Soft Skills & Facilitation Skills For Requirements Gathering

Communication Skills for Requirements Interviews, 3-Amigo Conversations, Meetings, User Story Workshops, & JAD Sessions

What you'll learn

Optimize the output of User Story Workshops, 3-Amigos Conversations, JAD Sessions, and 1-on-1 requirements interviews

Plan, prepare, and perform collaborative meetings with an expanded toolkit of techniques and soft skills

Determine the optimal approach, identify ideal participants, and select preferred tools for productive workshops and meetings with well-formulated objectives

Define the necessary deliverables or outcomes of the collaborative conversation needed to achieve the meeting objective

Achieve the defined objectives of any collaborative conversation based on the organization’s culture, technology, and your leadership style

Help participants discover and document features, functions, user stories, and requirements for future digital solutions by leveraging brain science

Understand how the conscious and nonconscious mind play a significant role in collaborative conversations

Anticipate common challenges associated with face-to-face and virtual meetings

Understand the significant role that the conscious and nonconscious minds play in collaborative conversations

Mitigate threats to successful collaboration using conflict resolution strategies

Maintain the momentum of your collaborative conversations by applying proven facilitation techniques

Reduce miscommunication with effective listening techniques which are the key ingredient to productive collaborations

Requirements

No technical know-how required. Ideal students desire to improve the quality and productivity of meetings, conversations, and workshops that decide how to leverage automation and information for competitive advantage,

