A great new article discussing the practical role of the Business Analyst in agile processes that would definitely recommend you check out. The first in a series, we can’t wait to see the next ones as well.

The article was authored by Jeremy Wilson of Omadasite.

You can access the article here: http://www.omadasite.com/d/forming_agile_teams_from_waterfall

Requirements Lifecycle Awards! Nominations now open

Have you, or do you know someone, who has made a positive difference in their organization software requirements lifecycle? The Requirements Lifecycle Award recognizes the achievements of individuals who have led transformations in their organization’s software requirements lifecycle through education, process, and automation initiatives to reduce waste and inefficiencies. Good requirements are the key to software project success and companies today are searching for ways to improve. This award provides recognition for your efforts and lets others know there are ways to make meaningful improvement.

Fill out a nomination today!

Building and Managing a Requirements Center of Excellence

Be sure to get Blueprint’s latest whitepaper that provides an overview of what is the latest trend in software requirements – the Requirements Center of Excellence. It provides an overview of what a Requirements Center of Excellence is, its benefits, and information about how to set one up. Also, check-out the recent podcast on the same topic featuring an interview with Chris O’Day of Centerline Partners.

Download the whitepaper

Chris is a software industry veteran who leads the Rapid Requirements Management practice at Centerline Partners, a management consulting firm whose focus is solely on Requirements Management related professional services.

Along with Matt and Keith, Chris speaks on the current trend of organizations going to the ‘next-level’ of maturity with respect to their software requirements practices – setting up a Requirements Center of Excellence. Issues related to setting up such a center are discussed and practical recommendations and practices put forth to ensure success.

Accompanying this podcast is a new whitepaper by consortium member Blueprint entitled “Building and Managing a Requirements Center of Excellence”.

Download the podcast

Download the whitepaper

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Consortium member, HP Software just submitted a new whitepaper. An abstract:The fallout of omitting or glossing over the phases of requirements definition and requirements management (or RDM) is infinitely more expensive to business and IT when defects and delays appear. That is why businesses are starting to take a look at applying RDM more systematically and thoroughly.This white paper will show you how BA’s and software quality managers can work together to:

• More accurately define requirements
• Develop strong requirements management practices
• Reduce changes, defects and delays and potential disruptions in the application lifecycle

The collaboration between BA’s and software quality managers is the key to superior RDM and superior results. Download it here.

Consortium member Blueprint (www.blueprintsys.com) has published a new whitepaper looking at the aspects of requirements definition when improving the efficiency and effectiveness of outsourced teams.

Here is the abstract:

In today’s economic environment, business organizations are demanding focused attention to fiscal discipline. Finance, marketing, sales, operations, and IT are all being measured by an increasingly tight focus on returns. Investments for future growth are controlled, and a return to core business efficiencies has become the top investment thesis. This paper explores industry, analyst, and customer recommendations on how to focus on requirements to ensure application development accuracy and to control risk with outsourced team so that the IT organization can turn those efficiencies into increased horse-power and lower operational costs

You can download the paper here.

Today, the Requirements.net consortium is launching a new series entitled, The Global Business Analyst.

Members of the requirements.net consortium include BA Times (www.batimes.com), Cap Gemini (www.capgemini.com), Blueprint (www.blueprintsys.com), Centerline Partners (www.centerline-partners.com),  Zap Technologies (www.zap-t.com), Requirements Solutions Group (www.requirementsolutions.com),  RQNG (www.requirementsnetwork.com), HP Software (www.hp.com), Orasi Software (www.orasi.com), SkyIT Group (www.skyitgroup.com), and CorTechs (www.cortechs.com).

In this series, consortium members  will be looking at Business Analysis and Requirements Definition is impacted by the move to distributed teams, the use of Outsourcing, and the impact of global IT projects for new market opportunities.

Lets get started.

Welcome to Requirements.net 2.0.
Requirements.net is the industry’s largest consortium for the empowerment of the business analyst, and we are very pleased to welcome our new membership board, and introduce several new initiatives for the coming year.

Below is the press release from today:

Requirements.net Consortium doubles membership, unveils new best practices offerings for requirements professionals

Industry Leading Consortium Serving Over 15,000 Requirements Professionals Will Release Requirements Definition Knowledge Archive In Late 2009

Toronto, ON — April 15, 2009: The Requirements.net consortium, the largest consortium for business analysts worldwide, today announced that it has doubled its membership, and the combined membership provides unprecedented market reach and leadership in business analyst empowerment. The consortium today also announced that it will make available the Requirements Definition Knowledge Archive (RDKA) to the public, in an effort to further the consortium’s vision of ensuring that all business software requirements are built following a rigorous requirements definition and management process, to meet today’s business needs.

New Members
Requirements.net produces some of the industry’s most respected thought leadership published works on the requirements discipline. Capgemini (Euronext: CAP), Centerline Partners, BA Times, ZAPtechnologies.com and the Requirement Solution Group have now joined the consortium, which was originally founded by Blueprint, HP, RQNG, Orasi Software, SKY IT Group and CorTechs.

“Modern business applications are too complex and too strategic to risk failure,” said David Nyland, CEO of Blueprint. “Stand-alone business applications are transforming to become end-to-end integrated business systems and new technologies (such as SOA, Webservices, AJAX, FLEX, and others) are re-inventing how business application requirements need to be captured, defined, validated, and managed. Like a GPS for application development, the rapidly growing requirements.net consortium helps business analysts ensure that they can navigate and communicate in a clear voice through this rapidly changing landscape.”

