Archive for the ‘Business Use Cases’ Category

Scaling agile for the enterprise

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

When describing development mindsets, it can almost be as if you are labeling an organization’s personality.  If the company subscribes to rigorous methodologies, it’s Type A – highly structured and rules-heavy, with an emphasis on getting it right according to a pre-determined plan.  On the other hand, if the company embraces agile methods, it’s Type B – cool and relaxed, with an emphasis on innovation, regardless of plan.

Right?

As we all know, it’s not quite that black and white.  Increasingly, organizations are finding that a blend of methods  – leveraging the best of both approaches – is the ideal.  But scaling agile methods to larger, complex and mission-critical projects can be difficult.

We’ve partnered with IconATG to help you learn how to best incorporate agile methods into a rigorous development environment, by leveraging use cases for visualization and validation through each iteration of the project.

We’re celebrating the launch of this partnership with a complimentary webinar, “Requirements Engineering in an Agile Environment,” on Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. PDT.

Join us to learn:

  • How to effectively scale your agile development environment
  • Why, when, and how use cases make sense
  • How to incorporate use cases into agile development
  • How to work with use cases during inception, elaboration, and construction
  • How RAVEN can help analyze and visualize use cases to get requirements right

Pre-registration is required.  Click here to reserve your seat.

To learn more about our new partnership with IconATG, click here to read the press release.

It’s official: RAVEN Cloud’s Visio capability goes live Tuesday!

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Our closest friends have known it was coming.  (Let’s face it:  we haven’t exactly kept it a secret.)  But now the word is out:  RAVEN Cloud’s Visio capability is here.  We even announced it formally in a press release.

We think this is cool.  Why?

  • Non-technical users and business stakeholders can contribute and collaborate – regardless of location (home, office, on the road) or drawing experience.
  • It is the fastest possible way to generate Visio diagrams, anywhere.
  • It enables text-oriented business analysts to move beyond requirements to become process contributors.

Don’t just take our word for it.  Here’s what BPM.com’s Nathaniel Palmer had to say about it:

By allowing process models to be created directly from written narratives,” Palmer said, “RAVEN Cloud offers a more effective way for stakeholders and non-technical subject matter experts to contribute directly to model definition and validation, without also needing to be Visio experts. This approach should both expand the market of potential modelers, and lead to more accurate modeling results.”

Read the full release here.

Better yet, join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. PDT for our first public demonstration of this new capability, in our webinar, “Simplifying Process Mapping with RAVEN Cloud and Visio.”  It’s one short hour that could save you countless more.

Need a Visio diagram? It can be easier – and faster – than you think

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

For many companies, Visio is the go-to tool for process diagrams and flowcharts.  Which is great for techies.

But for those of us who are on the business side of the equation, and more comfortable with writing out requirements, business process descriptions and use cases, the idea of creating a Visio diagram can be  a little daunting.

That all changes next week when we unveil our RAVEN Cloud integration with Visio.  You’ll be able to create fully functional Visio diagrams in an instant, from any location, simply by typing  your process description and clicking the analyze button.

To learn more about RAVEN Cloud’s integration with Visio – and to participate in our first public demonstration, join us for a complimentary webinar, “Simplifying Process Mapping with RAVEN Cloud and Visio,” on Tuesday, Aug.31 at 10 a.m.  PDT (1 p.m. EDT).

Click here to register for this event.

After the webinar, the RAVEN Cloud – Visio integration will be available for a limited time in a free public beta at www.ravencloud.com.

Writing Effective Business Use Cases

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Writing use cases is an important part of any product development lifecycle. However, writing “good” use cases is not enough. Effective use cases are used as a basis for system and technical requirements, test plans, and user training.

In this webinar, we’ll provide tips that will enable you to write effective use cases based on current best practices. We’ll also show you how a properly written use case can easily be used in other phases of development. We will provide some tips for developing a process that will maximize the adoption of use cases and finish with a demonstration of how RAVEN can automate the use case writing process.

Who Should Attend?

Business analysts, consultants, project managers, and anyone who is responsible for gathering and writing business and user requirements.

Topics:
• Requirements development phases
• Current requirements development methodologies
• Role of requirements throughout the lifecycle
• What are use cases?
• Benefits of use cases
• Users and stakeholders
• Use case development
• Keys to developing effective use cases
• Components of a simple use case
• How do I get started?
• Alternates and exceptions
• Business requirements and non-functional requirements
• Use case review process
• Developing technical requirements from use cases
• Requirements and testing
• Developing user test plans from use cases

Watch it now!

Writing Effective Business Use Cases

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Writing use cases is an important part of any product development lifecycle. However, writing “good” use cases is not enough. Effective use cases are used as a basis for system and technical requirements, test plans, and user training.

In this webinar, we’ll provide tips that will enable you to write effective use cases based on current best practices. We’ll also show you how a properly written use case can easily be used in other phases of development. We will provide some tips for developing a process that will maximize the adoption of use cases and finish with a demonstration of how RAVEN can automate the use case writing process.

Who Should Attend?

Business analysts, consultants, project managers, and anyone who is responsible for gathering and writing business and user requirements.

Topics:
• Requirements development phases
• Current requirements development methodologies
• Role of requirements throughout the lifecycle
• What are use cases?
• Benefits of use cases
• Users and stakeholders
• Use case development
• Keys to developing effective use cases
• Components of a simple use case
• How do I get started?
• Alternates and exceptions
• Business requirements and non-functional requirements
• Use case review process
• Developing technical requirements from use cases
• Requirements and testing
• Developing user test plans from use cases

Watch it now!

Find Missing Requirements

Monday, January 11th, 2010

The most common type of requirements problem, according to Gartner, is missing requirements. Incomplete requirements specifications often result in missed deadlines and rejection of applications at acceptance testing.

Improving communication with all stakeholders can dramatically reduce the number of missed requirements, improving quality and reducing overall time to market.

Attend this FREE webinar to learn more about finding missing requirements during elicitation sessions and during the requirements definition process, as well as solutions for accelerating the requirements development process. Learn how to:

- Identify the most common types of missed requirements
- Accelerate application time to market
- Link business and application development strategies
- Reduce rework costs
- Find missing requirements

This webinar includes a live demonstration of the award-winning RAVEN, winner of the 2009 JOLT Productivity Award!