Description

There are meetings and then there are meetings. Meetings that matter, that make a difference, where people connect and make things happen, productive meetings people enjoy. Those meetings start with a facilitator who understands how to shape the environment and get people engaged.Effective Communication Skills are Essential Facilitation ToolsYou should always be looking for ways to make meetings more productive AND more enjoyable - if they're an inconvenience that just holds you back from doing productive work, your company is an endangered species. Make sure your workshops, conversations, and meetings are something everyone feels excited and invested in.Collaboration is the beating heart of a healthy company. Facilitated discussions are opportunities for communicating and collaborating. Collaboration is the essence of productive teams and without effective facilitation, there can be no collaboration. Having a facilitator on hand should not be your fallback plan. From regular participatory feedback to Agile 3 amigo conversations, effective facilitation can bring out creativity and improve the outcomes.Collaboration Improves Personal and Professional SatisfactionStudies show that individuals who collaborate are more satisfied with their work, deliver better results, and are more creative. Sounds like a win-win, so what is collaboration and how can you improve your communication skills to make it happen?According to Albert Einstein, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. We offer guidelines for planning, preparing, conducting, leading, and participating in collaborative meetings and workshops.Other courses on meeting facilitation focus exclusively on building facilitation and leadership skills. That is no longer enough. Modern software development is a collaborative effort between the business and IT communities. You need to also work on your ability to foster and maintain collaboration to allow all parties to succeed.This course is based on a combined 70+ years of facilitating productive workshops and meetings. We present how we foster collaboration between the meeting leader and all participants that makes meetings more productive and satisfying.–––––Collaboration and Teamwork are Highly Regarded CompetenciesCompanies today understand how collaboration unlocks the potential of their employees and adds value to their customers. 69% of top employers list effective communication as a required skill. In the world of digital transformation, communication between the business and those who develop and deliver the digital solutions drives collaboration. That is the heart and soul of modern organizations in the 21st century.–––––What Do You Get When You Buy This Course?Lifetime access to the course including future updates.30-day Moneyback guarantee backed by Udemy if you are not completely satisfied with the learning experience.Includes 111-page Student Handout in .pdf format for notetaking"Intellimated" video lectures use visual representations to simplify complex concepts and associations.Help from the authors answers open questions and provides additional information.Confidence in your ability to facilitate collaborative meetings that minimize miscommunication that plagues IT initiatives.About the InstructorTeaches 10 Udemy courses for Agile Business Analysis with over 70,000 students enrolled.Champions lean and agile methods to meet communication challenges between business and IT communities.Extensive YouTube Channel with over 100 videos for 18K+ subscribers and 1.8M+ views.Authored 13 Business Analysis books covering tools and techniques for Agile and traditional software requirements.Consultant to a multitude of Fortune 500 companies and governmental agencies.Facilitated 100’s of User Story and Requirements Gathering Workshops for multi-million-dollar projects.35+ years’ experience with instructor-led training for tens of thousands of students around the world.Coach and mentor for aspiring business analysts.Intrigued but not convinced? Check out our FREE previews to make sure my instructor style and delivery work for you.–––––Why Should You Enroll?A lack of effective communication skills can be holding you back in your career development. If you feel uncomfortable speaking in front of a group, register for this course to:learn how to empower collaboration in productive meetingshelp IT deliver what the business community is requestingreduce the amount of time spent in non-productive meetingslead challenging workshops for defining evolving business needsidentify and practice soft skills necessary for effective facilitation and collaboration–––––About the CourseSection I: “Introduction to Collaborative Requirements Elicitation”, presents how collaboration drives modern product development approaches like Lean and Agile. We explain why everyone involved in a gathering needs facilitation skills.Section II: “Inside the Different Types of Requirements Gathering Sessions” introduces 7 variants of meetings, conversations, and workshops with an explanation of the pros and cons of each variant.Section III: “The Secret to Productive Requirements Meetings? Planning and Preparing!” provides concrete techniques that set the stage for successful gatherings. It includes how a well-formed objective drives the agenda, attendees, tools, and techniques of a meeting. We guide you from the decision to schedule a meeting all the way to formulating and distributing effective invitations that increase attendance.Section IV: “The Neuroscience of Soft Skills for Amazing Communication and Facilitation” delves into recent studies in brain research that will help you recognize and develop the soft skills that are essential to effective facilitation and collaboration. We also present techniques for developing the social skills that improve your ability to lead or contribute in a group setting.Section V: “Simple Listening Techniques That Will Instantly Make You a Better Communicator” focuses on the key soft skill that underpins all human interactions. You will learn techniques for ensuring that your voice is heard in conversations and improve your ability to listen more attentively to other viewpoints.Section VI: “Facilitating Productive Live or Virtual Elicitation Meetings & Story Workshops” acknowledges that facilitated collaboration does not depend on a perfect world to succeed. We present real-world challenges we have faced and present solutions we know work for solving them.Section VII: “Ways to Wrap Up Your Session and Move Forward” presents what to do at the end of a facilitated session and what to do after the meeting is over. These actions extend the benefits of collaboration beyond a single workshop, meeting, or conversation by initiating a process of change that can spread throughout your organization.–––––So, What Are You Waiting For?Enroll now to move toward becoming the collaborative communications facilitator in your organization.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction to Collaborative Requirements Elicitation

Lecture 1 Course Introduction and Overview

Lecture 2 About the instructor

Lecture 3 Requirement Collaboration Meetings, Explained

Lecture 4 How Facilitation Makes Communication Happen

Lecture 5 Collaboration Is at the Heart of Requirements Elicitation Collaboration

Lecture 6 Core Skills Every Meeting Attendee Should Have

Section 2: Inside the Different Types of Requirements Gathering Sessions

Lecture 7 Effective and Successful Business Collaboration for Meetings of Every Size

Lecture 8 Instant Interviewing: Ad Hoc or Informal Requirements Interviews

Lecture 9 1–1 Interviews, Mini-Group Discussions, and 3-Amigo Conversations

Lecture 10 Dealing with Large Groups or Workshops – You Need a Facilitator!

Lecture 11 Virtual Collaboration is Different Than In-Person Work

Lecture 12 Planning and Preparation Is Key to Successful Collaboration

Section 3: The Secret to Productive Requirements Meetings? Planning and Preparing!

