taking your long term goals and breaking them down into daily steps involving analyzing, training, and execution.

They use some very specific methods which they have honed to near perfection.

“Pierson can provide you with a customized methodology for Object-Oriented development projects using the notation of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Unified Process. This customized methodology can be placed on your intranet to serve as a handbook or guide for the software system development teams. This document defines the steps and phases that should be followed, technical modeling options, and refers to quality procedures which should be employed

Pierson can also provide your company with a methodology to evaluate and select a vendor for outsourcing and for evaluation and selection of software packages.” - Pierson

Check out the pages of explanations and definitions to better understand what role Pierson can play in your business plan and how big that role is going to be.

Starting a business of any kind can be a very different experience depending on the amount of help you get and how muc experience that help has. With the current economy it is difficult to strike out on your own, but the consultants and methodology used by Pierson Requirements Group can really help you understand what you are getting into and the best steps to take toward success.

They use Joint Application Development or JAD. This is a technique used for gathering business software requirements. The purpose of JAD is to bring together the technical/creative team and the business community in a structured workshop setting to extract consensus based software requirements. This is accomplished by using a trained JAD facilitator and customized, planned agendas to assist the participants in arriving at complete, high quality requirements.

Another method employeed frequently by Pierson Requirements Group is Rapid Application Development or RAD which is a process that speeds the delivery of functionality to end-users by segmenting software into pieces for delivery rather than delivering all of the software functionality in one large implementation. It is an iterative process utilizing a spiral methodology and is also customer driven following an evolutionary process using continuous application engineering in a time-boxed fashion with a dedicated professional team. The goal of the iterative approach is to reduce the time between requests and delivery of Business Application Software.

Pierson Requirements group can take some of the sting and frustration generally associated with the start of a company out of the equation. Contact their offices for more information.

Having a person on staff with the training to be able to identify any issue and point out all opportunities for growth in your company is an invauable asset. However, most companies, especially smaller companies looking to grow, do not have the resources to make such a position available full time. Instead they find it prudent and economical to hire a business analysis company to do these things for them.

Pierson Requirements Group offers a multitude of ways to do just that. This company will assess every single area of your business and find out if there are any gaping holes or even small leaks so that any problem is found and corrected as soon as possible. This may mean hiring more staff, letting some go, re organizing who does what and almost always involves more focused training.

Trusting a company like Pierson to have your best intrests in mind is the key to a good working relationship, Pierson will answer any questions you or your staff may have before, during, and after your analysis begins. Find out if the methodology used by Pierson is something your company can benefit from by contacting them today

Some of the companies that have taken advantage of Pierson’s experience are:

Nationwide - “Pierson provided the 4-day Requirements Gathering & Writing Training Seminar using JAD, Use Cases and UML. The Business Analysts, Project Managers and Quality Assurance Testers were trained. Also conducted was the User Acceptance Testing Training Seminar for the Testing staff.”

Prudential - “Pierson trained over 40 Project Managers, Technical Leads and DBAs in JAD Facilitation & Requirements Gathering using Data Techniques.”

The objectives of the seminar are to:

• Define best practices and standards for writing requirements and solutions documents
• Provide practical exercises for using requirements gathering techniques using UML diagrams and use cases
• Writing and critiquing requirements and system specifications using industry standards and best practice guidelines and checklists

List of interview questions to define the user requirements for the new EDW

What data will go in the warehouse?

How will they use that data?

What Type of Data is needed?:

What information is important to access?

Sources of Data: What data is needed from excel format, etc.

What type of reporting is needed? 

What is the method of accessibility?

Technical Questions:

What questions/problems you would like to be answered by mining in EDW?

How many years of information would you like to store?

How often the data should be refreshed in the EDW?  How often to load data, weekly, monthly?

What kind of reports you would like to see?  What kind of information is needed? i.e.  HR data- turnover from start date to end date.

What format you would like to see your reports? Pie chart, bar chart, etc.

Pierson Requirements Group (www.PiersonRequirementsGroup.com) offers business analysis training to companies seeking a more efficient approach to software development.

Stamford, CT – March 18, 2009 – Companies no longer have to suffer poor return on investments (ROI), or accept costly redesign efforts as the norm in software development. Business analysis training and JAD training classes from Pierson Requirements Group help members of management and staff work together to avoid the most common pitfalls in requirements planning to maximize efficiency and ROI.

“The problems most companies have with software development are due to poor requirements rather than coding,” says Pierson Requirements Group Partner, Joy Matthews. “Developers know how to code but the business requirements are most often incomplete and don’t effectively communicate the business needs. The lack of effective requirements gathering and writing leads to 82% of the software re-design and maintenance efforts causing companies to waste millions of dollars a year on ineffective software implementations and lost product to market opportunities. [Our] customers have found that it is a 200:1 cost savings to find defects in requirements rather than in the maintenance phase.”

Pierson provides hands-on training in requirements gathering and writing, testing, and project management with an interactive approach. The business analyst training classes are designed to improve project performance by teaching project teams how to work together to implement industry standards and best practices.

The methodology is so effective that customers of Pierson Requirements Group have reported that $12,000 - $15,000 business analyst training classes have produced a $144,000 to $192,000 ROI in a year. According to Matthews, “Surveys of Pierson’s customers have found that the use of a Collaborative Requirements Approach saved 25% to 33% of time over the entire project, or three to four months out of a year-long project.”

Pierson offers training classes or seminars in business requirements analysis, UML and business modeling, QA testing, project management, requirements gathering and writing, JAD facilitation and requirements gathering, and more. The company also offers mentoring and consulting services for more direct involvement in clients’ software development projects.

About Pierson Requirements Group

Pierson is an Endorsed Education Provider of the IIBA- International Institute of Business Analysts and a member of the BABOK review board.  All of Pierson’s courses can earn PDUs with the Project Management Institute (PMI) and CDUs with the IIBA.

Pierson Requirements Group has been the leader in requirements training and testing training using industry best practices for 18 years and is often recommended by Gartner to its clients. What makes Pierson’s training unique and successful is that the training classes conclude with a simulation using the deliverables throughout the PLC.  A real life customer’s project can even be used. The training is 1/3 lecture and 2/3 hands on exercises so that the trainees are ready to go after completing the class and equipped for success with a full toolkit of checklists, a procedures guide, agendas and scripts. The primary objective of the training is to provide the participants with the knowledge and experience to implement a repeatable requirements gathering and writing process using UML and helps prepare those who want to take the IIBA Certification Exam.  Participants of Pierson’s training are provided with a certificate of successful completion of the training.

For more information about Pierson Requirements Group or business analysis training, please visit www.PiersonRequirementsGroup.com or contact Walter Pierson at 203-322-1606.

Contact:
Walter Pierson, President
Pierson Requirements Group
Phone: 203-322-1606
Email: wpierson@piersonrequirementsgroup.com
Web: www.PiersonRequirementsGroup.com