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Agileba Handbook 5 8qYBzy2
Agileba Handbook 5 8qYBzy2
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AgileBA Handbook
Disclaimer
This handbook, Agile Business Analysis, is intended for use as an aid to those undertaking APMG-International’s
accredited Agile Business Analysis training or revising for personal certification in Agile Business Analysis. he
guidance is presented within the fra ework of , an approach which defines the role of the project based
Business Analyst, in relation to business, develop ent and testing roles at all levels. owever, the guidance is wider
than this, with many generic and popular Agile techniques also included, where useful and appropriate to the
Business Analyst.
ote Agile Business Analysis training and Agile Business Analysis personal certification is accredited by A
nternational. nly accredited training providers or their affiliates are allowed to provide courses and e a inations
in A nternational s ualification sche es. eaders wishing to know ore about A nternational are
invited to visit the website at www.ap g international.co
©2015 Dynamic Systems Development Method Limited
onsortiu egistered ffice enwood ouse, enwood, Ashford, ent 24 8 ,
® ® ® ®
DSDM , Atern , AgilePM and AgileBA are registered trademarks of Dynamic Systems Development Method
i ited in the nited ingdo and other countries. Agile g is a trade ark of yna ic yste s evelop ent
ethod i ited.
eaders wishing to know ore about or use the Agile roject Fra ework are invited to visit the website
at www.dsd .org nly organisations accredited by the onsortiu ay offer accredited products
and services.
2® is a egistered rade ark of A i ited in the nited ingdo and other countries
ITIL is a egistered rade
®
ark of A i ited in the nited ingdo and other countries
All rights reserved. o part of the publication ay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval syste or trans itted in
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per ission of the onsortiu . Applications to reuse, reproduce or republish aterial in this publication
should be sent to the address above, or by e ail to info dsd .org
Published by the DSDM Consortium
First published ay 2 15
B 978 9928727 8 6
Acknowledgements
In the spirit of Agile collaboration, the development of this handbook has been enhanced by the involvement of a
wide range of individuals, so e with in depth business analysis e perience, so e with solid Agile e perience and
so e with both.
We would especially like to thank the following people for their continued input, reviews, feedback and interest:
Lead Author: Dot Tudor (TCC Ltd)
Key Contributors: Frank oe (BCS/Independent), Maria Weglowski (Mundipharma IT Services),
Charlotte Walters (Allianz), Gary Auger (GACS Ltd)
Reviewers: Stephen Ash (OOTAC), Judith Clark et ffice , Julia Godwin (Be Consulting), Barbara
oberts (DSDM), Victor Page (Time Shakers Ltd), Samantha Day (Bard Pharmaceuticals Ltd), eena watra (AXA
Insurance), obert hipley (TCC Ltd), Lynn Jackson (LJ Training), Andrew Craddock (nlighten), Steve Messenger
(DSDM), ate Blackall (APMG), Jennifer Stapleton (DSDM/Independent), en e d ener (ebg consulting),
Phran Ryder (Lloyds Banking Group)
Thanks also to: udith Foster (TCC Ltd)
Production: ily uf e (DSDM), i Whit ore (DSDM), ary enson (DSDM), Matt Newble (Newble Designs)
2
Contents
ntroduction to the AgileBA andbook 5
Chapter 1 he ole of the Business Analyst, in an Agile World 9
Chapter 2 Agile Funda entals and the Agile BA 21
Chapter 3 The Agile Business Case 39
Chapter 4 takeholders in the Agile roject 49
Chapter 5 e uire ents and ser tories 61
Chapter 6 rioritisation 79
Chapter 7 Workshops 89
Chapter 8 odelling 99
Chapter 9 i ebo ing and terative evelop ent 125
Chapter 1 e uire ents lanning and sti ating hroughout the ifecycle 139
Chapter 11 he e uire ents ifecycle in an Agile roject 149
Chapter 12 Making the Transition to Agile BA 159
Appendi A lossary 167
Appendi B odelling echni ues and where they are useful in the
DSDM Lifecycle 179
Appendi roject Approach uestionnaire A 181
Appendi o e ypical Agile Facilitated Workshops 183
Appendi Bibliography 191
Appendi F nde 197
AgileBA Handbook
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Introduction to the
AgileBA Handbook
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1 1
Introduction to the AgileBA Handbook
AgileBA Handbook
Foreword
Introduction to the AgileBA Handbook
Background
Why did we decide to write this andbook he answers can be found in the growing body of evidence that an
Agile approach is an effective way of working in projects. ts key features are
• The collaborative working and involvement of people with the right skills, including those of the customer and
end-users of the product we are producing
• An incremental approach, delivering value early and regularly
• The acceptance that we cannot know all of the detail at the outset, and that we will inevitably learn more as
work progresses
• he definition of fine detail only just before we need it, to avoid the waste of trying to predict the detail too
early
• The empowerment of people at the right levels, to make decisions on detail
ntroducing an Agile approach has a significant i pact on the role of the Business Analyst, on their e isting skills
and their way of working. heir traditional skills are still valuable, but new skills and ways of working need to be
adopted to harness the benefits of a new way of working and to appreciate the different relationships with co
workers.
Agile is here to stay. he Agile way of working has rapidly gained recognition since the publication of the original
Agile anifesto and its supporting rinciples in 2 1. his is for very good reasons. eeting business objectives in
ter s of ti e, budget, scope and uality and gaining the best value for oney fro business change projects have
beco e increasingly ore i portant. hese factors in uence whether or not the organisation can be co petitive
with others in their arket. Agile is not one ethod, but a fa ily of approaches with co on core values. For
organisations to achieve success with Agile, the entire cross functional project tea ust e brace the Agile values
and practices. n fact, the culture in which Agile thrives will in uence the whole organisation.
It is against this background that the desire arose to provide a clear and helpful reference to support Business
Analysts, especially those working in an Agile project world.
The Purpose of This Book
he andbook is intended to give useful, practical and co prehensive guidance on the role of the Business Analyst
working in an Agile way the Agile BA . t also ai s to give conte t to the Business Analyst role beyond the
individual project, in relation to organisational ission and strategy, and to give additional depth and guidance for
the Business Analyst role.
he guidance is presented within the fra ework of , an approach which defines the role of the project
based Business Analyst, in relation to business, develop ent and testing roles at all levels. owever, the guidance is
wider than this, with many generic and popular Agile techniques also included, where useful and appropriate to the
Business Analyst.
Why read this book?
he uestion is often asked why there is no specific Business Analyst role in Agile develop ent approaches such as
cru or anban.
The answer to this of course depends on what people regard the Business Analyst’s role to be:
• A discipline which focuses purely on re uire ents specification within a project
or
• a wider, more holistic approach incorporating process improvement, organisational change, strategic alignment
and benefits anage ent.
6
n a cru environ ent it is so eti es argued that the roduct wner the key custo er business
representative handles the wider business and strategic considerations. owever, they ay not have the skills, tools,
techni ues or position within the organisation to be able to do this effectively. he perspective of the Business
Analyst is a unique combination of being able to see the “top to bottom” view of the organisation’s, from mission
objectives and strategy down to the tactical level and to analyse the end to end perspective, fro supplier to
custo er, and the value chains of the organisation s processes . hey also have the perspective to see the here
and now” or “As Is” situation and to use their skills and techniques to both envision, and facilitate others to see, the
future situation, the o Be .
his i portant focus helps to preserve progress in line with the overall business direction, when an Agile project
will be delivering value incre entally, with detailed re uire ents e erging over ti e.
his andbook ai s to show the areas where the Agile BA can provide support for both the develop ent
tea and the wider organisation. t gives the Agile BA a fra ework within which to operate and clarifies their
responsibilities in the Agile roject. t also describes the key techni ues used by an Agile BA during an Agile project.
How to use this book
his book aug ents the guidance given in the Agile roject Fra ework andbook. ts chapters can be
referred to both as an overall reference across the whole project lifecycle and also as stand alone subjects that the
Agile BA can access on an as needed basis.
he chapters take the Business Analyst on a journey fro their initial strategic conte t in relation to an Agile
project, through the funda entals of the Agile way of working. We use as the fra ework for this journey,
but introduce a wide variety of additional techniques from the broader Agile world that are appropriate to
the Business Analyst. We progress to describing a series of practices and ways of working to support the Agile
approach to producing business solutions. he final chapter covers the vital area of ransitioning to being an Agile
BA . t helps the Business Analyst to assess where they are now in their role and how to ake the ove to an
Agile approach.
Full details of the ethod and guidance referred to earlier can be gained fro the Agile roject
Fra ework andbook
Final Thoughts
his andbook provides the eans for a Business Analyst to gain a greater breadth and depth of understanding of
business analysis techniques suitable for use within an organisation which is using an Agile approach to introducing
business change. t will help Business Analysts to understand the difference of working with others in an Agile way
and help the to blend their skills with those of others in the Agile olution evelop ent ea .
The Business Analyst is crucial to the success and competitiveness of organisations in today’s rapidly-changing
environ ent, enabling the ti ely delivery of high value, cost effective solutions. As our project world continues to
change, the BA role will continue to be an evolutionary role e bracing Agile is a part of this evolution.
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1. The Role of the
Business Analyst,
in an Agile
World
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AgileBA Handbook
1.1 Introduction
Business analysis skills help an organisation to achieve its business goals by the analysis of the organisation’s needs
and the align ent of business projects to these needs. he ways of working of an Agile BA are so ewhat different
fro those of a ore traditional business analyst. his chapter sets out to su arise the conte t of an Agile BA s
activities in relation to business needs and the strategies of the organisation in which a business project e ists. t
also highlights some of the best practice techniques that can help the Agile BA support the organisation in the
for ulation and reviewing of its strategies. ven if the project level Agile BA is not directly involved in defining the
organisation’s strategies, they need to understand the way strategy is formulated and the factors and forces which
affect it. his will give the the perspective to ensure that the projects they are involved in have objectives that
align with, and support, the organisation s strategic goals.
The techniques considered below are typical of business analysis best practice, whether or not this is in an Agile
conte t. his chapter does not e plain the techni ues in detail. ather, the ai is to give an appreciation of the
areas addressed by each technique and to consider how, together, they can provide an understanding of the
longer ter direction of an organisation, which will infor the Agile project and help it to stay on track, in a rapidly
changing environ ent.
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Top to Bottom Analysis within an Organisation
Mission, Business
Corporate Analyst(s)
Objectives
Business
Programme Strategy Analyst(s)
Business
Project Tactics Analyst(s)
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Organisation
People
Process Technology
12
Porter’s
PESTLE 5 Forces
MOST
Resource
Audit TOWS
te
In
rn SWOT
al
PESTLE
his analyses the factors affecting the organisation fro the olitical, cono ic, ocio cultural, echnological,
egal, and nviron ental perspectives.
n, for e a ple, a dyna ic political situation, it ay be possible for the Business Analyst to foresee the likelihood
of ta ation changes olitical . n an cono ic recovery, it ay be co petitively advantageous to reco end
a more automated, rather than labour-intensive, model of technological support in order to be able to scale up
uickly to handle increasing de and.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
his identifies the co petitive forces within the organisation s arketplace by analysing five key co petitive
factors uppliers, Buyers consu ers , o petitors, ew ntrants and ubstitute roducts.
For e a ple, the prioritisation of e tending technological support to custo ers and suppliers ay produce
a barrier to entry for other organisations wishing to enter the organisation s arket. An Agile approach could
deliver the prioritised features of support ore uickly.
he Agile approach to projects should ake the changing e ternal environ ent easier to react to in a short
ti efra e, by prioritising and reprioritising as the environ ent changes.
ne of the key drivers for the birth of Agile, fro the early atte pts at apid Application evelop ent A ,
was this kind of co petitive environ ent. A gained a good reputation for delivering change uickly, but this was
under ined by the develop ents which were so eti es of low uality and or not aintainable. he whole fa ily
of Agile approaches which have e erged since these early days hapter 2 strives to deliver business value early.
DSDM in particular gives guidance which will allow the organisation to achieve valuable change on time, within
budget and preserve the uality of what is delivered.
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1.4 The Value Chain and Lean Thinking
The previous range of analyses should provide a clear picture of what value is being created by the organisation’s
activities and processes and where such value is being created. his view can be both inwardly and outwardly
custo er focussed.
1.4.1 Value chain and value stream analysis
he idea of value chain analysis was proposed by ichael orter 198 . A value chain breaks an organisation
down into its strategically valuable activities in order to understand the costs and sources of product and service
differentiation. he organisation can then ai to gain co petitive advantage by perfor ing these strategic activities
ore cheaply or better than its rivals.
Firm Infrastructure
Technology Development
Margin
Procurement
Outbound Logistics
Operations
Service
A linked concept is the value stream, which is an end-to-end collection of activities that creates value for a
custo er. his concept is found in lean anufacturing.
he Agile BA s thinking needs to enco pass the notion of a value chain and value strea s to ensure that project
re uire ents and the approach to deploying project incre ents are adding defined and agreed value and have a
direct link to the organisation s strategy and objectives.
1.4.2 Lean thinking
ean thinking links closely to the concept of delivering value. t is based on theory and practice developed for
anufacturing and e phasises the re oval of waste. Waste, often called uda a apanese ter refers to
everything which is not of value to the custo er internal and e ternal . he ter uda entered the Agile
vocabulary fro the lean values ade fa ous by the oyota roduction yste s. he ean approach advocates the
following five principles
• Specify what creates value from a customer’s perspective
• Identify all steps across the whole value chain
• ake those actions happen that create the value ow
• ake what is pulled de anded or triggered by the custo er happen just in ti e
• Strive for perfection by continually removing successive layers of waste
Waste needs to be considered as new processes are introduced, to avoid replacing one cause of waste with
another.
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Structure
Shared
System
Values
McKinsey
7S Model
Strategy Style
Skills Staff
McKinsey 7S Model
his odel proposes that organisations are subject to seven interrelated aspects. All seven need to be considered
together. f one changes it will affect all the others. he seven aspects are
• Structure
• System
• Style
• Staff
• Skills
• Strategy
• Shared Value
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The Balanced Business Scorecard
Objectives
Measures
Initiatives
Financial
Targets
“To succeed financially,
how should we appear
to our shareholders?”
Objectives
Objectives
Measures
Measures
Initiatives
Initiatives
Customer Internal Business
Targets
Targets
Processes
“To achieve our vision,
how should we appear Vision and “To satisfy our share-
to our customers?” Strategy holders and customers,
what business
processes must we
excel at?”
Objectives
Measures
Initiatives
Learning and
Targets
Growth
he Balanced Business corecard provides a fra ework for easuring the success of the change. his approach
can be used to identify ritical uccess Factors and to set appropriate ey erfor ance ndicators and targets .
ts strength is that it considers not only the financial aspects of an organisation s success, but other factors too. he
scorecard is ade up of five parts
• Vision and Strategy
• Finance
• Customer
• Learning and Growth
• Internal Business Processes
t can be used to show the state of i ple enting the current strategy to date and its effectiveness. his for s the
basis for the organisation s business intelligence, analytics and anage ent infor ation syste s.
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1.6.3 Collaboration
he analysis of stakeholders is key to any change initiative, and no less so in Agile. uch techni ues as a ower
nterest rid for stakeholder analysis hapter 4 will help to identify the level of involve ent appropriate to
each stakeholder or stakeholder group. Additionally, Agile re uires deeper collaboration and a different pattern of
involve ent fro stakeholders within the Agile project.
1.7 Conclusions
While perhaps only those BAs at a senior level will be directly involved in supporting and reviewing an
organisation s strategy, alongside depart ent divisional anage ent, it is i portant that all BAs Agile or not have
an understanding of the ele ents that have gone into the current strategy definition, internal and e ternal. his
knowledge and understanding provides the fra ework in which the internal initiatives and projects are identified,
developed and delivered. t infor s the prioritisation of work and the se uence in which ele ents of the evolving
solution are developed and deployed. As will be seen in the chapters which follow, the Agile BA has a role within
the project, at both governance and solution develop ent levels. An understanding of organisational strategy and
internal and e ternal forces will enable the Agile BA to work alongside the business representatives within the
project, to identify where the greatest value is likely to be gained and to spot opportunities for i prove ent and
the re oval of waste.
ence the Agile BA, by working alongside the business representatives on a project, can ensure that the project s
objectives, business case, re uire ents, develop ent and deploy ent are always aligned with the objectives and
strategy of the organisation. Further ore, the Agile BA will ake certain that the i pact of change is an integral
part of the project s planning and that they, and their colleagues, are able to assess, anage and onitor that
change.
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2. Agile
Fundamentals and
the Agile BA
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Agile Fundamentals and the Agile BA
AgileBA Handbook
Overview
n this chapter, we look at the origins of Agile in the Agile anifesto and e plore the funda entals of .
is the Agile fra ework upon which we structure the advice, guidance and role definitions within this
andbook. Whilst all Agile approaches have very si ilar core values, principles and practices, is the only
Agile approach which clearly defines the role of the Agile BA. t identifies their responsibilities and skills, and sets
their involve ent in the conte t of the other roles within a project. hroughout this andbook, however, we will
also draw ideas, practices, techni ues and guidance fro the wider Agile fa ily, where this is helpful to the Agile BA.
his andbook should, therefore, prove useful even to those Business Analysts who find the selves working in an
Agile environ ent which follows a different Agile approach.
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Manifesto for Agile Software Development
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
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“best business value emerges when projects are aligned to clear business goals,
deliver frequently and involve the collaboration of motivated and empowered
people.”
This is achieved when all stakeholders:
• nderstand and buy into the business vision and objectives
• Are e powered to ake decisions within their area of e pertise
• ollaborate to deliver a fit for purpose business solution
24
• Collaborate to deliver to agreed timescales in accordance with business priorities
• Accept that change is inevitable as the understanding of the solution grows over time
takeholders enco pass everybody inside or outside the project who is involved in or affected by it.
Philosophy
Principles
Products
Practices
Process
People
The DSDM Philosophy is supported by a set of eight Principles that build the mindset and behaviours necessary
to bring the philosophy alive. he principles are the selves supported by People with defined roles and
responsibilities , an Agile Process enabling an iterative and incre ental lifecycle to shape develop ent and delivery ,
clearly defined Products and recommended Practices to help achieve the opti u results.
DSDM’s approach and style has always been founded on an underlying ethos of common sense and pragmatism. It
may be useful to clarify the meaning of these words:
• Common sense sound practical judg ent independent of specialised knowledge or training nor al native
intelligence.
• Pragmatism - “action or policy dictated by consideration of the immediate practical consequences rather than by
theory or dog a.
his is the style of thinking that underpins the way works . t is this e ibility of thinking that enables
to avoid the dog a that is so eti es encountered in the world of Agile. he ethos of co on sense and
prag atis ensures that individuals and interactions continue to take precedence over processes and tools .
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Quality
Quality
Variable
Time Cost Features
ypically, in the traditional approach to anaging a project left hand diagra , the feature content of the solution
is fi ed whilst ti e and cost are subject to variation. uality also tends to beco e an unplanned variable pri arily
due to the fact that testing is typically left to the end of the project and, as a result of an atte pt to ake up for
previous overruns, is either truncated in ter s of testing effort or the ti e available to fi any defects identified.
By default, s approach to anaging the project right hand diagra fi es ti e, cost and uality at the end of
the Foundations phase see section 2.5 while contingency is anaged by varying the features the re uire ents
to be delivered. As and when contingency is re uired, the business roles identify the least valuable of the re aining
re uire ents. hese are then dropped or deferred in order to keep the project on track.
A project will always deliver a viable solution, on ti e and on cost on budget , as long as the practices
of o oW and i ebo ing are followed. elivery of a ini u sable ubse of re uire ents is
guaranteed as a worst case scenario. owever, in all but the ost e tre e circu stances, the e pectation is to
deliver far ore than the bare ini u .
The iterative and incremental approach to development ensures that the more important requirements are built
to the agreed level of uality. nly once this has been achieved does develop ent start on the less i portant
re uire ents. ncre ental delivery of the volving olution ensures that, on the day that the solution is deployed
into live use, uality is at the level e pected and previously agreed.
26
2.4 Principles
o enable the philosophy of driving out best business value through projects aligned to clear business goals, fre uent
delivery and collaboration of motivated and empowered people, DSDM is based on eight principles that are
supported by the definition of, and guidance on, people, products, process and practices.
Compromising any of the principles undermines the philosophy of DSDM and introduces risk to the successful
outco e of the project. f a tea doesn t follow all of these principles then it won t get the full benefit of the
approach. he collective application of s principles brings the philosophy to life.
The eight principles are:
“best business value emerges when projects are aligned to clear business goals,
deliver frequently and involve the collaboration of motivated and empowered
people”.
Compromising any of the principles undermines the philosophy of DSDM and introduces risk to the successful
outco e of the project. f a tea doesn t follow all of these principles then it won t get the full benefit of the
approach. he collective application of s principles brings the philosophy to life.
The eight principles are:
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Pre-Project
Feasibility
Foundations
Assemble
Evolutionary Review
Deploy
Development
Deployment
Post-Project
The DSDM process model comprises a framework which shows the DSDM phases and how they relate to one
another. his process odel is then used by each project to derive their lifecycle.
2.5.1 Pre-Project phase
he re roject phase ensures that only the right projects are started, and that they are set up correctly, based on
a clearly defined objective.
2.5.2 Feasibility phase
he Feasibility phase is intended pri arily to establish whether the proposed project is likely to be feasible fro a
technical perspective and whether it appears cost effective fro a business perspective. he effort associated with
Feasibility should be just enough to decide whether further investigation is justified, or whether the project should
be stopped now, as it is unlikely to be viable.
2.5.3 Foundations phase
he Foundations phase takes the preli inary investigation fro Feasibility to the ne t level. t is intended to
establish a funda ental but not detailed understanding of the business rationale for the project, the potential
solution that will be created by the project, and how develop ent and delivery of the solution will be anaged. By
intentionally avoiding low levels of detail, the Foundations phase should last no longer than a few weeks even for
large and co ple projects. he detail associated with re uire ents, and how they should be et as part of the
solution, is intentionally left until the volutionary evelop ent phase of the project.
he ai of Foundations is to understand the scope of work, and in broad ter s, how it will be carried out, by
who , when and where. he Foundations phase also deter ines the project lifecycle by agreeing how the
process will be applied to the specific needs of this project.
For s aller, si pler projects, the Feasibility and Foundations phases can often be erged into a single phase. For
larger, ore co ple projects, it ay so eti es be necessary to revisit Foundations after each eploy ent phase.
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2.6 Roles and Responsibilities
eople working together effectively are the foundation of any successful project. recognises this and assigns
clear roles and responsibilities to each person in a project, representing the business interests, the solution technical
interests, the anage ent interests and the process interests. veryone involved in a project works very
closely together in order to break down potential co unication barriers.
he best solutions e erge fro self organising, e powered tea s. owever, these tea s, and the people within
the , ust actively take on the responsibility for their e power ent within the boundaries that have been agreed.
Business
Sponsor
Project Level
ti n g
Team
S u p p o rti n
Business Solution
Ambassador Leader Developer Sup p or
g
Solution
Tester
Workshop DSDM
Facilitator Coach
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Agile Fundamentals and the Agile BA
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ontributing to the technical develop ent of the solution, e.g. olution evelopers creating the solution,
Technical Coordinator providing technical leadership and direction
ue anage ent interests, roles representing the anage ent leadership view
Facilitating the anage ent leadership aspects of the project, e.g. roject anager and ea eader following
the process and anaging leading a project using Agile leadership co petencies
re - Process interests, roles representing the process view
Facilitating the process aspects of the project, e.g. Workshop Facilitator anaging the workshop process,
oach e bedding the Agile roject Fra ework
i of two colours A role that covers two separate areas of interest
2.6.2 Role categories
2.6.2.1 Project-level roles
n figure 2d, the project level roles Business ponsor, Business isionary, echnical oordinator, roject anager and
Agile BA are the directors, anagers and coordinators of the work for the project, where necessary. hey ay be
part of a project board or steering co ittee for the project and, collectively, have authority to direct the project.
hey are responsible for the governance of the project, liaising with governance authorities outside of the project
where necessary.
he Business Analyst is intentionally positioned as part of the project level as well as the olution evelop ent
ea . his allows the Business Analyst to, for e a ple, help the business to for ulate the Business ase, and also
to be involved in assisting the business in defining their re uire ents during Feasibility and Foundations, so eti es
before the olution evelop ent ea is assigned. he role then continues supporting the olution evelop ent
ea alongside the project level roles, as the ore detailed re uire ents e erge.
All roles at the project level need to adopt the facilitative, e powering leadership style which allows Agile tea s to
learn as they go, getting to an end point by their own eans, within an agreed fra ework of e power ent.
2.6.2.2 Solution Development Team roles
The Solution Development Team roles are Business Ambassador, Solution Developer, Solution Tester, Agile BA,
and ea eader. hese roles for the engine roo of the project. hey shape and build the solution and are
collectively responsible for its day to day develop ent and for assuring its fitness for business purpose. here ay
be one or ore olution evelop ent ea s within a project. ach tea will include all olution evelop ent
ea roles and cover all their responsibilities.
2.6.2.3 Supporting roles
he supporting roles Business Advisors, echnical Advisors, Workshop Facilitator and oach provide
assistance and guidance to the project on an ad hoc basis throughout
ghout the lif
lifecycle. he Advisor roles ay be filled
by one or ore subject atter e perts, as necessary.
2.6.3 Fulfilling the roles
ne role does not necessarily ean one person. ne person ay take on one or ore roles. ne role
ay be shared by two or ore people. Where a role is shared it is vital that the individuals co unicate and
collaborate closely.
2.6.4 The Roles
2.6.4.1 Business Sponsor
his role is the ost senior project level business role. he Business ponsor is the project cha pion who is
co itted to the project, to the proposed solution and the approach to delivering it. he Business ponsor is
specifically responsible for the Business ase and project budget throughout however for ally or infor ally this
ay be e pressed .
he Business ponsor ust hold a sufficiently high position in the organisation to be able to resolve business issues
and ake financial decisions.
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2.6.4.2 Business Visionary
his is a senior project level business role that should be held by a single individual, since a project needs a single
clear vision to avoid confusion and isdirection. ore actively involved than the Business ponsor, the Business
Visionary is responsible for interpreting the needs of the Business Sponsor, communicating these to the team and,
where appropriate, ensuring they are properly represented in the Business ase. he Business isionary re ains
involved throughout the project, providing the tea with strategic direction and ensuring that the solution delivered
will enable the benefits described in the Business ase to be achieved.
2.6.4.3 Technical Coordinator
As the project s technical authority, the echnical oordinator ensures that the solution technical roles work in
a consistent way, that the project is technically coherent and eets the desired technical standards. his role
provides the glue that holds the technical aspects of the project together while advising on technical decisions and
innovation.
The Technical Coordinator performs the same function from a technical perspective as the Business Visionary does
fro a business perspective.
2.6.4.4 Project Manager
As well as providing high-level Agile-style leadership to the Solution Development Team, the role is focused on
anaging the working environ ent in which the solution is evolving. he roject anager also coordinates all
aspects of anage ent of the project at a high level but, in line with the concept of e power ent, the
roject anager is e pected to leave the detailed planning of the actual delivery of the product s to the e bers
of the olution evelop ent ea . anaging an e powered tea re uires a facilitative style rather than a
co and and control style.
t is usual that the roject anager takes responsibility throughout the duration of the project. his ust include
both business and technical delivery aspects of the project, fro Foundations if not Feasibility through to
eploy ent.
