Catalyze Webcast - Carey Schwaber From Forrester Research - 10 Tips For Driving Better Project Outcomes

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10 Tips To Improve Project Outcomes Carey Schwaber Senior Analyst Forrester Research June 12, 2008 For internal use only

Theme Business analysts can make or break a software project. Forrester has identified ten tips to help business analysts improve project outcomes. 3 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 10: Define the business-IT division of labor • Shared responsibilities are too often abdicated responsibilities • Too little or too much business involvement is a common pitfall • Careful articulation of roles and responsibilities goes a long way “Our customer’s attitude is “The business usually that requirements are our hands IT a document that problem.” dictates a solution.” 4 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sample business and IT requirements responsibilities Business responsibilities IT responsibilities Develop business requirements that do not Understand business goals and business context presuppose design or implementation details Prioritize requirements based on relative need Identify and employ appropriate techniques to and available resources define functional and non-functional requirements Provide signoffs only after carefully evaluating all Communicate about progress toward fulfillment materials and ensuring thorough comprehension of requirements Communicate changing business needs and Manage relationships between requirements and collaborate with development to determine the other life-cycle artifact to ensure fulfillment of impact of these changes requirements 5 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 9: Be part of the team • Cross-functional delivery teams are the most effective and efficient – Business customer, business analyst, architect, developer, tester, project manager – Cross-functional in the sense of including all roles – Cross-functional in the sense of blurring lines between roles • No matter where they report, business analysts must behave as part of the delivery team • The alternative is not pretty: – Spending inordinate amounts of time documenting all of the things the delivery team might need to know – Throwing requirements over the wall and hoping that the delivery team will ask questions as necessary 7 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

How functional silos and cross-functional teams can intersect Delivery team BA Dev PM Dev Dev Dev Dev Tester Tester Lead Business Architecture Testing analysis 8 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 8: Assess the true impact of change • The pressure to improve efficiency of business operations drives software integration, which results in hairy dependencies • Unmanaged dependencies derail projects time and time again • Business analysts need to understand and help communicate the impact that changes have on: – The application(s) they are made to – The applications these applications integrate with • This helps set business expectations about: – How long certain changes will take to implement – Why some changes need to be grouped with other changes 9 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 7: Understand future as well as present business needs • The true outcome of a project extends well beyond the initial implementation, though this is easy to forget • How well do the deliverables suit business needs not just today but also tomorrow? • “Building for change” is one of today’s most pressing IT imperatives – How easily can software evolve to meet changing business requirements? – How independently, if at all, can the business implement changes in business processes, rules, etc? • Business analysts can help by: – Understanding likely areas of business and application change – Working with development to devise strategies for accommodating change – Assuming responsibility for implementing business changes through new development paradigms like business process management 10 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 6: Remember non-functional requirements • Very few IT organizations adequately define non-functional requirements – Performance and security are the most glaringly absent • Lack of expertise in these areas on the project team is no excuse • Invite individuals with expertise and vested interest in these domains to requirements sessions • Make requirements sessions worth their time – Prepare them – Engage them – Follow up with them 12 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

www.iRise.com Peter Indelicato Senior Product Manager peter@irise.com Visualize Your Business 13

www.iRise.com The Problem with Business Software Business people can’t interpret text, use cases, process flows and static screen shots Business people don’t know what they want until they see and interact with it Coded prototypes are too expensive Global sourcing brings these risks into sharper focus “50% of project timelines are now spent on rework.” Standish Group Chaos Report, 2007 14

www.iRise.com The Impact Late stage rework Cost overruns Project delays Global sourcing nightmares Missing features Extraneous features Blown business plans Finger pointing “In the last year, 70% of projects failed to meet deadlines, and 50% of projects fail to meet the needs of the business. 80% of the issues stem from poor requirements.” Standish Group Chaos Report, 2007 15

www.iRise.com The Solution Visualize before you build Business analysts, product managers and UX professionals assemble three dimensional simulations of business software Business and IT stakeholders “test drive” and provide feedback in rapid, iterative definition cycles Dramatically improves communication between business and IT “iRise gets business and IT aligned much faster than ever before.” COO, Global Wealth Organization 16

