Harlan Bennett, Senior Consultant, CapTech Kevin Pious, BA Center of Excellence Lead, CapTech Most of the key skills that analysts have can be applied to any type of project methodology. However, there are certain principles that more closely apply to Agile business analysis. Based on the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, we will look at some key principles that analysts need to follow that will help lead to overall project success. The key principles are: • See The Whole • Think as a Customer • Analyze to Determine What is Valuable • Get Real Using Examples • Understand What is Doable • Stimulate Collaboration and Continuous Improvement • Avoid Waste

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.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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rights
reserved.

4. See
the
Whole
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Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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rights
reserved.

6. § Provides
a
graphic
view
of
elements
involved
in
business
capability
analysis
§ Shows
what
capabili@es
should
be
addressed
first
©2014
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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CapTech
Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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app

9. Get
Real
Using
Examples
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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reserved.

12. How
to
create
a
scenario
GIVEN
<a
context>
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Inc.
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reserved.
• Possible
to
miss
important
scenarios
• Can
be
too
many
scenarios
if
business
rules
are
complex

14. Understand
What
is
Doable
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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
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Inc.
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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
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Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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reserved.

18. Think
as
a
Customer
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Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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CapTech
Ventures,
Inc.
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reserved.

24. MoSCoW
Analysis
Must
Could
Should
Won’t
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Inc.
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• 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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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rights
reserved.
Mission Critical

26. S@mulate
Collabora@on
and
Con@nuous
Improvement
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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rights
reserved.

29. Avoid
Waste
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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
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Ventures,
Inc.
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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.
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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