Facilitating Requirements Workshops - BA06 ( 1 Day )
Price: $600.00
Course Outline
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Abstract/Overview
This one-day course equips Business Analysts and Business Systems Analysts with the skills required to facilitate requirements workshops and model validation sessions. Increasingly, IT staff are asked to facilitate meetings, yet few have the people or meeting skills needed to effectively guide the process and participants to their desired outcomes. This is particularly so when analysts and stakeholders from different areas of the enterprise meet to develop and refine business and software requirements. This course gives BAs and BSAs an opportunity to build strong facilitation skills as they’re coached through a day-long series of practice exercises and instructor-led workshops.
Audience - Who Should Attend?
Business Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, Project Leaders and others who want to be more effective as a facilitator of requirements workshops, JADs and model validation sessions. Also of value to anyone involved with running meetings and ensuring they run smoothly.
Prerequisite
Students should have completed BA05-Eliciting Business Requirements, or its equivalent. A working knowledge of Business Analysis or Business Systems Analysis is a definite asset. Students will be required to facilitate workshop activities throughout the day and should be capable of speaking before a small group.
Objective
Upon completion of this course, the student will:
- Define what it means to facilitate, and recognize how it is different from simply participating in, or even chairing a meeting
- Be able to create a realistic meeting agenda that is designed to organize the workshop proceedings, and lead its participants toward agreement
- Recognize the importance of indicating your role—facilitator or participant—at all times during the workshop
- Possess the key leadership and meeting management skills required of a facilitator
- Know when and how to intervene in the workshop proceedings, and when not to
- Know how to resolve disagreement or conflict between participants
- Understand when and how to use consensus-building tools like voting, ranking and prioritizing to improve stakeholder alignment
- Be prepared to ask for agreement from participants and negotiate closure of issues
- Know how to open, conduct and close a workshop session, and follow up on results
Content
The class begins as a workshop, with the instructor modeling appropriate workshop initiation activities and behaviours for the students. Learning points covered during this phase include:
- Setting the workshop context
- Introductions of group and facilitator
- Defining the facilitator’s role
- Presentation of objectives and agenda
- Discussion of objectives and agenda
- Asking for agreement on the objectives and agenda
- Establishing workshop ground-rules
Next, the instructor facilitates a brief presentation of the case study material to be used throughout the class. While participating in the presentation, students have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the case study and ask clarifying questions. The key learning points include:
- Meeting management skills
· Being in charge—leader vs. boss
· Delegating and giving direction
· The role of the scribe
- Basic Presentation skills
· Using the body and voice
· Presenting information clearly
- Moving between the roles of facilitator and participant
- Encouraging and dealing with questions
· Asking questions
· Reflecting & redirecting questions
· Reframing hostile questions
For most of the day, students broaden their skills by taking turns facilitating and presenting in a variety of realistic workshop situations. Ample coaching and feedback are provided to ensure each student feels confident in the following topics:
- Essential Facilitation skills
· Basic Presentation skills
· Asking and answering questions
· Active listening and giving feedback
· Knowing when to facilitate and when to participate
- Dealing with disagreement or conflict
· Among participants
· Between participants and facilitator
· Handling objections
· Managing time and the agenda
· Unblocking the discussion
· Using the “Parking Lot”
· Avoiding premature solutions
- Telephone Facilitation and facilitating distributed meetings
- Managing participants behaviour
· Avoiding “hijackers”
· Handling side conversations and interrupters
· Dealing with “grandstanders”
· Participants who don’t participate
- Asking for agreement
- Wrapping up the session
· closing the parking lot
· assigning take-away tasks
· agreeing on follow-up activities
Exercises
Course Schedule
| Start Date | Location | Class Code | Duration (days) |
| Mon, Oct 04 2010 | Ottawa | P36457 | 1 |
| Wed, Oct 13 2010 | Toronto | P36113 | 1 |
| | | | |
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