Four Essential Requirements of a Good Workshop

Do your homework – If it`s a new project that you want to hold a workshop for, the first thing you should do is gather as much background information about the project as possible. If you are the workshop facilitator, you must have sufficient knowledge of the project/business unit to actively collaborate with stakeholders and ask relevant questions. Identify small profits from your workshop that attendees can make afterwards and make them an important part of your communication with them. If you want to combine the above, you can organize a short scoping workshop with your stakeholders to identify the right challenge and gather the requirements. This is a kind of “bridge workshop” before reality: here you can try typical workshop activities and show how quickly you can progress together. Our guided workshop tutorial video walks you through the steps – why not give it a try this week? The time of day you hold the workshop is just as important as the duration of the workshop. People tend to be more attentive early in the morning than in the early afternoon. Also, avoid holding workshops immediately before or after meals. The workshops should also not be too long so that participants do not lose their concentration and enthusiasm. Instead of planning a workshop for a whole day, you should spread it out over 2 or 3 days.

Instructor-led training does not mean that the instructor has to stand in front of the room all the time and read a PowerPoint presentation. For each workshop to engage participants, it should include a variety of teaching methods as well as learning and practice activities. This is called blended learning. Instead of the typical teaching and testing method, you should add small group work and part-time work in the workplace and observe what they have just learned. By actively engaging the group, participants are much more likely to retain information, be more successful at work, and enjoy the process! You have identified the “what” – the challenge you and your stakeholders want to address with the workshop. This will become more specific throughout the day, based on feedback from your workshop team. You can`t do divergent thinking and convergent thinking at the same time – they interfere with each other. So when designing your workshop, make sure the activities focus on one or the other, and you make that clear to your attendees. Where does it all end? Start with the goal in mind – Your workshop objectives should be clearly identified and articulated. Their objectives determine the scope of the questions and discussions in which participants will participate. Ask yourself: What results do you expect after the workshop? Once you have set your goals, make sure everyone knows exactly what those goals are so they are guided by them.

The objectives should also serve as the basis for creating your workshop agenda. The only way to know if your workshop was a success is to have an effective follow-up plan. Create a quiz that you can give to all attendees at the end of the event and give them plenty of opportunities to give feedback on how well it went. While this may be a little scary, it`s the only way to learn and improve for next time. What`s on the agenda? – An agenda represents a list of all the main topics or topics that will be discussed during the workshop. I usually send the agenda before the workshop so everyone knows what to expect. When preparing the agenda, consider the different learning styles so that each stakeholder is sure to take something with them. Participants can be visual, tactile or auditory learners. As the above results suggest, a workshop is useful if: Workshop moderation is not a secret art. It`s a skill anyone can learn.

The key is to think of workshops as a three-step process, each of which is of equal importance. It`s easy to focus on the actual event, but that`s only the centerpiece. The workshop day should be seen as a means to an end, not an end in itself. When designing, think about what you need to take the project to the next stage and work backwards from there. Find out what you`ll be doing with the content after the workshop. Then, create your activities and the plan of your workshop. Documentation of requirements is important in the follow-up of workshops. This forms the basis for a more in-depth needs analysis. Without follow-up, the requirements remain incomplete and some aspects can be repeated in future workshops. The follow-up is therefore also the preparation of the next workshops.

Don`t let the energy die after a good workshop. Maintain motivation by having an excellent follow-up. (Check out five more tips for a better follow-up to the workshop) Workshops are the cornerstone of creative collaboration, so it`s worth making sure they`re done right. The best workshops balance excellent preparation, great moderation during the day and brilliant follow-up to maintain momentum. b. Make sure your workshop agenda includes breaks and some buffer time, especially if you`re just starting out. If you want to organize workshops on requirements, there are a few things to look out for during, before and after the workshop. As a Requirements Engineer, you are responsible for preparing, implementing and monitoring requirements workshops. If the workshop you want to facilitate does not make a clear link between the knowledge transmitted and the skills and real application, it is time to go back to the drawing board. The activities and materials that are discussed should always be understandable and useful to workshop participants. The preparation phase of the workshop is a real design process.

You think about the function, form, and design of the experience for your attendees. During the 8-step problem-solving workshop, only four steps were completed during the session itself and the rest were recorded for weekly one-on-one coaching sessions. These follow-up sessions provided an opportunity to discuss the remaining four steps individually and to give participants the attention and support they needed to fully resolve the problem they had originally brought to the workshop. After discussing the last four steps, further follow-up sessions were scheduled on a 30-, 60- and 90-day basis. Problem solving – The workshop is a great platform for identifying conflicting requirements. Point out areas of ambiguity and conflicting priorities for discussion to clarify stakeholder requirements. TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES to make your workshop a very good experience. Are you planning a requirements workshop for your project? Here is a list of things to consider before, during and after the workshop: c.