2.6.4.5 Business Analyst
he Agile BA is both active in supporting the project level roles and fully integrated with the olution evelop ent
ea . hey facilitate the relationship between the business and technical roles, ensuring accurate and appropriate
decisions are ade on the volving olution on a day to day basis. he Agile BA ensures that the business needs
are properly analysed and understood by the all e bers of the olution evelop ent ea .
Active involvement of the business users in the process of evolving the solution is vital to the success of a DSDM
project. herefore it is i portant to ensure that the Business Analyst does not beco e an inter ediary between
the olution evelop ent ea e bers but, instead, supports and facilitates the co unication between the .
2.6.4.6 Team Leader
The Team Leader ideally acts as the servant-leader for the Solution Development Team and ensures that it
functions as a whole and eets its objectives. he ea eader works with the tea to plan and coordinate all
aspects of product delivery at the detailed level. his is a leadership role rather than a anage ent role and the
person holding it will ideally be elected by his or her peers as the best person to lead them through a particular
stage of the project. t is therefore likely that they will also perfor another olution evelop ent ea role
e.g. Agile BA, Business A bassador, olution eveloper or olution ester in addition to their tea leadership
responsibilities.
2.6.4.7 Business Ambassador
he Business A bassador is the key representative of the business within the olution evelop ent ea . uring
Foundations, the Business A bassador has significant input into the creation and prioritisation of re uire ents.
nce the re uire ents have been agreed and baselined by the end of Foundations , the Business A bassador
then provides the day to day detail of the re uire ents during i ebo ed develop ent. his is either based on
their own knowledge and e perience, or drawing on the e perience of Business Advisors.
uring the volutionary evelop ent phase of the project, the Business A bassador is the ain decision aker
on behalf of the business. For this reason the Business A bassador needs to be so eone who is respected by
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their business peers and who has sufficient seniority, e power ent and credibility to ake decisions on behalf of
the business, in ter s of ensuring the volving olution is fit for business purpose.
2.6.4.8 Solution Developer
The Solution Developer collaborates with the other Solution Development Team roles to interpret business
requirements and translate them into a Solution Increment that meets functional and non-functional needs of the
business as a whole.
2.6.4.9 Solution Tester
The Solution Tester is an empowered Solution Development Team role, fully integrated with the team and
perfor ing testing throughout the project in accordance with the agreed strategy.
2.6.4.10 Business Advisor
ften a peer of the Business A bassador, the Business Advisor is called upon to provide specific, and often
specialist, input to solution develop ent or solution testing a business subject atter e pert. he Business
Advisor ay be an intended user or beneficiary of the solution or ay, for e a ple provide legal or regulatory
advice with which the solution ust co ply.
2.6.4.11 Technical Advisor
he echnical Advisor supports the tea by providing specific, and often specialist, technical input to the project,
often from the perspective of those responsible for operational change management, operational support, ongoing
aintenance of the solution, etc.
2.6.4.12 Workshop Facilitator
he Workshop Facilitator is responsible for planning, organsing and facilitating workshops to ensure that a group
of people collaborates to eet a predeter ined objective in a co pressed ti efra e. he Workshop Facilitator
should ideally be independent of the outco e to be achieved in the workshop.
2.6.4.13 DSDM Coach
Where a tea has li ited e perience of using , the role of the oach is key to helping tea
e bers to get the ost out of the approach, within the conte t and constraints of the wider organisation in
which they work.
2.6.5 Summary of DSDM Roles
identifies roles in two di ensions categories and interests. oles are grouped into three categories
• roject level roles Business ponsor, Business isionary, echnical oordinator, roject anager and Agile BA
also a e ber of the olution evelop ent ea
• Solution Development Team roles - Business Ambassador, Solution Developer, Solution Tester, Team Leader and
Agile BA also a roject level role
• upporting roles Business Advisor, echnical Advisor, Workshop Facilitator and oach
And four interests:
• Business interests - covered by the Business Sponsor, Business Visionary, Business Ambassador and Business
Advisor roles
• olution technical interests covered by the echnical oordinator, olution eveloper, olution ester and
Technical Advisor roles
• anage ent interests covered by the roject anager and ea eader roles
• rocess interests covered by the Workshop Facilitator and oach roles
he Agile BA role covers both business and solution technical interests.
34
2.7 Products
he Agile roject Fra ework describes a set of products to be considered as the project proceeds. hese
products describe the solution itself the ain deliverable of the project and anything created to help with the
process of evolving it, and anything that is re uired to help with project governance and control.
ot all products are re uired for every project and the for ality associated with each product will vary fro
project to project and fro organisation to organisation. he for ality of the products is in uenced by factors such
as contractual relationships, corporate standards and governance needs.
he products, and where they feature in the project lifecycle, are shown in the diagra below. range products
are business focused, green products all contribute to the solution being created by the project and blue products
cover project anage ent control interests.
Several of the products - those marked with G - may also play a part in governance processes such as approval
gateways, and may be used to demonstrate compliance of the solution with corporate and regulatory standards
where this is re uired.
Level of Detail
(Outline) (Foundations)
Prototypes
G G
Terms of Benefits
Reference Assessment
Prioritised Req’s List Models
Evolving
Solution Deployed
Solution
Solution Architecture
Solution
Delivery Plan
Management
G
Timebox
Timebox
Review
Plan
Record
Management Approach
Definition
G G G
Project
Feasibility Foundations
Review
Assessment Summary
Report
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36
2.7.1.10 Evolving Solution
he volving olution is ade up of all appropriate co ponents of the final solution together with any
inter ediate deliverables necessary to e plore the detail of re uire ents and the solution under construction. At
any given ti e, such co ponents ay be either co plete, a baseline of a partial solution a olution ncre ent , or
a work in progress. hey include, where valuable odels, prototypes, supporting aterials and testing and review
artefacts.
At the end of each roject ncre ent the olution ncre ent is deployed into live use and beco es the eployed
olution.
2.7.1.11 Timebox Plan
he i ebo lan provides depth and detail for each i ebo identified in the elivery lan. t elaborates on
the objectives provided for that i ebo and details the deliverables of that i ebo , along with the activities
to produce those deliverables and the resources to do the work. he i ebo lan is created by the olution
evelop ent ea and is often represented on a ea Board as work to do, in progress, and done. t is updated
at least on a daily basis at the aily tand ups.
2.7.1.12 Timebox Review Record
he i ebo eview ecord captures the feedback fro each review that takes place during a i ebo . t
describes what has been achieved up to that point together with any feedback that ay in uence plans oving
forwards. Where appropriate, e.g. in a regulated environ ent, a for al auditable record of review co ents fro
e pert Business Advisors and other roles ake this a governance product.
2.7.1.13 Project Review Report
he roject eview eport is typically a single docu ent that is updated, incre entally, at the end of each roject
ncre ent by the addition of new sections pertinent to that incre ent.
At the end of each roject ncre ent, the purpose of this product is
• o capture the feedback fro the review of the delivered solution and to confir what has been delivered and
what has not
• To capture learning points from the retrospective for the increment focussed on the process, practices employed
and contributing roles and responsibilities
• Where appropriate to describe the business benefits that should now accrue through the proper use of the
solution delivered by the project up to this point
After the final roject ncre ent, as part of project closure, a retrospective covering the whole project is carried
out that is partially informed by the records for each increment
ene ts Assess ent
he Benefits Assess ent describes how the benefits have actually accrued, following a period of use in live
operation. For projects where benefits in the Business ase are e pected to accrue over a prolonged period, it is
possible that a nu ber of Benefits Assess ents ay be produced on a periodic basis aligned with the ti efra e
used for justifying the invest ent.
2.7.2 Summary of Products
he products above are guidelines to the infor ation needed to pro ote good co unication within a project.
hey are not andatory, and ay not always be presented as docu ents. owever, in circu stances where
strong governance and or proof of co pliance with standards is i portant, there is real benefit to creating for al
docu ents rather than just gaining a shared understanding which is the nor al default for . Although it
may not be obvious, it is important to remember that documentation created as part of the development process
and or tied to the proactive way the project is anaged, is likely to provide the ost effective and robust audit trail
if one is needed.
It is also critically important to remember that DSDM products are only created if and when they add value to the
project and or to the solution it creates. he ost i portant thing is that the stakeholders and participants in the
project understand what is needed and what is being delivered and that uality is assured. f docu ents genuinely
help achieve this then create the , if not, don t waste valuable ti e and effort doing so.
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2.8 Practices
Agile eans working collaboratively, with good co unication. he ajor practices below enhance this way of
working:
harnesses any valuable Agile practices. A set of five key practices are specifically cited to support the
adoption of the eight rinciples. hese key practices are
• MoSCoW Prioritisation
• Facilitated Workshops
• odelling and rototyping
• Iterative Development
• i ebo ing
hese are considered, along with other Agile practices, throughout this andbook. ater chapters give specific
guidance for the Agile BA on each one in turn.
2.10 Conclusion
is a leading and proven Agile fra ework for all types of projects. is free to view and free to use in
your own organisation. Because it allows scope for the Agile BA to work with the rest of an Agile tea , it is the
fra ework used to give conte t within this book.
The Agile BA role has a threefold focus: within the Agile Solution Development Team, supporting and facilitating
co unication and aking visible the effects on value of changes proposed to the project level roles, supporting
the Business ponsor, Business isionary, echnical o ordinator and roject anager to the organisation, linking the
project to the strategic direction of the organisation.
n the rest of this andbook, we shall e plore the role, skills and practices of the Agile BA.
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3. The Agile Business
Case
391
1 1
The Agile Business Case
AgileBA Handbook
3.1 Introduction
his chapter considers how business change projects arise and how changes link to the corporate ission and
goals. t shows how the Business ase provides the driver and continued justification for a project and follows the
production and use of a Business ase for an Agile project through the phases of its lifecycle, fro re roject to
ost roject. his includes benefits realisation and the assess ent of benefits e pected in the Business ase.
The chapter shows how an Agile Business Case may be different from a traditional Business Case and describes the
involvement of the DSDM roles, particularly that of the Agile BA, in the production of, and continued focus on, the
Business ase within a project.
Finally, it identifies how Agile practices can help to for ulate and clarify a Business ase how they can pro ote
buy-in and a shared vision; how they can be used in the presentation of the Business Case; how they help to keep
focus on the value being delivered throughout the project.
At the start of a project there is so eti es a reluctance to e press uncertainty, especially with the initial high
level Business ase. owever, this uncertainty should be acknowledged. As the project develops, the e tent of
uncertainty should reduce. his leads to increased confidence and credibility a ongst all stakeholders.
40
3.2.2 Business Strategy and the Business Case
he Business ase for a project is linked to organisational strategic needs. A corporate business plan or business
concept docu ent ay precede the project s Business ase. t is essential to have continuity between this and the
view taken forward by the project. f the project is part of a progra e, a progra e business case will infor or
define a project s Business ase.
3.2.3 The small change or a pipeline of changes
o eti es work is initiated to enact a uick fi or a inor odification. hese changes are usually classified as
s all changes because they are below a certain cost and ti e threshold. any organisations have a separate
procedure to allow s all changes to be grouped and allocated budget as a part of a pipeline of changes. uch
s all changes need to be classified on the basis of ti e to fi , cost to fi , benefit and or value e pected and risk.
hese pieces of work will not usually have a for al Business ase. hey ay re uire no ore than a brief i pact
analysis and classification of their i portance and benefit to infor a decision to accept or reject the . owever,
they still need business analysis to ensure that their cu ulative effect is beneficial and their interrelationships are
identified. his re uires a clear focus on business processes, end to end business value, business goals and the
organisation s overall ission.
Timebox
imeb Timebox Timebox Timebox Timebox
• Feasibility study
• Outline business case • Timebox plans
• Key stakeholders • Completed product
• Outline plan
• Feasibility prototype
• Prioritised high level requirements
• Full business case
• Key stakeholders, roles and empowerment
• Project plan
• First increment plan
• Solution prototype
3.3.1 Pre-Project
f the project is triggered by organisational strategic needs, a progra e business case or business concept
docu ent ay already e ist. hese will be used to for ulate the er s of eference for the project, and
will be brought into the project by its Business ponsor. he will contain an e bryonic Business ase, in that
it describes the business driver and top level objectives for the proposed project.
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The Agile Business Case
AgileBA Handbook
3.3.2 Feasibility
uring Feasibility, an outline Business ase will be created, in line with the and included as part of the
Feasibility Assess ent . he Business ponsor, Business isionary, echnical oordinator, roject anager, Agile BA
and other key stakeholders should be involved in its creation. he Agile BA is responsible for its production and
ay have a role in any workshops to develop and gain consensus and approval for the outline Business ase.
he Agile BA for the project ay have been involved before the project, in the strategic level analysis fro which
the idea for a project ay have e erged. o eti es, this re roject work ay have been carried out by a
different, strategic Business Analyst. he project s Agile BA should liaise with the strategic BA on the underlying
purpose and objectives of the project, bringing the into the project s initial ick off and vision sharing Facilitated
Workshops where possible hapter 7 .
ery high level re uire ents for the project will be captured in the rioritised e uire ents ist during Feasibility.
he Agile BA will work with stakeholders to identify and prioritise these and group the as the ajor the es
to be addressed by the project. hey will be further defined at this point with high level, easurable objectives
Acceptance riteria . A high level prototype ay be de onstrated to illustrate the intended direction for the
solution to be developed or procured. his de onstration could be a part of a Workshop hapter 7 .
3.3.3 Foundations
his is where the project s Business ase will be evolved to the level needed for the project. n an Agile project,
this should be to a level which is just sufficient for the decision aking process, and to guide the project in the right
direction. here is always a te ptation to go into too uch detail at this point and this should be avoided, because
low level, solution oriented detail is likely to change as the Agile project progresses. he project Business ase
should be at a level which is likely to re ain relatively stable during the project, to act as a good resource against
which to easure achieve ent of benefits.
The Agile BA facilitates the development of the Business Case, which is agreed and authorised by the Business
ponsor. eveloping the Business ase is a collaborative process, involving key stakeholders and roject evel
roles, supported by the planning and esti ating activities of the olution evelop ent ea .
Benefits ealisation should be considered during the creation of the Business ase. etrics to allow benefits
assess ent should be deter ined at an early point, and their easure ent planned. he etrics should be kept
si ple and be carefully chosen to give a clear view of the benefits directly attributable to this particular project s
outputs and outco e.
he Agile BA will work with all other roles during Foundations, helping to keep focus on planning for the early
delivery of business value, and delivering the ost valuable features first, consistent with appropriate consideration
of risk and uality.
The Agile BA will follow a best-practice requirements lifecycle, to elicit, analyse and validate requirements,
asse bling these into a rioritised e uire ents ist . his process will re uire collaboration with the
roject evel roles, olution evelop ent ea roles and other stakeholders. he will typically be a i ture
of pic tories and ser tories hapter 5 and will incorporate high level acceptance criteria for these, in line
with the benefits outlined in the Business ase. he Agile BA will also work with the Business isionary to ensure
that business value is considered for each re uire ent or group of re uire ents. hey will also ake sure that
the traceability from the Business Case to each requirement remains visible, through the changing levels of detail of
these re uire ents, to the eventual i ple entation, or possibly descoping, of these re uire ents.
uality eview eetings hapter 11 are a useful way to establish an agreed baseline for the at the end of
Foundations. his is not to prevent change to the re uire ents, but to define an agreed starting point to clarify the
project scope, in ter s of breadth, for planning purposes. t is recognised that re uire ents detail will e erge after
this point. f and when re uire ents change during the project s life, it will be easier to assess the i pact of the
change if the starting point was known and agreed.
42
3.3.4 Evolutionary Development
he Business ase, drawn up and agreed during Foundations, is the basis for justifying project activities and
deliverables throughout the re ainder of the project and its guidance should be visible to the whole olution
evelop ent ea , in addition to the project level roles, as they evolve and test the solution. he high level
at which the Business ase presents benefits, costs and plans should be sufficient to allow e ibility during
volutionary evelop ent.
uring volutionary evelop ent, the Agile BA works as a e ber of the olution evelop ent ea , helping to
aintain the tea s focus on the business need and Business ase as the lower level detail e erges. he Agile BA
is responsible for ensuring that the detail of the lower level re uire ents is captured and docu ented in the .
The Solution Development Team ensures that the appropriate solution emerges, that the product is built correctly
and that it also keeps its focus on the business need for which the project was initiated.
he Agile BA has the odelling skills hapter 8 to analyse both current and future situations As s and o Be
and to keep these visible to the project stakeholders. ence, an additional area of work for the Agile BA during
volutionary evelop ent is involve ent in the evolution of the elivery lan. his will be infor ed by the
Business ase, which will have identified risks and i pacts associated with the business change.
3.3.5 Deployment
During Deployment, the Agile BA will work with the Business Visionary and Technical Co-ordinator to ensure
that, as incre ental ele ents of the solution are deployed, the focus on cost and realising the e pected benefits
is aintained. he Agile BA ay also help to ensure that the changes for people and processes are facilitated
s oothly, and that etrics are captured before and after eploy ent, for later use in assessing the benefits realised.
3.3.6 Post-Project
After a period of use of increments of the solution, the Agile BA may work with the Business Sponsor and Business
isionary in particular, to establish what actual benefits have been realised, using previously established etrics.
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The Agile Business Case
AgileBA Handbook
The
Business
Case
Option 3
Option 1 Option 2
he Business ase ust contain just sufficient anage ent infor ation for a funding decision to be ade to
initiate the project. t ust be in a for which is useful throughout the project as a eans of checking whether the
project is giving the appropriate return on invest ent. ypically, the Business ase will contain the infor ation listed
below.
3.4.1 Contents of an Agile Business Case
he following sections are nor ally useful.
Business Vision
This is a short description of:
• The reasons and drivers for the proposed change
• he business, as it will be after the project has co pleted project objective
• he bigger picture and any wider i pact of the project, including links with other initiatives
t is not intended that re uire ents are stated here, although a high level pic ay be included, together with key
objectives. A conte t or scoping diagra illustrating the As s and o Be situation ay be useful.
This is the most stable section of the Business Case as, whatever solution option is chosen, this is the overall reason
and intent for the project.
Options
ifferent options business, technical and financial to achieve the Business ision will have been discussed, especially
during Feasibility. ere each of these options is brie y outlined, along with their costs, benefits, ti escale, key risks,
i pacts and any i portant assu ptions. epending on the scale of the project, its potential business i pact and
investment, each option may need to consider the following, in a way which allows comparison between options:
44
Solution Overview an outline of the proposed solution. he best way to do this is often through diagra s
describing the solution fro a user perspective and or a high level architectural perspective. ey co ponents of
the solution should be distinguished fro optional co ponents, where possible.
Strategic Alignment - the ways in which this solution supports or complies with stated corporate strategies or
progra e level objectives.
osts an ene ts uantitative esti ates of the costs and benefits associated with each of the ajor
deliverables. osts and benefits can be e pressed in ranges based on best case, worst case and e pected case
scenarios, to re ect priorities. Where benefits and costs are not easily uantifiable, these should still be included
and efforts ade to e press the in financial ter s e.g. added job satisfaction ay be uantified by assessing
the reduced recruit ent costs which ay accrue .
At the end of Feasibility, the esti ates for each option need only to be sufficient to allow decision aking and to
justify further investigation of a particular option during Foundations. uring Foundations, the focus will be on
the chosen option, and then ay need to justify the full project or perhaps just a first incre ent.
Investment Appraisal this illustrates likely develop ent costs of the project, and the ongoing costs of running
the resulting product or service, including operational, aintenance and support costs. hese are apped
against the financial value of the benefits which are e pected to accrue, over a period of ti e.
Investment Risk Assessment -The investment risk assessment is focussed on the risk associated with achieving
the return on invest ent. hese risks ay lie beyond the boundaries of the project.
Key Assumptions, Risks and Dependencies for the Project so e of these ay be specific to particular
options. thers ay be irrespective of which option is chosen.
3.4.2 The Proposed Solution
he option which stands out as the best should be clearly identified, with reasons and reco endations and any
additional infor ation needed to infor decision aking. After Feasibility, the focus will usually ove to the chosen
option. he above infor ation will typically be elaborated further for just the chosen option, for the full project or
perhaps just a first incre ent.
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The Agile Business Case
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involved in scoping the solution alongside the Business Analyst and providing an initial vision for the architecture and
incre ents of delivery for the product. he technical infrastructure ay also follow a phased approach, based on
the technical infrastructure needed to support the high level re uire ents planned. he echnical oordinator will
also be able to infor the high level cost projections early in the project.
3.5.4 Project Manager
he roject anager , supported by the olution evelop ent ea and project level roles, is responsible for
facilitating the planning of the project and its incre ents, in collaboration with the tea . hese are the high level
plans against which the costs within the Business ase are calculated.
ulated. he is then responsible for facilitating
activity to enable the project to deliver the solution, within the cost and risk para eters outlined.
3.5.5 Agile BA
he Agile BA works closely with the and the whole project tea at all levels. hey will use their process and
data analysis skills to link e pected benefits with re uire ents at all levels throughout the project. hey will work
collaboratively, with the Business isionary in particular, to attach business value to the re uire ents. hey will also
facilitate the prioritisation of the requirements by the business, with appropriate input and advice from the technical
and solution develop ent roles.
he Agile BA ay be involved in the benefits realisation and benefits assess ent activities and ay actively facilitate
these. As the Business ase is being constructed, thought should be given to how benefits will be easured. his
will include the taking of baseline measurements before changing the current processes, so that a “before and after”
co parison is possible.
46
realisation with an appropriate group of stakeholders. uring Foundations, participants will be drawn fro project
level roles, olution evelop ent ea roles, and other key stakeholders fro the business and technical areas. t
is also essential to gain input fro those to who the product or service will be delivered consu ers, end users
and those who will support the product of the project in live use service transition and service operation . f
the project is part of a strategic change progra e, and or a business concept docu ent preceded the roject
Business ase, it is essential to have continuity between these and the view to be taken forward by the project.
he Facilitated Workshops needed to build the Business ase ay include isioning and ick off Workshops,
isk dentification, e uire ents efinition and e uire ents rioritisation Workshops. he de onstration of a
olution rototype ay also be the subject of Facilitated Workshops.
ypical techni ues used at these workshops include W and analysis to clarify the vision and identify the
drivers and risks as discussed in hapter 1 .
ich ictures hapter 8 and Futurespectives hapter 7 help stakeholders to visualise the desired outco e and
goals of the project. hey can also be used when planning at a high level to identify incre ental ilestones, risks
and barriers to success.
3.6.3 Modelling and Prototyping
ffective co unication and sharing of the key ele ents of the Business ase are essential for the success of the
project. odelling hapter 8 is i portant in achieving this. A onte t iagra or coping iagra will help
to clarify what is within the scope of the project. i ple but powerful Agile techni ues for establishing ele ents
of a Business ase and creating a shared vision are the ean anvas and the roduct ision Bo respectively
hapter 8 . his ay be done at Feasibility, and again in ore detail during Foundations. pectations need to be
managed with care as the eventual solution may vary considerably from early prototypes, as iterative development
progresses during the project. owever, a prototype can prove a useful basis for discussion and for identification of
needs.
3.6.4 Iterative Development
terative evelop ent allows evolution of the solution, whilst keeping focus on the business benefits e pected
within the Business ase. he iterative approach e tends to the Business ase itself, in that it is allowed to evolve.
bjectives will be stated up front, with detail e erging later rather than sooner. Additionally, the accrual of benefits
ay be planned to be incre ental, with accrued benefits being incorporated into the invest ent appraisal. arly
benefits realised ay be used to help to pay for later solution develop ent incre ents.
3.7 Summary
A clear and shared Business ase is an i portant guiding in uence for any change project. A visible and
collaboratively produced Business ase is the driver for the Agile project. t should follow a defined for at which
will best support the decision makers, presenting them with measurable recommendations, whilst leaving low-level
detail to evolve as the project progresses. All parties, including those decision akers who will not be an integral
part of the project, need to be aware of the Business ase.
he Business ase should define when and how benefits will be easured and should identify actions re uired
during the project to support the delivery of those benefits.
he Business ase needs to re ain active and visible to both project level and olution evelop ent ea
roles regularly throughout the project, giving focus to each i ebo planning session and acting as a guide to
eploy ent. t also needs to e body sufficient e ibility to enable learning and acco odate a changing business
environ ent.
he Business ase is the bench ark against which the success of the project is easured and is used at key points
to justify whether the project should continue or be closed.
he roles and key practices support the develop ent of a robust, e ible and visible Business ase, to
gain buy in and to create a shared vision which will benefit the project throughout its life and through to benefits
realisation.
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4. Stakeholders in
the Agile Project
491
1 1
Stakeholders in the Agile Project
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4.1 Introduction
eople working together effectively are the basis of any successful project. n an Agile project, the business interests
and end user needs are fully represented within the project tea , alongside the technical and solution develop ent
skills. Work is carried out as a cross functional tea and gives clear role definitions for this tea . hese
roles have specific project responsibilities and need to have ti e allocated as resources of the project. ually,
those who will deploy and support the solution after deployment need to understand the Agile approach and be
available within specified i ebo es, to support the Agile tea .
The engagement of a cross-functional team is fundamental to the Agile approaches and built into the Agile
Manifesto, in the principles:
• ur highest priority is to satisfy the custo er through early and continuous delivery of valuable incre ents of
the solution]
• Business people and developers ust work together daily throughout the project
It supports the DSDM principles:
• Focus on the business need
• Collaborate
• Communicate continuously and clearly
his chapter looks at what stakeholders are and how they are affected by an Agile project. t identifies different
categories of stakeholder, how to work with stakeholders in an Agile project and the Agile behaviours e pected
fro the in support of the project. Finally, it considers the Agile BA s role in interacting with stakeholders both
within, and e ternal to, the Agile tea . he Agile practices that can help with this are described.
50
4.3 Agile Culture and Stakeholder Engagement
Agile is a culture of trust and partnership. his is often a significant change of indset for stakeholders who have
previously e perienced a traditional, and particularly waterfall, environ ent. n an Agile project, stakeholders will
find
• More transparency of process; less physical documentation
• More frequent delivery of working product; less detailed analysis up front
• More facilitated workshops, iterative development and demonstrations of the product; fewer large, unstructured
meetings
• ore face to face co unication, odelling and prototyping less detailed, te tual docu entation
• A different empowerment level for the Solution Development Team; different levels of engagement with the
project level, senior roles
• A different way of engaging with a wider group of stakeholders
With Agile, detailed re uire ents e erge as the project progresses. he project tea learns as it goes and
e braces change. o acco odate this, low level re uire ents detail is not specified up front, but later, just before
the re uire ent is built into the solution.
Stakeholders also need to understand that not all of their envisaged requirements will necessarily be delivered
in the first incre ent, and that prioritisation and e ibility is e pected fro the . his deal is brokered by the
pro ise that an agreed ini u sable ubse will be delivered by an agreed date and that business value will be
realised as early and fre uently as possible. his can be uite a culture change for so e stakeholders to accept, but
the benefits to the of working this way should far outweigh any perceived disadvantages.
o e of this culture change re uires a very high level of trust. With reduced docu entation, there ay be
uncertainty that people will do what they have pro ised. Will the olution evelop ent ea only do the
ini u rust ust be earned by the acknowledge ent and acceptance of personal responsibility by project
personnel, to ensure the right project outco e. he early delivery of incre ents of business valuable product
should build confidence by showing that real progress is being ade. he Agile tea delivers value early. he risk
of delivering the wrong solution, or of late delivery, is lower than in a traditional, waterfall style approach. f they fail,
the failure is visible early, which eans the organisation has greater control over invest ent. he early recognition
of potential failure also gives the opportunity to discover a way to change course and turn potential failure into
success.
he Agile way of working will be a challenge to the culture of any organisations. he Agile BA needs to
acknowledge this change of culture, prepare people for it and guide stakeholders through the new territory.
