Facilitation Techniques For Requirements Development

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Learn How To:

• Identify the use of facilitation in business analysis
• Explain the role and responsibilities of a business analysis facilitator
• Plan a facilitation session
• Use the appropriate facilitation techniques for a given session
• Conduct a facilitation session using best practices
• Manage conflict during a session
• Identify facilitation opportunities in business analysis

Course Synopsis

The business analyst spends a significant amount of time facilitating requirements. Yet, many business analysts lack formal training on this vital skill.

A successful facilitation session results in requirements that you can begin to analyse and work with. Facilitation Techniques For Requirements Development focuses on teaching the facilitation skills necessary to elicit and analyse requirements on a project.

In this highly interactive course, you will learn how to effectively help stakeholders define their needs and form these needs into quantifiable requirements through facilitation. As a facilitator, you will learn how to prepare for and conduct both face-to-face and remote group sessions.

You will be exposed not only to several facilitator techniques such as brainstorming, JAD and focus groups, but you will also learn how to manage conflict in a session. Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to practice these skills in a safe environment with a trained facilitator to guide you through various activities.

You will leave the class with the confidence to prepare for a session, including creating a facilitation plan, motivating a group’s participation, building consensus, managing conflict, maintaining session focus and evaluating results for lessons learned.

Reminder: Prior to taking this course, you should have acquired the background as taught in How To Gather And Document User Requirements.

Course Topics

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1. What is Facilitation?
   1. Facilitation techniques and practices
   2. The facilitation process
2. What is Business Analysis?
3. Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)
   1. BABOK knowledge areas
   2. The business analysis process
4. Facilitating in Business Analysis
   1. The role of the business analysis facilitator
   2. The responsibilities of the business analysis facilitator
5. Facilitation Session Preparation
6. Considerations for Remote Sessions
   1. Environmental
   2. Preparation
   3. During the session
   4. Wrapping up
7. Facilitation in Business Analysis is Iterative
   1. Vision/enterprise analysis
      • Brainstorming
      • Brainwriting/Crawford Slip
   2. Definition/requirement elicitation
      • Focus group
      • Joint Application Design (JAD)
   3. Analysis/requirements analysis and documentation
      • Gap analysis
      • Root-cause analysis
      • Force-field analysis
   4. Decision/solution assessment and validation
      • Multi-voting
      • Criteria-based grid
      • Impact/effort grid
8. Verification of the Facilitation Session Plan
9. Facilitation Practices
   1. Generating participation
   2. Neutrality
   3. Active listening
   4. Questioning
   5. Paraphrasing
   6. Using flip charts
   7. Maintain focus
   8. Intervention
   9. Feedback
   10. Summarising
   11. Synthesising ideas
10. Executing a Facilitation Session
    1. Prior to the session
    2. Starting the session
    3. Conducting the session
    4. Ending the session
11. Facilitation Conflict Techniques
    1. Argument vs. debate
    2. How to intervene
    3. Choices in resolving issues
    4. Working toward consensus
12. BA Facilitation Opportunities