User-Oriented Practices for Software Quality

In-training offering

2 Days

Now, more than ever before, more responsibility is being placed on software users to define and validate the systems they acquire. This three-day course presents two important sides of user involvement in software projects: gathering and documenting user requirements, and testing from the user perspective.

The instructor for this course will be a facilitator and designer of many user acceptance tests in a variety of project settings. This presentation is for anyone who needs to understand and apply solid techniques for user-oriented activities on a project.

This is a basic course in understanding the process of gathering, defining, testing and managing user requirements. On the final day, we will discuss how to plan, perform and evaluate user acceptance testing.

This course is ideal for people who are just learning about the importance of user requirements, or for those who need a defined process for requirements management and user acceptance testing.

This is a practical interactive seminar which uses team exercises to reinforce the process taught in the class. Your instructor will be a certified instructor in the software engineering field. You will learn the terminology, process, and challenges of requirements management in the real world. As a result of attending this seminar, you should have a good working knowledge of user requirements and what it takes to gather, design, test and manage a complete set of user requirements for a project. In addition, you will know how to plan a user acceptance test that can be used for a variety of projects.

This workshop will help you become more comfortable and confident in performing the requirements management process in just about any role on the project, including business analyst, user, system designer, project manager, QA analyst or tester.

You will emerge from this three-day session knowing how to define the right problem, talk to the right people, document the right needs, build the right system, and test the system using a defined baseline of requirements as the target. You will also leave with a knowledge of how tools can help you perform requirements management and user acceptance testing. You will also learn about how to deal with some of the most common people problems in user acceptance testing.

Return on Investment

Learn how to define and solve the right problem and avoid spending tons of money building the wrong system.
Learn how to find problems in requirements before they ripple through the rest of the project, where they are much more costly to fix.
Understand the key issues in gathering and defining user requirements.
Learn how to design tests that adequately cover requirements and business events.
Get the most out of your existing investment in user requirements and use cases and how to leverage that investment.
Advance your career by reinforcing your software engineering expertise.

Who Will Benefit

Project managers
Business analysts
End-users
System designers
Software engineers and developers
QA analysts
Test analysts
Testers

The program requires only basic IT knowledge or experience. Technical documentation knowledge or experience is not a pre-requisite.

Program Information

This course is presented on an in-house basis only unless offered as a special public course. Contact us for information about how to bring this course into your organization.

Content and Structure

Topics

Module 1 - Exploring Requirements

What is Development?
What is the Requirements Process?
What Is A Requirement?
What a Requirement Isn’t
What is Requirements Management?
The Overall Objective
Why We Aren’t Very Good At Requirements
Problems With Requirements
Why Are Requirements Important?
Where Defects Originate
Where Testing Resources are Used
The Relative Cost of Fixing Defects
Case Study – Defining A Simple Requirement
Assessing the Requirements Process in Your Organization
Making Sense of Your Score

Module 2 - Problem Analysis

Five Step Process
- Step 1 – Define the Problem to be Solved
- Step 2 – Understand the Root Causes
  - Root Cause Analysis
  - Fishbone Chart
  - How to Describe the Root Causes of a Problem
  - Context-free Questions
  - How Can Context-free Questions be Used?
  - The Sources of False Assumptions
- Step 3 - Identify the Affected People
- Step 4 – Define the Scope of the Solution
- Step 5 – Identify Solution Constraints
  - Modeling Techniques
  - Business Modeling
  - UML
  - System Modeling
  - E-R Diagrams
  - Process Flows
  - Data Models
Problem Solving Exercise

Module 3 - Techniques for Getting the User Perspective

Getting the Right People
- Questions to identify the right people
- Who is a Customer?
- Who is a User?
- A Short Process for Getting the Right People
Interview Techniques
Preparing for the Workshop
- Marketing the meeting
- Responsibilities of the Facilitator
- Sample Agenda
- Conducting the Session - Things to Pay Attention To
- Brainstorming Process
Storyboards
- Types of Storyboards
- Tools for Storyboarding
- Helpful Hints for Storyboarding
Use Cases
- Use Case Components
- Use Case Model
- Sample Use Case
JAD Sessions
Role Playing
- How to Role Play
Prototyping
- Types of Prototypes
- The Prototyping Cycle
- Dealing With Conflicts
Exercise – Role Playing to Develop a Requirement Definition