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Business
Sponsor
Project Level
ti n g
Team
S u p p o rti n
Business Solution
Ambassador Leader Developer
Sup p or
g
Solution
Tester
Workshop DSDM
Facilitator Coach
52
he Agile BA is one of the project s ain links to the organisation and business as usual , providing support to
the Business Sponsor and Business Visionary by applying their skills in business analysis such as business process
odelling, value chain apping hapter 1 and Business o ain odelling hapter 8 as well as facilitation skills.
For the Business ponsor and Business isionary, the key essages that the Agile BA needs to co unicate to
the relate to prioritisation and, alongside the roject anager, to planning and e power ent
• hey need to understand the benefits, i plications and i pacts of o oW prioritisation. lear prioritisation
of the essential features will protect these and help to ensure that they are delivered within a given timeframe
• he idea of planning in detail just one incre ent ahead, rather than the whole project plan being presented in
detail at the start, ay see risky to senior anage ent. t needs to be de onstrated to the that fre uent
deliveries and close business involve ent itigate this risk, and the e ibility they gain is a positive for the
• They need to appreciate the effectiveness of empowering Business Ambassadors and indeed all of the Solution
Development Team roles in producing a timely and effective solution
he Business ponsor will find they need to truly cha pion the Agile project, and be appropriately available and
supportive. he nature of issues brought to the eans that any link with the Agile BA is usually in conjunction
with the roject anager.
he Business isionary will find that they are e pected to participate regularly in the project, in any workshops,
de onstrations and reviews and to ake key decisions about priorities. ence the Agile BA will liaise regularly
with the Business isionary.
4.4.1.2 Technical Coordinator
The Agile BA will work closely with the Technical Coordinator to turn the business requirements into solution
re uire ents, both in Foundations and during the i ebo es. he re uire ents specified in the rioritised
e uire ents ist will be business re uire ents, kept at the level of what is re uired rather than how
it will be achieved as far as possible, to allow a i u e ibility and creativity when entering i ebo es.
owever, esti ates need to be infor ed by knowledge of the intended or e pected solution. hus, the echnical
oordinator will work with the Agile BA to create and evolve the olution Architecture efinition based on the
business re uire ents.
At both Feasibility and Foundations, prototypes ay be built to indicate the vision of the future solution. nce
again, this re uires collaboration of both Agile BA and echnical oordinator.
4.4.1.3 The Project Manager
he roject anager and Agile BA work closely together to enable effective stakeholder analysis and engage ent.
heir indsets are so ewhat different the roject anager is focused on anaging the working environ ent to
deliver on ti e and on budget, whilst the Agile BA s ain focus is on the enable ent of business value. f these
two roles work well together, they address all facets of the triangle features, cost, ti e and uality.
The Agile BA will:
• se business analysis techni ues to aid the roject anager and the project level roles in the identification of
stakeholders, analysis of their roles and the design of appropriate co unications with the which ay be
infor al as well as for al, and will not necessarily be achieved by docu ents
• nsure that the Business ase accounts for changing re uire ents, prioritisation and incre ental delivery. hey
will also identify how benefits can be achieved, easured and assessed incre entally. ost project, they typically
have an involve ent in evaluating the benefits as they are realised
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• They have regular, day-to-day contact with the development and testing of their emerging product, throughout
the project
• They have control over the prioritisation of features for their area and level of empowerment, from a business
point of view
• hey will collaborate on, and in uence the design, appearance and perfor ance of their product
• hey have a role in anaging the e pectations of their peer group in their business areas, and also ensuring their
peers are trained and prepared for the deploy ent, in incre ents, of the volving olution
• hey will be e pected to give significant ti e to the project and be ready to ake decisions on behalf of their
area. n order to achieve this, they need to be correctly e powered by their line anagers to carry out the
project role. hey also need to be consistently resourced to the project i.e. not issing fro the project, or
substituted when the day job is prioritised . o enable this, their business as usual role ay periodically need to
be covered back filled by others, to allow ti e for their project role to be sustained
• he e power ent of the Business A bassador s and their changed way of working throughout the project
re uires a significant co it ent of business ti e fro so eone who is, by definition, a very valuable person
in the day to day work of the business. he benefits to the business of providing the right person is that they
will deliver greater business value fro the project and aintain business control over what is delivered and the
sequence of delivery
he Agile BA will give significant support to the Business A bassador s in the fulfil ent of their responsibilities
and facilitate co unication within the olution evelop ent ea .
4.4.2.2 Team Leader
he Agile BA works with the ea eader to facilitate the work of the olution evelop ent ea . t ay be that,
in so e i ebo es, the Agile BA is a good choice for the role of ea eader.
The Team Leader will:
• Be involved in i ebo planning sessions, keeping the olution evelop ent ea focused on delivering
business value in every i ebo
• nsure that i ebo planning allows for reviews, de onstrations and active, hands on prototyping within
the i ebo es, and involves a wider group of stakeholders beyond the olution evelop ent ea , when
appropriate
• Facilitate aily tand ups, i ebo planning and possibly the i ebo etrospectives
If the Agile BA is not the Team Leader, they will need to support the person who holds that role in maintaining the
tea s focus on the business need.
4.4.2.3 Solution Developers
The Solution Developer works closely with the Agile BA, Business Ambassador and Solution Tester roles within the
olution evelop ent ea . ogether they evolve the detail of the solution in line with the high level re uire ents
of the rioritised e uire ents ist established during Foundations.
4.4.2.4 Solution Testers
The Solution Tester is an active member of the Solution Development Team, working collaboratively with Solution
eveloper, Agile BA and Business A bassador. n an Agile project, testing is throughout the lifecycle. he Agile
BA will work closely with the olution ester during i ebo es, assisting the through the detailed re uire ents
elicitation, analysis and validation activity as re uired. he olution ester, Agile BA and Business A bassador will
work to establish clear Acceptance riteria for the re uire ents. he olution ester will work alongside the other
Solution Development Team members, designing the tests whilst development of a particular feature is occurring
and testing the e erging ele ents as soon as possible.
54
4.4.2.5 Working together
All of the olution evelop ent ea roles need to work together collaboratively throughout the i ebo es.
The Solution Tester and Agile BA will help the Business Ambassador to identify Acceptance Criteria for each of the
requirements; the Solution Developer will work with the Business Ambassador and Agile BA on the emerging detail
of the solution the Agile BA will highlight the i plications of solution choices and work to a i ise the business
value being delivered.
working together
Solution
Developer(s)
Project Manager /
Team Leader
Agile BA
Solution Tester(s)
Technical Advisor
(Release Management)
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56
4.7 Stakeholder Analysis Techniques
4.7.1 RACI and RASCI Matrices
A traditional stakeholder analysis will often analyse the type and depth of involve ent of stakeholders, using A
or A atrices, to record those esponsible, Accountable, upporting , onsulted and nfor ed within the
project. hese ay still be valuable in an Agile project, but care ust be e ercised, as the different levels of
e power ent, and the collaborative nature of working need to be recognised.
Stakeholders
Branch Manager
Identity Service
Credit Agency
Head Office
Customer
Teller
Task
Pay in cash R A C I
Open Account R A C I
Close Account R A C I
Settle Transactions I A R
Agree Loan R A C C
Do Credit Check C A I I R
Reconcile Transactions I A R
Check Identity C A I I R
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onitor
eep in ormed
(minimum e ort)
o
nterest
o i
58
4.9 Successful Agile Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholders new to the Agile way of working will need education, training and ongoing support, at a level
appropriate to their role and involve ent in the project.
roject stakeholders need to understand their level of e power ent and they need to know that the environ ent
is safe to e ercise this e power ent.
roject stakeholders ust be properly assigned to the Agile project for an appropriate proportion of their ti e
and, if this is significant, their involve ent should be re ected in their perfor ance targets. he ti e re uired on
Agile projects for user representatives cannot be just fitted in .
roject takeholders need trust and support fro their anagers and fro peers on whose behalf they operate.
All stakeholders need to know the importance of giving time for reviews, demonstrations, workshops and
uestions.
The Business Advisor and Business Ambassador roles in particular need to be understood widely by the rest of the
olution evelop ent ea , and the wider stakeholder group.
Within the Solution Development Team, the stakeholders, including the Agile BA, need to respect each other's
professional skills. he different skills represented in the tea ust work very closely together, with no us and
the attitudes all skills need to work towards a one tea success culture. his i plies true partnership and
collaboration, even between different organisations, custo ers and suppliers. here needs to be a supportive
co ercial relationship and any contracts, internal or e ternal to the business, ust be built to support this.
4.10 Summary
ffective stakeholder engage ent is an essential part of any project, and can ake a significant difference to the
success of the project. takeholders should be identified as early as possible in the project.
takeholders can be identified fro inside the organisation or e ternal to it. hey can then be classified according
to their involve ent in the project and assessed according to their interest and willingness to engage in the project,
and on their potential in uence power over it.
takeholders fro the business will find the Agile project a very different e perience fro the involve ent they
ay have had in traditional projects in the past. t will also be a very different way of working for so e developers
and testers.
Stakeholders may require education, training, support and coaching to enable them to work together effectively as
a tea . he Agile BA can be the facilitator of effective co unication in all of these areas.
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5. Requirements and
User Stories
611
1 1
Requirements and User Stories
AgileBA Handbook
5.1 Introduction
his chapter defines what re uire ents are, distinguishes between different categories of re uire ent and
describes the widely used Agile techni ue of ser tories. e uire ents are traced through the project life cycle
fro high level he es and pics to the ore detailed ser tories. he chapter ends with so e re uire ents
tips for the Agile BA.
62
• Functional e uire ents F s
• on functional e uire ents F s
Business Solution
General Functional
RULES (Solution) WHAT?
(Business)
eneral Business and echnical olicy re uire ents are co pany wide and in uence all projects as constraints and
rules. Functional and non functional re uire ents relate to the solution which is to be created and are within a
particular project.
enera usiness e uire ents ( s)
eneral Business e uire ents are the rules that all projects ust adhere to e.g. business policies, legal constraints,
regulatory guidelines.
echnica Po ic e uire ents ( P s)
echnical olicy e uire ents are the technical and infrastructure policies and standards that any solution proposed
ust adhere to e.g. hardware and software platfor , network conventions, service strategy and design.
unctiona e uire ents ( s)
un tional requirement
WHAT? at t e requirement ill do
or t e usiness
on un tional requirement
HOW
WELL? onstraints on t e system
er orman e measures
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Requirements and User Stories
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Functional e uire ents e press function or feature and define what is re uired e.g.
• R1 “Visit customer site”
• R2 “Obtain conference venue”
The requirements do not state how
ow a solution will be physically achieved, such as:
• “Drive to customer site”
• “Build conference centre”
“Drive to customer site” is one possible solution. owever, y to customer site or “travel by train” are possible
alternative solutions which ay be worth consideration. For “Build a conference centre”, “Hire a hotel room” is an
alternative solution which ay be ore cost effective. tating re uire ents as what rather than how ow early in the
project allows roo for e ibility and innovation later.
on unctiona e uire ents ( s)
on functional e uire ents define how well, or to what level, perfor ance needs to be provided. hey describe
solution attributes such as security, reliability, aintainability, availability and any other ...ilities , perfor ance and
response ti e, e.g.
• Responds within 2 seconds
• Available 24 hours per day, every day
hese F s ay be
• solution wide or ay i pact a group of functional re uire ents e.g.
- “all customer facing functionality must carry the company logo”
- “all customer-facing functionality must respond within 2 seconds to requests”
• related to a particular functional re uire ent. e.g.
- “hire Conference Venue” ight have F s of Accessibility, ecurity, and Availability
As a.... <role>
I need.... <requirement>
so that.... ene t
Figure 5c: User Story
A ser tory is really just a well e pressed re uire ent. he ser tory for at has beco e the ost popular way
of e pressing re uire ents in Agile for a nu ber of reasons
• it focuses on the viewpoint of a role that will use or be impacted by the solution
• t defines the re uire ent in language that has eaning for that role
• t helps to clarify the true reason for the re uire ent.
• t helps define high level re uire ents without necessarily going into low level detail too early
64
ser goals are identified and the business value of each re uire ent is i ediately considered within the ser
tory. ser stories work well with ersonas , a techni ue described in hapter 8.
ser tories are often dee ed to co prise 3 ele ents he 3 s.
• Card
• Conversation
• onfir ation
The User Story format
A typical for at for the ser tory is as follows
As a <user role>
I need <requirement or feature>
So that goal value
eople will vary this and the advice within the Agile world varies of the for at so eti es the ser tory ay be
e pressed as
• want ... rather than need ...
• need the ability to ...
• the user can ...
ou should choose whichever for at best fits the language of your organisation. ather than worrying too uch
about the specific wording, the focus should be on ensuring that
• it is a real re uire ent that so eone, within the scope of the project, needs
• it is clearly stated in terms that are not too solution-focused and not too vague
• it is clear what business benefit and value it ai s to give
hese two e a ples de onstrate ser tories at different levels, but using the sa e for at
At a project level
As a Marketing Director
I need to improve customer service
So that we retain our customers
At a detailed level:
As an Investor
I need to see a summary of my investment accounts
So that can decide where to focus y attention to a i ise profit.
here is another powerful essage of ser tories. hoosing ser tories to define re uire ents de onstrates
an intention to work collaboratively with the users to discover what they really need. he ser tory is brief and
intended to be so. t is a placeholder for a ore detailed discussion later the onversation. uch of the detail of
ser tories e erges during i ebo es. igh level ser tories pics are broken down into ore detailed ser
tories just before develop ent co ences on that group of stories. ven then, the ser tories are not intended
to be full specifications of the re uire ents. Fine detail of re uire ents ay not need to be written down at all,
but ay si ply be incorporated directly into the solution as part of the work within a i ebo .
he ser tory for at helps to ensure that each re uire ent is captured in a feature oriented, value oriented way,
rather than a solution oriented way.
n projects, ser tories are recorded in a rioritised e uire ents ist . his is the e uivalent of a
roduct Backlog in other Agile approaches. he level of detail held here begins at a high level and increases as the
solution evolves.
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Requirements and User Stories
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Req id Req/Story Req/Story Pry Confirmation Acc Criteria Source Owner Size Business
Short Name Description M, S, S,M, Value
“As a... I need C, W L,XL HML
...so that
STK001 Customer As a M Scenario 1: Security: no Order Order S H
Order Customer, I Customer has unauthorised Clerk Manager
need to place ordered previously: person can place
an order so Given an existing an order at any
that I can customer account, time (24 hours per
have food When Customer day or 24/7/365);
delivered to confirms an order,
my house. Then: can place the
Either: Account order at any time
credit is good, (24 hours per day
Conversation: The order scheduled or 24/7/365);up to
Order Office Manager for delivery and including
emphasised the need Or: Account credit delivery
for secure day and bad, Order is
night ordering rejected and
customer notified.
Business value:
Story description:
sa
need
n order to
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Requirements and User Stories
•
• Confirmation:
AcceptanceCriteria:
i en When Then
Failure Actions:
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Requirements and User Stories
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Scenarios
he Acceptance riteria for a ser tory can be e panded to enco pass scenarios, if this is useful, although
the e pansion should not take place until the point in the lifecycle when a greater level of detail is appropriate.
A scenario is a description of a specific case of the ser tory. his techni ue is fro an approach known as
Behaviour riven evelop ent B . ach scenario has the following structure
• i en the initial condition or conditions assu ed to be true at the beginning of the scenario
• When: the event which triggers the start of the scenario
• Then: the e pected outco e, in one or ore clauses
Scenarios are ideally phrased in business language, with no reference to elements of the technical solution
environ ent.
68
Story Card Example, showing 2 Scenarios
tor Identi er STK001
Story Name: Customer Order
Description: As a Customer,
I need to place an order,
So that I can have food delivered to my house
Conversation: he rder ffice anager emphasised the need for secure day and night ordering
on rmation
Scenario 1: Customer has ordered previously:
Given an existing customer account, When ustomer confirms an order, Then:
Either: Account credit is good, order is scheduled for delivery
r ccount credit bad, rder is re ected and customer notified
Scenario 2: other scenarios specified, as re uired.
Acceptance Criteria:
Availability:
- can place an order at any time (24 hours per day or 24/7/365)
- can view the order at any time (24 hours per day or 24/7/365) up to and
including delivery.
Security:
- no unauthorised person or other customer can view the order
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Where several ser tories relate to the sa e feature, but for different users, they should be cross referenced to
each other.
Where it is useful, the format can be tailored to include:
• ni ue identifier
• Name
• Description
• ource person who identified it
• wner person with responsibility for it
• Business value
• Function process of which the ser tory is a part
• Priority
• ie
• tatus draft, agreed, in progress, done, tested etc
• ependency between ser tories
• ign off responsibility who, how
ot all of this infor ation would typically be printed onto a card, but ay be held in the . preadsheets or
o puter Aided e uire ents ngineering A tools are available to hold the detail of such re uire ents
electronically and to e tract the printed cards for planning.
ertain additional infor ation is useful to hold. For e a ple, it can be invaluable to know the source of the
ser tory which ay be different fro the user stated on the ard . t can be i portant to know the status
whether this story is currently under develop ent, has not been started or has already been i ple ented.
owever, the essage is to keep ser tories as light and si ple as possible, avoiding e cessive docu entation
which beco es out of date and gives no benefit.
5.4.4 Considering the requirements list as a whole
he Agile BA needs to look not just at individual stories, but at the whole set of re uire ents. By doing this,
and with the help of business process odelling and data odelling hapter 8 , they can identify areas where
re uire ents ay have been issed, ay con ict or overlap. hey can work with the Business isionary to
in uence the delivery of groups of re uire ents that give the highest business value early. hey can assist the
olution evelop ent ea and the roject anager to see dependencies, for planning purposes.
n , the is the central record of re uire ents ser tories, together with their priorities and e pected
value. he is an integral planning tool which allows the tea to
• stablish the basis for agree ent between the custo ers and the suppliers on what the outco e of each
incre ent of the project is to be
• Provide a basis for estimating costs and schedules
• rovide a baseline for validation and verification
• Facilitate transfer fro old to new ways of working
• Control and enhance the requirements
• ndicate which re uire ents are anticipated to be handled in which i ebo
he records each re uire ent, e pressed as a ser tory. t holds all re uire ents for the project and the
current incre ent, and the Agile BA will aintain this list, at a level of detail which is useful, but not e cessive, as
further detail e erges.
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5.5 The Hierarchy of User Stories: Themes, EPICS and User
Stories
n an Agile project, re uire ents evolve. At first, they are very high level state ents of objectives, functions and
areas for investigation. At this point they are classified as he es and pics. ater they are deco posed into the
ore detailed ser tories. he definitions between these levels of ser tory are e plained below.
Business Strategy
Business
Objectives and Themes
Objectives / Goals
Business
Requirements Epic Stories
User
Requirements User Stories
Solution Detailed
Requirements User Stories
Solution
5.5.1 Themes
he es are a collection of related ser tories and or pics. he es are not, in the selves, ser tories. hey are
categories or headings that can be used to organise stories into any kind of useful, related groupings. For e a ple,
there ay be ser tories which are all part of a particular value strea there ay be groups of ser tories
which together provide the functionality for a release of the solution. t ay be useful to define he es to organise
ser tories for work to be undertaken by different tea s.
a ples of he es could be
• Customer Service
• ser nterface
• Management Information
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5.5.2 Epics
When ser tories first begin to e erge early in a project, they are usually large and not well defined. hese
are often ter ed pics . An pic is si ply a story that it is too large to fit into one i ebo for develop ent.
owever, even at this high level, it is still useful to use the for at As a ..., need ..., so that .... because it helps to
keep the focus fro a user point of view and brings out discussion of the e pected benefit.
he Business ision itself for s the first pic story.
For example:
Business Vision:
As a Marketing Director
I need to improve customer service
So that we retain our customers
igh level key Acceptance riteria can also be for ulated for an pic level, to clarify eaning.
For example:
Project Acceptance Criteria:
- Customer retention improved by 20% within two years
- Product range increased by 10% within 5 years
- Speed of dispatch improved to within24 hours of time of order for 99% of in-stock items within 6
months
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Project id: Story Story short name: Priority:
Manage Manage
Epics Provide Provide
Payments House-
Room Meals
and Debts keeping
User
Stories
Detailed
User
Stories
Individuals;
Training Managers Actors
Who
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ery i evel
Requirements
re ro e t
( e tives and emes)
i evel rioritised
easi ility Requirements
(Epi s and User Stories)
oundations
Evolutionary
Development
ssem le
Revie
Deploy
Deployment
74
on functional re uire ents perfor ance attributes and constraints ay also e erge at this point, but these are
e pected to beco e clearer and ore detailed throughout the project. ject. o e of the ore critical ones ay be
evident from the outset, when the Business Vision is established, and these need to be captured because they may
constrain so e of the choices for the project. .
ven at this high level, ser tories help to focus on the value of what is re uired. onsider the following pic.
For example:
“As a Human Resources Manager, I need a better way to deal with employee records, so that employee
history can be tracked including their training and career moves.”
This is more effective than the business-vague, but technically constraining statement:
“The organisation will implement a human resources system.”
he ser tory for at helps to bring out the real objectives of a ajor change.
5.6.2 Requirements activity during Foundations
uring Foundations, ore understanding of the re uire ents is needed, sufficient to clarify the scope of the
project, prioritise, esti ate and for ulate a realistic elivery lan.
ser tories defined by the end of Foundations ust be specific enough to esti ate and s all enough to fit
several ser tories into a i ebo typically 2 4 weeks . his is not the lowest level of breakdown that the project
will achieve, but by the end of Foundations, ser tories need to be just sufficient to allow for esti ates of work to
be done and to plan a schedule of i ebo es for the roject ncre ent .
At Foundations, ser tories are asse bled into a rioritised e uire ents ist . he focus should be on
describing the business need e bodied in each ser tory, in a way which does not constrain unnecessarily how
the re uire ent will be achieved.
ey non functional, general and technical re uire ents see earlier should also be considered and docu ented
during Foundations. t ay be difficult or i possible to acco odate such re uire ents, if they are discovered too
late in the project.
he is baselined at Foundations, to give a clear checkpoint for the set of re uire ents which was used for
planning. n this way, new re uire ents which e erge during develop ent are clearly identified, and their i pact
can be assessed.
uring Foundations, the Agile BA ay establish a high level odel for the structure of the business processes and
data see odelling hapter 8 and use this to create tory aps and pact aps and to group ser tories into
he es, where these are helpful.
5.6.3 Requirements Activity during Evolutionary Development
At the outset of each i ebo , the ser tories allocated to that i ebo during Foundations will be further
investigated. he ser tories fro the are broken down into ore detailed ser tories which are s all
and clear enough for the tea to work fro . he detail is only elaborated one i ebo at a ti e, and thus the
co ple ity of the re uire ents is anaged. Also, the fine detail is only elicited i ediately before that ele ent
of the solution is created. his avoids ti e being wasted on developing all areas of detail up front, only to find that
so e are de scoped or subject to change as the project progresses.
esses.
uring i ebo es, the detailed re uire ents ser tories e erge iteratively. he Agile BA captures the
appropriate levels of e erging detail within the , where not ade uately captured within test criteria, prototypes
and the volving olution itself. he Agile BA also works collaboratively with both olution evelop ent ea and
project level roles to retain the project s focus on value and priorities.
ew re uire ents ay e erge which were not identified during Foundations. he Agile BA facilitates the
consideration and i pact analysis of these and records their inclusion or otherwise in the project based on
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discussions with the Business A bassador, the rest of the olution evelop ent ea and or Business isionary.
The Agile BA will record details of, and reasons for, any lower priority requirements which are descoped by team
agree ent during volutionary evelop ent.
76
5.10 Hints and Tips for the Agile BA
Since this chapter represents the core of the role of the Agile BA, a collection of some of the key points has been
ade, as a useful checklist when gathering re uire ents.
• enti the ri ht peop e ith ho to co a orate on the capture an c ari cation o re uire ents
the Business isionary ensures that the re uire ents for the project contribute appropriately to the
realisation of the Business Vision and will normally be the best person to clearly articulate the high-
level re uire ents and the benefits e pected
the Business A bassador s and the Business Advisor s are the voices of the real end users of the
solution, and should accurately be able to supply the more detailed requirements
• Focus on the Business Vision and the objective of each increment
ake the Business ision and the objective of each incre ent clearly visible to all of those working
within the project, at all levels
if the objective is rovide day to day re ote support for sales operatives in the field , then speeding
up invoicing is not likely to be important, but information on customers’ past payment records
probably is
• Produce something visible early and keep visibility of the objectives and requirements live, up to date and
clear throughout the project
- produce pictures, diagrams and models to engage all key stakeholders within, and associated with, the
project. se these to help illustrate, co unicate and give conte t to the re uire ents listed in the
- facilitate the running of demonstrations and hands-on prototyping sessions as soon as practicable
• Facilitate and negotiate the prioritisation of all categories of requirements, at all levels as they emerge during
the project
it is never too early or too late to consider and reconsider the priorities
help the tea to define o oW and challenge the priorities to ensure true prioritisation
• Educate the user representatives in the power and practice of User Stories
gain their involve ent in the creation of their own ser tories. se their skills and facilitate the
process. on t leave it to the but e ually, do not do it all on their behalf
- enable the Business Ambassadors and Business Visionary to fully engage in their role with respect to
requirements
• n uence the p annin at a e e s to e i er so ethin o a ue to the usiness ear an incre enta
the ser tory for at will encourage this. he Agile BA s perspective of value chains will infor the
of where value can be added
• Be prepared to iterate
new re uire ents ay need to be incorporated into the solution or the throughout
• Use Facilitated Workshops to gather, prioritise and gain agreement on requirements
- workshops will enable stakeholders to appreciate each other's views and aid in agreement on the
requirements and also their priority
- when initially gathering requirements, it is usually more effective to capture some requirements by
talking with people individually and in s all groups before the first workshop, rather than starting a
workshop from a blank sheet
• Keep a good, consistent record of requirements at the level which is just enough
the includes all re uire ents functions, features, constraints, priorities and acceptance criteria
keep the in a for that is useful for both business and technical staff and ensure that the olution
evelop ent ea and roject evel roles have appropriate access
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• Recognise that the apparent composition of the PRL as “All Must Haves” may show the need to decompose
re uire ents urther to isco er their e i i it
for e a ple, a ust ave re uire ent o allow lectronic ay ents ay be deco posed into
various supported payment types and methods, each of which may have a different priority
- when prioritising requirements, be alert to the possibility that a higher level requirement which is
apparently a hould ave or ould ave re uire ent ay have lower level ust ave aspects
which need to be delivered if the higher level requirement is to be realised in a solution
- consider recording different levels of priority against requirements, to indicate their priority for the
project, incre ent and i ebo
• Docu entation shou a a s e ept to the ini u su cient to ena e the re uire ents to e
understood
test acceptance criteria should be defined as each re uire ent is established. o achieve this, the
Agile BA works closely with the Solution Tester, Solution Developer and Business Ambassador
• Documentation needs to be appropriate and accessible
it can be in several for s ser tories, structured te t pictures diagra s odels and also
prototypes
it needs to be anaged throughout the project and cross referenced to allow understanding of
dependencies and links
in larger projects especially, it ay need to be supported by an appropriate specialised software tool.
uch tools are often referred to as o puter Aided e uire ents ngineering A or o puter
Aided oftware ngineering A tools
5.11 Conclusion
This chapter considered the meaning of “requirement”, and the nature of the possible business problems they
address. here are different categories of re uire ent. he Agile techni ue of ser tories provides a useful way
to capture re uire ents and e plore their real eaning in addition to being a convenient and effective way to
break re uire ents down for planning.
e uire ents e erge in increasing detail as the project progresses. ifferent levels of ser tories for a hierarchy
of he es, pics, and ser tories. e uire ents should be e pressed along with their acceptance criteria fro the
outset.
e uire ents ust be focused on the Business ision and that linkage aintained throughout the hierarchy of
e erging re uire ents as they are elicited, further analysed and validated during the project.
e uire ents evolve and e erge in an Agile project. Analysis of the detailed re uire ents is deliberately left as
late as is sensible, to avoid unnecessary rework and to anage co ple ity. Because of this, it is i portant to obtain
agree ent to a high level baselined set of prioritised re uire ents in the . his gives scope, direction and an
appropriate degree of control for the project whilst allowing change to be e braced and controlled.
he Agile BA does not personally generate re uire ents, and is not a substitute or pro y for the real users.
owever, the Agile BA is the ain editor and facilitator of the capture of the right level of clear and appropriate
re uire ents. hey ensure that these are recorded, analysed and prioritised to eet the current business need and
Business ase at all ti es.
