Enterprise Architecture Training - six steps to using information effectively
training overview	step 1 gaining commitment	step 2 deciding requirements	step 3 creating a toolkit	step 4 developing a map	step 5 using information effectively	step 6 gathering feedback

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Step 2: Deciding requirements

What do you need to improve? What results do you want to achieve? What information will help you to achieve these changes?

Requirements arise from (amongst other things) problems, challenges, opportunities, goals, objectives, and change. Identifying requirements provides the solid foundation for training and change. Knowing your requirements produces the best possible return from any investment. Information is critical for deciding requirements. Clearly defined requirements are a great way to improve the use of information and to maximise the benefits from it.

The outputs from this step include:

• Details of strategies, opportunities, weaknesses and threats.
• An overview of the required investments, changes, initiatives, and an indication of the time and resources expected to achieve results.
• Items that help develop a better use of information, such as principles, information guidelines, standards, or naming conventions.

Our training includes checklists and techniques to identify requirements, determine priorities and decide what is going to be included and excluded.

Without clear requirements:

• Investments are random, with direction based on the whims of technology, money and fashion. The potential value from information is wasted and return from investment is poor.
• Important needs are forgotten or overlooked. Changes are difficult or impossible to implement and attempts to improve are frustrated because vital elements are missing.
• There is little or no integration and co-ordination of efforts, because it is impossible to compare your need against the needs of others.

Time and effort:

It normally takes a team of people between two and three weeks to decide requirements. Typically the process is iterative - it starts with a quick overview of requirements that can be identified in one or two hours. We then expand this high-level view with more detail. This continues until there is enough information to achieve your aims - not too much and not too little.

We use many pre-defined checklists, questionnaires and templates to focus discussions and produce simple, practical deliverables. The detailed checklists make this step much quicker than it would be without them. They also make sure that important points are not overlooked.

Training modules cover:

• Using our extensive checklists, questionnaires and templates
• Understanding information and how it can be used effectively
• Identifying, naming and defining requirements
• How to keep track of requirements and changes to requirements
• Defining requirements so that elements and components can be reused over and over again

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