The document discusses strategies for effectively managing a product backlog in agile projects, emphasizing the importance of focusing on stakeholder goals and business value. It outlines various tools and processes such as user stories, logical thinking processes, and value models to enhance collaboration and efficiency in project execution. The narrative is supported by real-world examples and philosophical insights to convey the principles of agile methodologies and business analysis.

1. Lean out your Product BacklogPascal Van CauwenbergheNayima

2. “Here we are now.Entertain us.”Kurt Cobain, American Philosopher

3. Consultant. Project Manager. Games Maker.His Blog: blog.nayima.beNAYIMAWe make play work

4. And so it begins…We’re going Agile!

5. Congratulations

6. What do I do now?

7. Write User Stories

8. A Vomit of User Stories

9. Prioritise User Stories

10. We need Business Value on each card

11. HELP!

12. There has to be a better way

13. I’d like to have a chat with you about...

14. 1. Some Business Analysis toolsThat I’ve used the past 10 years

15. 2. Tell war storiesProjects where we used the tools

16. 3. Explain why we do this

17. 3. Explain why we do thisBeforeAfter

18. 4. You may have to do some work

19. 5. Share some more wisdom from American philosophers

20. Who are your top 3 stakeholders?What is their #1 goal?You have 2 mins to share with your neighbour

21. Goal TableStakeholder, n: Role, Team or Organisation involved or affected by the projectGoal, n: What a stakeholder wants to achieveCapability, n: Something we need to achieve the goal. Necessary, but maybe not sufficientTest, n: A way to decide if a goal has been achievedMeasure, n: A way to determine how close we are to a goalRisk, n: Negative consequences of achieving the goal

22. A Phone Company

23. Focus on goals not means

24. Quantify stakeholder goals

25. The Logical Thinking Process

26. The Logical Thinking ProcessIntermediate Objectives MapPrerequisite/Transition TreeHow do we get there?In small steps.What is our goal?What are we missing?Future Reality TreeCurrent Reality TreeWould that work?What could possibly go wrong?Why don’t we have what we need?Conflict Resolution DiagramWhat could be done to resolve the underlying fundamental conflict?

27. Using the Logical Thinking ProcessIntermediate Objectives MapCurrent Reality TreeConflict Resolution DiagramFuture Reality TreePrerequisite/Transition TreeContext Diagram

28. Phone Intermediate Objectives MapGet requestUpdate billingAdd servicePerform requestProvision serviceConfirm requestHow difficult could it be?

29. A Phone Company

30. Derive capabilities from goals

31. Some customers seem to have the phone number of our CEO...

32. What are the criteria your organisation uses to select and prioritise work?You have 2 mins to share with your neighbour

33. “Party like it’s 1999”, American Philosopher

34. It’s 1999While people are getting worried about Y2K…

35. Project EGoal: Build an online bank that sells mortgage loans in SwedenAnd then in other European countriesConstraint: integrate with Swedish government databasesConstraint: 2 developersConstraint: the press conference for the launch is in 2.5 months

37. What happened?We launched on timeFull-featured frontendCombination of manual and automated processesOne country at first, then expanded to EuropeAll manual processes were automated gradually as customer base grewMoney coming in invested in backoffice automation

38. Good looking frontendPress conferenceEase of useCurious customers can ask for quoteIntegration with Swedish government DatabasesImplement Swedish Business RulesExpand to other countriesScale number of customers

39. Business Value ModelDiagram of effectsWhat are the important goals?How will we achieve the goals?What are our constraints?This is our strategyThis is our definition of value

40. A Phone Company

41. For exampleLeadingLaggingCustomer satisfactionSuccessful transactionsReliable processCall center cost# callsRequest confirmationCustomer lossRegulations

42. Project Economic Framework

43. Using the Logical Thinking ProcessIntermediate Objectives MapCurrent Reality TreeConflict Resolution DiagramFuture Reality TreePrerequisite/Transition TreeContext DiagramBusiness Value ModelPlan

44. Business Value Model == HypothesisMake reasoning & assumptions explicitVerify regularly and improve

45. PDCA cycle

46. Product Development cycle

47. Create a Business Value hypothesis

48. Verify and improve your Business Value hypothesisEarly and often

49. “Coin an acronym and you have a profitable consulting business”Dave Nicolette, American philosopher

50. IDDIrritation Driven DevelopmentTM

51. IDDYou heard it here firstTM

52. Everybody participates in building the models

53. The Kano ModelStupid featuresTable stakesLinear features

54. “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘Faster horses’”Henry Ford, American philosopher

55. The Kano ModelStupid featuresTable stakesLinear featuresExciters

56. WOW! I didn’t know you could do that!

57. “The big print giveth.The small print taketh away”Tom Waits, American philosopher

58. What could possibly go wrong?

59. Political riskOne type of product is the responsibility of division AOther type of product is the responsibility of division BDivision manager bonus is based on revenue of division…

60. Find one risk of success on your projectYou have 2 mins to share with your neighbour

61. What are the dangers of success?

62. “The chief cause of problems is solutions”Eric Sevareid, American philosopher

63. “When do we (finally) start writing User Stories?”We thought you were an Agile coach?And can’t we start coding yet?