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6. Prioritisation
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6.1 Introduction
Delivering an agreed outcome by an agreed date without compromising quality may mean that some of the
scope originally envisaged ay have to be left until a later ti e, or even left out co pletely. t is i portant that
the essential features are co pleted, and that they are co pleted to the right uality. owever, delivering late
ay under ine the very rationale of the project, fro a business point of view. t is also essential that if vital
re uire ents e erge late in the project, they can be incorporated without co pro ising the project s ability to
deliver on time, and without forcing the Solution Development Team into an unsustainable pace of work, which in
turn could co pro ise uality. Any descoping or rescoping of the product ust be done with both business and
technical involvement and approval at the right level, and in line with the highest delivery of business value that can
be obtained in the ti e and with the resources available.
hus, effective prioritisation and reprioritisation during a project are key to delivering what is needed within ti e
and cost, and keeping the e ibility to change, without co pro ising uality.
This chapter describes why prioritisation is important and how to achieve it, including using MoSCoW prioritisation,
which was first proposed by as a way of focusing on the ini u sable ubse of re uire ents
whilst planning to deliver considerably ore than just that ini u . ust ave re uire ents can differ depending
upon the objective of the project and ini u does not necessarily ean a bare bones solution. he chapter
includes so e hints and tips for prioritisation.
80
• o oW prioritisation, representing the categories ust ave, hould ave, ould ave and Won t ave this
time, where the ust have re uire ents represent the ini u sable ubse of re uire ents that would
satisfy the Business Case
A proble e erges with the first four of these prioritisation approaches, in defining what the categories really
ean. What is the difference between a category 1 and a category 2 re uire ent What is the i plication if a
re uire ent categorised as igh is not i ple ented by a certain date oes this ean disappoint ent or is it a
disaster What defines a ighly esirable re uire ent f it is left out, does this only cause disappoint ent or will
the product be unviable without it Will the Business ase be unachievable without it
o avoid a biguity, reco ends o oW prioritisation, representing the categories ust ave, hould
ave, ould ave and Won t ave this time.
6.3.1 Prioritising using MoSCoW
o oW prioritisation is a powerful techni ue for helping stakeholders to understand and clearly define priorities,
with a shared understanding of what the priorities ean. he letters stand for
• Must ave
• Should ave
• Could ave
• Won t ave this ti e
he use of o oW works particularly well on projects. t also overco es the proble s associated with si pler
prioritisation approaches which are on relative priorities.
he specific use of ust ave, hould ave, ould ave and Won t ave this time provides a clear indication of
the i portance of an ite and the e pectations for its co pletion. t is i portant to agree the definitions with
the stakeholders, preferably before re uire ents capture begins, so that decisions can be ade objectively. he
definitions of the levels of o oW should be clarified in relation to each project, to ensure that they ake sense
in conte t. owever, the descriptions below are a good starting point.
6.3.1.1 Must Have
ust ave re uire ents co prise the ini u sable ubse often referred to as the or the of
re uire ents which the project has to deliver to be worthwhile.
he o ission of even one ust ave re uire ent eans that the project has failed to eet its ini u level. n
The reasons for this may be one of the following:
• No point in delivering on the target date without this; if this were not delivered, there would be no point in
deploying the solution on the intended date
• Not legal without it
• nsafe without it
• Cannot deliver a viable solution without it
The Agile BA should ask: “What happens if this requirement is not met?” If the answer is “cancel the project - there is
no point in implementing a solution that does not meet this requirement” then it is a ust ave re uire ent. f there
is some way of delivering an acceptable, viable solution without this requirement, even if it is by providing a manual
and painful workaround, then it is a hould ave or ould ave re uire ent. ategorising a re uire ent as a
hould ave or ould ave does not ean that it won t be delivered si ply that delivery is not guaranteed.
6.3.1.2 Should Have
hould ave re uire ents are defined as
• Important, but not vital
• May be painful to leave out, but the solution is still be viable
• ay need so e kind of workaround, e.g. anage ent of e pectations, so e inefficiency, an e isting solution,
paperwork etc. he workaround ay just be a te porary one
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ne way of differentiating a hould fro a ould ave is by reviewing the degree of pain caused by the
re uire ent not being et, easured in ter s of business value or nu bers of people affected.
6.3.1.3 Could Have
A ould ave re uire ent is defined as
• Wanted or desirable, but less i portant than re uire ents classified as ust ave and hould ave
• ess i pact on the product being delivered if it is left out, co pared with a hould ave or ust ave
These are the requirements that provide the main pool of contingency, since they will only be delivered in their
entirety in the best case scenario. When a proble occurs and the deadline is at risk, one or ore of the ould
aves provide the first choice of what is to be dropped fro this ti efra e.
6.3.1.4 Won’t Have this time
hese are re uire ents which the project tea has agreed will not be delivered as part of this ti efra e .
hey are recorded in the where they help clarify the scope of the project. his avoids the being infor ally
reintroduced at a later date. his also helps to anage e pectations that so e re uire ents will si ply not ake
it into the eployed olution, at least not this ti e around. Won t aves can be very powerful in keeping the focus
at a point in ti e on the ore i portant ould aves, hould aves and particularly the ust aves.
he Agile BA should not si ply delete any re uire ents that were captured and recorded in the at so e
point in the project these should be retained as Won t ave re uire ents and annotated with the reason why they
have been descoped or parked.
6.3.1.5 Business value of Must Have, Should Have and Could Have requirements
he assess ent of business value against ust ave re uire ents is straightforward. By definition, they are
priceless as far as the project is concerned. f they are o itted, the project fails.
Business value starts to have real eaning when considering hould ave and ould ave re uire ents. Whilst
these re uire ents can, by definition, be worked around and o itted fro the current incre ent of the solution,
the negative impact on the people continuing to work without support for them will help to determine their
relative business value. t will also help to deter ine the se uence in which they are addressed, ost i portant
beneficial first although other factors such as dependency will i pact this se uence . he techni ue of pact
apping described in hapter 8 is useful here.
6.3.2 What will be delivered?
t should be clear to all in the project that the intent of prioritisation is to deliver ore than just the ust aves
ini u sable ubse .
A project must deliver all of the ust aves, and then it should plan to deliver as any of the hould ave and
ould ave re uire ents as possible, to the right uality. owever, in the worst possible circu stances, only the
ust aves ay be delivered.
he o oW approach is intended to allow a high degree of confidence in the delivery of at least the ini u
sable ubse of re uire ents. reco ends that ust ave re uire ents should not e ceed 6 of the
esti ated effort, with hould ave and ould ave re uire ents aking up the other 4 .
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Prioritisation
Typically
6.3.1.4 Won’t Have this time no more
than
60% effort
Should Have
6.3.1.5 Business value of Must Have, Should Have and Could Have requirements
Could Have
Typically
around
20% effort
he Business ponsor can reasonably e pect ore than just the ust aves to be delivered, e cept under the
6.3.2 ostWhat
challenging
will of
becircu stances. f hould aves and ould aves are split evenly, then the ust ave and
delivered?
hould aves in co bination, would represent no ore than 8 of the total effort. his allows a good level
of contingency. hus, o oW prioritisation, co bined with retrospection of achieve ent at the end of every
i ebo , allows better predictability of delivery and therefore greater confidence. eeping project etrics to show
the percentage of hould aves and ould aves delivered on each incre ent or i ebo will either reinforce this
confidence, if things are going well, or provide an early warning that so e i portant re uire ents ay not be et.
he Agile BA will work with the rest of the tea to capture appropriate etrics.
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For e ample in a hotel oo in s stem the chec -in process has een classi ed as a M st ave
However, the oom n uiry feature has been classified as a Should Have, since this was deemed
to be a marketing feature which could wait until later.
However, on closer inspection, the room enquiry feature is also integral to allocating rooms on
check-in and so is a Must Have for this purpose..
e uire ents which, on first inspection, see ed to be lower priority ay need to be reclassified as ust aves, to
avoid co pro ising the ust ave re uire ent. rocess apping techni ues using swi lanes show the end to
end ow of the process and can be useful here to highlight such dependencies hapter 8 .
84
Perception (customer satisfaction)
+ve
WOW
Delighters / exciters
0% 100%
Satisfiers
WILL
Dissatisfiers
-ve
Figure 6b: The Kano model
pecte eatures ( i )
custo ers that they will be included. f they are not present in the product, it will cause dissatisfaction and non
acceptance.
owever, they will typically only evoke indifference when they are actually et he custo er s response will be,
“Well, that’s what is expected. It wouldn’t even be a viable product without that.”
hese needs are often just assu ed, and ay be so obvious that they are not even stated. owever, they are
critical to the acceptance of the product. Without the it will be rejected.
Example:
The car will have an engine. It will start.
or a eatures ( ant)
hese are the satisfiers features that need to be present, but they can only satisfy or dissatisfy the custo er with
their presence or absence they cannot be e pected to thrill the custo er.
hese are usually stated by the custo er rather than taken for granted. f they were not stated, their absence will
be recognised the first ti e the custo er sees the product.
Examples:
I want a car with 4 doors, not just two
I want a car with average fuel consumption
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citers ( o )
hese features evoke the highest level of custo er satisfaction and are ter ed elighters or citers . hey
ay not be e pressly stated by the custo er at first, but are ways of thrilling the custo er. hey ay be the very
features which result in the custo er s decision to buy the product.
Examples:
“This car will not need re-fuelling - ever? Wow!”
“This car will never break down? Wow!”
he Agile BA ust be careful in interpreting such re uire ents, as what a a es and delights one custo er ay
leave another co pletely indifferent or even dissatisfied.
Example:
“This car has a speed-limiter for safety, which means it can never be driven faster than the national speed
limit.”
In addition, over time and with the maturity of a product, wows become wants, and wants eventually become wills.
For e a ple, a obile telephone was once a a ing just because it allowed the aking of calls without a wired
connection. As ti e passes, this is just taken for granted, and what were once wow
w features, such as a touch screen,
have beco e nor al.
he ano odel s perspectives can be used very effectively alongside o oW prioritisation, to help to define
what are the real ust ave, hould ave and ould ave re uire ents in relation to the Business ision and the
objective of the incre ent.
86
etrics should be kept for each i ebo , regarding the proportion of hould ave and ould ave re uire ents
being delivered, in order to have an ongoing predictive estimate of the likely percentage delivery for the whole
project.
It is important to clarify and agree escalation or decision-making processes for prioritisation issues and to agree
the level of e power ent around decision aking about priorities at each level. he olution evelop ent ea
typically has the authority to descope ould ave re uire ents, by agree ent of the tea . owever, the change
of priority of a ust ave re uire ent, or the likelihood of non delivery of ust ave and if necessary hould
ave re uire ents is typically treated as a project escalation issue and has to be referred to the Business isionary
and potentially a wider group of stakeholders for approval.
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6.9 Conclusion
rioritisation is the way to keep a project on ti e and on budget in a changing environ ent, without losing
uality. he o oW techni ue is reco ended by as the best approach for establishing a co on
understanding about the relative i portance and status of re uire ents, in ter s of their inclusion in the final
product. o oW is used to prioritise what is to be delivered. he ust aves together will for a coherent
ini u sable ubse of the solution.
are ust be taken to avoid the perception that only ust aves are scheduled to be co pleted. he Agile BA
ust help the project personnel and a wider group of stakeholders to understand that, whilst a ini u sable
ubse is identified, this does not ean that the Agile project will only a deliver the bare ini u solution. he
perspectives provided by the ano odel can give insight into the appropriate o oW levels and help to avoid
this perception.
In addition to MoSCoW prioritisation, sequencing the requirements in terms of value and risk can protect value for
oney and reduce the risk of failure.
he holds the agreed priorities, for s a baseline for project scope and for s the central repository for
infor ation about re uire ents it is aintained and enhanced throughout the project by the Agile BA.
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7. Workshops
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7.1 Introduction
Workshops are a key Agile practice. hey are a specialised type of eeting with
• lear objective deliverables
• A set of people articipants specifically chosen and e powered to deliver the re uired outco e
• An independent person Workshop Facilitator , to enable the effective achieve ent of the objective
Facilitated Workshops are a proven techni ue to ensure collaboration, rich co unication and the achieve ent of
results with speed, co it ent and buy in.
n a Facilitated Workshop, a neutral Facilitator is responsible for the structure and conte t of the event. hey guide
the group through a process which enables the to work together effectively, to achieve an agreed goal.
his chapter focusses on the Facilitated Workshop within Agile projects, and identifies the ore co on types of
Workshops in which the Agile BA ay be involved during a project.
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A team-based information gathering A place where a specific job of work is done …
and decision making technique and a product produced.
Interactive communication
Empowered personnel
Independent facilitator
exchange
views
consensus decisions
deliverables
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Workshop
Observer(s)
Owner
Participants
Workshop Workshop
Facilitator Scribe(s)
Workshop
Co-facilitator
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7.7 Features of Agile Facilitated Workshops
he following are co on features of Facilitated Workshops
• The right, empowered people, arriving prepared to produce the outcome
• Active participation encouraged by collaborative group activity within the Workshop
• A trained, independent Facilitator
• Visible recording of the Workshop results as they emerge during the event
• Workshop results available without delay after the Workshop
The right,
empowered
people, arriving
prepared to
produce the
product
Circulation Active participa-
within 24 to 48 tion encouraged
hours of the by collaborative
workshop results group exercises
to all within the
participants workshop
Visible recording
of the workshop A trained,
results as they independent
emerge during facilitator
the event
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7.9.3 Facilitate the Workshop - run the Workshop
roun ru es
t is useful, at the start of the Workshop, to agree a few basic guidelines for interaction ground rules that the
group are co fortable with, to enable effective and collaborative working. etting agree ent on these and aking
them visible throughout the Workshop will help everyone to stay on track, work as a team and should reduce the
potential for con ict.
o e typical ground rules ite s would cover ti ekeeping dealing with different views decision aking
confidentiality participation use of obile devices.
Some sample guidelines are:
• Please be on time - as timescales are constrained
• espect the views of others
• ne conversation at a ti e
• ach individual in the group has a responsibility to aintain focus
• hones technology off silent
To ensure everyone’s buy-in, the following questions can be asked:
• What will ake this Workshop a success
• What responsibility will you take to ake this happen
• ow do you want to work behave treat one another
• ow do you want to work with the Facilitator
7.9.3.2 Focusing the Workshop
he Facilitator is there to ensure that the Workshop is clearly focused. he agenda for the Workshop is sent out
beforehand and should be kept visible throughout the Workshop. uring the Workshop, an agenda will act as a
road ap, providing checkpoints for progress.
7.9.4 Facilitate the Workshop - Workshop retrospective
he effectiveness of every Workshop should be e a ined just before the end, and any lessons learnt fed back into
the operation of future workshops. n particular, did the Workshop eet its objectives fully or only partially did all
articipants contribute to the process did it run to ti e
7.9.5 Document the Workshop
ne of the risks to the success of workshops is that, after the event, people s e ories of what was agreed often
differ. t is good practice to ensure that workshop outco es are kept visible during the Workshop, and are available
to all i ediately after the Workshop. his ay be in the for of a Workshop eport, or ay just co prise
photographs of workshop artefacts taken at the end of the Workshop, as appropriate to the purpose, risk and
objectives of the Workshop. he cribe typically ensures that this happens. he report should faithfully re ect
what the articipants have seen and agreed during the Workshop. ne of the best ways to do this is to take
photographs of the Workshop artefacts, as they appear in the participants own handwriting.
A Workshop eport should not be inutes of the eeting . t should re ect decisions, actions, and the artefacts
on which the articipants have worked. t should typically contain
• Participants, date, time, location
• he outco e and objective of the Workshop
• Decisions
• Actions and owners to whom they are assigned
• Any open issues
• he output of the Workshop itself as appropriate
• he process used as appropriate
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7.12 Conclusion
Facilitated Workshops are a particularly effective way to engage a group of people to achieve a particular purpose
uickly. hey need to involve the appropriate e powered articipants to eet the Workshop s objectives.
For success, a Facilitated Workshop should have
• A trained and skilled Facilitator
• A format suited to the culture of the organisation
• A clear, agreed agenda, allowing e ibility in the for at of the Workshop, but with clearly defined objectives
• Preparation before the Workshop by all parties
• A mechanism for ensuring that previous Workshop results are built in
• A solution or agree ent which is not forced. f the Workshop articipants cannot agree on a point perhaps
due to lack of infor ation within the Workshop, the Facilitator should seek a solution fro the group to
remedy the shortfall
• Appropriate recording and timely distribution of the Workshop outputs
• A review at the end of each Workshop, to check that it et its objectives
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8. Modelling
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8.1 Introduction
Modelling refers to the diagrams, sketches, illustrations, built artefacts and prototypes, which make visible a situation
we want to co unicate to others. hey ay show a current situation, a proposed option for change, or
so ething that has been developed for future use. hey provide an early eans of checking that a desired solution
is being developed as re uired. hey assist analysis and re uire ents definition. hey ay be used to aid the
support of the solution once it has been delivered. o e odels will also be useful as input to future projects.
The purpose of modelling is typically to:
• Improve visibility
• Create transparency
• Generate questions
• efine business rules
• Check completeness
• Crosscheck consistency
any industries benefit fro the use of odels, prototypes and ock ups to establish re uire ents, confir
e pectations and test the achievability of objectives. he odelling approaches used can be as different as
• A storyboard to represent a television advertisement
• An architectural blueprint to define a housing develop ent
• An artist’s impression of a landscaped park
• A scale model of a car to be built
• A business process diagra to establish the current As s situation or define the re uired functionality of a
future o Be solution
For e a ple, in a software related project, diagra s ay be drawn to establish processes and their dependencies.
Later, screens may be presented as “mock-ups” with no real functionality yet built, in order to check understanding
of the re uire ent these screens ay then be refined and agreed with those who will use the . he screens ay
evolve into the real screens of the final solution.
This chapter describes some of the different types of model and diagram that are commonly used, with a bias
towards projects with a software ele ent.
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8.3 Target Audience for Models
he target audience for our co unications in an Agile project includes
• he project level roles
• The Solution Development Team
• A wider group of stakeholders affected by the project and the eployed olution
hese people will co e fro a wide range of technical and business disciplines.
specifically advocates that we co unicate continuously and clearly, using visual co unication. he
Agile BA will do this and also go beyond, encouraging “rich communication”, which takes account of people’s
different co unication styles visual, auditory and kinaesthetic ore about these in hapter 9 . An essential
part of co unication is the process of sending and receiving infor ation effectively. Awareness of different
co unication styles allows us to co unicate with people ore successfully. f we send infor ation to people
in a way that does not suit their style for receiving it, we may not communicate at all, or worse, we may only
co unicate part of what we believe we have conveyed.
If you have ever heard anyone say:
• t was all in the docu ent. t see s she didn t bother to read it
• e just didn t listen
• hey ve seen those screens five ti es in de onstrations and said they were fine. ow they ve had their hands
on a prototype, they’re spotting all sorts of errors”
• f people just tried to do it, they d see why it s a proble
...then the co unication was probably being atte pted in just one style, or in the wrong style for the receiver.
o achieve effective co unication, any odes of co unication ay need to be used. odelling is one of
these, and ay be shared by the Agile BA and other disciplines within the project.
It is important that the level of detail and the language used in any models is appropriate for the target audience
and the disciplines they represent, as Agile works with tea s of i ed specialis s and e perience. he
effectiveness of any particular odelling approach for its different receivers ust be considered. he a ount of
ti e and effort put into odelling should be onitored, and should be just enough to satisfy the purpose of the
odel and achieve the necessary co unication.
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odels are used to aid co unication and are not an end in the selves.
When docu enting odels, a photograph of a sketch on a whiteboard ay be fit for purpose and does not always
need to be converted into so ething elaborate or auto ated.
AS IS The Gap TO BE
what
when
where
how
who
why
PHYSICAL
CONCEPTUAL
what
why
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When analysing a business area, the Agile BA needs to lead the team in discovering the gap between the current
situation As s and the desired future situation o Be . he objective is a solution to satisfy re uire ents and
fulfil the project s Business ase. odels can be powerful in pro oting a co on understanding of the current
situation and allowing visualisation of the proposed solution, including various options for this. hese perspectives
are often a way of e pressing the voice of the custo er and the custo er journey. ee below the use of
storyboards for e pressing the custo er journey.
odels are often developed during a series of Facilitated Workshops, in order to gain input fro appropriate
stakeholders and to achieve buy in.
any odelling approaches are available, and so e of the ore co on ones are outlined below. he sa e
odels ay be appropriate for both the As s and o Be . A project seldo relates to a first ti e change where
no odelling has gone before. odelling should be viewed with the prospect that so e o Be odels will be
useful as the As s situation for subse uent develop ents. When a si ple As s diagra is in place, further detail
can be added to describe the changes re uired for the o Be situation.
he Agile BA ay choose to create odels fro so e or all of these perspectives, if it is useful to do so. t is
worth checking during a project whether any perspective has been issed as this ay indicate an area that
re uires further analysis.
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WHY
WHERE
WHO
WHAT HOW
WHEN
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usiness Process Mo e an otation ( PM )
he Business rocess odel and otation B was developed by Business rocess anage ent nitiative
B and is aintained by the bject anage ent roup . t supports business process anage ent
for technical and business users and bridges the communication gap between business process design and
i ple entation.
ts diagra s are si ilar in appearance to owcharts and Activity diagra s, showing the ow of activities within
business processes. t is appropriate to odelling business process and enabling business process i prove ent. t
offers a way to create blueprints, including components such as:
• he people involved with the business processes actors
• The processes and activities
• The locations where the process will be operated
he Business rocess odelling with swi lanes, described later in this chapter, is an ele ent of this language.
ni e Mo e in an ua e ( M )
he nified odelling anguage is used to specify, visualise, construct and docu ent particularly the
artefacts of a software intensive develop ent project. owever, it is also possible to use it at a high level to odel
business processes, to enable business process i prove ent, even without software develop ent. offers a
standard way to create blueprints, including components such as:
• eople involved with the product actors
• Processes
• Data
• Locations where the product will be operated
• Infrastructure that the product will be run on
Four basic principles of odelling underpin
• very odel ay be e pressed at different levels of precision
• The best models are connected to reality
• o single odel is sufficient
• very non trivial solution is best approached through a s all set of independent odels
diagra s can be used to gain an understanding of a business area and the features re uired. t can then
be used to guide the creation of other artefacts, such as software co ponents. hese ay first be presented as
working prototypes which, when refined and tested, will evolve into the eventual solution.
Business rocess odelling, Business o ain odelling and se ases, shown later, use ele ents of this language.
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he definition of why business objectives and rationale for the idea for s the er s of eference for the
project. he Agile BA will clarify the scope of the project, often by drawing a high level diagra conte t diagra .
he style of this diagra ay be a ich icture, which also helps to identify potential stakeholder groups. At this
point, models from a previous solution in the same business area may be a useful shortcut to understanding the
proble and clarifying the objective. A very rough, high level prototype of the initial ideas ay be used, to help
stakeholders to understand what is being proposed.
8.8.2 Feasibility
n Feasibility, odels are likely to support a relatively si ple, big picture view of what is being proposed, to
e plore possibilities and help co unicate options. Feasibility prototypes ay be used to help establish what is
possible from a technical perspective, as well as helping to visualise what a solution might look like from a business
perspective.
Communication is mostly with the organisation’s strategic planners, the Business Sponsor and key stakeholders
here, and any odels prototypes or diagra s intended to infor or engage the ust be in the right business
focussed language and presentation.
A high level diagra onte t iagra ich icture ay be useful here, to clarify the scope and boundaries of the
project. A nu ber of solution options are usually being considered, and ay result in several sets of very high level
odels. hese ay be fro a conceptual perspective, initially o itting the how, when, where and who perspectives.
ater odels will show the different physical perspectives of proposed o Be solution options.
A Feasibility prototype ay illustrate potential solutions or ay act as a roof of oncept. his could include
diagra s and or working prototypes to convey the different options being considered.
8.8.3 Foundations
uring Foundations, ore precise and elaborate odels ay be created. hese odels will help co unicate
plans and intentions to a variety of audiences. odels of business process and business organisation as they are
today and as they are proposed for the future ay be valuable as ight high level designs of technical solutions
such as syste architecture odels and data odels. At this point, odels and prototypes can be used to clarify
scope and support high level planning by revealing o issions, inconsistencies and dependencies.
Good communication is still essential with the organisation’s strategic planners, the Business Sponsor and key
stakeholders. Any odels prototypes or diagra s intended for the ust continue be in the appropriate
language and presentation.
he cross functional olution evelop ent ea is now beginning to work on the definition and prioritisation of
the high level re uire ents. odelling here can help to structure the rioritised e uire ents ist and give an
understanding of the structure of the project s outline design.
Modelling from all of the perspectives: what, where, when, how, who, why is useful here. igh level solution odels
will be sufficient to e plore dependencies and to enable esti ates to be ade for planning. A onte t iagra
evolving fro Feasibility, and now concentrated on the chosen solution option will help to co unicate the
scope of the solution and highlight areas out of scope.
igh level odels should be used to analyse the whole breadth of the proposed solution, but not in too uch
detail at this point. nd to end process diagra s of the solution will often be useful. he current situation ay also
be odelled. odels drawn here will be invaluable as a guide for the incre ental delivery of the solution and as an
aid to eploy ent. owever, the te ptation to dive deep into the fine details of the solution should be avoided,
leaving the detail until i ebo es during volutionary evelop ent.
A solution prototype ay also be constructed here, often as a disposable prototype. e uire ents and processes
ay be odelled, in diagra s, to show the dependencies between the .
8.8.4 Evolutionary Development
uring volutionary evelop ent, it is likely that, where they add on going value, high level odels will continue
to be evolved in ter s of depth and detail as a way of helping to e plore the detail of re uire ents and ways that
these ay be et as part of the volving olution. Where appropriate, odels ay be developed that will help
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with eploy ent and with on going operation and support of the solution in live use.
he cross functional olution evelop ent ea is now working on the detailed evolution of the solution. odels
fro Foundations and the rioritised e uire ents ist help to retain focus on the overall structure of the project.
iagra s illustrating the end to end process, and single user perspectives ay be evolved here.
volving technical detail ust be presented clearly to aid solution develop ent. odels here often need to be
technical, precise and detailed, and are intended for a technical audience only.
