The document summarizes findings from an agile requirements workshop hosted by Borland Software, identifying key challenges in agile development environments regarding requirements management. Participants ranked challenges in expressing, identifying, organizing, prioritizing, and validating requirements, highlighting issues such as miscommunication about customer needs and managing dependencies across product lines. The overall ranking indicated that involving internal stakeholders in sprint demos and confirming customer understanding were significant concerns.

1. Agile Requirements Workshop initial rankings/findings… work in progress Hosted by Borland Software in Austin, TX Facilitated by Luke Hohmann from Enthiosys These slides only makes sense for those who participated in the Agile Requirements Workshop . Anyone else will understand this better once the overall experience report gets finished and presented.

2. Structure of the tournament 5 to 7 Challenges Ranked in order as a team 6 Challenges Ranked in order as a team The intent was to stimulate discussion in small teams on the topic of what were the biggest challenges in Agile development environments in various areas of requirements. We used the 20/20 Vision game in a tournament format that looked like this: 12 Challenges Discussed and ranked as a larger team All teams together Participate in 20/20 Vision Game (~25 people) 4 Small Teams Participate in 20/20 Vision Games three times (~6 people each) 5 to 7 Challenges Ranked in order as a team Top 3 Advance Top 3 Advance Top 3 Advance (from 4 teams) Rank ordering of what this group thought were their biggest challenges

3. The team ranked these challenges in Expressing Requirements as: This team ranked these: My biggest challenge is… Requirements Area Final Round Overall Rank 1 Everyone thinks they know what our customers want -- but they don't! Expressing 1.5 2 Showing how our products help our customer's be more successful. Expressing 9 3 Managing dependencies across multiple product lines. Expressing 8 4 Communicating non-functional requirements (such as performance, tech stack, and security). Expressing nr 5 Grooming my backlog so that it is ready for release planning. Expressing nr 6 Creating effective user personas. Expressing nr 7 Creating effective – and consistent – user stories. Expressing nr 8 Translating unsolved market problems into requirements. Expressing nr 9 Knowing when to write an MRD -- and when NOT to write an MRD. Expressing nr 10 My team complains that my requirements are not precise enough. Expressing nr 11 My team complains that my requirements are too precise. Expressing nr 12 Managing our glossary of terms. Expressing nr

4. The team ranked these challenges in Identifying Requirements as: This team ranked these: My biggest challenge is… Requirements Area Final Round Overall Rank 1 Identifying unsolved market problems. Identifying 3 2 Quantifying the value of solving a market problem. Identifying 2 3 Understanding how our solution fits in with other solutions. Identifying 11 4 Understanding interactions between requirements for different solutions. Identifying nr 5 Getting time to identify requirements. Identifying nr 6 Identifying the features that customers will actually pay for. Identifying nr 7 Creating effective market segments. Identifying nr 8 Selecting participants for market research. Identifying nr 9 Identifying requirements that directly map to our business model. Identifying nr 10 Managing the expanding # of market input channels (e.g., social networks, CAB's, User Groups). Identifying nr 11 Understanding the "Big Picture" context of requirements. Identifying nr 12 Understanding licensing / business model choices on requirements. Identifying nr 13 Capturing appropriate acceptance criteria. Identifying nr 14 Spending too much time creating "high precision" requirements. Identifying nr

5. The team ranked these challenges in Organizing Requirements as: This team ranked these: My biggest challenge is… Requirements Area Final Round Overall Rank 1 Tracking dependencies across multiple product backlogs,. Organizing 10 2 Tracking dependencies across single product backlog. Organizing 12 3 Showing "balanced growth" across various areas of my solution. Organizing nr 4 Showing how groups of requirements solve market problems. Organizing nr 5 Losing the BIG IDEA through requirements that are distributed across multiple sprints and stories. Organizing nr 6 Keeping my backlog to a manageable size. Organizing nr 7 Keep track of how bigger items get split into smaller items. Organizing nr 8 Aligning requirements across agile and non-agile projects. Organizing nr 9 Knowing which product in my portfolio should solve a requirement. Organizing nr 10 Showing how requirements map into corporate strategy. Organizing nr 11 Aligning requirements to personas. Organizing nr

6. The team ranked these challenges in Prioritizing Requirements as: This team ranked these: My biggest challenge is… Requirements Area Final Round Overall Rank 1 Prioritizing market problems. Prioritizing 5 2 Balancing immediate customer needs with strategic innovation. Prioritizing 4 3 Including the right market participants in the prioritization process. Prioritizing 7 4 Providing transparency to stakeholders regarding the priorization process. Prioritizing nr 5 Making sure infrastructure work is prioritized. Prioritizing nr 6 Coordinating the priorities of co-dependent teams working on the same project. Prioritizing 6 7 Optimizing requirements across my product porfolio. Prioritizing nr 8 Prioritizing internal requests (from the field) with market requests. Prioritizing nr 9 Lack of clarity over who in the organization can set priorities. Prioritizing nr 10 Including the right internal stakeholders in the prioritization process. Prioritizing nr 11 Under or overweighting the needs of a specific group (like sales or cust serv). Prioritizing nr 12 Balancing new issues with ongoing maintenance. Prioritizing nr 13 Creating and enforcing “high priority” criteria. Prioritizing nr 14 Creating and enforcing “high priority” criteria. Prioritizing nr

7. The team ranked these challenges in Validating Requirements as: This team ranked these: My biggest challenge is… Requirements Area Final Round Overall Rank 1 Confirming scalability/reliability requirements. Validating 12 2 Managing strategic co-development with external stakeholders. Validating 1 3 Involving internal stakeholders in sprint demos. Validating 1.5 4 Accurately and effectively communicating acceptance criteria. Validating nr 5 Validating "invisible" insfrastructure work. Validating nr 6 Involving external stakeholders in sprint demos. Validating nr 7 Knowing what kind of validations to automate. Validating nr 8 Knowing when a BIG IDEA is complete. Validating nr 9 Identifying the types of validation feedback required. Validating nr 10 Keeping frequent sprint reviews fun and productive. Validating nr 11 Distinguishing between sprint demo, alpha, and beta. Validating nr 12 Reflecting the fulfillment (and to what degree) of the higher level requirement (or epic or goals story). Validating nr

8. The entire group ranked these challenges in Agile Requirements overall as: Involving internal stakeholders in sprint demos. Everyone thinks they know what our customers want -- but they don't! Final Round Overall Rank Ranked by each team in their group as: My biggest challenge is… 1 2 Managing strategic co-development with external stakeholders. 2 2 Quantifying the value of solving a market problem. 3 1 Identifying unsolved market problems. 4 2 Balancing immediate customer needs with strategic innovation. 5 1 Prioritizing market problems. 6 6 Coordinating the priorities of co-dependent teams working on the same project. 7 3 Including the right market participants in the prioritization process. 8 3 Managing dependencies across multiple product lines. 9 2 Showing how our products help our customer's be more successful. 10 1 Tracking dependencies across multiple product backlogs,. 11 3 Understanding how our solution fits in with other solutions. 12 2 Tracking dependencies across single product backlog.