Agile Analysis Techniques by Harlan Bennett and Kevin Pious
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The document discusses agile methodologies and their application in business analysis, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer needs, continuous improvement, and avoiding waste. It outlines techniques such as business capability analysis, persona creation, and prioritization strategies like Kano and MoSCoW analysis to enhance value delivery. Additionally, it highlights practices for effective collaboration and communication within teams to align project goals with customer expectations.
Agile Analysis Techniques by Harlan Bennett and Kevin Pious
- 1. ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. www.captechventures.com ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. IT Management ConsulAng Systems IntegraAon Data Management Agile Techniques for Analysts
- 2. Who Knows Agile? Director/VP Product Manager 3% ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. ScrumMaster 46% Project Manager 16% 15% Developer 10% Product Owner 4% QA 2% ExecuAves 2% BA 2% Source: VersionOne 2013 State of Agile Survey
- 3. Agile Analysis Principles See the Whole Get Real Using Examples Understand What is Doable Think as a Customer Analyze to Determine What is Valuable SAmulate CollaboraAon and ConAnuous Improvement Avoid Waste ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 4. See the Whole ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 5. Business Capability Analysis § Capabili@es are the ability of the business to transform something to help achieve a goal § Increase revenue § Reduce cost § Improve service § Compliance § Agile facilitates frequent reassessment of business needs § Teams must maintain a constant view of the business capabili@es ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 6. § Provides a graphic view of elements involved in business capability analysis § Shows what capabili@es should be addressed first ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. An Outcome Capability Map AAnn OOuuttccoommee Performance Gap Customer Value Risk • Business Risk • Technology Risk • Organizational Risk • Market Risk Business Value
- 7. Personas § Fic@onal characters that exemplify user interac@on § Help understand value from the standpoint of a par@cular customer § Goes deeper than tradi@onal actor descrip@on • SoluAons can be prioriAzed based on how well they address the needs of a persona • Provides a human “face” to focus empathy ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. • Personas can be created that try to embody traits of every user which is not realisAc • Not a good subsAtute for a real user
- 8. Personas Exercise You are working on a project to create a smart phone app for the DC tourism board (washington.org) In your group, create a persona for one of the users of the Give your persona a name and create their personality and moAvaAon ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. app
- 9. Get Real Using Examples ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 10. Use Concrete Examples § Communicate with the team and the customer § Use the appropriate level of granularity § Drives § Acceptance criteria § Developer design § FuncAonal tesAng ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 11. Behavior Driven Development § Expresses product needs as concrete examples § As the project progresses examples grow in clarity and detail § Examples should be real life business scenarios ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 12. How to create a scenario GIVEN <a context> ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. WHEN <an event> THEN <an outcome> There can be mulAple GIVEN and THEN statements in a scenario, but there should only be one WHEN
- 13. Usage Considera@ons § Developers and Testers use the examples to show them what the product needs to do § BAs iden@fy the scenarios with the users by asking “what-‐if” ques@ons • Expressed customer need in natural language • Supports producAon of effecAve test cases • Scenarios can be easily prioriAzed ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. • Possible to miss important scenarios • Can be too many scenarios if business rules are complex
- 14. Understand What is Doable ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 15. Rela@ve Es@ma@on § Team ac@vity § Es@ma@on is con@nuous § Accuracy will increase § Teams will build confidence § Largely based on points § Can be impacted by team changes ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Project Release Sprint Knowledge Complexity Size Uncertainty Story Points
- 16. Planning for Delivery § Important to think about what is pragma@c and doable § Balance capacity and demand Planning • Team pulls top priority work items off backlog and esAmates units of work Review • Product Owner reviews planned work, approves esAmates and authorizes team to execute ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. ExecuAon • Team executes on planned work Review • Product Lead reviews output and determines if Acceptance Criteria have been met
- 17. Real Op@ons § Helps define when to make the decision § Three Rules § OpAons have value § OpAons expire § Never commit early unless you know why § Only priori@ze un@l the next investment decision point § Determining when the op@ons expire is important ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 18. Think as a Customer ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 19. Story Elabora@on § Lowest level of story decomposi@on § Just-‐in-‐@me § Produces the detailed requirements § Facilita@on skills are key • Decreases elicitaAon Ame • Avoids documenAng requirements that will probably change ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. • Can be difficult to determine exactly when to document • ElaboraAng the story with enough detail
- 20. Story Mapping § View of the sequence of ac@vi@es to be supported § Usage and Priority § Connects stories together ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Epics User Stories Steps • Prevents losing the big-‐ picture • Shows end-‐to-‐end value • Hard to do with large products • Do not show dependencies between specific requirements
- 21. Analyze to Determine What is Valuable ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 22. Kano Analysis Group 1: You are in the market for a $18,000 new car Group 2: You are in the market for a new smart phone ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Group 3: You want to spend a weekend at a hotel for vacaAon What are some features that would make you choose one brand over another?
- 23. Product Characteris@cs Threshold • Absolutely necessary • Challenge to elicit Performance • Linear increase in saAsfacAon • Easier to elicit Excitement • DramaAcally increase customer saAsfacAon • Not met by anything currently on the market ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 24. MoSCoW Analysis Must Could Should Won’t ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. • Powerful in prioriAzing backlogs • Can be subjecAve if there is not a clear focus on business value
- 25. Purpose Alignment Model § Assess ideas based on customer and business value § Rates capabili@es or products in two dimensions Partner DifferenAaAng Who Cares? Parity Market Differentiation ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Mission Critical
- 26. S@mulate Collabora@on and Con@nuous Improvement ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 27. Con@nuous Improvement § Product and Process § Healthy teams rely on trust § Role of the BA is to create the environment where everyone can contribute value Retrospec@ve • What we did well • What improvements can we make ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. • What could we do beYer • Focus on the process not the people
- 28. Structured Games Product Box • Construct a box for the product as if it was being sold in a retail store Affinity Map • Write down features on sAcky notes, put them on a wall and move them into themes Fishbowl • Divide team into two groups • One group speaks about a topic which others listen and document their observaAons ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 29. Avoid Waste ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 30. Ways to Avoid Waste During BA Ac@vi@es § Avoid producing documenta@on before it is needed § Ensure commitments are met § Make commitments as late as possible § Elicit, analyze, specify and validate requirements with the same models § Models should be as simple as possible § Close proximity to customers and dev team § Con@nuous aYen@on to technical excellence ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 31. Lightweight documenta@on § Documenta@on should not create overhead § Must create value § Compliance documenta@on does create value § Make documenta@on part of the living code base where possible § “Working so[ware over extensive documenta@on” ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
- 32. Ques@ons? ©2014 CapTech Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. See the Whole Think as a Customer Analyze to Determine What is Valuable Get Real Using Examples Understand What is Doable SAmulate CollaboraAon and ConAnuous Improvement Avoid Waste