With DSDM, there will usually be many increments to be deployed, and therefore many elements of the models
will evolve fro previous odels.
8.8.5 Deployment
In Deployment, it is unlikely that many new models will be created but some that were created to help with
eploy ent will be used at this ti e and ay be refined for future project incre ents where applicable. n
addition, odels created to help operate and support the solution ay be refined as it transitions into live use.
o ponent odels of the e isting situation As s will be usef
useful along with the ore detailed odels of the
eployable olution o Be . odels fro the user perspectives of how the solution will be used are helpful in
linking users to the ele ents of the solution related to the . he eployed olution is the working, i ple ented
version of what is, effectively the final prototype. on i ple entable odels, such as diagra s, can provide user
and support aintenance docu entation.
8.8.6 Post-Project
n ost roject, the odels used to help to operate and support the solution will continue to be refined in line
with any changes to the eployed olution over ti e.
It should be emphasised here that the above phases are not always serial. Also, none of the models are mandatory, but
should be used when they are an aid to understanding and communication, or where they support evolution of a solution.
Additionally, models should not replace face-to-face communication.
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7 Personas People
ach of the techni ues in the above table is outlined below. t is beyond the scope of this book to give full detail of
every techni ue. owever, it is intended to give sufficient detail to allow the Agile BA to identify techni ues which
ay be useful to the , for further study.
8.9.1.1 Business Canvas/Lean Canvas
A Business Canvas, or Lean Canvas, is a template that allows the consideration of the big picture of a business, or
business area, on a single page. As a ean anvas, it can be used to look at the big picture for a product or service
and for a project to create or enhance this. t pro pts the Agile BA to identify and list the key aspects of the
business area under study his techni ue is attributed to Ash aurya Ale sterwalder .
For a ean anvas, the usual headings are
• Problem - Top 3 problems your idea will solve
• Solution op 3 Features
• Metrics ey easures of the features
• Unique Value Proposition - Single clear message - why your product is different and worth buying
• Unfair Advantage - What can’t be easily bought or copied about your idea
• Customer Segments - Target customer groups
• Channels - The ways you get your product to customers
• Costs ey ele ents of cost of production, arketing etc.
• Revenue Streams nvest ent Appraisal ow does the occur, when and how uch
his odel assists in the production of the Business ase and clarification of the Business ision. t helps to define
the product or service which the project is to produce and includes a high level stakeholder analysis.
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The
Lean
Canvas
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
UNIQUE
VALUE
UNFAIR
CUSTOMER
Top
3
problems
your
Top
3
Features
PROPOSITION
ADVANTAGE
SEGMENTS
idea
will
solve
Single
clear
message
-‐ What
can’t
be
Target
customer
why
your
product
is
easily
bought
or
groups
different
and
worth
copied
about
your
buying
idea
METRICS
CHANNELS
Key
measures
of
The
ways
you
get
the
features
your
product
to
customers
ustomer
ustomer um er
ustomer ame
ustomer ddress
ustomer elep one um er
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e uire ents investigation should incorporate so e for of Business o ain odelling to study the underlying
data structure of the area of the business under investigation. his could typically be represented in the for of a
lass odel, as shown above, or an ntity elationship iagra .
The Business Domain Model shows the groups of data which the business recognises as important in the area of
study, and the relationships associations between the . he lass odelling notation used here is also used in
a ore detailed way in a software develop ent environ ent, to describe aspects of the database of a solution.
owever, the Agile BA can use this techni ue at a higher level, in order to investigate the relationships between
data recognised at a business level, and to uncover business rules.
The Business Domain Model below shows:
• Classes groupings of data which belong together, for e a ple, groups of custo ers, orders, order ite s, etc.
hey are represented by rectangles, co prising three areas lass a e, Attributes and perations specific to
that particular class. he Agile BA would be ostly concerned with lass and Attributes during Business o ain
Modelling
• Associations hese are the relationships between the groups of data, and are represented by lines joining the
• Multiplicities hese are the nu bers on the lines, see graphic below and show how any ite s in each lass
ay be associated with ite s in another lass. For e a ple, one custo er ay have any orders. ne order
ay have any order ite s. he nu bers represent the ini u and a i u nu ber of one ite in a lass
that can be associated with ite s in another lass. f there is no li it, this is represented by an asterisk
The power of the Business Domain Model for the Agile BA is in uncovering business rules and constraints related
to the data, in relation to already-discovered, necessary processes and events, to ensure that data is present to
service these and that processes are available to aintain the integrity of the data.
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usiness Process Dia ra s (usin s i anes)
Teller Completed
Transaction
Transaction Details
Central System
Overnight
Archive Transactions
ustomer
Central System
Transaction
Details
Archive Transactions
Overnight
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A graphical format for presentation and analysis of scenarios of working in the business is the Business Process
iagra so eti es called a Business rocess Flow iagra . hese diagra s use a owcharting notation and
swi lanes to odel the ow of processes activities and tasks across different business areas and or job roles. he
swi lanes show by who or where the individual activities are perfor ed, in an overall, end to end, process.
At a high level, these diagra s ay just include the key processes, and the swi lanes in which they occur. At a
more detailed level, they can show the event which triggers the process, and the detailed actors, tasks, decisions and
ti elines. As with the other techni ues, the Agile BA can use these in a hierarchical way, starting with a high level
view and then breaking that down to lower levels, as ore detail e erges. he diagra above shows a high level
Business rocess iagra , with tasks in a ti e se uence.
The value of the Business Process Diagram to the Agile BA is its ability to clearly show the processes involved,
across several business areas or job roles. hey are useful for describing both As s and o Be processes.
he As s Business rocess odel can give insight into where effort is being wasted. rocesses can then be
redesigned for greater value.
onte t (Scopin ) Dia ra
A onte t diagra is a si ple picture of the scope of the study or change, with focus on showing the interfaces,
rather than the detail within the area of change. t typically shows an e pty bo , with just a na e for the area
under study, as the boundary of the area under study, and the e ternal entities as as shown below.
his odel assists in the setting and co unication of scope and the identification of stakeholders, especially those
interfacing with the area of change.
Publisher
Book
Author Ordering Customer
System
Courier
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8.9.1.5 Customer Journey Mapping
usto er ourney apping is the odelling of a possible journey through an e isting or proposed service fro the
custo er s perspective. A blank journey worksheet and a set of cards representing the touchpoints are needed.
he apping usually starts by asking the participants to choose a custo er persona. hen they define a goal for
this persona and identify the touchpoints that persona has with the organisation’s service that allows the goal to be
reached. he custo er s e perience across the different touchpoints can then be analysed.
usto er ourney apping is ideal for a Facilitated Workshop, and ay use storyboards, rich pictures or large scale
graphical presentations of a journey to facilitate the capture of the se uence of activities and touchpoints that are
part of the custo er s e perience.
nce the journey has been apped, the resulting picture can be used to highlight the gaps, issues and
opportunities, both fro the perspective of the custo er and the provider.
Home
Destination
Customer
Before Customs
Airport
Experience
Behind Customs
Behind Customs
In Flight
Boarding
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Individuals;
Training Managers Actors
Who
8.9.1.7 Personas
A ersona is the hu an role of an actor in our solution. ser tories and se ases can be linked together into
usage scenarios which describe real world e a ples of one or ore of the typical people who will interact with
the solution. hese representations of typical people are called ersonas .
Creating a Persona involves identifying each potential user of the solution, and considering them as a real person, or
category of person, including their likes, dislikes, concerns and needs.
ersona descriptions can be high level or very detailed. hey will use real na es rather than just the user role e.g.
ales lerk . ather than choosing na es at rando , it ay be helpful to use alliteration for the personas e.g.
ynthia lerk i on tudent o y utor so that it is easier to understand and re e ber their role.
ersonas should see real, and should include a photograph, a brief biography, profile, likes and dislikes.
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For example:
in relation to a course-booking
Persona: Fiona Fresher
Fiona is a 17 year old student, just starting university. She still lives locally with her parents. She is
feeling worried about finding the courses for which she has previously registered, and arriving on
campus but not being able to find the right room or building. She has a computer, and is studying
English. She would prefer courses with an appealing content and is particularly interested in drama
and media studies as subsidiary subjects. She spends her spare time reading books. She loves
Twitter and Facebook and has many friends
When considering Personas, it is good to also include “anti-Personas” and “mis-use cases” to model threats and risks
to the syste e.g. a kiver .
For example:
Persona: Sam Skiver
Sam is an 18 year old student in his first year at university. He likes to drink bottled lager, and play
computer games on the internet until the early hours of the morning. He can’t cook and although
he lives in catered student accommodation, he has never been up in time for breakfast. Sam has
few friends, other than his followers on Twitter and those he has met in a virtual reality role-playing
games. Ideally, he would not register for any course that started before midday. He would prefer
courses with the least amount of course work and the maximum amount of credits so that he can
do the bare minimum to get his degree
he benefit of ersonas is the realis of developing and testing re uire ents fro ultiple different perspectives.
he Agile BA is responsible for facilitating the involve ent of the right people. aving identified ersonas, it ay
be useful to formulate focus groups of real users, covering the different personas, to review and test the solution
during its develop ent.
17 year old student, just starting university 18 year old student in his first year at university
lives locally with her parents e likes to drink beer
has a computer few friends
many friends Plays computer games until late
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he bo can be odelled on the actual sales packaging of other products, si ilar or even dissi ilar to create
variety and sti ulate creativity .
For the bo , the group will usually consider
• Front
- Name
- Picture or drawing
A slogan or strap line for the product e.g. oca ola, the real thing
ni ue selling points
• Back, sides, top, bottom:
- A more detailed view
- Pre-requisites
Benefits
- Warranty
- Cost
- Version number
Warnings and constraints e.g. ell by date
- Instructions:
ow to use
ow to store
ow to get support
- Legal aspects
he techni ue and the Workshop environ ent pro ote discussion and collaboration and help to set priorities.
at s on t e rodu t o
ame arnin s onstraints
ene its (Sell y)
arranty nstru tions
ost o to use
ersion num er o to store
e al aspe ts
et
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8.9.1.9 Rich Picture
A ich icture is a si ple way of co unicating ideas, or e pressing issues or proble s visually. he idea was first
used by eter heckland. When developing a solution to a business proble , it is essential to understand its vital
co ponents. hese ay be fro any or all of the si perspectives above why, what, when, where, how, who.
ich pictures typically co unicate not only the objective infor ation such as actors, data, processes and their
dependencies, but also softer infor ation about relationship proble s and potential con icts.
he picture is typically structured rather like a ind ap, but with no for al synta . he Agile BA ay start with
a short problem statement and then to place all the relevant components of the problem around it, pictorially, with
arrows to link related or connected co ponents and keywords to highlight particular ele ents.
he benefit of the ich icture is its e ibility of for at that allows it to be designed to co unicate best with its
chosen target audience.
ld ers
e o
E
pe
Sta ed Desi n n
ta
tio
o
ns
e t
St
rofit
ives
an
Long term
dar
reputation
ds
eed more
time
ern
s
ar e
ents
Strate y
ar et
dministration
Do um
Resear er
or
inte
don t ha e
f on y ra
ompetitor enough time to
had more tion
ompanies ta to users
po erfu too s s
tin
ar e
ood o
on epts
irt Cheap
ro lems
tion
s e oder
Solu nalyst ocus
ias
nalysis
Speci cation e a p e
t is often difficult for the intended users of a solution to specify what they need precisely, in words and pictures,
before they have any ental i age of how the solution ight look or work. pecification by a ple is intended to
facilitate the process of arriving at a solution by illustrating the options for a solution as prototypes. hese ay be as
si ple as a spreadsheet ock up of a report. hey enable the user and the Agile BA to work with developers to
understand the proble and produce a solution which best fits the real business need. ojko Ad ic has identified
seven process patterns followed by co panies that continuously deliver valuable software. hese are
• Deriving scope from goals the Agile BA works within the olution evelop ent ea to define the
re uire ent by e a ple, starting fro the desired business effect
• Specifying collaboratively - the Agile BA as part of the Solution Development Team discovers the detail of the
solution collaboratively, by e a ple
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• Illustrating using examples - the Agile BA and the rest of the Solution Development Team clarify the detailed
solution during i ebo es, using e a ples to define what the solution needs to do. hese e a ples can replace
a fuller re uire ents specification
• e nin the speci cations discussion of key e a ples within the olution evelop ent ea builds a shared
understanding of the requirement and its acceptance criteria
• Auto atin a i ation ithout chan in speci cations - the Solution Tester can build tests based on the
agreed, refined e a ples. he key e a ples can be used to validate the product and aid deploy ent
• Validating the system frequently the syste can be validated fre uently, based on the e a ples. uality is
therefore built-in
• Evolving living documentation specification by e a ple provides key e a ples, which evolve with the solution
and are understandable to all team members
8.9.1.11 Storyboards/Wireframes
A storyboard is a series of pictures, a si ple fra e by fra e illustration of a scenario or series of actions.
Storyboards are similar in style to comic strips and are powerful because they are an accessible and straightforward
eans of co unication. hey can also use visual language in sophisticated and subtle ways, offering different
viewpoints, or showing e otions e.g. the angry, co plaining custo er the happy holiday aker .
hose involved in creating fil s will often use this techni ue to illustrate the se uence of actions within a scene.
In business, storyboards are a useful tool for getting people to plan and visualise ideas, and for communicating a
new way of working. hey are often used to e press the custo er journey, either for the As s situation or o
Be . usto er journeys cut across functions and incorporate touch points with any processes.
There are two main types of storyboard:
• Presentation storyboards these are useful for showing a process se uence to a custo er or end user. hey
are typically a fra e by fra e presentation of each step. resentation storyboards can be useful as a ore
for al ich icture, to illustrate an intended solution, in a non technical way
• Solution Storyboards these are a ore detailed view of the solution being developed, but at a high level. n
an solution, working storyboards ay co prise Wirefra e iagra s of screen layouts. hey ay be used,
for e a ple, for planning and co unicating the se uence and layout of screens in a solution. his ay be done
before a working prototype is built. Wirefra es can be useful to illustrate the shape of a solution, before the
final aspects of the solution are co plete, as a confir ation of the functional aspects of each screen
he Agile BA can use storyboards to bring a solution to life, and to check the structure before significant work is
e pended on the solution.
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Fro the Agile BA s perspective, se ases provide a convenient visual techni ue to show the scope of what will
be in a develop ent, and provide a powerful aid to understanding and structuring re uire ents. hey can be used
to structure ser tory apping e plained below .
8.9.1.13 User Story Mapping
ser tories were described fully in hapter 5. hey are a useful approach to re uire ents because they address
re uire ents fro the perspective of the user role or roles which need the . owever, there can be a large
nu ber of ser tories for any one develop ent. his leads to the danger that they represent a disorganised
heap of work they need to be structured in so e way. A ser tory ap is a visual way of showing the links and
relationships between the individual user stories. t allows a focus on the bigger picture and provides a structure
within which to group the individual user stories. t helps to show priorities and dependencies, which do not stand
out in a pure te tual list of re uire ents.
ser tory aps help to visibly define the content of planned releases of a solution, to confir that the end to
end functionality is delivered coherently. his helps to ensures that the functionality delivered incre entally will
provide groups of features which together provide real business value for the users represented by identifying
the ini u sable ubse also known as the ini u arketable Features F or ini u iable
roduct , as identified fro the ser tory ap .
ser tory aps can be used to depict the end to end functionality of a he e. hey can be odelled alongside
the high level se ase iagra s, using se ases as the top level structure for the ser tory ap.
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number:
Project id: Story Story short name: Priority:
Manage Manage
Epics Provide Provide
Payments House-
Room Meals
and Debts keeping
User
Stories
Detailed
User
Stories
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Resources An Organisation
ana ement
Labour
Markets
Engineering Production Finance Marketing Sales and
Support
alue Stream ( ore usiness ro ess)
Research
Community
Se ond alue Stream
Vendors
(Suppliers)
ompetition
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• o unicates the various levels of detail appropriate to business users, project level and olution evelop ent
ea roles and the wider group of stakeholders.
• olds the overall role of uardian of those odels that persist and beco e the delivered solution, to act as
the “As Is” models for subsequent developments and to support post-implementation enhancements in an Agile
way
8.12 Conclusion
Whatever the product or business solution being developed, DSDM recommends an iterative, incremental and
collaborative approach to odelling, to be adopted by the Agile BA and the other e bers of the project
tea , following the ifecycle. his approach places a high de and on co unication, but also gives great
co unication benefits.
• advocates clear and continuous co unication. he develop ent of odels is a key ele ent of this
and for s a significant part of the Agile BA s skill set. odels should be developed iteratively, taking a top down
approach to detail and odelling fro the si different perspectives
• The Agile BA should bear in mind that models should always be an aid and not a bureaucratic overhead
• There should always be a clear focus on addressing the intended audience, using models which they will
understand
• There must be an emphasis on using models to enhance the effectiveness of communication for all team
members and users at all levels of the development process
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• The use of models, and the formality with which they are created and reviewed, will depend on the nature
of the project in ter s of overall co ple ity and on the skills and e perience of the tea and business
representatives such as Business A bassador and Business Advisor. does not specify what odels should
be created, nor which odelling techni ues should be used, although there are so e well defined, standard
odelling approaches. he si plest rules are do what works for the project and the organisation capitalise on
the skills which e ist within the organisation use diagra s and odels to establish a co on language between
the teams; do “enough” modelling and no more
• Models can be used to make visible the overall picture at a high level, and then to help to break down the
project into co prehensible chunks that are easier to anage than the whole and can be handled incre entally.
odelling helps people to visualise co ple things. n , they can then be used as a basis for incre ent and
i ebo planning
• he objective is always the develop ent of a working solution, or part of the solution, as soon as possible.
owever, an appropriate a ount of design up front F in the Feasibility and Foundation phases and a
few well chosen odels and prototypes throughout the project s iterations can save the cost of e pensive
communication errors
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9. Timeboxing
and Iterative
Development
1
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9.1 Introduction
i ebo ing and terative evelop ent are key practices in , and are the way in which work is done in a
project. ogether these practices help to aintain focus on the evolution of the solution in fre uent and
co plete business focused ele ents, whilst delivering on ti e.
This chapter covers:
• he i ebo structure
• terative evelop ent during i ebo es, including working in iterative cycles and incorporating different
perspectives for prototyping
• uality assurance within a i ebo verification and validation
• he types of detailed infor ation and knowledge that the Agile BA has to e pose and capture, especially during
the i ebo e plicit, tacit and se i tacit infor ation.
• ifferent ways of co unicating during a i ebo and the different learning styles visual, auditory and
kinaesthetic, and how to achieve the ost effective co unication. using show, tell and do
The AgileBA works collaboratively with the whole team in evolving the detail of requirements throughout the
i ebo . hey also have a ajor role in enabling co unication a ongst the different disciplines within the tea ,
using their skills in modelling and prototyping, and their knowledge of different types of information and different
co unication learning styles.
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9.2.1 Timebox options
very i ebo begins with a kick off and ends with a close out. Beyond this, recognises two styles of
i ebo
• A structured i ebo
• A free for at i ebo
he choice of i ebo style ay be driven by factors such as the availability of the Business A bassador and other
business roles or the type of product being developed.
9.2.1.1 A DSDM Structured Timebox
his is the original style i ebo , which provides a standard, repeatable internal structure to a i ebo .
A structured i ebo co prises three ain steps
• Investigation
• efine ent
• Consolidation
ach of these steps ends with a review.
Close-Out
Kick-Off
ick off Short session for the Solution Development Team to Appro 1 3 hours for a 2 3
understand the i ebo objectives and accept the as realistic week i ebo
Investigation he nvestigation includes confir ation of the detail of all Appro . 1 2 of i ebo
the requirements and all the products to be delivered by this
i ebo . ncludes agree ent on
• the i ebo deliverables
• the acceptance criteria for the deliverables
• the easures of success for the i ebo
nvestigation ends with a review which infor s efine ent and
may be a valuable governance touch-point
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efine ent nco passes the bulk of the develop ent, addressing Appro . 6 8 of i ebo
re uire ents and testing technical and business the i ebo
products, in line with agreed priorities
efine ent ends with a review which infor s onsolidation
and may be a valuable governance touch-point
Consolidation ies up any loose ends related to volutionary evelop ent Appro . 1 2 of i ebo
and ensures all products meet their previously agreed
acceptance criteria
Consolidation ends with a review, which informs Close-out and
may be a valuable governance touch-point
lose ut For al acceptance of the i ebo deliverables by the Business Appro 1 3 hours for a 2 3
isionary and echnical oordinator. his is followed by a short week i ebo
i ebo retrospective workshop, to learn fro the i ebo
and to take actions to i prove future i ebo es
Close-Out
Kick-Off
Iterative Development
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Timebox Nature of the work done
hort session for the olution evelop ent ea to understand the i ebo
objectives, to agree what work re uire ents and products will be taken
on in this i ebo and agree their i ebo priorities, and to accept this
workload as realistic
Iterative Development terative evelop ent and testing of individual re uire ents ser tories
and other products, as agreed in the ick off and in a se uence driven by the
agreed priorities for this i ebo .
It may still be appropriate to informally adopt the concepts of Investigate,
efine, onsolidate to converge on the accurate solution for each individual
re uire ent ser tory or roduct, for e a ple understanding the
lower level detail and agreeing the acceptance criteria at the start of the
develop ent of a re uire ent ser tory. his use of nvestigate, efine,
onsolidate per re uire ent ser tory helps to itigate the risk of too
many iterations as the product is elaborated
It is still important that reviews are scheduled during the body of the free
for at i ebo , to aintain business focus and stakeholder buy in
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To Do In Progress Done
tem erms uy o
Details onditions eature
rite
andin
ar etin
a e
ontent
Re unds
ptions
ar et
ompleted
or
Estimated
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he Agile BA s focus should be on doing just enough analysis. hey will be building on high level analysis
perfor ed during Foundations, which ade visible the end to end big picture . ow they will elaborate detail just
in ti e, related to the i ebo in progress. hey should also ai for just enough docu entation to enable work
to ow and to provide support for subse uent i ple entation and live use of the product. rototyping is the
preferred way of sharing infor ation about the detailed re uire ents ee hapter 8 . rototypes are shared
frequently between the members of the Solution Development Team and also demonstrated or shared with a
wider group of business and technical stakeholders, the Business Visionary and Technical Coordinator, as
appropriate, during the i ebo .
A i ebo usually contains several eviews, so e involving a wider group of stakeholders than just the olution
evelop ent ea . t is key that the wider stakeholder group understands and respects the e power ent of the
olution evelop ent ea . he eview is not a chance to second guess the work of the tea , but rather to
validate it fro their wider perspective. he Agile BA can guide and participate in the prototyping activities of the
olution evelop ent ea during the i ebo .
A final eview will acknowledge acceptance sign off of the work of the i ebo . he Agile BA works particularly
with the business roles at all levels to ensure business validation against the Acceptance Criteria, as they have been
elaborated during the i ebo , to confir that Acceptance riteria have been et and that business benefits
e pected are likely to be achieved.
he Agile BA ay facilitate eview sessions, but all olution evelop ent ea roles should be present, and often
the best person to take the wider business co unity through the eview process is the Business A bassador.
At the end of each i ebo , a short etrospective Workshop will be conducted to allow the olution
evelop ent ea to gather feedback and lessons learned for the i ebo and to inspect and adapt their way
of working to allow i prove ent of the process, if necessary. he Agile BA needs to be an e ual participant in this
workshop and ay have ideas for i prove ent of the working process just like any other e ber of the tea .
9.2.2.1 Daily Stand-up meetings
n a daily basis throughout the i ebo , the olution evelop ent ea will get together for a short, focused
eeting, to understand their progress so far. his is usually run by the ea eader and is a useful echanis for
the early e posure of, risks and blockers issues . he Agile BA is an e ual participant in such eetings.
9.2.3 Timeboxes - the wider context
Application of the ti ebo ing practice described above in conjunction with the practice of o oW
prioritisation, ensures each i ebo delivers a fit for purpose product in the agreed ti efra e. As each i ebo
delivers the relevant products on ti e, it beco es clear that the roject ncre ent is on track and thus the project
as a whole is on track.
Project
Increment Increment
Timebox Timebox Timebox Timebox Timebox Timebox
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132
alidation answers the uestion Are we building the right thing whilst verification asks Are we building the thing
right
n an terative evelop ent conte t, validation does not need to be a separate activity the process of collaborative
design of the solution with direct involvement of Business Ambassador and Business Advisor roles means this
happens naturally during the i ebo , especially via how and ell sessions and reviews. owever, verification
activity still needs to be e plicitly considered, to ensure it is fully integrated within the terative evelop ent cycle.
The key question is whether or not the acceptance criteria have been met in a meaningful way, which meets the
business need and will deliver the e pected benefits.
9.3.2 Testing during Iterative Development
e uire ents during terative evelop ent ay be tested fro 3 key perspectives
• Functional
• sability
• Non-functional
n a si ple feature, a cycle ay enco pass all three perspectives at the sa e ti e. owever, where terative
Development of a feature involves many cycles, involving several different people, the team may decide to focus a
cycle on one or perhaps two specific perspectives rather than covering all of the at the sa e ti e.
For e a ple, the tea ay decide to focus early cycles on the functional perspective of a re uire ent ensuring,
and de onstrating, that the detail of the re uire ent is properly understood and agreed. his ay be followed by
cycles focussed on usability ensuring interaction with the solution is effective and efficient.
ater cycles ay then focus on ensuring the re uired non functional uality e.g. perfor ance or robustness is
achieved, that all tests pass as e pected, and all acceptance criteria for the feature are et.
The Agile BA will work with the Solution Development Team, Technical Coordinator and Business Visionary, to
ensure that testing is done from all of these perspectives, and also that end-to-end testing is performed as soon as
possible, and regularly, not all left until the end of a long series of i ebo es.
A further type of prototyping is a roof of oncept. his is typically a throwaway prototype, built to test the
feasibility of an approach or to try out different options. his ay be used during i ebo es or so eti es during
Foundations or even Feasibility. ne or ore of these throwaway roof of oncept prototypes ay be created in
order to e plore those options and work out the best way forward.
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134
For e a ple, in so e projects organisations the olution evelop ent ea will be e powered to ake their
own decisions on whether to descope hould ave re uire ents in others they ay need to consult the Business
isionary.
The following scenarios mean a change of scope and therefore are typically beyond the empowerment of the
Solution Development Team:
• hanging the breadth of the solution i.e. adding additional high level re uire ents after Foundations or
dropping ust ave re uire ents during i ebo es
• ncreasing the percentage of ust ave effort
owever, negotiation around the detail the depth of the solution can generally be handled by the e powered
olution evelop ent ea without the need for any escalation or specific approval by those outside the olution
evelop ent ea .
egardless of whether changes are dee ed to i pact scope or not,, typically the olution evelop ent ea is
e powered to operate within agreed boundaries without the need to escalate to the roject anager or other
project level roles.