www.iRise.com

www.iRise.com Studio and Reader

www.iRise.com What Can You Simulate With iRise? New custom development Enhancements to current systems Customizations to SAP, Oracle Mobile applications such as iPhone Web 2.0 & Rich Internet Applications 19

www.iRise.com Value of Software Visualization Get to market twice as fast Virtually eliminate rework Outsource more new development Improve customer experience Discover new innovations “General Motors has to succeed through innovation. That’s where iRise leads and that’s the whole philosophy of the company right now.” Dr. Richard Frost, Global Director, Information Systems & Services, General Motors 20

www.iRise.com What’s in it for Developers? Forces the business to articulate what they want in a language everyone can understand Doesn’t let them change their minds in the middle of a project Gets business off developer’s backs while they’re designing, coding, delivering Virtually eliminates rework \"iRise is a rapid, iterative definition solution that helped the bank get the most out of our Agile development approach. iRise lets us get more done faster.\" Alan Buffington, Executive Vice President, KeyBank 21

The iRise Vision www.iRise.com By 2020 all business software will be visualized prior to development, the same way that visualization is a common practice in the design of every car, airplane and semiconductor today 22

iRise Customer Successes www.iRise.com

Tip No. 5: Make requirements painless for the business • Business engagement in the requirements process is a critical success factor • When business customers are frustrated by requirements practices, they lose faith in the project team and may mentally check out • But the requirements processes often seem designed to torture business stakeholders – One business analyst does dramatic interpretations of 100+ page requirements documents to keep business customers engaged – Several businesspeople a telecom report being forced to spend months on requirements that they know will be obsolete before coding starts • Business analysts must: – Stay attuned to business customer satisfaction not just with deliverables but also with methods – Take it upon themselves to make the absolute best use possible of business customers’ time 24 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 4: Measure project progress in terms of requirements • Most companies measure software project progress in terms of activities – Requirements complete, design complete, coding complete, etc. • There is minimal business value in anything other than working software • Progressive companies measure software project progress in terms of fulfilled requirements – 50% of requirements successfully implemented, from start to finish • This requires traceability from requirements through to test cases 25 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 3: Don’t rely solely on text • Text-based requirements are: – Insufficient, as some things simply can’t be communicated in text – Inefficient, as they take far longer to consume than visual requirements – Ineffective, as text often creates a false sense of agreement • A picture, on the other hand, is worth a thousand words • Use text-based requirements, but only as a starting point • Text-based requirements are critical for: – Non-functional requirements in areas like performance and security – Labeling units of work – Compliance purposes 27 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 2: Maximize feedback on requirements • All defects becomes more expensive to resolve as time passes: – Architecture, functionality, performance, security, usability • Defects in requirements have the potential to go unresolved the longest • Minimize defects in requirements by maximizing the amount of feedback you get on requirements • Maximize feedback by maximizing requirements visibility: – Posting requirements (in the lunch room, not just on a network drive) – Inviting Tom, Dick, and Harry to requirements walkthroughs – Doing frequent demos for projects sponsors and end users – Delivering working software incrementally 29 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

U.S. averages for defect removal efficiency Defect Removal Delivered Defect origins potentials efficiency, % defects Requirements 1.00 77 0.23 Design 1.25 85 0.19 Coding 1.75 95 0.09 Document 0.60 80 0.12 Bad fixes 0.40 70 0.12 Total 5.00 85 0.75 Source: Capers Jones, Software Assessments, Benchmarks, and Best Practices, Addison-Wesley 2000 30 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tip No. 1: Invest in future project outcomes, too • The projects just keep on coming • Find the time to make changes that improve all project outcomes, not a single project outcome • Use this time to investigate, define, and implement changes to people, processes, and tools • Set your schedule and budget to allow this, with the expectation that in doing so you will recoup the time you spend • In sum: – Step off the treadmill – Take time to save time 31 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

In summary 10. Define the business-IT division of labor. 9. Be part of the team. 8. Understand and communicate impact. 7. Define future as well as present business needs. 6. Remember non-functional requirements. 5. Make requirements painless for the business. 4. Measure project progress in terms of requirements. 3. Don’t rely solely on text. 2. Maximize feedback on requirements 1. Invest in future project outcomes, too. 33 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Catalyze Webcast - Carey Schwaber From Forrester Research - 10 Tips For Driving Better Project Outcomes

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