Module 4 - Documenting Requirements

IEEE/ANSI SRS Standard Document
Major Topics that Should be Addressed in Requirements
Desirable Attributes of Requirements
Categories of Specification Statements
Sizing of Requirements
Testable requirements
Readability of Requirements
Common Problems with Requirements
Tools Used for Defining Requirements
Defining the Problem to be Solved
- Statement of Work
- Constraints
- Risk Analysis
- Types of Prototypes
- Use Cases
  - Use Case Components
  - Four Phases of Use Cases
    - Facade - Outline and high-level description
    - Filled - Broadening and deepening
    - Focused - Narrowing and pruning
    - Finished - Touching up and fine tuning
  - Process for Writing Use Cases
- Business Rule Catalog
  - Five Types of Business Rules
Technical Methods for Defining Requirements
- Decision Trees
- Flowcharts
- Entity-Relationship (E-R) Diagrams
- Object-oriented models
- Data Flow diagrams (DFDs)
- Finite-state Machines
- State-Transition Diagram
Tools for Documenting Requirements
Books that Discuss Modeling and Requirements

Module 5 - Requirements Management

Scope Management
Managing Expectations - Understanding Tradeoffs
Tips for Managing Expectations
Nine Steps to Conflict Resolution
Refinement of Requirements
Requirements vs. Design
Change Control
Where Does Change Come From?
Three Ways to Deal With Change
How to Control Change
Change Control Process
Tools for Change Control and Requirements Management
Case Study – Changing a Requirement

Module 6 - Testing Requirements

Ten Quality Measures
Verification Methods
Ambiguity Walkthroughs and Reviews
Technical Reviews
Why Perform Early Verification?
Exercise – Perform an Ambiguity Review
Developing Test Cases from Requirements
Requirements-Based Test Conditions
Adding Traceability
Tools for Test Case Design from Requirements
Exercise – Define Test Cases from a Requirement

Module 7 - Dealing With Problems in the Requirements Process

Scope Creep Solutions
Excessive Change Solutions
How to Get Cultural Acceptance of Requirements
How to Start
How to Start Earlier
When to Stop

Module 8 - User Acceptance Testing

What is User Acceptance Testing?
Methods of User Acceptance Testing
The User's Role in Testing
An Overview of the User Acceptance Testing Process
Working Definitions
The User Acceptance Test Planning Process
Setting UAT Objectives
Organizing the UAT Team
What to Look For in Testers
Defining Acceptance Criteria
Developing Test Scenarios
Developing UAT Scripts
Developing Business Cases
Defining Functional Test Cases
Building a Test Cycle Matrix
What is a Test Cycle
Why Use Test Cycles?
Building a Test/Function Matrix
Estimating UAT Time and Resources
UAT Materials
Finalizing the Test Plan
Execute User Acceptance Tests
Selecting Test Tools
Training Team Members
Manual vs. Automated Methods of UAT
Tracking UAT Process
The Role of Regression Testing in UAT
Documenting UAT Results
UAT Pitfalls to Avoid
Managing Attitudes and Conflict
Addressing User Attitudes
Addressing Developer Attitudes
Addressing Management Attitudes
Recording Defects
Writing the UAT Final Report

Module 9 - People Issues in UAT

The Role of Testing in a Project

Working with Developers

Working with Users

Keeping Management Informed of Progress

Managing Expectations

What Can a Tester Reasonably Assess or Recommend?

Resources

Checklists and Templates

Glossary

Bibliography

Deliverables

Course notebook with slides, worksheets, checklists, complete examples and supporting text

You will have the basic information needed to gather and define good requirements, and plan and execute an effective test of a software application.

Rice Consulting Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 892003
Oklahoma City, OK 73189
405-691-8075