64. Writing stories made easyGoalAS A...TO ACHIEVE...I NEED...GOTCHASStakeholderCapabilityTest and measureRiskI KNOW I GOTIT WHEN...TO ACHIEVE ...AS A ...I NEED ...PASSESIT’S DONE WHEN ...TO NOT ACHIEVE ...I NEED ... Another capability

65. User Story CarpaccioGoal TableProject Level StoryProject Level StoryProject Level StoryProject Level StoryRelease Level StoryRelease Level StoryRelease Level StoryRelease Level StoryRelease Level StoryIteration Level StoryIteration Level StoryIteration Level StoryIteration Level Story

66. Derive detailed stories from goalsStep by step

67. Kanban boardTODOBUSYAcceptDONEIterationReleaseValue

68. Integrate analysis into your flowFrom Value to Cash

69. Help! My developers have gone Kanban!

70. Conflict Resolution DiagramPrerequisite 1Requirement 1ObjectiveRequirement 2Prerequisite 2

71. Conflict Resolution DiagramDetailed estimates and plansReliable long term roadmapSatisfy growing customer baseNo estimatesNo planningBe more efficient

72. How would you solve this?

73. Conflict Resolution DiagramDetailed estimates and plansReliable long term roadmapSatisfy growing customer baseAssumption: estimating is the only wayto determine the cost of a featureNo estimatesNo planningBe more efficient

74. What if…We didn’t have to estimate to have a cost?We didn’t have to create detailed stories to estimate and plan?But that’s not possible, is it?

75. Conflict Resolution DiagramDetailed estimates and plansSet budget andBuild to budgetReliable long term roadmapSatisfy growing customer baseNo estimatesNo planningBe more efficient

76. Building the roadmapPut stakeholder goals in the roadmap, not featuresMore implementation freedomMore meaningful for customersEstimate the value of each goal in the roadmapDecide how much you want to invest to realise the value As a percentage of the capacity of the teamCreate a roadmap based on value and budgetNot cost

77. Building the roadmapGoal 2Value/BudgetGoal 1Value / BudgetGoal 4Value/BudgetGoal 1Value / BudgetGoal 3Value/BudgetRelease 2Release 1

78. Implementing the roadmapFor each release, the product manager and team decide how to achieve goals, given the budget Don’t have to stick to individual budgets as long as release budget is respectedConstraints create a challengeWhich leads to more creativityMonitor flow of stories and handle risks

79. Would you rather haggle…

80. …or solve problems?

81. Respectful Challenge

82. Make it a problem-solving exerciseThat’s what we’re good at

83. Keep focusDon’t work on 1000 goals at the same time

84. Don’t outrun your customersBacklogThe BottleneckThe BusinessOperationsDev team

85. Don’t outrun your customersThe BottleneckDev teamThe BusinessOperationsBacklog6 releases per year2 releases per year

86. 4 customers are faster than 1The BottleneckDev teamBacklogSalesOperationsProductionFinanceAuditCustomers6 releases per year2 major releases per year per group

87. We don’t call them “The Business”We call us “We”Dev teamBacklogSalesOperationsProductionFinanceAuditCustomers6 releases per year2 releases per year per group

88. Integrate deeply with your customer

89. Yes, but! No, but!

90. Commonly heard objections“We’ve spent 6 months on analysis already”“Business Value is impossible to measure”“This is waterfall analysis, it’s not agile”“This is too hard”“Doing this with the whole team is a waste of time”“It’s too structured”

91. The Phone CompanyBeforeAlready spent 2 months on analysisIdentified 60 features2 years worth of work“We need web-based self-service”Reluctantly agreed to do a few days of analysis trainingAfterOnly 10 out of those 60 features delivered valueIdentified 4 new features crucial to the success of the project25% of the value could be delivered within one month; no need for a web application

92. The Chemicals CompanyBeforeAsked consultancy to provide bidConsultants did 3 months of analysisEstimate: 9 months of developmentCustomer asked us for a second opinionAfter2 weeks to provide bidEstimate: 3 months of developmentCustomer increased value by exchanging features during the projectDelivered one day early

93. The Transport CompanyBeforeA new team on their first Agile projectTwo days of business analysis with the whole team“Aren’t we wasting too much time analysing?”“Why are the developers here?”“When can we start coding?”AfterIn production 3 months earlier than predicted“I can’t believe we already released. Normally we’d still be doing analysis.”Developers came up with a new use for existing data, with large financial and ecological benefits

94. The Transport CompanyBeforeDevelopment teams deliver more, faster thanks to agile methodsReal bottleneck is test and deploy: several months between development and deploymentDelivering more is making things worseNo budget to improve test and deployAfterEvery agile project has quantified valueCost of deployment delay becomes visible: millions per monthCost of improving test and deploy is insignificant compared to cost of delayStarted test and deploy improvement

95. To summarizeThese are the only things you need to know to pass the test

96. Just rememberFocus on stakeholder goals, not meansModel and measure valueApply the science of product development and systems thinking to generate questionsTap into everyone’s creativityAnalyse just-in-time using pullMake it a problem-solving exerciseThere’s a lot more where this came from

97. Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA)www.theiiba.org

98. From the BABOK“Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.”

99. The Agile Extension to the BABOKThe Agile extension gives guidance on how to perform business analysis on Agile projectsOverview available on IIBA websiteWe need your input and reviewYahoo group: Agile_BA_Requirements

100. “I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go into the other room and read a book” Groucho Marx, American philosopher

101. If you want to know more

103. MerciThank YouDank u

104. If you want to know morewww.agilecoach.netwww.nayima.beblog.nayima.be