The New Age Business Analyst - Role of BA in the Changing times of Agile Software Development

Making IT work for you! Technology Experience Call me a Product Owner! Role of Business Analyst in the Changing Times of Agile Software Development Pardha Saradhi Mantravadi

Agenda Image Courtesy – Modernanalyst.com

Agenda • Traditional BA - Responsibilities and expectations • Agile development methodology and current trends • Changing role of BA in Agile Methodologies • Responsibilities, Expectations of a Product Owner • Deliverables of a Product Owner • Demo of Product Backlog, User Stories and User Story Cards • Do's and Don'ts from my experience • Discussion - Q & A

Traditional Business Analyst What /Who is a ‘Traditional BA’?

Traditional Business Analyst

What /Who is Traditional BA A business analyst… • works as a liaison among stakeholders • in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. • understands business problems and opportunities in the context of the requirements • recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals. - As Per IIBA’s BABOK ver 1.6

What’s in a Name • Business Analyst – (Banking, Inventory, Insurance…) • System Analyst • IT Business Analyst • SME (Subject Matter Expert) • Business Consultant • Product Manager

What Does a BA Do • Enterprise analysis • Requirements planning and management • Requirements elicitation • Requirements analysis and documentation • Requirements communication • Solution assessment and validation Technology People Functionality Areas as per IIBA’s BABOK ver 1.6

What Does a BA Do Solution Domain Deployment View Problem Domain Use Case View Process View Platform Specific Platform Independent Model (PSM) Model (PIM) Component View Logical View Design Analysis Focus on this

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Completion of Project Pre-sales: • Feasibility study • Cost-benefit Analysis • Study alignment of project’s goals with Organization’s goals • Proposal / RFX Pre-sales Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Completion of Project Requirements Development • Requirements Planning • Elicit requirements Requirements • Define/specify requirements Development • Document requirements • Communicate requirements Pre-sales Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Completion of Project Test Plans & Test Plans and test cases test cases • Create system test cases • Assist testers in creating test Requirements plans Development • Traceability from requirements to test cases Pre-sales Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Completion of Project Design Test Plans & Design test cases • Create Prototypes • Help in creating UI specification Requirements • Assist and assess in creating the Development architecture so that it supports functional and non-functional requirements Pre-sales Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA System testing Completion of Project Design Test Plans & test cases Requirements System Testing Development • Conduct system testing • Generate test reports • Assist the team in fixing the defects Pre-sales Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Acceptance testing System testing Completion of Project Design Test Plans & test cases Acceptance Testing Requirements • Assist customer in acceptance Development testing • Generate acceptance test reports Pre-sales • Assist the team in fixing the defects Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Project closure Acceptance testing System testing Completion of Project Design Test Plans & test cases Project closure • Get signoff from customer at various Requirements relevant milestones Development • Assist team and PM in closing the project with acceptable customer Pre-sales satisfaction Activities in Project Life Cycle

Responsibilities /Expectations of a BA Project Sign-off Acceptance testing System testing Completion ofof Project Completion Project Design Test Plans & Requirements Management test cases • Manage change requests • Work with team on impact analysis Decide on Go/ No-go for changes Requirements • Two-way Traceability (top-down and Development bottom-up) • Multi-level traceability management Pre-sales Requirements Management Activities in Project Life Cycle

Agenda What is this Agile all about

Traditional BA Process • Documents, documents and more documents • Wait till they are frozen • Corrections, rework, changes and more

Docu’mentality’ Image Courtesy – Modernanalyst.com

Rework is the only Reward Image Courtesy – Modernanalyst.com

Team work Image Courtesy – Leigh Rubin

Why Agile Traditional Software Development Methdology Functional Architecture Functional & Technical & Coding Testing Requirements Tech. Design This methodology does not work! Why?

Why Agile Traditional Software Development Methodology The User is not kept in the loop throughout the product development life cycle. When the product is released, he/she is surely not too happy! 

Agile Development Methodology Agile Software Development Functional User & Technical Knowledge Requirements Architecture & Technical Coding Design Functional & System Testing User Testing Improvement This Methodology works wonders! Why?  1

Why Agile Agile Software Development Methodology Not just technology and functional needs are addresse, but user’s needs are taken care of too! User has been listened to and cared for, so he/she is happy! 

Why Agile Benefits of Agile Processes Customer Product Developer • Early visibility • Commit what can be delivered • Better control • Better control on resources • Deliver what is Important and Urgent • Manage scope and releases • Support from Senior Management • Minimize Customer-reported defects

Agile Development Process Pick the Best Approach • SCRUM • Extreme /Paired Programming • User Stories and User Story Cards • Test Driven Development

Agile Development Methodology The Agile Manifesto Individuals and over Process and tools interactions Comprehensive Working software over documentation Customer over Contract negotiation collaboration Responding to over Following a plan change Source - www.agilemanifesto.org

SCRUM Defined One of the Agile Development Methodologies • Mature team members who can organize themselves • Product is built over a series of sprints (4-6 weeks cycle) • Requirements are initially spelled out as items in product backlog. • Focus is more on processes aligned to the fitment of the organization, product, team etc.

