Discovery Preparation for Business Analysts: Masterclass
This real-world online masterclass is designed to teach IT business analysts essential skills and techniques to effectively prepare for requirements discovery workshops and other collaborative elicitation sessions with the project stakeholders.
1
Hour
30
Lectures
4.89
Course Rating
Course Preview
Why Masterclass
for Requirements Elicitation and Discovery?
A dilemma that any ambitious business analyst has to deal with is how to apply all their knowledge and techniques to a real-world project. Where should you start? Which interviews need to be scheduled and when? Who should be invited, and what questions need to be asked? And how can you ensure that everything is being done correctly?
Proper preparation is crucial for any business analysis activity, especially for requirements discovery. The discovery is simply too important to be put at risk! It becomes even more challenging if you are the sole business analyst on your project or lack experience and there's no one to guide you. In such cases, you have to learn as you go, which is never an effective way.
Everybody has been through this.
When I joined EPAM back in the fall of 2015, I already had experience running requirements elicitation workshops at my previous jobs. But most of the time I had been doing it all alone, without a mentor to guide me, and frankly, I never had confidence that I was doing everything correctly. It was more of a feeling than a method that I used, and honestly, I didn't like that.
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Then during my second week at my new job, I met Eugene. Eugene was at the time a principal business consultant, running numerous international projects. Together with Dima, the solution architect, we were headed to Denmark for a presale discovery with a fashion company. At last, there was a leader whom I could watch and learn from - and, boy, didn't I regret it.
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To be true - I learned more about consulting and discovery in these three weeks than in the previous ten years. Just watching a pro doing pro things, the level of preparation, engaging the client, asking questions, using questionnaires and other approaches - that alone, I could never get from books, nor from learning individual techniques. Watching and doing things under his guidance meant so much to me. Throughout the years I was privileged to work with Eugene on many initiatives, and I’m humbled to call him my teacher.
The Dilemma
There is no morale in that story. I was simply lucky.
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The issue is still bugging me. So many great BAs are not getting the opportunity to join a project or a team where they would truly shine.
One of the common messages I'm receiving is: "I was not assigned to this project because I didn't have experience. But then, how do I gain experience when I'm not assigned to anything serious?"
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I feel your pain, and here's a simple thing that I wanted to do with this course - to provide an experience of what a real-world discovery project feels like.
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This is my attempt to give you a sense of experience that you may not obtain elsewhere.
A 5-Day Method
That's not all, though. In this course, you have much more than just a real-world simulation!
You will receive specific and detailed instructions on how to prepare exactly for requirements elicitation with project stakeholders in a real-world simulation within 5 business days - from Monday to Friday.
This method can be easily applied to your next project when the opportunity arises, ensuring that you will be fully prepared!
What Students Say
Extremely helpful masterclass! The organizer is a highly knowledgeable and industry-seasoned professional. The course structure is well thought out and logically organized. Highly recommend!
I enjoyed this course as it walked me through a real-world example which kept me engaged and looking forward to the next steps. I would recommend this course to people interested in learning more about discovery.
I appreciate Sergey's transparency and willingness to share his expertise and individual work products, including the discovery agenda. It made the learning experience feel authentic and relatable.
What Makes This Course Different?
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In this course, we will immerse ourselves in a real-world project and prepare for a discovery day by day, within one work week, from Monday to Friday.
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Our client in this course is a manufacturer and seller of musical instruments located in the United States. This company is expanding its business and looking to implement new features and capabilities, such as international shipping and financing. Their current website and e-commerce infrastructure cannot support such growth, so they reached out to us and invited our development team for on-site discovery workshops.
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Every day of the week we will focus on actual deliverables for successful onsite discovery:
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Collect the initial pre-sales information.
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Assemble the discovery team.
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Create a space for team collaboration.
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Utilize standard questionnaires and feature lists.
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Create a discovery agenda for on-site workshops.
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Assemble slides for the kickoff presentation.
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Here is What You Will Learn
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Learn from real-life challenges and witness firsthand the processes of preparing for a discovery engagement.
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Benefit from practical tips and insights from watching over a shoulder of a real business analyst engaged in a real project.
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Discover how to establish initial contact with client representatives.
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Create comprehensive discovery agenda for the on-site workshops and elicitation sessions
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Explore various meeting types used by business analysts, including workshops, interviews, show and tell, and others.
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Utilize standard questionnaires and feature lists to inform the discovery agenda and the elicitation sessions
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Create slides for the initial discovery kick-off meetings with clients.
Course
Curriculum
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Instructor
Hello! My name is Sergey Shimansky and I am happy to be your instructor for this course.
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I'm currently serving as the Head of Experience Consulting and Business Analysis at a global leader in service development, digital platform engineering, and digital product design. In my more than 17 years of experience building digital products, I have led numerous e-commerce and content management projects for Fortune 500 organizations across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.
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Professional Certifications: Certified Business Analyst Professional™ (CBAP®), Scrum Product Owner (PSPO), Scaled Agile (SAFe®) Agilist, and ICAgile Certified Professional