9.3.6 Iterative Development and the Agile BA
terative evelop ent allows the high level re uire ents established during Foundations to be e plored and
evolved to a greater level of detail using iterative cycles and reviews, during the i ebo es.
ach iterative cycle is intended to bring the part of the solution being worked on closer to co pletion. t involves
collaborative working of the olution evelop ent ea and possibly other stakeholders.
terative evelop ent often involves prototyping, ock ups and odels. hese can be used to establish
re uire ents, confir e pectations and test the achievability and achieve ent of those objectives. he role of
the Agile BA in helping to define these prototypes and ock ups draws upon the use of personas, scenarios and
odelling techni ues hapter 8 . he Agile BA ay also facilitate the eview sessions hapter 7 .
Throughout the phases of the DSDM lifecycle, requirements are investigated and actively elaborated at increasing
levels of detail. n an Agile project, the Agile BA ust elicit the re uire ents at a level which gives only just
enough detail for each lifecycle phase s objectives to be et.
he Agile BA will need to be aware of the e perience and e pectations of stakeholders in how and ell sessions
during the early stages of the project. here is often an over e cite ent when early prototypes are seen. owever,
these are usually not yet complete and robust, and will require a considerable amount of work to make them
production ready. Friction can arise between the business representatives and those developing the technical
aspects of the solution, which the Agile BA, with a view and understanding of both business and technical worlds,
can be invaluable in seeing and alleviating.
his risk of the business users seeing so ething early and istakenly thinking it is finished is ore than offset by
the value to the business of early visibility of parts of the solution. hese can be checked to ensure the business
value needed is likely to be achieved and gives the opportunity to discover any missed or changed requirements or
priorities.
As the solution is being evolved by the Solution Development Team, the Agile BA will encourage frequent “Show
and Tell” sessions for business representatives, and ensure that they have hands on opportunities for use, as soon as
possible, in order to ensure the solution which e erges is a good fit to the real business re uire ent.
he Agile BA ay also directly facilitate these how and ell sessions see i ebo eview Workshops hapter
7 ensuring that discussions and suggestions are kept on track and the incre ent s objectives are kept in view.
The Agile BA often records the outcomes of such demonstrations, ensuring that new requirements, changes and
agree ents are captured.
The Agile BA’s skills in analysing scenarios, modelling and prototyping are essential in keeping the end-to-end view
of business processes visible, whilst the tea are reducing the solution into its constituent parts.
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The Agile BA will also facilitate conversations between the different disciplines within the Solution Development
Team, and ultimately ease the transition of the developed, tested solution into the business-as-usual world via liaison
with the elease anage ent function of the organisation.
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9.5 Communicating Effectively - Learning styles
Visual See it
eople s learning styles, and ways of co unicating and receiving infor ation, vary. he Agile BA will recognise this
and work with the Solution Development Team to present information in the best way for its target audience to
understand.
A factor in the way people register infor ation and knowledge is their key sensory channel s preference. he
ajor senses used are
• isual seeing diagra atic, pictorial presentations help here
• Auditory hearing, speaking e planations and te tual presentation assist this
• inaesthetic feeling, doing, touching, s elling hands on e perience of using a part of the solution accesses the
e otions and engaged this area
In demonstrating parts of the volving olution how and ell , we usually co unicate best with those with a
visual preference.
By explaining and discussing this, we co unicate with those of an auditory preference.
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here are any ways of co unicating the volving olution, as shown in the picture below.
t is often only by allowing the users to be hands on with a prototype that the kinaesthetic preference is accessed.
his prototyping ust be ore than just how and ell de onstrations it ust include do and try .
9.6 Summary
The Agile BA works within the Iterative Development process to elicit, analyse, validate and manage the
re uire ents at appropriate levels of detail at different phases of the lifecycle. When detailed re uire ents are
being elicited, within i ebo es and during terative evelop ent, the Agile BA can help to
• eep the tea s focus on the end to end process, whilst working on a s all subset of the solution during any
one i ebo
• nsure that re uire ents ser tories re ain the focus rather than tasks
• nsure that acceptance criteria are fully thought through by the Business A bassador and olution ester
• Capture the evolving detail of requirements, at an appropriate and useful level for both current work and for the
support of the solution after implementation
• se appropriate techni ues to uncover different knowledge types and to co unicate, using scenarios,
prototyping and modelling, to accommodate the different communication needs of all those involved with the
project
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10. Requirements
Planning and
Estimating
Throughout the
Lifecycle
1
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10.1 Introduction
he Agile BA works throughout the project, with the project level roles and olution evelop ent ea
and with a wider stakeholder group, to evolve the re uire ents fro an initial idea to a detailed level, incre entally.
As seen in earlier chapters, the level of detail in the re uire ents alters throughout the lifecycle. As re uire ents
beco e ore specific, esti ates beco e ore precise. his drives the approach to planning in Agile projects. his
chapter should be read in the conte t of hapter 5 in particular, which discusses e uire ents and ser tories.
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10.3 Requirements Planning Through the Lifecycle
Timebox
imeb Timebox Timebox Timebox Timebox
• Feasibility study
• Outline business case • Timebox plans
• Key stakeholders • Completed product
• Outline plan
• Feasibility prototype
• Prioritised high level requirements
• Full business case
• Key stakeholders, roles and empowerment
• Project plan
• First increment plan
• Solution prototype
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number:
Project id: Story Story short name: Priority:
Manage Manage
Epics Provide Provide
Payments House-
Room Meals
and Debts keeping
User
Stories
Detailed
User
Stories
hapter 5 discusses ser tories, pics and he es and hapter 8 odelling shows the concept of tory
apping.
10.3.2 Requirements at Foundations
he project will be scoped and defined ore fully during Foundations, following the decision to fund further work
related to a particular option.
he Agile BA will be instru ental in the clarification and disse ination of the project vision, objectives and
acceptance criteria and in the evolution of the Business ase for the project. his will be done in collaboration with
the roject anager, other project level roles and key stakeholders. he Business ase will be elaborated during
Foundations fro the outline Business ase produced during Feasibility, and ay continue to evolve during the
project as ore detail is discovered. t will be used throughout, to guide and re evaluate the project. he features
and benefits defined within the Business ase will be subject to o oW prioritisation and will be a basis for
benefits assess ent ost roject.
n planning during Foundations, the first incre ent of the project will deliberately be defined ore fully than later
incre ents, since this is ore predictable. oo uch work on later incre ents will often be wasted as changes
occur during the project s ti eline. owever, later incre ents should be envisaged sufficiently to assess whether
the whole project is likely to be realistic and to spot any significant risks to later incre ents. he concept of a
project road ap is useful here, to outline the projected elivery lan.
142
n addition to the Business ase, and participating in ick off and ision Workshops, during Foundations the Agile
BA works with stakeholders to establish several essential artefacts, including:
• he rioritised e uire ents ist
• he olution Architecture efinition for the high level design of business processes and organisational change.
These might include:
A onte t coping iagra
odels to define and analyse the area of study rocesses, ata, eople, ocations, vents, and
e uire ents
ater in this chapter, we will look particularly at the as the repository for re uire ents, and the planning and
esti ating of re uire ents.
he key ele ents of the Agile BA s work during Foundations are
• Working with the Business Visionary and other stakeholders to establish a Business Case for the chosen option,
sufficient to guide the project
• Working with the Business isionary and Business A bassador s to ensure that the re uire ents identified are
able to eet the e pected business needs, deliver the re uired benefits and that the ust ave re uire ents
alone would be sufficient to for a ini u sable ubse
• Working with the Technical Coordinator to establish an understanding of the proposed physical solution, at a
high level, with the development and presentation to stakeholders of a Solution Prototype
• stablishing the high level re uire ents, following the e uire ents ifecycle of licitation, Analysis and alidation.
he will be a ajor aid to e uire ents anage ent and ocu entation throughout the project see
hapter 11
• egotiating the and its priorities, ensuring that it is at the right level and that it is co plete enough to allow
the whole olution evelop ent ea to esti ate and plan the first incre ent, without being so detailed that
it constrains the creativity and e ibility of solution develop ent. he Agile BA, as an integral e ber of the
olution evelop ent ea , will be involved in esti ating. sti ating is discussed in ore detail later in this
chapter
• Facilitating Workshops for project ick off, visioning, risk analysis and other agreed ele ents, e cept where an
independent Workshop Facilitator is justified
• anaging the evolving re uire ents with just enough detail to allow understanding and esti ating
• aining validation and sign off for ally or infor ally of the baselined set of high level re uire ents in the ,
with ost focus and detail being addressed to the first planned incre ent of the project.
uring Foundations, the Agile BA has an i portant role in helping stakeholders to see practical and valuable
groupings of re uire ents fro a business perspective he es , and in highlighting dependencies and interactions
between re uire ents, as well as clarifying the business value of each re uire ent. he Agile BA will also work
with the echnical oordinator to identify se uences of business process ow to i prove the effectiveness of
develop ent towards business value. A clear set of re uire ents, at a high level, will i prove focus on the business
need and enable the whole tea to better esti ate the effort re uired. hey will also aid assess ent of the relative
value of different re uire ents or groups of re uire ents to the business.
uring Foundations, the Agile BA needs to bring together the , at a level of detail which is just su cient to
allow esti ating for the i ebo es. his will typically be in the for of ser tories hapter 5 . hese will be
e panded during the i ebo es into specific details.
For the elivery lan, suitable feature based groupings of ser tories to be addressed by the i ebo es need
to be selected and a clear objective identified for each i ebo . he business benefits should be para ount, and
the breakdown into i ebo es should ai to a i ise early delivery of the best possible business benefit. he
Agile BA will collaborate with the project level and olution evelop ent ea roles to in uence the e ergence
of plans that are practicable from a business and implementation point of view and meet the business need, whilst
delivering value early. rouping by function or feature, business goal, set of related user goals is often appropriate.
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hese feature based groupings should be s all, to keep the i ebo es short.
he olution evelop ent ea roles will typically be represented during Foundations and will be involved in the
esti ating of work to be done in the i ebo es. he Agile techni ue of lanning oker, which ay prove useful for
this purpose and can be used within an sti ating Workshop, is described later in this hapter.
he Agile BA will work with the roject anager and the olution evelop ent ea to aintain a business
focused delivery se uence by ensuring that early i ebo es address high priority business functionality. he
technical and architectural co ponents to support this functionality can be i portant in a new syste new
architecture. o ensure the correct architectural foundation is in place, the Agile BA should work closely with the
echnical oordinator.
10.3.3 Requirements during the Timeboxes
he work planned for a i ebo should ideally be a s all, usable subset of business functionality.
o eti es eploy ent ay also be a part of the sa e i ebo . ore often, eploy ent will be tied into the
release procedures and ti escales of the organisation. ach i ebo should have a planned outco e, in the for
of a clear and business focused objective.
uring a i ebo , the Agile BA ay be a sensible choice for ea eader because of their skill in facilitation.
owever, the choice of ea eader ulti ately rests with the olution evelop ent ea .
At the start of the i ebo , the selected features fro the which have been allocated to the i ebo need to
be further analysed. A ore detailed tory ap ay be created here, and the tea will typically display their work
on a tory Board which will re ain a visible tracking of progress throughout the i ebo .
he order of work within the i ebo es should be driven by the business objective for the incre ent and for the
i ebo . here ay also be a need for architectural co ponents to be in place on which to build the functionality,
and these ay in uence the se uence of develop ent. owever, business focus should be the pri e driver.
Additionally, risk should be taken into account in determining the sequence, typically with the more risky elements
being addressed early.
he pattern of detailed working within a i ebo , with its odelling, rototyping and eviews terative
evelop ent is defined in hapter 9.
10.3.3.1 Timeboxes and MoSCoW
n order to ensure that a i ebo will finish on ti e, there has to be a level of e ibility in the deliverables it ust
achieve. As lower level details of the re uire ents e erge, further prioritisation will be possible and also necessary.
he o oW classification of re uire ents provides the basis for decisions about what the tea will do over the
whole project, during any incre ent and during any i ebo within the project, i.e. a single re uire ent, during its
develop ent, will have three o oW priorities one for the roject, one for the roject ncre ent and one for
the i ebo . At a single point in ti e, a particular re uire ent ay be ust ave for the project, a hould ave
for the ncre ent and a ould ave or a Won t ave for the current i ebo .
As new re uire ents arise or as e isting re uire ents are defined in detail, the decision ust be ade as to how
critical they are to the success of the current work. All priorities should be reviewed throughout the project to
ensure that they are still valid. t is typically the descoping of lower priority re uire ents, if necessary, that enables
the tea s to deliver on ti e when proble s arise or unforeseen re uire ents need to be acco odated.
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esti ated by the olution evelop ent ea . t is also useful at this point to deter ine dependencies between
re uire ents and to consider the business value of each re uire ent and group of re uire ents .
he e act for at of a will depend upon the type of project and the organisation sponsoring it. owever, an
illustration of a possible is given below.
Req id Req/Story Req/Story Pry Confirmation Acc Criteria Source Owner Size Business
Short Name Description M, S, S,M, Value
“As a... I need C, W L,XL HML
...so that
STK001 Customer As a M Scenario 1: Security: no Order Order S H
Order Customer, I Customer has unauthorised Clerk Manager
need to place ordered previously: person can place
an order so Given an existing an order at any
that I can customer account, time (24 hours per
have food When Customer day or 24/7/365);
delivered to confirms an order,
my house. Then: can place the
Either: Account order at any time
credit is good, (24 hours per day
Conversation: The order scheduled or 24/7/365);up to
Order Office Manager for delivery and including
emphasised the need Or: Account credit delivery
for secure day and bad, Order is
night ordering rejected and
customer notified.
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Feasibility Foundations
Evolutionary
Development
Project Go / No go Project Go / No go
Less Accurate
Less Detail
Typically <10
requirements
by end
Feasibility Do not go into
Requirement detail
Requirement Detail
Estimate Accuracy
too early
Typically <100
requirements
by end
Foundations
Do not be held
hostage to early
estimates
Typically >100
More Accurate
requirements
More Detail
by end
Evolutionary
Development
hroughout the lifecycle phases, the level of esti ating will beco e ore reliable and precise. nitial esti ates
during Feasibility will be based on the li ited infor ation known about the project, and on e perience of si ilar
solutions in different projects. sti ates in the for of a range and a degree of confidence will be appropriate
here. n Foundations, as ore beco es clear, the esti ates can be refined. owever, the Agile BA should resist the
te ptation to try to achieve re uire ents in low level detail at this point, in order to ake esti ates ore reliable.
t is wasted effort, as e perience shows that re uire ents will change with ti e and incre ental learning. t is
better to have a high level state ent of features envisaged se ases, ser tories, rocesses and their
acceptance criteria and allow detail to evolve later. uring later phases, esti ates will beco e ore precise, and
can also be assisted by actual easures of velocity.
10.5.3.1 Planning Poker
sti ating in an Agile project can use a variety of techni ues, including lanning oker, an Agile esti ating and
planning techni ue popularised by ike ohn. t is a consensus based approach to esti ating, using relative
esti ates to si e ser tories against each other. ach participant has a deck of lanning oker cards with values in
a series close to the Fibonacci series , 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 2 , 4 and 1 . he values can be used to represent story
points a relative easure , ideal days, or other units agreed by the tea who are aking the esti ates.
When a feature has been discussed, the participants ake their individual esti ate of the si e of the work involved.
All esti ates are revealed si ultaneously and any significant differences typically the highest and the lowest
esti ates are discussed. he process is repeated until consensus is achieved or until the feature is put aside
pending additional infor ation.
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he benefits of this approach are
• It reduces peer pressure
• It creates a forum for discussing and understanding the requirements
• It allows several people to estimate, which is usually more accurate
• It involves those who will be doing the work in the estimating
10.5.4 The Estimating Workshop
ne of the best ways of esti ating during Foundations, and again at i ebo level, is to hold sti ating Workshops,
where those who will be responsible for delivery of the project carry out the esti ate. uring this Workshop, the
re uire ents need to be clearly understood and presented. he techni ue of lanning oker described above can
be used as a collaborative way to arrive at esti ates.
Whilst the Agile BA may be able to facilitate such a Workshop, it is more likely that their role as a participant is
ore i portant, inputting to the content of re uire ents detail. herefore a ore independent facilitator should
be considered.
10.6 Conclusion
The Agile BA is the guardian of the requirements and has the perspective to understand their interrelationships
and their strategic i portance. hus, they can guide the rest of the olution evelop ent ea and the Business
isionary in the i plications of the tea s choices and priorities. he e power ent that the tea ust accept and
use cannot be underesti ated and the Agile BA, along with the roject anager and the project level roles ust
encourage and facilitate the enact ent of this e power ent.
sti ating can be based on the re uire ents ser tories plus odels, prototypes etc. developed by the Agile
BA. he Agile BA can enable the roject anager, project level and the olution evelop ent ea roles to
understand these artefacts and their interrelationships.
he Agile BA ay facilitate any Workshops within the project. owever, care should be taken that they do not
lose the effectiveness of their role as a contributor to the sti ating Workshop.
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148
11. The Requirements
Lifecycle in an Agile
Project
1
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11.1 Introduction
he Agile approach to re uire ents is to clarify the project objective and Business ase and then to define
re uire ents, at a high level only, early in the project. he definition of detailed re uire ents is deliberately left
until just before it is needed just before that particular aspect of the solution is developed and built. his avoids
waste and rework. t ensures that the product can evolve to re ect the needs of the business at the ti e of
solution building. t also allows for learning during the project and for change to be e braced.
owever, the risk inherent in this incre ental approach to defining re uire ents is that an inconsistent or internally
con icting set of re uire ents could evolve. his is where the skills of the Agile BA are essential. he Agile BA
ust facilitate the evolution of re uire ents fro high level objectives down to low level detail at the appropriate
ti e, whilst keeping the consistency and focus, co pleteness and prioritisation of the re uire ents set as a whole.
he traditional business analysis discipline of e uire ents ngineering is still appropriate when applied in an
Agile way. e uire ents ngineering acknowledges that each re uire ent has a lifecycle of its own, fro its initial
elicitation, through its analysis and validation to its eventual incorporation into the solution, or its rejection or
descoping.
n this chapter we look, fro an Agile perspective, at the e uire ent ngineering lifecycle of
• licitation
• Analysis
• Validation
• Management and documentation
his chapter addresses the approach the Agile BA takes, both re roject and throughout the lifecycle,
including ost roject Benefits Assess ent. t shows how the Agile BA ensures that the re uire ents for a
consistent and coherent whole. he re uire ents are captured and recorded appropriately, as they evolve and
e pand in detail, using key Agile practices during the process.
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11.3 The Lifecycle of a Requirement
A re uire ent ay begin life as an idea, a need, or a state ent of a proble to be addressed. he first
re uire ent of the project is its objective, e pressed in outline in the er s of eference and clarified
during Feasibility. Fro this point, a hierarchy of re uire ents begins to e erge, e panding fro the Business
ision and project objective to ajor he es, to pic tories high level re uire ents of the and down to the
detailed ser tories elaborated during volutionary evelop ent.
Elicitation Validation
Analysis
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licitation is not a trivial task any users do not know clearly what they do want fro the solution, until they see
so ething. Also, knowledge that the users have ay be
• plicit easy to e plain and capture
• Tacit: hard to capture because people do not even know that they are holding it
• Semi-tacit: where things are taken for granted, or only held in short-term memory and therefore not really
remembered or known
any re uire ents are o itted because they are taken for granted or erely forgotten. he Business Analyst
is a detective, uncovering the true re uire ents as the project progresses and using Agile practices and business
analysis skills to identify gaps and disconnects.
11.3.2 Analysis
ach re uire ent needs to be analysed to clarify its eaning and to deter ine whether it is
• ealistic
• na biguous clear enough to be understood by different stakeholders
• Feasible technically, financially, socially
• Congruent with the business goals
• elevant to the objectives of this project
ts dependence on other re uire ents ust be analysed and ade visible and any potential con icts and
duplication with other re uire ents ust be resolved.
he Agile BA will analyse each re uire ent and also facilitate the prioritisation of each re uire ent by the business.
he Agile BA ust be a negotiator, as there is a good chance that so e re uire ents will be in con ict with each
other, resulting in con ict between the stakeholders who own the . he Agile BA will ediate to reconcile these
con icts and differences, often by using facilitation skills in a Facilitated Workshop to bring together the parties in
con ict.
Agile techniques such as hands-on prototyping, role-plays, demonstrations and modelling can be helpful in
uncovering tacit and se i tacit infor ation.
e uire ents can e erge as business re uire ents, technical constraints, technical opportunities, business rules.
he Agile BA ay also find that they are stated as solutions in the first instance. hese need further analysis to
discover what benefit they ust give. f re uire ents are too solution oriented, they ay place unnecessary
constraints on the volving olution, re oving so e of the e ibility needed by the olution evelop ent ea
when they co e to evolve that piece of the solution.
e uire ents can be functional, describing the features needed or what the solution ust achieve. thers
can be non-functional and address the end product’s required behaviours such as performance, usability, access
security, archiving, backup, security, availability, aintainability, robustness. he co pleteness of the re uire ents
from a functional and non-functional perspective, and the evolution from business requirement to technical
i ple entations of those re uire ents is part of the analysis the Agile BA ust perfor .
11.3.3 Validation
Validation applies to both the individual requirement and to the whole set of requirements for the increment and
for the project. ince re uire ents do not e erge in detail until just before they are built, a high level view of the
re uire ents and their dependencies needs to be e pressed and co unicated. odelling can assist the process
of defining the incre ents into which the project is divided, and can show dependencies, in order to ini ise
une pected overlaps and reduce risk.
e uire ents ust also be testable. ven at the very early stage of identifying re uire ents, the Agile BA will
ensure easurable acceptance criteria for each re uire ent are agreed with stakeholders. his way, they will
confir what is needed for the re uire ent to be successfully i ple ented.
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11.3.4 Management and documentation
11.3.4.1 Requirements documentation
Agile has a reputation for being light on docu entation, but why do re uire ents need to be docu ented
Documentation is typically for at least one of four purposes:
• o pass a essage fro one person set of people to another
• To record information now, whilst we know it, for later when we may have forgotten it
• o help us to anage co ple ity
• To prove we have done something
n an Agile situation, the first three are still true. he fourth should not be uite as necessary in an Agile culture
of trust, as it would be in a culture where the fear of failure predo inates. owever, this ay still have relevance
for audit and co pliance purposes, in highly regulated industries, for e a ple. he actual needs of such an
audit purpose should be investigated as many situations do not need the volume of documentation which was
custo arily provided in traditional waterfall projects.
For the first point above, the docu entation needed will be reduced if the tea including business roles can be
co located. For the second point, docu entation is reduced in an Agile situation as the detail is only elaborated just
before it is needed, so the ti efra e to re e ber detail is short. For the third point, co ple ity is reduced by the
incre ental approach to solution evolution and the feature focused ti ebo es. hese ai to deliver a co plete,
cohesive, s all and potentially i ple entable seg ent of the solution in a short ti efra e.
hus docu entation in an Agile project should be sufficient for purpose, and only that. he two golden rules of
Agile documentation are:
• o not docu ent unless it is useful to so eone specific a 5 page docu ent that no one actually reads is not
proving useful to anyone
• ocu ent in a way that is useful to the recipient ask how this will be used, by who and for how long
he appropriate level of docu entation depends on any things. For e a ple
• the ease of communication between team members and other stakeholders - co-located Agile teams probably
need less detail when writing down ser tories than distributed tea s, for e a ple
• skills of the tea e bers and co ple ity of the product it ay be easier and ore consistent to write
down or diagra detailed steps for a process, in addition to face to face e planation
• documentation may be needed to support end-users of the product or those running a Service Desk, for
e a ple
• where there are regulatory co pliance audit obligations to eet, docu entation needs to be sufficient to satisfy
that need
ocu entation ay be used by both business and technical tea e bers. he language needs to be clear and
accessible to all disciplines involved.
he docu entation of re uire ents in an Agile project is an incre ental, evolving activity.
he infor ation held within the should be sufficient to identify, group and anage the re uire ent and its
e erging detail. t will also help with configuration anage ent.
11.3.4.2 Requirements management
nce a re uire ent has been identified, its inclusion within the final product or its descoping should be traceable,
along with the rationale for this, both hori ontally fro beginning to end of the project and vertically fro
the overall business goal it is addressing to the realisation of this . his enables the stakeholders of the project to
understand what is, and is not, contained within the final solution. t helps to prevent re uire ents being issed
by accident or new re uire ents being brought into the project without consideration of their i pact on others
or on i ebo and project ti escales. his is not to prevent change Agile projects e brace change, even late in
the process. owever, this change needs to be introduced in a considered way, with an appropriate level of change
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control not too heavy, but not non e istent. he Agile BA will be the guardian of the project re uire ents and
the related fro this perspective, although decisions on whether or not to accept change will ulti ately lie
with the Business isionary.
tools to support the anage ent of re uire ents, fro first capture through to integration and delivery
of the evolving solution, ay be necessary and useful. owever, tools alone are hardly ever the solution to
re uire ents proble s. isibility of the re uire ents as they progress through the lifecycle is the Agile approach
to co unication and disse ination of infor ation, through nfor ation adiators such as wallboards and
permanently-visible large screens, and through collaborative practices such as Daily Stand-up meetings and
Facilitated Workshops.
ery i evel
Requirements
re ro e t
( e tives and emes)
i evel rioritised
easi ility Requirements
(Epi s and User Stories)
oundations
Evolutionary
Development
ssem le
Revie
Deploy
Deployment
he pattern of eliciting, analysing, validating and anaging docu enting re uire ents is e bedded at every phase
of the lifecycle. owever, the level of detail is different, progressing fro the project objective and the very
high level re uire ents defined at Feasibility, through to the ost detailed level, which e erges i ebo by
i ebo during volutionary evelop ent.
Below, the involve ent of the re uire ents lifecycle within each project lifecycle phase is considered, together with
the use of practices.
11.4.1 Pre-Project
re roject activity supplies the er s of eference for the project. he will identify the proble to be
solved or opportunity to be addressed. his is effectively the first, very high level re uire ent.
11.4.1.1 Elicitation
A strategic Business Analyst a different person fro the allocated project BA ay have been involved in the
production of this, and the project s Agile BA will need to understand its conte t.
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11.4.1.2 Analysis
he re roject analysis, or results of a progra e of which the project is a part, ay produce a high level scoping
diagra to set the objective in conte t.
11.4.1.3 Validation
he Business ponsor, Business isionary and Business Analyst, and later the roject anager, need the to be a
clear enough definition for the project to be correctly focussed during Feasibility.
11.4.1.4 Management and documentation
he should be docu ented one or two pages at a a i u with high level objective, benefits, costs, risks
and any initial assu ptions. has a product definition for the , along with other docu ents entioned
later.
11.4.2 Feasibility
he purpose of Feasibility is to provide a high level overview of the project, enough to assess whether the
project is worth doing, fro both technical and business points of view. uring Feasibility, a very high level set of
re uire ents will be elicited probably no ore than ten or so of these too any would indicate too low a level
of detail for the purpose of Feasibility . hese re uire ents are at the level of ajor the es or very high level
features. hey need to be just enough to
• Act as the headline guidance for the project scope. ach the e or feature will typically e pand during
Foundations into lower level detail
• ive enough detail for a broad esti ate of project si e, with the acknowledge ent that the accuracy of any
estimate is within a broad range
• Allow a first consideration of priorities, although at this level they ay all be ust aves
11.4.2.1 Elicitation
At Feasibility, the Agile BA is trying to establish a shared vision for the project with the Business isionary and
Business ponsor and between other stakeholders. he es and features are typically elicited by face to face
conversations and Facilitated Workshops. A Feasibility prototype ay be used to clarify what is envisioned.
he for ulation of a si ple, one sentence project objective, which sits above the the es and features will for a
useful focus for the whole project.