SCRUM Defined Source - Mountain Goat Software

Agenda Once an Analyst – always an Analyst

Changing Role of a BA SCRUM Roles • SCRUM Master • Product Owner • Team (Feature Team)

Changing Role of a BA From a Business Analyst to a Product Owner • Who is the real Product Owner? • In client’s location, Product Owner or Customer Proxy is the primary scope manager • Business Analyst in the product development team (Offshore) acts as a proxy to Product Owner onsite • With scoping and product-related decisions, traditional Offshore BA is transforming into a Product Owner

Product Owner’s Primary Focus Usability Testing

Agenda What does a Product Owner do

Responsibilities of a Product Owner • Maximize ROI on the product • Maximum business value • Minimize product development cost • Scope and Prioritize • Committed in decisions on product features • Interact with development team • Interact with stakeholders • Interact with users

Responsibilities of a Product Owner Primary Activities User studies/interactions Stakeholder interactions Product Backlog(Scope) User Testing User Stories and Cards Test Cases/

Deliverables of a Product Owner • Product Backlog • User Stories • User Story Cards • Wireframes • Estimates ( Contribute as part of team) • Reviewed System Test Plans / System Test Cases

Deliverables of a Product Owner Product Backlog • Repository of all features/potential requirements • Laundry-list maintained through-out the life cycle • One-liner descriptions of the features • Priorititization is the key • MoSCoW – Must – Should – Could – Won’t Need

Deliverables of a Product Owner User Stories • Features written from the perspective of users • Still abstract features, possibly one-two liners • Grouped under ‘themes’ • User story In the format – As a <User Type> – I wish to <do some task/action> – So that I can <get some benefit>

Deliverables of a Product Owner User Story Cards • Detailed versions of user stories • Each user story has at least one user story card • Details the following: – Business criteria – Acceptance Criteria – Scenarios – Data definitions – Wireframes / mock-ups

Deliverables of a Product Owner Wireframes • Rough sketch /presentation of functional flow • Not actual visual design • Low-fidelity UI prototype • Can be created in the following formats – Microsoft Visio – Adobe Photoshop – Microsoft PowerPoint – Microsoft Excel – Paper sketch

Agenda Show & ‘Tell me How!’

Deliverables of a Product Owner Show documents and artifacts from the four projects: • One-liner requirements • Mindmap.pardha • Stakeholder interactions reports • User studies reports • Feature list_Product backlog • User stories list • Wireframes • User story cards

User is the Driver! Standish Group Report, CHAOS Project Failure Factors 1. Lack of User Input 12.8% 2. Incomplete Requirements & Specifications 12.3% 3. Changing Requirements & Specifications 11.8% 4. Lack of Executive Support 7.5% 5. Technology Incompetence 7.0% 6. Lack of Resources 6.4% 7. Unrealistic Expectations 5.9% 8. Unclear Objectives 5.3% 9. Unrealistic Time Frames 4.3% 10. New Technology 3.7% 11. Other 23.0%

User is the Driver! Standish Group Report, CHAOS Project Success Factors 1. User Involvement 15.9% 2. Executive Management Support 13.9% 3. Clear Statement of Requirements 13.0% 4. Proper Planning 9.6% 5. Realistic Expectations 8.2% 6. Smaller Project Milestones 7.7% 7. Competent Staff 7.2% 8. Ownership 5.3% 9. Clear Vision & Objectives 2.9% 10. Hard-Working, Focused Staff 2.4% 11. Other 13.9%

Time ’boxing’ Stick to the timeboxes

Scope, De-scope , Re-scope I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody – Bill Cosby • Define what is in Scope • More importantly, define what is ‘out of Scope’! • Freeze Scope for the sprint • Socialize with stakeholders and team members

Understand and Communicate If you can’t explain it simply, you didn’t understand it well enough!

Follow Standards – Use Templates

Think Product , not Project! Usability Testing Product usage and features • Learn how to use the product • Features are important • But, users’ tasks are more important

Know your customers and users Customers always know what’s wrong. They can’t always tell you what they want, but they always can tell you what’s wrong - Carly Fiorina • Connect with customers and users • Connect frequently • Get continual feedback • Plough the feedback into the product development

Show and Tell A picture is worth thousand words, an interface is worth thousand pictures – Ben Shneiderman • Draw, don’t just write • Wireframes, sketches, box-and-arrow diagrams • Low-fidelity UI Prototypes • Re-work, improve and get approval

Take lots of photos Usability Testing Snaps, videos and screen-grabs • Flow diagrams • Discussion points • Ideas, draft plans, approaches • Thoughts and dreams • Applications’ interface

Connect Thank You Mail : pardhas@texavi.com pardha.mantravadi@gmail.com Mobile : +91 9819057757 Twitter : @pardhas LinkedIn : pardhasaradhimantravadi Blog : http://texavi.com/blog Web site : www.texavi.com

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The New Age Business Analyst - Role of BA in the Changing times of Agile Software Development

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The New Age Business Analyst - Role of BA in the Changing times of Agile Software Development Presentation Transcript