“Customers can reduce the risk of failure of business applications by implementing best practices for requirements” said Mark Sarbiewski, senior director of products, Software and Solutions, HP. “The expansion of the consortium will help IT organizations deliver applications that better meet the needs of the business.”

Requirements Definition Knowledge Archive (RDKA)
In addition to the new members, the consortium also announced to day that it will release a collective set of best practice works to the public later this year, in which consortium members contribute specific elements from their practices. The first set of Knowledge Archives will focus on Globalization and Offshoring, and AGILE Development in a Distributed environment. The consortium expects to release these by the end of the year, with more to follow in 2010.”

With advent of new technologies and SDLC methodologies, combined with globalization and the resulting distribution of development teams, the companies behind Requirements.net recognize that the industry is recasting how it approaches the problem of business analysis,” said Charlie Li, Vice President at Capgemini. “The consortium’s goal is to help business analysts ensure that they can communicate in a clear voice through this rapidly changing landscape; they can easily yet rigorously define and manage requirements, so that the end products truly meet the business need both in terms of quality and cost.”

Requirements Lifecycle Awards
The Requirements.net consortium today also announced that it will be launching the Requirements Lifecycle Awards later this year. The first of its kind, these awards will honor top IT implementations that have reduced waste from the focus on requirements optimization.Look for information soon on these awards at www.requirements.net.

About The Requirements.net Consortium
Founded by HP and Blueprint in 2008 and now thirteen members strong, Requirements.net is the industry’s largest consortium for the advancement of Business Analysis empowerment. Through focus on requirements definition, visualization, and management, the companies behind Requirements.net are driven to share and sponsor best practices and technologies to improve industry requirements practices. As prescribed in the Requirements.net charter, the call for members is opened only once a year, between January and March.

We are concluding our Requirements.net consortium series entitled “Maximize IT Value ” with a summary of the assets available for download.     The Requirements.net consortium is a collection of company’s supporting the industry trend toward improving IT efficiency through Business Analyst empowerment.  Members of the requirements.net consortium include BA Times (www.batimes.com), Cap Gemini (www.capgemini.com), Blueprint (www.blueprintsys.com), Centerline Partners (www.centerline-partners.com),  Zap Technologies (www.zap-t.com), Requirements Solutions Group (www.requirementsolutions.com),  RQNG (www.requirementsnetwork.com), HP Software (www.hp.com), Orasi Software (www.orasi.com), SkyIT Group (www.skyitgroup.com), and CorTechs (www.cortechs.com).As a summary of the series assets available for download:

Series Podcasts: We have published three Podcasts as part of this series, all of which are available for download at no charge.  As a summary:

1. Podcast:  A Look at Agile with Martin Crisp, CTO of Blueprint  - In this exclusive podcast, Martin Crisp talks about the importance of business analysis and requirements definition in Agile development.   Download here.
2. Podcast:  Interview with Genefa Murphy, Product Manager at HP Software -In this episode, Genefa Murphy discusses how HP Quality Center 10’s enhanced requirements management module dramatically improves the practice of requirements management.  Download it here.
3. Podcast:  Interview with Brian Cook, CEO of Cook Enterprises -Brian talks about the importance of models and simulation in defining application requirements.   Download it here.
4. Podcast:  Interview with Jonathan Babcock, a BA’s Perspective on Maximizing IT Value -   Our most popular podcast ever.  Jonathan talks about defining application requirements and how BA’s can Maximize IT Value.  Download it here. 

Whitepapers and Webinars:   Below is a summary of the whitepapers and on-demand webinar assets from the series:

1. Authoring Requirements in an Agile World Whitepaper  - written by Tony Higgins, this whitepaper outlines how to define requirements for Agile methodologies.  Download it here.
2. Reducing Risk through requirements-driven quality management  - written by HP, this whitepapers looks at driving a quality approach to requirements management.   Read it now.
3. On Demand Webinar:  Iterative Requirements Validation - This 45 minute webinar features Steven Davis, frequently referred as the Grandfather of Requirements.  This webinar looks at how upfront validation helps ensure accuracy of requirements assets.  Watch it here.
4. On Demand Webinar:  Authoring Requirements in an Agile World.  This 45 minute webinar looks at the right way to define requirements in Agile.  It features a case-study from Imageright corporation.  Watch it here.

Best reader quotes from email and from the blog comment system:

 ”We see a lot of focus on global alignment in the bank. The message of connecting quality and business analysis is very much part of our proposed process. We have deloitte in house helping with implementation of a new requirements program that helps visualize our application requirements. This webinar was helpful.” - Lisa

“We are facing a serious problem with Requirements understanding with our offshore teams. The collective challenges are identical to the case study demonstrated ” - Richard

“My company sees value in the “small v” definition right now. And, frankly, this is a problem. We have just cancelled three projects that are needed by the business. Our team is branching into the local telephone market, and the system delay makes the business delay its plans. Yes, we will save the project costs, but we are now six months behind the business plan. In today’s economy, people cannot see much further than 30 days ahead.” - Sarah

“We are in the information publication industry. Most new initiatives are around business news being delivered over the net. We are diversifying our business away from paper based publications. Its the growth area. Regarding “everyone is afraid to be on this side of the arguement”, I think this is the only side to be on. Its about being on the sharp side of the arrow” - Cinda

Thank you for your participation in this Requirements.net series.  Next week, we will be launching a new series entitled “The Global Business Analyst”.