11.4.2.2 Analysis
he es and high level features are analysed to establish dependencies and con icts. he Agile BA would
use odelling to ake the structure of the functions visible. Facilitated Workshops would be used to enable
negotiation of the high level features and their priorities o oW prioritisation . Acceptance criteria very high
level, but easurable would be established for each he e or Feature. he Feasibility Assess ent will contain
these the es Features as the e bryonic .
11.4.2.3 Validation
he project tea during Feasibility is the Business ponsor, Business isionary, echnical oordinator, roject
anager and Business Analyst. alidation and acceptance of the very high level the es and features ay also need
approval of a wider set of stakeholders. hese ay be a steering co ittee, or an invest ent appraisal body
within the organisation, for e a ple. Whilst negotiation and agree ent of the ajor the es and their priorities
ay happen during a Facilitated Workshop, a ore for al uality eview eeting described later ay be
chosen, to baseline and effectively sign off the Feasibility Assess ent.
11.4.2.4 Management and documentation
he the es features should be recorded appropriately and visibly for all stakeholders. his is the e bryonic
also often called a roduct Backlog in other Agile approaches . uring Feasibility, it needs to be at a level which
is just sufficient for purpose. t will for the top level of the hierarchy of re uire ents which will e erge later.
odelling and diagra ing will aid the visibility and clarity of this hierarchy and set out the conte t and scope.
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11.4.3 Foundations
he tea during Foundations includes olution evelop ent ea roles, which are needed to esti ate work
re uired and produce the elivery lan. uring Foundations, it is i portant that the whole tea is aware that
there is ore work needed on re uire ents than one pass of re uire ents captured in a Facilitated Workshop
he the es fro Feasibility each need be e panded to a further level of detail, to for high level re uire ents
pic stories .
uring Foundations, business analysis work will be needed, to provide a clear structure a fir foundation on
which to work during volutionary evelop ent, when pics are split into lower level ser tories. Foundations
also provides the testing strategy as a part of the evelop ent Approach efinition against which validation will
be perfor ed.
11.4.3.1 Elicitation
he Agile BA will organise Facilitated Workshops to e pand the the es and features into high level re uire ents.
hese Workshops are often supported by odelling and prototyping, which the Agile BA will do. he participants
will be selected as appropriate for each Workshop, but will draw from the Business Sponsor, Business Visionary,
echnical o ordinator, roject anager, the olution evelop ent ea , Business Advisors and a wider group of
stakeholders.
11.4.3.2 Analysis
After eliciting re uire ents, the Agile BA will work face to face with appropriate stakeholders to define each
re uire ent further and analyse whether it is realistic, feasible, a biguous or con icting with, or duplicating other
re uire ents. hey would also gather ore infor ation about the business goal served and the value of the
re uire ent. he roles of Business A bassador s and Business isionary have the e power ent to speak on
behalf of the different business areas. uring Foundations, pic ser tories are established. Facilitated Workshops
can be used to clarify and share re uire ents infor ation and to resolve con icts and overlaps. Acceptance
criteria will be established at a high level against each re uire ent. rioritisation is also done at this point, using
Facilitated Workshops and o oW prioritisation.
11.4.3.3 Validation
nce a has been established, this needs to be validated by the project level and olution evelop ent ea
roles, and possibly a wider group of key stakeholders. t is reco ended that the is for ally agreed and
baselined at the end of Foundations, by uality eview. his then acts as a clear state ent of the scope, upon
which esti ates during Foundations are ade. Whilst the Agile approach is to e brace change, it is very powerful
focus for the project to agree the in this for al way. When change co es along during the project, which
changes the breadth of the project, it is easier to assess its i pact.
he pic tories on the act as the headlines fro which ore detailed re uire ents are elaborated during
i ebo es. ven if the project is e ploratory, the will set para eters related to the breadth of scope and the
benefits the project was funded to achieve.
A olution prototype ay also be produced during Foundations and is a powerful way to elicit and validate
re uire ents.
11.4.3.4 Management and documentation
he ain re uire ents product of the Agile BA during Foundations is the . his beco es a central docu ent
for the re ainder of the project. he re uire ents on the should describe what needs to be achieved,
rather than e actly how it will be done, to allow e ibility during volutionary evelop ent to focus on the
business need and its achieve ent.
he should be at a sufficient level of detail to allow the olution evelop ent ea to esti ate for the
elivery lan, showing a schedule of e pected i ebo es for at least the first incre ent of delivery.
11.4.4 Evolutionary Development
Business analysis is a defined part of the olution evelop ent ea work within each stage of iterative
develop ent within the i ebo es.
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he Agile BA facilitates the e pansion of the pic tories of Foundations into lower level ser tories, which guide
develop ent and testing. Facilitated by the Agile BA, each ser tory will be elaborated via de onstrations,
prototypes, odels and face to face co unication within the olution evelop ent ea .
11.4.4.1 Elicitation
uring i ebo es, the detailed re uire ents ser tories need to be discovered. his will ostly be through
face to face discussions and prototyping. olution evelopers, olution esters and Business A bassadors
work together to concurrently e pand the re uire ents detail and build the product. he Agile BA will capture
the e erging detail, e panding the , i ebo by i ebo , with appropriate lower level detail and detailed
acceptance criteria.
11.4.4.2 Analysis
As requirements detail emerges, these lower-level requirements will need to be prioritised by the Business
A bassador s and Business isionary and agreed within the olution evelop ent ea . he business value of
the detailed requirements also needs to be assessed, priorities agreed and estimates made of the effort required to
co plete the .
The Agile BA will facilitate this conversation within the team and keep the link to the higher-level requirements,
processes and data within the solution do ain. he BA will odel the structure of the re uire ents story
apping and keep this visible to the tea , so that the i pacts of day to day decisions can be seen.
11.4.4.3 Validation
The Agile BA will work to keep the focus on the Business Case and higher-level themes and features, as lower-level
re uire ents and acceptance criteria are defined.
uring volutionary evelop ent, the focus is on the validation of the finished, working solution. Fre uent
de onstrations of ele ents of the solution to the project tea and a wider stakeholder group will be a key part of
this, facilitated by the Agile BA.
he acceptance criteria will drive tests. ecisions will be needed on
• he definition of one the criteria for the product to be considered acceptable and ready for deploy ent
• Test coverage - what is being tested at each demonstration or testing session: functional, usability and non-
functional aspects
11.4.4.4 Management and documentation
uring volutionary evelop ent, detailed re uire ents ser tories are docu ented in the . Any
odifications or further sub divisions of the re uire ent should always be traceable back to the higher level
re uire ents.
t is also i portant during volutionary evelop ent to record those hould ave and ould ave re uire ents
or features that have been traded out or dropped and hence have beco e Won t ave this time e uire ents..
he can be a useful tool for recording errors and bugs discovered when testing the solution so that they can
be prioritised and considered in the conte t of the overall re uire ents.
11.4.5 Deployment and Post-Project
By eploy ent, the elicitation and analysis of re uire ents is co plete. Any specific re uire ents related to
the deploy ent of the solution should have been captured during volutionary evelop ent and fed into the
eploy ent lanning. he validation activity here is to ensure that re uire ents docu entation is sufficient for
both support of the solution in live usage, and for the ost roject Benefits Assess ent to be done. n the first
part of Deployment, the Agile BA will link those requirements for which the solution has now been built and tested
and is about to be delivered back to the Business ase. hey will ake visible the benefits which should now be
able to accrue to the Business isionary, and to those who will receive and use the solution.
ost roject, the docu entation of re uire ents fro the project, plus the Business ase will be used to assess
the level of i ple entation of the re uire ents. ost roject Benefits Assess ent is likely to be achieved using a
Facilitated Workshop, which the Agile BA ay facilitate.
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11.6 Summary
Agile e uire ents ngineering allows re uire ents to follow a controlled, incre ental process of deco position
and elaboration, fro a high level objective, the es and features, through to high level prioritised re uire ents,
to fully evolved re uire ents present in prototypes and the final solution. ach re uire ent has a lifecycle of
licitation, Analysis, alidation, anage ent and ocu entation. Following this helps the Agile BA to ensure the
focus on re uire ents is appropriate at the different project lifecycle phases. t also helps to itigate the risk that
an inconsistent or internally con icting set of re uire ents could evolve.
he Agile BA facilitates the evolution of re uire ents fro high level objectives down to low level detail, whilst
keeping the consistency and focus, co pleteness and prioritisation of the re uire ents set as a whole. Agile
practices for a key part of this process, facilitated by the Agile BA.
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12. Making the
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12.1 Introduction
n this andbook, the role of the Agile BA has been described both in relation to Agile projects and to
organisational strategy. t has shown how an Agile approach focuses on fre uent delivery of business valuable
incre ents of a product. he andbook identifies so e of the best practice Agile techni ues and practices and
sets these within an Agile fra ework. t shows how the Agile BA supports the Business isionary, Business ponsor
and other business roles, alongside the Solution Developers and Testers and other stakeholders to ensure that
business value is delivered, the focus on the overall strategy of the organisation is not lost and that the end-to-end
value chain of e erging business processes is opti ised.
he uestion re ains, ow do get fro where a now, as a traditional Business Analyst BA , to being an
effective Agile BA
It is important to recognise that the transition will be different for each Business Analyst, each team of BAs and the
department to which they are aligned, which may be the IT function or a business function such as marketing or
finance. herefore, there can be no prescriptive series of steps. ather, the focus of this chapter is on providing
general advice to help anyone in a BA related role ove successfully to an Agile way of working.
Facilitated Workshops
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the driver for this initiative. deally the drive for such a change should co e fro senior anage ent, and be a
business inspired initiative. owever, in reality, the i petus ay co e fro al ost any level of the organisation,
and has often arisen in the past from solution developers, pressurised by tight timescales and the drive to deliver
everything re uested or specified.
Wherever the initial drive for Agile originated, its adoption and ultimate success is more likely if there is a senior-
level champion within the business, who has the authority to carry the change forward and can allocate budget
to fund not only the procedural change, but also the significant cultural change for all roles and all levels of the
organisation involved in business change projects.
he BA has a central and in uential role in Agile projects. here is also uch that they can do to support an Agile
transition, which is a business change, like any other, and for which the BA s skills can prove very useful.
Where the organisation is making the transition from Waterfall to Agile, there is a tendency at many levels to
want to continue to use e isting heavy sets of docu entation as a kind of co fort blanket . his will not work.
ike other aspects of the Agile way of working, the production and for at of docu entation needs to change.
ocu entation, beyond what is re uired fro a co pliance or legal perspective, will be ini al. owever, if it is
necessary to provide some familiar deliverables at the beginning of transitioning to Agile, then the Agile BA should
at least ensure that the requirements are addressed in an Agile manner, iteratively evolving these and elaborating
detail in a i ebo ed, business driven way.
he options for how to approach Agile adoption will vary widely and depend on any interrelated co ponents.
A business analyst cannot ove towards an Agile way of working in isolation. hey should do this as part of a
wider integrated initiative involving a diverse set of potential stakeholders. owever, it is useful to list so e possible
options to help fill the gap and begin adopting Agile working practices.
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• dentify and select a project that re uires business analysis skills, but also covers all of the other roles in
develop ent and delivery. deally, an initial, pilot project should be less than si onths in duration with good
business visibility and clear business outcomes delivering real business value
• Disseminate, promote and adopt Agile principles across the stakeholder community
• Address the Agile yths around governance and docu ent centric controls. is a robust and scalable
Agile framework; one of the principles is “Demonstrate Control”
• reate si ple Agile etrics to onitor and support initial Agile projects and provide the basis for continued
refine ent. t should be noted that easure ent of the As s situation is the first step to easuring progress
towards a change, and the metrics chosen should be carefully selected to allow the comparison before and after
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on breaking objectives down into features. he Agile BA can facilitate the e pression of high level acceptance
criteria against each requirement, to help understanding and as a basis for future test criteria
• he lowest level re uire ents do not e erge until volutionary evelop ent, deliberately delayed as late
as practicable. uch a delay ay result in a significant a ount of effort fro the Agile BA alongside the
essential commitment of time and availability from the business users, during the iterative development within
i ebo es. owever, this is offset by the fact that, in a traditional develop ent, significant ti e and effort is
e pended up front in the project, at the point when least is known about the proble area. his detail ay
subse uently change because of error in understanding or because ti e has elapsed between specification and
i ple entation of the re uire ent, and the need has changed. he traditional approach is prone to resulting in
wasted effort in the early stages
• Within , the contains all the re uire ents that the project needs to address, but only at a high
level in the early stages. his is reviewed and enhanced throughout the project and updated whenever a new
re uire ent is identified when further detail is gathered for an e isting re uire ent is further refined or if the
re uire ent s priority changes. he Agile BA is the guardian and cha pion of the
12.4.2 Modelling and Prototyping
A central tenet of Agile working is to ake visible the volving olution, and the progress towards this. odelling
and rototyping hapter 8 are ways to achieve this which do not rely on wider agility to be useful.
he following odelling and prototyping techni ues are appropriate during the lifecycle phases.
• During Feasibility and Foundations, beginning with some high-level models to illustrate the breadth and depth
of an utline olution these can be used as an initial esti ate of the nu ber of i ebo es re uired to deliver
the eventual solution. Also, the high level re uire ents can be supported by scoping diagra s and high level
structure diagra s, which can be used to deter ine how any ele ent worked on in detail during volutionary
evelop ent fits into the whole structure. igh level re uire ents can be odelled if useful, for e a ple as
tory aps or high level se ases
rototypes can also be produced to ensure that all stakeholders share a vision of the sa e kind of solution.
Fre uently, a si ple prototype at this level so eti es only a drawing, or a set of si ple screens with no
processing logic can uncover significant differences of viewpoint between stakeholders, and lead to a clearer
shared vision for the re ainder of the project
A roof of oncept can eli inate an i practical idea early, or help to confir the feasibility of an innovative idea
• During Evolutionary Development, se ase diagra s and Business rocess Flow diagra s using swi lanes
may be useful for communicating with the Solution Developers, and as a basis for the Solution Tester to
structure tests
rototyping is the e bedded way of working within i ebo es, with fre uent reviews of these by a wider
group of stakeholders in addition to the olution evelop ent ea . hese should be not only the how and
ell de onstration style of prototype, but also usability prototypes. uch prototypes, which the end user can
e perience hands on , brings a stronger engage ent, deeper understanding and valuable feedback.
suggests the F Functional, sability, on functional perspectives for prototyping, to ensure good coverage
of prototyping
• During Deployment the Agile BA focuses on getting the solution or incre ent of the solution into operational
use. his is driven by the business objectives outlined during Feasibility and Foundations and encapsulated in the
Business ase. he Agile BA will ensure the definition of Acceptance riteria throughout the project, e erging
with ore precision as the re uire ents detail increases. hey also support the olution ester and Business
A bassador in the ser Acceptance esting A of the volving olution
The Agile BA will also ensure that an appropriate, agreed format and level of documentation is available post
deploy ent to support the delivered solution. his ay incorporate appropriate odels
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The value of viewing a problem from multiple perspectives, which comes from developers, analysts and testers
collaborating with the real business users and customers, imparts richness to the production of the solution, which
allows a better product to e erge. he best solutions e erge fro a truly collaborative tea , where all tea
members work together collaboratively and synchronously, each bringing their unique perspective, skills and buy-in
to the proble at hand. he Agile BA role is essential in this collaboration, but only if they are able to fully e brace
the Agile values and principles, never allow themselves to become the “go-between” between business and solution
develop ent roles.
Another challenge for the Agile BA is the business analysts’ reputation for generating heavy-weight documentation
and, as a result, see ing to take control of re uire ents. For early Agile evangelists, this perception outweighed
the business analysts reputation for the analytical e pertise and co unication skills. here also appeared to
be a funda ental con ict between good Agile practice and good business analysis practice. Agile approaches
value individuals and interactions, custo er collaboration, working solutions and acco odation of change. By
reputation, business analysts seemed to value processes, documentation and getting everything agreed up front
contract negotiation . his is no longer the case, as business analysts e brace the advantages of an incre ental
approach and the opportunity to learn as they go . hey recognise the benefits of not wasting ti e doing detailed
work on re uire ents at the outset of a project, only for so e of those re uire ents to change with the passage
of ti e, or to be dropped.
n a Waterfall based project, the developer, tester and business analyst usually carry out their respective tasks
separately and se uentially, with long periods of work by one discipline before the hand off to another. any
resource anagers e press concern that Agile collaborative tea working will result in underutilisation of tea
e bers during a i ebo . n practice, this does not prove to be the case. f just enough work has been
undertaken in Foundations to provide the overall structure of the develop ent, and if the i ebo es are kept
short and feature-focussed, it is generally found that the developer, tester, business representative and Agile BA all
have si ultaneous and parallel tasks to do in the preparation of the solution. A benefit of this is that there is less
ti e spent reworking re uire ents, as the tea are working together. he collaborative pattern of working will
typically occupy all roles fully during the i ebo es. Alternatively, not all ay be needed full ti e, depending upon
the product being produced, but the appropriate work effort of each role will emerge for a given environment,
with e perience.
n an Agile world, therefore, there is still a need for business analysis skills and a specific Agile BA role, irrespective of
the develop ent and delivery approach or the technology being used to deliver the solution. rganisation, eople,
rocess and echnology e ist together in a holistic relationship. he opti isation of this relationship is the do ain
of the Agile BA.
he role of the business analyst is a changing one, re ecting the changing needs of the odern organisation. he
e tension of business analysis skills to enco pass an Agile way of working is another step along that path one that
re uires a refocusing and e tension of the hard and soft skills of business analysis, and the recognition of the greater
opportunities available to deliver sustained and early business value.
n this andbook, we have started a journey. We began with the ore traditional, strategic techni ues of the
business analyst and progressed to Agile practices which are collaborative and innovative. We saw our day to day
lives change in relation to a new fra ework of working in short ti ebo es. We saw the ow of our work change
fro one of long, isolated periods of re uire ents specification to a very different, intensely collaborative way of
working. We also discovered that we do not have to be an e pert in all of this fro the start the Agile process
itself, with its regular retrospection, gives us the opportunity to i prove as we go.
You are now on your way to becoming a more effective business analyst - an Agile BA and, together with your
tea , delivering better value to the business.
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Appendix A
Glossary
1
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Agile Manifesto he Agile anifesto defines the approach and style that is funda ental
to all Agile approaches. t was created in 2 1, at a su it attended by
representatives of all the Agile ethodologies.
“As Is” and “To Be” odels can be produced to show the current situation As s or the
Modelling intended situation o Be
Abstraction Modelling usually incorporates a degree of abstraction. i.e.
it focusses on a particular perspective e.g. the business processes , and
deliberately o it other aspects of detail fro the odel e.g. the data
structures , to allow clearer focus upon the particular aspect s chosen.
usiness Process Mo e an otation ( PM ) The Business Process
odel and otation B supports business process anage ent
for technical and business users and bridges the communication gap
between business process design and i ple entation. t was developed
by Business rocess anage ent nitiative B and is aintained by
the bject anage ent roup .
Balanced Business The Balanced Business Scorecard provides a framework for measuring
Scorecard the success of the change. his approach can be used to identify ritical
uccess Factors and to set appropriate ey erfor ance ndicators
and targets . ts strength is that it considers not only the financial
aspects of an organisation s success, but other factors too.
Benefits Assess ent A roduct. t describes how the benefits have actually accrued,
following a period of use in live operation.
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Term Abbreviation Detail
A style of esti ating. sing this approach, each co ponent is esti ated
individually and then the esti ates are su ed to find the total effort.
Burn-Down Chart A publicly displayed chart or graph counting the nu ber of features
re uire ents re aining work re aining or ti e needed to co plete
the outstanding work ti e re aining for the current ncre ent or
i ebo . When the Burn own is showing i e e aining, tea
members always re-estimate time to complete, rather than simply
subtracting ti e spent fro the original esti ate. i e re aining is
ore co only used at i ebo evel. Work re aining is ore
co only used at ncre ent level. Burn down is useful for predicting
when all of the work will be completed, based on the current rate of
progress elocity . t also highlights whether the current plan looks
achievable or whether it ay be necessary to de scope features. his
infor ation can also be presented as a Burn p hart, showing work
ti e co pleted
Burn p hart A publicly displayed chart showing features re uire ents that have
been co pleted and the value earned so far.
Delivery Plan A roduct. t provides a high level schedule of ncre ents for
the project and, at least for the first i inent ncre ent, the ti ebo es
that ake up that ncre ent.
Deployed Solution his is a baseline of the volving olution, which is deployed into live
use at the end of each roject ncre ent.
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A ser tories that is large and not well defined. An pic is si ply a
story that it is too large to fit into one i ebo for develop ent.
Fit for urpose o ething that is good enough to do the job it was intended to do
Impact Map i ilar to a tory ap as a visual presentation, but with a value i pact
focus.
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Term Abbreviation Detail
ncre ent i ebo i ebo ing can be applied at incre ent level and an ncre ent
i ebo co prises the ti e fi ed by the su of the evelop ent
i ebo es for this ncre ent. ee i ebo
odel his is a checklist for the production of a good ser tory. ser
tories should be ndependent egotiable aluable sti able or
sti atable all appropriately si ed estable.
Iteration 1. A general ter for working in a cyclic way, where several atte pts
are ade in order to get a ore accurate or beneficial result.
2. ne cycle of develop ent and testing which takes place one or
ore ti es inside a evelop ent i ebo and which finishes with
a eview.
3. teration e uates to a i ebo
ano A prioritisation approach for re uire ents, the ano odel takes
account of three distinct types of custo er need pected Will
or al Want citers Wow and two di ensions of value
eality, erception
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Learning Styles he key sensory channel s preference affecting the way people
register infor ation and knowledge. he ajor senses used are isual
seeing diagra atic, pictorial presentations help here Auditory
hearing, speaking e planations and te tual presentation assist
this and inaesthetic feeling, doing, touching, s elling hands on
e perience of using a part of the solution accesses the e otions and
engaged this area
c insey 7s odel his odel proposes that organisations are subject to seven inter
related aspects. All seven need to be considered together. f one
changes it will affect all the others.
ini u sable . . . The minimum set of requirements needed to deliver a usable solution
SubseT the Worst ase basic deliverable. he ini u sable ubse is
defined as the ust aves. rovided the o oW rules are
properly applied, delivery of the ini u sable ubse is guaranteed.
Modelling This refers to the diagrams, sketches, illustrations, built artefacts and
prototypes, which make visible a situation we want to communicate to
others. overs si perspectives what, how, where, who, when, why. A
prototype is a kind of model, built to illustrate the typical qualities of the
eventual solution. t ay be an evolutionary prototype or a disposable
prototype. ee Appendi for types of odelling
Analysis his techni ue analysis the internal status of the organisation business
from the perspectives of Mission, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics
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Term Abbreviation Detail
orter s Five Forces This technique analyses the competitive forces within the organisation’s
Analysis arketplace. t identifies five key co petitive factors uppliers, Buyers
consu ers , o petitors, ew ntrants, ubstitute roducts.
ost roject he phase which takes place after the last planned eploy ent.
t is used to assess the business value delivered by the project.
ower nterest rid his techni ue aps stakeholder interest and power or in uence
in a 2 2 grid. By identifying the levels of power and interest, we ay
uncover potential difficulties, or potential opportunities which ay e ist,
and re ain unrealised without involve ent of those stakeholders.
re roject The DSDM phase where the initial idea or imperative is formalised in
order to initiate a project.
Principle A natural law which acts as an attitude to take and a indset to adopt
on a project.
roject overnance A panel of corporate decision akers who decide whether projects
Authority should proceed or not.
roject eview A roduct. pdated at the end of each ncre ent it aptures
eport the feedback to confir what has been delivered and what has
not; captures learning points from the retrospective focusing on the
process, practices employed and contributing roles and responsibilities;
where appropriate it describes the business benefits that should now
accrue through the proper operation of the solution delivered by the
project up to this point. After the final roject ncre ent a roject
etrospective, in part infor ed by these ncre ent reviews, is prepared
as part of the closure of the project.
roject i ebo i ebo ing can be applied at roject level and a roject i ebo
co prises the ti e fi ed by the su of the ncre ent i ebo es for
the roject. ee i ebo
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esource Audit This is a means of identifying and assessing the current capabilities of
the organisation business across a nu ber of inter related areas.
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Term Abbreviation Detail
Scope A description of what the solution will do and what it will not do. his
could be a list of features and or a description of areas of the business
which ay or ay not be affected.
Servant-Leader ervant eader is the style of leadership that Agile projects aspire to, in
particular fro the roject anager and ea eader roles. A servant
leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people
develop and perform as highly as possible
Story Map A visible odel of the whole re uire ents set, e pressed as ser
tories, usually for one incre ent of develop ent at a ti e. t is
achieved by displaying individual story cards in groups in a way which is
visible to the whole tea .
Story Points A relative unit of si e, used for esti ating, planning and tracking in an
Agile project.
W Analysis his is a si ple but powerful eans of pulling together key findings
trengths fro the ternal and nternal analyses of an organisation. t is a
Weaknesses, su ary of the organisation s current strategic position.
pportunities
hreats
Test Driven TDD An approach whereby a test is written before the solution is built, thus
Development ensuring the re uire ent is understood and testable. ai s to
encourage si ple designs and inspire confidence. t is ost co only
applied in an IT environment but is now gaining interest as a technique
outside .
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Top-Down A style of esti ating using appro i ate si ings and groupings. For
e a ple, esti ating 1 s all co ponents at typically one day each,
2 ediu co ponents at typically three days each, three co ple
co ponents at typically five days each. hese groups are su ed to
give an appro i ate esti ate for a solution where the low level detail
is probably still unknown.
Total Cost of he cost of the whole life of a project and its product, including
wnership support rather than just considering the develop ent cost .
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Term Abbreviation Detail
ser tory A re uire ent e pressed fro a user point of view and with
associated acceptance criteria. he usual for at is As a role want
re uire ent Feature so that benefit to be gained
Value Chain and A value chain breaks an organisation down into its strategically valuable
Value Stream activities in order to understand the costs and sources of product and
Analysis service differentiation. A value strea is an end to end collection of
activities that creates value for a custo er. hese concepts are found in
lean anufacturing.
eXtreme
X ne of the Agile approaches with a strong focus on technical
Programming develop ent techni ues. is intended to i prove software uality
and responsiveness to changing custo er re uire ents.
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Appendix B
Modelling Techniques and
where they are useful in the
DSDM Lifecycle
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Technique Style Main focus Perspectives Level of Detail Lifecycle Phase when created / used
Post Project
Evolutionary Development
Deployment
Foundations
Pre Project
Big Picture
Feasibility
WHERE
WHEN
WHAT
WHO
HOW
Detail
Business ne page Stakeholders WHY
Y Y Y Y Y - Y Y
anvas Picture plus Goals
Lean Canvas te t
2 Business Diagram Data Y Y Y Y Y Y
Domain Business
odel lass ules
iagra
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Appendix C
Project Approach
Questionnaire (PAQ)
1
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Appendix D
Some Typical Agile
Facilitated Workshops
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Introduction
A few of the workshops described in this andbook have been selected here for e planation, as they are
representative of the nature of workshops, particularly in an Agile project.
he Agile BA would typically be involved in all of these workshops. hey ay facilitate so e of the workshops, and
will have a role in ensuring that the end to end process of the e erging business solution is kept in view.
his Anne gives an outline of si co on workshops. he workshops highlighted below are
• roject Foundations Workshop
• Futurespective a isioning Workshop
• e uire ents apture rioritisation Workshop ser tory Workshop
• sti ating and lanning Workshops
• i ebo eview Workshop
• etrospective
For each, there is an outline, using the headings
• What is its utco e
• Who should be there
• Who should facilitate
• When does it happen
• ow should it run
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WHEN does it happen?