Lecture 13 Collaborative Meetings Improve Your Organization’s Performance

Lecture 14 How to Have Effective Meetings through Facilitation

Lecture 15 SMART Meeting Objectives: A Cheat Sheet for Keeping Your Group Focused

Lecture 16 Attendee Selection: How to Multiply Your Event's Effectiveness

Lecture 17 Desired Outcomes/Deliverables Drive Agenda Development

Lecture 18 Select the Right Tools and Techniques for the Desired Outcome

Lecture 19 How to Collaborate in the Virtual Age

Lecture 20 Different Types of Meetings Have Different Agenda Structures

Lecture 21 How to Write an Effective Agenda that Gets Results

Lecture 22 What to Consider When Creating an Agenda for a Virtual Requirements Session

Lecture 23 Well-written Meeting Invitations Increase Attendance

Section 4: The Neuroscience of Soft Skills for Amazing Communication and Facilitation

Lecture 24 What Soft Skills vs Hard Skills Are and Why You Need Both

Lecture 25 Teambuilding Skills Are Essential to Collaborative Requirements Meetings

Lecture 26 People Need Help Discovering What They Really Want

Lecture 27 Introducing TOM and MOT

Lecture 28 Improve Decision-Making by Engaging TOM and MOT

Lecture 29 Learning New Skills Is a Conscious Effort; Expertise Is Nonconscious

Lecture 30 Engage Both Minds For Effective Requirements Gathering

Lecture 31 The Nonconscious Resists Change and Must Be Persuaded or Influenced to Accept It

Lecture 32 Why You Should Stop Asking "Why?"

Lecture 33 Leverage the Nonconscious Mind's Reward System to Elicit Unrecognized User Needs

Section 5: Simple Listening Techniques That Will Instantly Make You a Better Communicator

Lecture 34 The Three "V"s Of Effective Communication: Verbal, Vocal, and Visual

Lecture 35 Learn the Language of the Participants for Effective Communications

Lecture 36 The Language Of Collaboration: How You Say It Is As Important As What You Say

Lecture 37 Improve Your Non-Verbal Communication Skills And Reduce Costly Miscommunication

Lecture 38 Listening: The Most Important Skill to Discover User Stories & Requirements

Lecture 39 Attentive, Analytic, & Empathetic Listening Techniques Reveal Hidden User Needs

Lecture 40 Silence Is a Secret Weapon that Demands Participation from Meeting Attendees

Lecture 41 3 Cognitive Biases That Can Sabotage Your Meeting and How to Handle Them

Lecture 42 Dealing with Self-Inflicted Impediments Can Save an Otherwise Endangered Outcome

Lecture 43 Written Communication Is Asynchronous Collaboration with Benefits

Section 6: Facilitating Productive Live or Virtual Elicitation Meetings & Story Workshops

Lecture 44 Kick-Start Collaborative Meetings For Maximum Results

Lecture 45 Kickoff Each Session with a Fun, Fast, Non-Threatening Icebreaker – But Beware!

Lecture 46 Easy Techniques to Stimulate Creativity during Elicitation Meetings or Workshops

Lecture 47 Keep Up The Momentum: Track What You Do and Do Not Know throughout the Session

Lecture 48 How To Conduct Interviews & Workshops to Extract the Maximum Amount of Knowledge

Lecture 49 Maintaining Productivity and Motivation in Disruptive Situations

Lecture 50 Dealing with Difficult People and How to Create Peaceful Confrontations

Lecture 51 7 Techniques for Making Virtual Meetings Enjoyable and Productive

Lecture 52 Pros and Cons of Taking Notes vs. Recording an Elicitation Meeting or Workshop

Section 7: Ways to Wrap Up Your Session and Move Forward

Lecture 53 Ensure Your Collaborative Meetings Provide Lasting Business Value

Lecture 54 Tips For Fostering Collaboration After The Workshop To Optimize Impact

Lecture 55 A Final Word About this Training Experience and a Solemn Promise from Us

Lecture 56 BONUS LECTURE: Special Offers and Other Training Opportunities from BA-EXPERTS

This course is for people who organize, plan, prepare, and conduct or attend business meetings and workshops. Some specific techniques are designed for gathering that discover desired features and functions of proposed digital solutions.