Lou Wheatcraft with Seilevel will present Communicating Requirements – Effectively!

Requirements are the language we use to communicate stakeholder needs for a system of interest to developers, designers, builders, coders, testers, and other stakeholders. Increasingly, there is debate about which means (form and media) of communications is best for communicating requirements and sets of requirements. As part of this debate, one means of communication (such as diagrams, use cases, or text-based) is often advocated (with a lot of passion in many cases) over the other means of communication. This presentation will go back to the basics of communication theory to address this debate and will make the point that, while each means of communication has value, no single means is sufficient to clearly, completely, and consistently communicate all of the various types and categories of requirements.  Each of the means advocated represent a visualization (graphic or text) of the system from a perspective based on the intent of the message being communicated, who is communicating the message, the means used to communicate the message, and to whom the message is being communicated.  

Speaker Bio:
Lou Wheatcraft is a senior instructor/consultant for Requirements Experts (RE) who educates organizations on the importance of writing good requirements and helps them implement Requirement Development and Management (RD&M) processes based on industry best practices. Lou has taught over 200 requirement seminars over the last 18 years.Lou works with both government and industry clients to tailor training for their organization and provides just intime team training for specific projects. Lou has spoken at Project Management Institute (PMI) Chapter meetings, International Council of System Engineering (INCOSE) conferences and NASA’s PM Challenge and delivered tutorials to PMI and INCOSE chapters at multiple locations. Lou has had published and presented a multitude of papers on requirement RD&M topics for NASA’s PM Challenge, INCOSE, INCOSE INSIGHT Magazine, and Crosstalk Magazine. Lou is a member of INCOSE, Chair of the INCOSE Requirements Working Group (RWG), a member of PMI, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), the World Futures Society, and the National Honor Society of Pi Alpha Alpha. Lou has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, an MA degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Houston – Clear Lake, an MS degree in Environmental Management from the University of Houston – Clear Lake and has completed the course work for an MS degree in Studies of the Future from the University of Houston – Clear Lake.  Lou is the primary contributor to RE’s blog on requirements best practices. The blog can be assessed at: http://www.reqexperts.com/blog.