CollabaCore founder Lee Amon is a member of the Silicon Valley chapter of the  International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA).  Here is his report from a recent chapter meeting.

Betsy Stockdale of SEILevel presented visual models at a recent Silicon Valley IIBA meeting.  She made two key points that we would like to emphasize.

1. The human mind can’t remember (or really process) a list of more than 5-9 items.  When presented with lists of thousands of requirements, eyes glaze, people lose interest, and items are missed.
2. A picture is worth a thousand words.  Or perhaps a thousand “the system shall statements.  Betsy showed us three visual models (the templates are available on the SEILevel site) that can help analysts organize and work with requirements