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The better. 
Business Analysis. 

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Institute. 
Presence the Better Business 

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Analysis Podcast with Benjamin 
Walsh hello and welcome back to 

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the Better Business analysis 
podcast with Benjamin Walsh and.

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This week on BA Bytes. 
We are going to follow. 

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Ten ways. 
In which you can speed up your 

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requirements. 
Capture process. 

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So let's dive into the top ten. 
Number one is to prepare 

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thoroughly. 
First up, your preparation is. 

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Your best friend. 
Before you even start capturing 

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requirements, make sure you 
understand the scope of the 

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project. 
The objectives and the 

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stakeholders. 
You can gather. 

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Existing documentation. 
And if. 

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Possible have. 
Pre meetings. 

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With stakeholders. 
So you kind of understand where 

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they're coming from. 
You can understand the. 

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Expectations. 
And you can build. 

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Influence and rapport with these
people. 

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Don't underestimate. 
How much rapport is part of the 

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job of ABA? 
If you prep, it will save you 

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time and reduce the need for 
rework, and it will ensure that 

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they've already built a little 
bit. 

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Of trust for the stakeholders. 
#2 is to use templates. 

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And checklists. 
You should have had some 

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training if you haven't. 
Then jump online do one of our 

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courses. 
And you'll get a. 

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Bunch of templates. 
You need to have templates. 

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You need to. 
Have checklists. 

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And they are a game changer. 
If. 

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You're not prepared, so they 
provide a structured format that

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ensure that you're not missing 
anything. 

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Gives you some guidance by. 
Working top to bottom. 

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And whether or not it's a 
requirements document, template,

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a user story, or use case, 
having a template streamlines 

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the process and just keeps 
everything. 

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Organized. 
It also allows you to, like I 

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said, follow. 
Certain. 

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Steps and. 
Understand the artifacts you're 

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going to produce. #3 is to 
leverage existing requirements. 

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The number of times I've started
on a project where the pro I. 

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Was not the first person to 
attempt a project. 

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Does that make? 
Sense where you're brought. 

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In and. 
There's already ABA who started 

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it or you know it just this 
project had. 

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Tried to get off the ground. 
And there was a business case 

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written a few times or a PED. 
There's usually. 

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Documentation, or at least a 
back story. 

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So don't reinvent the wheel. 
Leverage existing requirements 

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from previous projects. 
And industry standards in 

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addition to the work that's 
already been done so. 

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If there are a set of 
requirements that are very very 

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similar for a. 
Piece of work that's just gone 

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live. 
Maybe it's a report on a 

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website, your government 
website. 

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Some of the requirements. 
Are going to be the same, so 

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there's no point in you. 
Re litigating. 

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Those especially you non 
functionals. 

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There's also industry standards,
I mean. 

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If there's web standards, web 
accessibility standards, there's

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already some good checklist for 
that. 

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Often you can adapt these and 
fit it to your. 

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Current project needs. 
And it saves you time. 

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And ensures consistency and 
alignment with industry 

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standards so you don't miss 
anything. 

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I do this often. 
I probably don't do it enough. 

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Because you want. 
To start fresh, and you know you

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do you want your requirements to
reflect what the customer wants.

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But I'd have to say as I get 
more and more experience into 

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more and more. 
Projects. 

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Sometimes the customer isn't the
environment. 

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You're in. 
They don't necessarily know 

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what's best. 
In terms of best practice and 

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best standards, so maybe some of
those should be sourced 

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externally quickly and then you 
should focus on what matters as 

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unique to that customer. #4 is 
to conduct. 

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Effective. 
Workshops Workshops are a great 

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way of capturing requirements. 
Really quickly. 

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Make sure they're well planned 
and they have a clear agenda. 

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Everyone knows what that they're
for. 

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Look up Power Start if you want 
an idea about. 

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Doing good agendas they. 
Understand the objectives you 

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need to use techniques like 
brainstorming and role-playing 

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storyboarding, grouping themes 
together together comprehensive 

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requirements in a collaborative 
setting. 

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And so I'd say you can do it in 
a room with post. 

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It's a large room, big room 
thinking if you've. 

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Got say 8 up to 8 people. 
If you've got more than that and

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I would even suggest. 
Over 12 is just too much. 

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You need to break those down 
into different sessions. 

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Try and use a collaborative 
tool. 

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Like a mirror or mural online, 
It's actually better to do it 

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online if you've got a large 
amount of people. 

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Or if there's ever a suggestion 
of hybrid, Hybrid never works. 

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So do online then if you can't 
get all your stakeholders in a. 

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Physical room, but in a room you
can't beat it. 

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And #5 is to engage stakeholders
early and often. 

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So early and frequent 
stakeholder. 

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Engagement is critical. 
I have been involved in many 

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projects where. 
That isn't done. 

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Or, you know, you may have had a
change manager. 

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Or you don't have one or 
engagement. 

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Sometimes falls in in the middle
and isn't. 