• Foundations. he project is not fully started until this phase
HOW will it run?
• Collaborative games and interactive activities are often used to begin to establish team relationships
• The Business Sponsor, Business Visionary and Technical Coordinator will reinforce the messages of
e power ent and utual support and disse inate the business objectives for the project
• he Agile BA will help to establish the conte t of the project within the business and technical architectures of
the business as usual services within which the project e ists
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HOW will it run?
his will typically be a series of workshops, with analysis work in between. he first Workshop ay capture
brainstor ed re uire ents, or present a straw an set of re uire ents for i prove ent. ater workshops ay
refine these and still later ones prioritise the . n order to better understand the re uire ents, acceptance criteria
are usually defined before final prioritisation. he re uire ents are then used in later workshops for esti ating and
planning.
For the definition of high level re uire ents, to be agreed at the end of Foundations, uch work is needed by
the business representatives and the Agile BA between workshops, with input from other team members as
needed. he Agile BA will typically ensure that the full re uire ents lifecycle of elicitation, analysis, validation and
anage ent is carried out, at the appropriate high level for Agile projects, and a necessary level of docu entation
should acco pany this. here should be only just sufficient detail to record and understand the re uire ents,
and enough to esti ate and plan at a level of confidence which represents acceptable risk within the project. oo
uch ti e spent defining the detail of these re uire ents at this point represents wasted ti e, as re uire ents
usually change over ti e. oo little represents risk, the tolerable level of which has to be assessed by business and
technical roles together. n a well understood project environ ent, a uch less detailed re uire ent is usually
tolerable. owever, in a changing environ ent there ay also be little value in trying to capture re uire ents
detail at anything but a very high level. n such e ploratory projects, the risk is itigated by the short ti ebo es
which follow, and regular review associated with the .
he Agile BA should odel the process and identify events and then assist the tea in apping the re uire ents
ser tories to where they have i pact within the process odel and use case odels.
The participants will order the requirements and use the MoSCoW approach for requirements prioritisation
defined in hapter 6. t is i portant that the Agile BA e plains the eaning and i plications of o oW to the
stakeholders who are participants, being careful that people do make the correct distinction between the priorities
and realise the i plications of the different prioritisation levels.
Where ser tories are being defined by the users, the Agile BA will facilitate the process by helping the to
identify the business scenarios related to the stories and consider their acceptance criteria. ere the Agile BA will
enlist the skills of the olution ester to help with the definition of acceptance criteria.
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HOW will it run?
A i ebo eview Workshop needs facilitation, since the purpose of the workshop and the e power ent of the
participants need to be clear. he solution ele ents being de onstrated or discussed are, by definition, inco plete.
he e pectations of participants need to be anaged carefully in this respect. Additionally, the e powered
decision akers are the defined roles within the olution evelop ent ea and project level roles. Whilst
opinions will be captured, it will be the e powered roles within the project that will ake decisions about the
volving olution.
The Agile BA can be helpful here in presenting the end-to-end view of the process into which the demonstration
and review fits, to ensure that what ay be de onstrations of s all, disjoint pieces of functionality are viewed in
conte t.
Retrospective
he purpose of a etrospective is to allow a tea to re ect on their way of working, with a view to i proving it.
etrospectives could be run for an entire project, but in practice are usually run at the end of each i ebo .
he purpose of a i ebo etrospective is to allow the olution evelop ent ea to re ect on the i ebo
they have just co pleted, and to inspect their way of working in detail, with a view to i proving it for the ne t
i ebo a process called inspect and adapt .
WHAT is its Outcome?
he outco e of a etrospective should be the identification of process i prove ents for the ne t i ebo .
WHO should be there?
For a i ebo etrospective
• Agile BA
• All members of the Solution Development Team
• roject anager possibly
• Business isionary and echnical oordinator possibly
• Any stakeholders who have had a significant input to the i ebo that the tea dee to have useful input.
WHO should Facilitate?
he Agile BA ay choose to facilitate this Workshop, or the olution evelop ent ea eader. owever,
both roles ay be dee ed to be too involved, and have a strong role as participants. n this case, a person with
facilitation skills who was independent of the i ebo would be a better choice.
WHEN does it happen?
A etrospective is run at the end of every i ebo . hey can also be used at the end of an incre ent and at the
end of the project.
HOW will it run?
he reason for running a etrospective at the end of every i ebo is that learning about how to work together
can be quickly embedded into team processes and practices, improving the process immediately, and for the
re ainder of the project.
The team should ask themselves the following questions:
• What do we want to stop doing
• What do we want to try, or start doing
• What should we continue doing
hey should then work together to define how they will work for the ne t i ebo .
he etrospective should include the whole tea , including business roles.
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190
Appendix E
Bibliography
1
191
1 1
Bibliography
AgileBA Handbook
ojko Ad ic Fifty uick deas Neuri 2 14 www.a a on.co.uk 978 993 881
to Improve your Consulting
ser tories LLP
Scott Ambler Disciplined Agile IBM Press 2012 www.a a on.co.uk 978 13281 135
Delivery
Alistair Cockburn Writing ffective Addison- 2000 www.a a on.co.uk 978 2 17 2255
se ases Wesley
Mike Cohn Agile sti ating Pearson 2011 www.phptr.co 978 131479418
and Planning
obert Damelio The Basics of Productivity 2011 www.a a on.co.uk 978 1563273766
Process Mapping Press
192
Initial Author Title Publisher Date Web Page ISBN
a pden iding the Waves Nicholas 2012 www.a a on.co.uk 978 19 4838388
Turner of Culture Brealey
Fons Publishing
Trompenaars
Geert ofstede Cultures & McGraw- 2010 www.a a on.co.uk 978 7 166418 9
rganisations ill
Software of the
Mind
Johnson & ploring Pearson 2013 www.a a on.co.uk 978 1292 2545
Scholes trategy e t
Cases
193
Bibliography
AgileBA Handbook
Ale ander sterwalder Business Model John Wiley 2010 www.wiley.co.uk 978 47 87641 1
Generation & Sons
o an Pichler Agile roject Addison- 2010 www.a a on.co.uk 978 3216 5788
Management Wesley
with Scrum
Mary & Poppendieck The Lean Addison- 2013 www.a a on.co.uk 978 321 8969 2
Tom Mindset Wesley
Michael Porter Competitive Free ress 2 4 www.a a on.co.uk 978 74326 879
Advantage
Penny Pullan Business Analysis ogan age 2013 www.a a on.co.uk 978 74946862
and Leadership
obert Thomsett adical roject Prentice 2002 www.a a on.co.uk 978 13 94865
Management all
Dorothy Tudor Agile roject The 2010 www.tsoshop.co.uk 978 11331 975
and Service Stationery
Management ffice
Tudor D and The DSDM Galatea 2010 www.a a on.co.uk 978 9543 7134
Tudor I Atern Student
Workbook
Bill Wake efactoring Addison- 2003 www.a a on.co.uk 978 3211 9293
Workbook Wesley
194
Initial Author Title Publisher Date Web Page ISBN
195
Bibliography
AgileBA Handbook
196
Appendix F
Index
1
197
1 1
Index
AgileBA Handbook
his inde is in alphabetical, word by word order. t does not cover the isclai er, Acknowledge ents, ontents
list or Foreword.
ocation references are to chapter and section nu ber, e.g.
Agile Alliance, 2.1.2
indicates that infor ation on the Agile Alliance can be found in hapter 2, section 1.2
Abbreviations App Appendi Fig Figure
acceptance criteria
confir ation of eeting, 9.2.2
pic level, 5.5.2
volutionary evelop ent phase, 11.4.4.3
general, 9.3.1.2 11.3.3
tory cards, 5.4.2.2, Fig 5f
Ad ic, ojko, 8.9.1.6, 8.9.1.1
Agile Alliance, 2.1.2
Agile culture in organisations
see also, Business Analysts, transition to Agile culture
general. 1.6.1 4.3 12.5
transition to, 12.3
Agile tea s, 4.1
analysis, see business analysis; requirements, analysis
198
Business Ambassadors
prioritisation of re uire ents, 6.6
role, 2.6.4.7
working with, 4.4.2.1
business analysis
see also Business Analysts
general, 1.1 1.2
holistic view, 1.2.1, Fig 1b
s all scale changes, 3.2.3
top to botto analysis, Fig 1a
Business Analysts
see also business analysis
develop ent of Business ase, 3.2.1, 3.3.2, 3.5.5
holistic view of business, 1.2.1
involve ent in project lifecycle, Fig 3a Fig 1 a
re uire ents gathering, checklist, 5.1
role
Agile projects, 2.9 1
tea s, 2.6.4.5
Facilitated Workshops, 7.3 12.4.3
general, 1.2, 1.7
terative evelop ent, 9.3.6
i ebo es, 9.2.2
skill re uire ents, 1.1
top prioritisation tips, 6.8
transition to Agile culture
Facilitated Workshops, 12.4.3
general, 12.1, 12.4, 12.5, Fig 12a
odelling, 12.4.2
prototyping, 12.4.2
re uire ents considerations, 12.4.1
transitioning organisations to Agile, 12.2 3, Fig 12b
understanding business environ ents, 1.3 3.2, 1.7
Business anvas, 8.9.1.1, Fig 8c
see also modelling techniques
199
Index
AgileBA Handbook
Business Case
contents, 3.4 4.1, Fig 3b
creation
eploy ent phase, 3.3.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 3.3.4
Feasibility phase, 3.3.2
Foundations phase, 3.3.3
ost project phase, 3.3.6
re project phase, 3.3.1
develop ent, 3.2.1
Facilitated Workshops, 3.6.2
for at, 3.4
general, 2.7.1.2 3.1, 3.7
terative evelop ent, 3.6.4
odelling, 3.6.3
prioritisation, 3.6.1
project business case, 3.2.1
proposed solution, 3.4.2
prototyping, 3.6.3
purpose, 3.4
re uire ent for, 3.2
role involvement
Agile Business Analyst, 3.5.5
Business ponsor, 3.5.1
Business isionary, 3.5.2
roject anager, 3.5.4
echnical o ordinator, 3.5.3
si e, 3.4
s all changes within organisation, 3.2.3
strategic business needs, 3.2.2
Business o ain odel lass odel , 8.9.1.2, Fig 8d
see also modelling techniques
business environment
e ternal in uences, 1.3 3.1, Fig 1c
internal in uences, 1.3, 1.3.2, Fig 1c
200
Business rocess iagra s, 8.9.1.3, Fig 8e 12.4.2
see also, modelling techniques
Business rocess odelling otation B , 8.7.4.1
see also modelling
Business Sponsors
creation of Business ase, 3.3.2, 3.5.1
role, 2.6.4.1
working with, 4.4.1.1
Business ision, 3.4.1 5.5.2
Business Visionaries
creation of Business ase, 3.3.2, 3.5.2
ownership of re uire ents, 1 .2
prioritisation of re uire ents, 6.6
role, 2.6.4.2
working with, 4.4.1.1
A , 5.4.3
change management
considerations
collaboration, 1.6.3
co unication, 1.6.2
culture, 1.6.1
general, 1.6
heckland, eter, 8.9.1.9
lass odels, 8.9.1.2, Fig 8d
see also modelling techniques
ohn, ike, 1 .5.3.1
ollaborate rinciple 3 , 2.4.3 8.11
see also Principles
collaboration, 1.6.3 4.1
see also stakeholders
co on sense, 2.2, Fig 2a
o unicate ontinuously and learly rinciple 7 , 2.4.7
see also Principles
201
Index
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communication
effectiveness of odelling, 8.3, 8.12
plans, 1.6.2
presentation of infor ation, 9.5, Figs 9f g
with stakeholders, 4.8 5.9
o puter Aided e uire ents ngineering A , 5.4.3
onte t coping iagra s
see also modelling techniques
Foundations phase, 8.8.2 8.3
general, 8.9.1.4, Fig 8f
ost, as project variable, 2.3, Fig 2b
ould ave re uire ents, 6.3.1.3 11.4.4.4
see also MoSCoW prioritisation
usto er ourney apping, 8.9.1.5, Fig 8g
see also modelling techniques
202
documentation
audit trials, 2.7.2
eploy ent phase, 11.4.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 11.4.4.4
Feasibility phase, 11.4.2.4
Foundations phase, 11.4.3.4
general, 11.3.4.1
re project phase, 11.4.1.4
ost project phase, 11.4.5
transition fro Waterfall approach to Agile, 12.3
DSDM
benefits, 2.1.6
co position, 2.2, Fig 2a
creation, 2.1.1 1.2
difference fro Agile approaches, 2.1.4
difference fro traditional project approach, 2.1.3
philosophy, 2.2
principles, see Principles
process, Fig 2c
products, see products
reasons for choosing, 2.1.5
roles, see roles
tea odel, Fig 2d Fig 4a
DSDM Coaches
role, 2.6.4.13
working with, 4.4.3.3
tructured i ebo es, 9.2.1 2.1.1, Fig 9a
see also i ebo es
203
Index
AgileBA Handbook
elicitation of requirements
see also requirements
eploy ent phase, 11.4.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 11.4.4.1
Feasibility phase, 11.4.2.1
Foundations phase, 11.4.3.1
general, 11.3.1
re project phase, 11.4.1.1
ost project phase, 11.4.5
e power ent, olution evelop ent ea , 9.3.5
pics
see also he es ser stories
Foundations phase, 11.4.3 4.3.4
general, 5.5.2, Fig 5g
estimates
difference within projects, 1 .5.2
esti ating workshops, 1 .5.4
general, 1 .5, 1 .6
lanning oker techni ue, 1 .5.3.1
process, 1 .5.1
re uire ents detail, 1 .5.3, Fig 1 d
volutionary evelop ent phase
Business ase, 3.3.4
Facilitated Workshops, 7.6 12.4.3
general, 2.5.4
odelling, 8.8.4
re uire ents activity, 5.6.3
volving olution
co unication of, 9.5, Fig 9g
general, 2.7.1.1
e plicit knowledge, 9.4.1
see also knowledge types
e ternal in uences on businesses, 1.3.1, Fig 1c
see also W analysis
204
Facilitated Workshops
see also Workshop Facilitators
activities, 7.9
define and plan, 7.9.1
docu ent, 7.9.5
facilitate, 7.9.3.1 9.3.2
follow up, 7.9.6
prepare, 7.9.2
retrospectives, 7.9.4 9.2.2
benefits, 7.1
creation of Business ase, 3.6.2
definition, Fig 7a
distributed tea environ ents, 7.11
esti ating workshops, 1 .5.4
features, 7.7, Fig 7c
general, 7.1, 7.12
roles
Business Analyst, 7.3 12.4.3
e a ple Fig 7b
observer, 7.5.5
participant, 7.5.4
scribe, 7.5.3
workshop facilitator, 7.5.2
workshop owner, 7.5.1
success measures
clear agenda, 7.8.5
clear objectives, 7.8.2
clear scope, 7.8.3
e powered participants, 7.8.4
facilitators, 7.8.1
outputs outco es, 7.8.6
types in Agile project phases, 7.6 App
use, 7.2, 7.4
Feasibility Assess ents
general, 2.7.1.8
inclusion of Business ase, 3.3.2
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Feasibility phase
Business ase, 3.3.2
general, 2.5.2
odelling, 8.8.2
requirements
activity, 5.6.1 6.7.1
analysis, 11.4.2.2
docu entation, 11.4.2.4
elicitation, 11.4.2.1
general, 11.4.2
anage ent, 11.4.2.4
planning, 1 .3.1
validation, 11.4.2.3
workshops, 7.6 12.4.3
Features, as project variable, 2.3, Fig 2b
Focus on the Business eed rinciple 1 , 2.4.1 8.11
see also Principles
Foundation u aries, 2.7.1.9
Foundations phase
Business Analyst role, 1 .3.2
Business ase, 3.3.3
general, 2.5.3
odelling, 8.8.3
re uire ents activity, 5.6.2 6.6, 6.7.1
re uire ents planning, 1 .3.2
workshops, 7.6 12.4.3
Free for at i ebo es, 9.2.1, 9.2.1.2, Fig 9b
see also i ebo es
Functional e uire ents F s , 5.3.1.3, Fig 5b 11.3.2
see also requirements
206 205
governance processes, products used in
Benefits Assess ents, 2.7.1.14
Feasibility Assess ents, 2.7.1.8
Foundations u aries, 2.7.1.9
roject eview eport, 2.7.1.13
er s of eference, 2.7.1.1
i ebo eview ecords, 2.7.1.12
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Index
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knowledge types
e plicit, 9.4.1
general, 9.4
se i tacit, 9.4.3
tacit, 9.4.2
208
Feasibility phase, 8.8.2 12.4.2
Foundations phase, 8.8.3 12.4.2
general, 8.8
ost project phase, 8.8.6
re project phase, 8.8.1
approaches, 8.1
as is and to be , 8.6, Fig 8a
Business Analyst role, 8.1 12.4.2
Business ase, 3.6.3
rinciples, 8.11
general, 8.1, 8.12
languages
Business rocess odelling otation B , 8.7.4.1
general, 8.7.4
nified odelling anguage , 8.7.4.2
perspectives
breadth of re uire ents perspective, 8.7.2
general, 8.7.1, Fig 8b
single user role perspective, 8.7.3
purpose, 8.1
techniques, see modelling techniques
modelling techniques
Business anvas, 8.9.1.1, Fig 8c
Business o ain odels, 8.9.1.2, Fig 8d
Business rocess odels, 8.9.1.3, Fig 8e
lass odels, 8.9.1.2, Fig 8d
onte t coping iagra s, 8.9.1.4, Fig 8f
usto er ourney apping, 8.9.1.5, Fig 8g
general, 8.9 9.1
pact apping, 8.9.1.6, Fig 8h
ean anvas, 8.9.1.1, Fig 8c
ersonas, 8.9.1.7, Fig 8i
roduct ision Bo es, 8.9.1.8, Fig 8j
ich ictures, 8.9.1.9, fig 8k
pecification by e a ple, 8.9.1.1
toryboards, 8.9.1.11, Fig 8l
209
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210
observers at Facilitated Workshops, 7.5.5
see also Facilitated Workshops
organisation culture, 1.6.1
organisational odels, 1.2
sterwalder, Ale , 8.9.1.1
211
Index
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re project phase
Business ase, 3.3.1
general, 2.5.1
odelling, 8.8.1
requirements
analysis, 11.4.1.2
docu entation, 11.4.1.4
elicitation, 11.4.1.1
general, 11.4 4.1
anage ent, 11.4.1.4
validation, 11.4.1.3
Principles
general, 2.2, 2.4, 2.4.9, Fig 2a
rinciple 1 Focus on the Business eed, 2.4.1 8.11
rinciple 2 eliver on i e, 2.4.2 8.11
rinciple 3 ollaborate, 2.4.3 8.11
rinciple 4 ever o pro ise uality, 2.4.4 8.11
rinciple 5 Build ncre entally fro Fir Foundations, 2.4.5 8.11
rinciple 6 evelop teratively, 2.4.6 8.11
rinciple 7 o unicate ontinuously and learly, 2.4.7
rinciple 8 e onstrate ontrol, 2.4.8 8.11
rioritised e uire ents ist
baselining, 5.6.2, 5.7 11.4.3.3
develop ent aintenance, 5.7
e a ple, Fig 5d
general, 2.7.1.3 3.3.3 1 .4, Fig 1 c
production, 11.4.3.4
recording of re uire ents, 5.4.4
recording of ser stories, 5.4.1
validation, 11.4.3.3
processes
configuring for scalability, 2.5.8
eploy ent phase, 2.5.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 2.5.4
Feasibility phase, 2.5.2
Foundations phase, 2.5.3
212
general, 2.2, 2.5, 2.5.9, Fig 2a, Fig 2c
lifecycle, 2.5.7
ost project, 2.5.6
re project phase, 2.5.1
roduct ision Bo es, 8.9.1.8, Fig 8j
see also modelling techniques
products
Benefits Assess ent, 2.7.1.14
Business ase, 2.7.1.2
elivery lan, 2.7.1.6
evelop ent Approach efinition A , 2.7.1.5
volving olution, 2.7.1.1
Feasibility Assess ent, 2.7.1.8
Foundation u ary, 2.7.1.9
general, 2.2, 2.7, 2.7.2, Fig 2a, Fig 2e
anage ent Approach efinition A , 2.7.1.7
rioritised e uire ents ist , 2.7.1.3
roject eview eport, 2.7.1.13
olution Architecture efinition A , 2.7.1.4
er s of eference, 2.7.1.1
i ebo lan, 2.7.1.11
i ebo eview ecord, 2.7.1.12
roject Approach uestionnaire A , App
project level roles
see also roles
Business Analyst, 2.6.4.5, 2.9
Business ponsor, 2.6.4.1
Business isionary, 2.6.4.2
general, 2.6.2.1
roject anager, 2.6.4.4
echnical o ordinator, 2.6.4.3
roject anagers
co unication planning, 4.8
creation of Business ase, 3.3.2, 3.5.4
role, 2.6.4.4
working with, 4.4.1.3
213
Index
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214 213
Foundations phase, 11.4.3.2
general, 11.3.2
ost project phase, 11.4.5
re project phase, 11.4.1.2
Business Analysts transitioning to Agile culture, 12.4.1
baselining, 5.6.2, 5.7
categories
classification, 5.3.1, Fig 5a
Functional e uire ents, 5.3.1.3, Fig 5b
eneral Business e uire ents, 5.3.1.1
on functional e uire ents, 5.4.1.4, Fig 5b
echnical olicy e uire ents, 5.3.1.2
checklist for Agile Business Analysts, 5.1
co unication of to others, 5.9
consideration of whole set, 5.4.4
defining needs, 5.2, 5.8
definition, 5.3
dependencies between, 6.4
general, 5.1, 5.11
lifecycle, see re uire ents lifecycle in Agile projects
planning, see requirements planning
prioritisation, see requirements prioritisation
re uire ents lifecycle in Agile projects
Agile BA role, 11.2
eploy ent phase, 11.4.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 5.6.3 11.4.4 4.4.4
Feasibility phase, 5.6.1 11.4.2 4.2.4
Foundations phase, 5.6.2 11.4.3 4.3.4
general, 5.6, Fig 5j 11.1, 11.6, Figs 11a b
hierarchy of requirements
analysis, 11.3.2
elicitation, 11.3.1
docu entation, 11.3.4.1
general, 11.3
anage ent, 11.3.4.2
validation, 11.3.3
215
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216
roject anager, 2.6.4.4
echnical o ordinator, 2.6.4.3
olution evelop ent ea
Business A bassador, 2.6.4.7
Business Analyst, 2.6.4.5, 2.9
general, 2.6.2.2
olution eveloper, 2.6.4.8
olution ester, 2.6.4.9
ea eader, 2.6.4.6
supporting roles, 2.6.2.3
Business Advisor, 2.6.4.1
oach, 2.6.4.13
echnical Advisor, 2.6.4.11
Workshop Facilitator, 2.6.4.12
scenarios, 5.4.2.2
see also Story cards
scribes, 7.5.3
see also Facilitated Workshops
, see olution evelop ent ea
se i tacit knowledge, 9.4.3
see also knowledge types
hackleford, B, 8.9.1.8
hould ave re uire ents, 6.3.1.2 11.4.4.4
see also MoSCoW prioritisation
olution Architecture efinition A , 2.7.1.4
olution architecture layers, 9.3.3
Solution Developers
role, 2.6.4.8
working with, 4.4.2.3
olution evelop ent ea
Burn down charts, 9.2.2, Fig 9d
Business A bassador, 2.6.4.7
Business Analyst, 2.6.4.5, 2.9
control of changes within i ebo es, 9.3.5
general, 2.6.2.2
217
Index
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218
tory aps, 5.5.4, Fig 5h Fig 8n 1 .3.1, Fig 1 b
see also ser stories ser tory apping
toryboards, 8.9.1.11, Fig 8l
see also modelling techniques
strategic Business Analysts, 3.3.2
see also Business Analysts
strategy
Balanced Business corecard, Fig 1f
i ple entation within organisation, 1.5
c insey 7 odel, Fig 1e
supporting roles
see also roles
Business Advisor, 2.6.4.1
oach, 2.6.4.13
general, 2.6.2.3
echnical Advisor, 2.6.4.11
Workshop Facilitator, 2.6.4.12
Swimlanes, see Business Process Diagrams
W analysis, 1.3.3, Fig 1c
219
Index
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er s of eference
Business ase, 3.3.1
Feasibility phase, 5.6.1 1 .3.1
general, 2.7.1.1
re project phase, 11.4.1 4.1.4
testing, 9.3.2
Themes
see also pics ser stories
Feasibility phase, 11.4.2 4.2.4
general, 5.5.1, Fig 5g
i e, as project variable, 2.3, Fig 2b
i ebo lans, 2.7.1.11
i ebo eview ecords, 2.7.1.12
i ebo eviews, 9.2.2
i ebo es
Agile BA role, 9.2.2
changes within, 9.3.5
tructured i ebo , 9.2.1 2.1.1, Fig 9a
Free for at i ebo , 9.2.1, 9.2.1.2, Fig 9b
general, 9.2
in conte t of project, 9.2.3, Fig 9e
investigation of ser stories, 5.6.3
o oW prioritisation, 1 .3.31
re uire ents planning, 1 .3.3
re uire ents prioritisation, 6.6, 6.7.2
solution delivery, 9.3.3, Figs 9
i ebo ing, 9.1 2
W analysis, 1.3.3, Fig 1c
220
definition, 5.4.1
volutionary evelop ent, 5.6.3 11.4.4 4.4.4
e a ple, Fig 5c
Feasibility phase, 5.6.1
for at, 5.4.1, 5.4.3
Foundations phase, 5.6.2
hierarchy, 5.5, Fig 5g
odel, 5.4.3
specificity, 5.5.3
story cards, see Story cards
ser tory apping, 8.9.1.13
see also modelling techniques; Story maps
validation of requirements
see also requirements
eploy ent phase, 11.4.5
volutionary evelop ent phase, 11.4.4.7
Feasibility phase, 11.4.2.3
Foundations phase, 11.4.3.3
general, 11.3.3
ost project phase, 11.4.5
re project phase, 11.4.1.3
value, creation of, 1.4
see also Lean thinking
value chain analysis, 1.4.1, Fig 1d 8.9.1.14, Fig 8o
value strea analysis, 1.4.1 8.9.1.14, Fig 8o
waste, 1.4.2
Waterfall approach to projects
general, 2.1.1 12.5
transition to Agile approach, 12.3
Wirefra e diagra s, 8.9.1.11, Fig 8l
see also modelling techniques
Won t ave this ti e re uire ents, 6.3.1.4 11.4.4.4
see also MoSCoW prioritisation
221
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Workshop Facilitators
see also Facilitated Workshops
Agile Business Analyst as, 7.3
preparation for workshops, 7.9.2
role, 2.6.4.12
role in Facilitated Workshops, 7.5.2, 7.8.1, 7.9.3.2
working with, 4.4.3.3
workshop owners
see also Facilitated Workshops
role, 7.5.1
defining objectives, 7.8.2, 7.9.1
workshop reports, 7.9.5
workshops, see Facilitated Workshops
222
223
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