BCS - Professional Certificate in Advanced Requirements Engineering

Curriculum

Module 1: The Enterprise Context (12.5%)

• Enterprise Architecture
• Explain the rationale for enterprise and business architecture.
• Define the Enterprise Architecture domains
• Explain the structure of the Zachman framework including: the columns (what, how, where, who, when, why) and the rows (contextual, conceptual, logical, physical, detailed, functioning).
• Business Architecture
• Apply the Business Model Canvas to business scenarios.
• Identify and analyse capabilities.
• Develop a value stream diagram
• Explain the use of capabilities in enabling a value stream.
• Customer and user experience
• Define customer experience and user experience.
• Distinguish customer experience from user experience.

Module 2: The Business Analysis Service Portfolio (7.5%)

• Service thinking and value propositions
• Define the principles of service thinking and value co-creation.
• Explain the concept and attributes of a value proposition.
• The Business Analysis Service Framework (BASF).
• Define the services within the Business Analysis Service Framework (BASF).
• Explain the context and use of the BASF in relation to the delivery of the requirements definition service.
• Project, programme and portfolio management
• Define project, programme and portfolio management and explain the relationship between each.
• Define the relationship between requirements engineering and project, programme and portfolio management.
• Requirements governance
• Explain the process of requirements governance using SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer).
• Explain the relationship between IDEF0 controls and mechanisms in relation to requirements governance.
• Explain requirements engineering within the context of an agile or iterative change delivery approach using a product backlog.
• Explain requirements engineering within the context of a traditional or waterfall change delivery approach using a requirements catalogue or business requirements document.

Module 3: The Requirements Engineering Plan (15%)

• Programme Manager, Project Manager, Business Architect
• Define the roles and responsibilities of the Programme Manager, Project Manager and Business Architect.
• Terms of reference for requirements engineering
• Describe the content of a terms of reference for requirements engineering.
• Problem definition and problem statements
• Evaluate a problem statement
• The Outcome Frame
• Explain the Outcome Frame.
• Planning for requirements engineering
• Illustrate an understanding of the importance of planning for requirements engineering.
• Analyse stakeholders using the RACI technique.
• Explain the relationship between requirements planning and requirements governance.
• Describe the content of a requirements engineering plan.
• Distinguish between linear and agile software development approaches.
• Estimating for requirements engineering
• Describe the top down, bottom up and PERT approaches to estimation.

Module 4: Engaging with Stakeholders (15%)

• Relevance of elicitation techniques:
• Analyse a given scenario using the cultural web
• Levels of listening
• Apply the levels of listening to a given scenario.
• Listening barriers and behaviours
• Identify listening barriers and behaviours.
• Apply listening barriers and behaviours to a given scenario.
• Explain questioning approaches.
• Assertiveness
• Define assertiveness.

Module 5: The Requirements Taxonomy (15%)

• The hierarchy of requirements
• Explain the importance and application of the hierarchy of requirements.
• Identify requirements that are Business Requirements (General and Technical).
• Identify requirements that are Solution Requirements (Functional and NonFunctional)
• Identify transition and user interface requirements
• Explain the influence of business strategy on requirements.
• Explain the influence of business ethos and core values on requirements.
• The Business Use Case Diagram
• Describe the Business Use Case Diagram.
• Describe how the Business Use Case Diagram relates to requirements.
• Explain the relationship between customer experience and requirements using the Business Use Case. 5.3. Prioritisation techniques
• Apply MoSCoW and the Kano model to prioritise requirements.
• Decomposition of requirements and priorities
• Discuss the importance of decomposing requirements and their priorities.
• Identify the difference between goal and functional decomposition.
• Requirements traceability and re-use
• Explain the rationale for requirements traceability and the approach to achieving traceability.
• Describe the advantages of requirements reuse.
• Explain the rationale for requirements patterns.

Module 6: Non-Functional Requirements: Customer Experience Requirements (15%)

• User role attributes and personas
• Identify the user role attributes for a given scenario.
• Illustrate the use of the persona technique.
• Apply user role analysis.
• Usability requirements
• Explain the components of usability requirements.
• Learnability.
• Satisfaction.
• Efficiency.
• Memorability.
• Errors or error protection.
• Accessibility requirements
• Define the six steps of the AEGIS Open Accessibility Framework.
• Identify and apply the key principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).
• Look and feel requirements
• Define look and feel requirements.
• Visualisation techniques
• Identify visualisation techniques to elicit non-functional requirements.

Module 7: Non-Functional Requirements: Service Quality Requirements (15%)

• Rationale for service quality requirements
• Explain the rationale for service quality requirements.
• Performance requirements
• Define the elements of performance:
• Speed of response.
• Scalability.
• Longevity.
• Availability.
• Capacity.
• Accuracy.
• Backup and recovery requirements
• Describe the relationship between business risk, business continuity, and backup and recovery strategy.
• Archiving and deletion requirements
• Describe the impact of legislation and compliance on archiving and deletion requirements.
• Maintainability and reliability requirements
• Analyse a given situation to identify maintainability and reliability requirements.
• Describe the relationship between maintainability and reliability requirements.
• Security and access requirements
• Explain access permission requirements and techniques to elicit and document them.
• Explain security requirements and techniques to elicit them.
• Explain and apply the misuse case approach.

Module 8: Acceptance and Approval of Requirements (5%)

• Quality assurance for requirements engineering
• Explain requirements quality assurance.
• Distinguish between quality assurance and quality control
• Analysis and validation of requirements engineering outputs
• Explain the importance of requirements analysis.
• Explain the importance of requirements validation.
• Validation and the requirements engineering plan
• Describe the relationship between requirements planning and requirements quality.
• Acceptance testing
• Describe the relationship between requirements and the v-model.
• Apply the ‘given’, ‘when’, ‘then’ extension to a user story