Toronto Meeting Information


Date: 28/09/2010 (dd/mm/yyyy)

Avoid Creep - Discover the REAL Requirements

Robin Goldsmith, President Go Pro Management Inc.

 

Robin F. Goldsmith, JD 
 
Robin F. Goldsmith has been President of Go Pro Management, Inc. consultancy since 1982. He works directly with and trains business and systems professionals in requirements analysis, quality and testing, software acquisition, project management and leadership, metrics, and process improvement. He partners with ProveIT.net in providing ROI Value Modeling™ tools, training, and advisory services. 
 
Previously he was a developer, systems programmer/DBA/QA, and project leader with the City of Cleveland, leading financial institutions, and a “Big 4” consulting firm.
 
Author of the Proactive Testing™, REAL ROI™, and Beyond the Textbook™ Software Acquisition methodologies, numerous articles, and the recent Artech House book Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success, and a frequent featured speaker at leading professional conferences, he was formerly International Vice President of the Association for Systems Management and Executive Editor of the Journal of Systems Management. He was Founding Chairman of the New England Center for Organizational Effectiveness. He belongs to the Boston SPIN and served on the SEPG’95 Planning and Program Committees.
 
Mr. Goldsmith held virtually all ASQ Boston Section leadership positions, and Chaired record attendance BOSCON 2000 and 2001 Annual Quality Conferences. He was a member of the ASQ Software Division Methods Committee and the IEEE Software Test Documentation Std. 829-2008 revision Committee. He is a member of the International Institute of Software Testing and International Institute (IIST) for Software Process (IISP) Body of Knowledge Advisory Boards. He is a subject expert on requirements and testing for TechTarget and a subject expert and reviewer for the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK).
 
He holds the following degrees: Kenyon College, A.B. with Honors in Psychology; Pennsylvania State University, M.S. in Psychology; Suffolk University, J.D.; Boston University, LL.M. in Tax Law. Mr. Goldsmith is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.

The Albany Club - (91 King Street East at Church)

 

Avoid Creep--Discover the REAL Requirements
 
There's a simple (though not easy) way to avoid much of the requirements/scope creep that many developers assume is normal and unavoidable. "That's not what I expected" and "Users don't know what they want" indeed are repeatedly predictable outcomes of the inadequate way requirements are defined conventionally, but such problems can be avoided.
 
Creep mainly occurs when system/software requirements fail to meet the REAL, business requirements--usually because developers don't recognize business requirements' importance or how to discover them.
 
In this well-received interactive session, based on his recent book, Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success, Robin describes powerful techniques for discovering the REAL requirements and documenting scope in ways that can dramatically reduce creep.
 
* REAL Business Requirements vs. Product/System/Software Requirements
* Powerful Problem Pyramid(tm)Technique to Get Requirements Right
* 7 Guidelines for Documenting Requirements and Scope that Don't Creep