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Just isn't done well. 
By the. 

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PM as ABA you can step into. 
That space, but there's specific

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skills. 
To do that if there is no one 

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doing it. 
Just do it just. 

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Put your hand up and start. 
Pushing it through. 

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Those regular touch points help 
clarify requirements, they 

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prevent misunderstanding, they 
streamline communication, they 

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they stop a hierarchy situation 
from happening. 

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And you know everyone like 
referring to documents and what 

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I said on. 
Wednesday the. 19th. 

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And you? 
Know having to write down every 

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single conversation. 
You've had it's a disaster. 

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It's just a time waster and adds
no value, so if you're engaging 

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with. 
Stakeholders, you won't get to 

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that point. 
Now you can use various methods 

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like interviews, surveys, focus 
groups, right And to get 

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different perspectives as well. 
So it's not just around having 

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a. 
Conversation or a one-on-one? 

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But make sure you don't often 
check in product. 

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Owner meeting should be. 
Ideally it stand ups but if. 

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You're not doing that then once 
a week, number six. 

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Is to utilize visual. 
AIDS OK. 

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A picture is worth 1000 words, 
so using visual aids like flow 

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charts, diagrams, wireframes to 
capture. 

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And communicate requirements. 
Is is highly effective visuals 

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can simplify complex information
into like rolling on up. 

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I always say, look, if we, if we
just. 

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Pull this all back up. 
This is. 

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The diagram we're looking at, 
let's just focus. 

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On the inputs and outputs and 
black. 

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Box the middle bit and make it 
just makes it easier for 

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stakeholders. 
To understand. 

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And provide feedback and 
especially if you're dealing 

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with. 
Different levels of stakeholder 

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with different levels of 
knowledge. 

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Visual aids are so useful. 
I always I know people go on 

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about death by PowerPoint, but I
use it as a communication 

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method, not as a presentation 
method. #7 is to adopt. 

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Agile techniques. 
We've talked about agile a lot, 

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but the spirit of agile like 
some. 

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Of the methodologies in there 
like scrum stand. 

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UPS. 
Continuous improvement. 

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If you utilize the the best bits
of agile, you can significantly 

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speed up the requirements. 
Capture process. 

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And so like using user stories, 
grooming a backlog of items, 

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getting feedback loops, allowing
for continuous refinement and 

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prioritization of requirements 
in the. 

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Culture around it. 
Can also speed up. 

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What you need to do? 
#8 is to use those collaborative

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tools. 
Not just some workshops. 

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But also in the delivery side 
and. 

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Design side. 
So JIRA, Confluence, Trello, 

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DevOps, these tools facilitate 
real time capture. 

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Really important. 
And. 

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Communications, so when you're 
updating it, people can go there

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straight away. 
Document sharing, tracking of 

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progress. 
It makes it easy to capture and 

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manage requirements effectively,
but also allow you to be nimble 

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real time and only have to enter
the. 

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Information once and then for 
people to be able to source that

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information through reports 
outputs using the same tool. #9 

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I can't stress this enough, and 
I keep reminding myself is to 

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define clear acceptance 
criteria. 

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Clear acceptance criteria are 
essential for ensuring that 

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requirements are understood and 
met. 

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They should be in the word of 
the user. 

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More simple. 
Than the. 

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Requirement themselves. 
They can be used in UAT and they

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help clarify scope of the 
requirement even though scope 

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should. 
Have been. 

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Defined upfront, this really is 
down to the brusk tacks of what?

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You're actually going to get at 
go live. 

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They provide a measurable way to
validate the requirements and 

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whether or not they've been 
implemented correctly in the eye

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of the beholder, but it reduces 
ambiguity and rework. 

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And they're so, they're so 
important. 

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And I've literally just taken 
some accepting criterias from 

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requirements. 
Of turn them. 

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Into some users. 
Acceptance testing. 

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Scripts. 
Today so. 

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There you go. 
And equally also acceptance 

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measures or measures of. 
Success which? 

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Are acceptance criteria and A 
and a statement. 

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Of work. 
Today. 

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So there you go, really good 
ways of. 

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Utilizing that so if you're not 
ABA you. 

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Can still. 
Use these in sales documents as 

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well. 
And #10 is to practice. 

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Effective communication. 
I say communication so often on 

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this podcast. 
It's really sometimes we've dug 

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into that about. 
About what communication means. 

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What I mean here is that 
effective communication not only

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is the cornerstone of any 
successful requirements 

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gathering process, and it's 
about being clear, concise and 

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open to feedback. 
Active listing and empathy go a 

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long way in understanding 
stakeholders needs and ensure 

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that requirements are captured 
accurately. 

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So be a great communicator. 
So that's 10 tips to speed up 

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your requirements, capture 
process and make your projects 

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more efficient. 
If you've enjoyed listening to 

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this episode, share with your 
friends, add a review or 

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comment. 
At the bottom of the podcast and

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I'll see you next week.