Building a presentation - Part 1

I've been asked to give a presentation on requirements management (more specifically Telelogic DOORS.) The purpose is to show how these things could be used within my company to help a particular business team. What I'd like to do in my next set of posts is walk you through my thought process developing this presentation. Let's start!

Know the audience
Looking back to an old post on presentation tips, one of the first things I need to do is understand my audience.

  • Who are they? A group that provides front-line support to data analysts who use a variety of data analytics and reporting products.
  • What is their background? Their backgrounds vary (I'm going to need to look into this more) but the team members (on average) have been with the company for less than a year.
  • What problems or opportunities are they facing? Little or no documentation on existing reports and processes. Hard to assess the impact of changes across the body of reports they maintain. They gather requirements for new data products and are expected to help bring them to fruition with the IT team. Currently, requirements are captured in MS Word and MS Excel (report mock-ups.)
Plan the presentation
  • Do I need a formal presentation at all? Verbal only? Will it be projected or given in a more 1-to-1 fashion? I'm going to be presenting to a group of 6-8 people so a visual presentation is probably more appropriate. I won't really be able to tailor it specifically to one individual.
  • What is the objective? The purpose of the presentation is to introduce Telelogic DOORS and requirements management. The message I'm trying to get across is basically to , "sell them," requirements management techniques and tools. This fits in well with the presentation template, "selling an idea," from my post Use the right presentation style to convey your message.
  • Do I need hand-outs? Handouts with additional detail and information would be very useful to drive home my point.

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