The Agile BA (Business Analyst)

Introduction & Agenda
‣ Bill Gaiennie, Davisbase Consulting
‣ 17 years in software development.
‣ 7 years working with software development teams,
training, leading, and coaching Agile teams.
‣ Trained and coached over 500 teams ranging from
start-ups to Fortune 50 corporations.

‣ Agenda
‣ A Brief Overview of Agile
‣ The Role of a Business Analyst on a Project
‣ The Role of a Business Analyst on an Agile Project
‣ Why Business Analysts Are Vital to Successful
Projects
‣ Wrap-up and Q&A
Copyright 2010 Davisbase LLC. Distribution without express permission is forbidden

Building a Tire Swing
How the customer described
what they wanted...


How the project manager
understood it...


How the architect
designed it...


How the programmer
wrote it...


How the business consultant
described it...


How the the project
was documented...


What operations
installed...


How the customer
was billed...


How it was
supported...


What the customer
really needed...


DEVELOPING SOFTWARE IS TOUGH!

• We are building something that doesn’t exist.

• Our customer is attempting to describe what they imagine
this non-existent product should be.

• We then try to imagine what they are describing.

• We then try to build the product we believe we heard them
describe.

• And ﬁnally, the ﬁrst opportunity we have to really see if we
built a product that they need and want is after we are done
with development.


Pop Quiz:
Waterfall Requirements Analysis
What percentage of overall project time is
spent gathering, elaborating, and
communicating product requirements?


Pop Quiz:
50% spent gathering, elaborating, and


Pop Quiz:

What percentage of requirements, as originally
deﬁned, change during the course of the
project?


Pop Quiz:

35% deﬁned, change during the course of the
project?


Pop Quiz:

project?

What percentage of features, as ultimately
delivered, are rarely or never used by the
product’s end-users?

Pop Quiz:

project?

What percentage of features, as ultimately
65% delivered, are rarely or never used by the
product’s end-users?

So what is
Software Project Reality?

31% IT projects will be cancelled
before completion

52% Completed projects cost on average
189% over their original estimates

17% Projects are completed on time
and on budget
Source: Standish Group Chaos Report 1995 - 2008


Make No Mistake About It...

Developing
Software
Is
TOUGH!

Companies Are Adopting Agile
‣ Agile adoption has increased in the last several years across
the globe.
‣ Recent data suggests 69% of companies have adopted an
Agile approach in some form.
‣ Respondents to a recent survey identiﬁed improvements in the
following areas after adopting an Agile development approach:

82% Increase productivity
77% Increase product quality
78% Increase stakeholder satisfaction
37% Reduced costs
Source: Dr. Dobb’s Agile Survey, 2008

So, What Is Agile All About?

• A philosophy about software development.

• A collection of processes and practices that uphold this
philosophy.

• A grassroots movement to fundamentally change the
approach to software development.

“Agility is more attitude than process,
more environment than methodology.”

The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

http://agilemanifesto.org/


Complicated Vs. Complex
Watch Making Weather
Developing Software
Is a Complex
Endeavor

‣ Thousands of parts, hundreds of steps to ‣ Difficulty to predict details about behavior or
assemble outcomes
‣ Intricate, delicate work, difficult to complete ‣ Outcomes are results of many variables
‣ Must work in specific order ‣ Variables that affect outcomes are difficult to
‣ In order for watch to work, the final build should impossible to predict reliably
reflect the original plan. ‣ Plans expect variability and deviation, then
‣ Deviation from plan is considered a defect. account for this in the plan

Complicated, but not complex Complex

Why We Develop Software

• We develop software for our customers’ beneﬁt.

• Change can be good. Change is usually the result of new
information and learning.

• The software we develop does not create value for our
customer at ‘point of plan’.

• An Agile approach may require us to be comfortable with the
traditionally uncomfortable.


The BA’s Role on a Software Project

BABOK identiﬁes the following:
• Enterprise Analysis
• Requirements Planning and Management
• Requirements Elicitation
• Requirements Analysis and Documentation
• Requirements Communication
• Solution Assessment and Validation


The BA’s Role on an Agile Project

• Enterprise Analysis

• Requirements Planning and Management

• Requirements Elicitation

• Requirements Analysis and Documentation

• Requirements Communication

• Solution Assessment and Validation


Agile: Enterprise Analysis

• Work with the customer to develop strategic goals and a
product vision.

• Identifying the “value stream” for the proposed product.

• Brokering effective information exchange between the
customer and the IT team.

• The correct scope for Agile projects isn’t deﬁned
requirements, but the well articulated product vision.


“Quality in a product or service
Agile BA Rule is not what the supplier puts in.
True product quality is more than It is what the customer gets out
just a measure of defects. and is willing to pay for. A
The customer defines quality. product is not quality because it
is hard to make and costs a lot
of money, as manufacturers
typically believe. This is
incompetence. Customers pay
only for what is of use to them
and gives them value. Nothing
else constitutes quality.”
s
l way - Peter Drucker
NotA
S ame
he
T ation
De stin
Simply stated,
the customer deﬁnes
quality.

Agile: Requirements Planning

• Requirements evolve with greater product exposure.
• A lean principle: just enough, just in time.
• Requirements are planned for delivery in
time-boxed iterations.
• The development team creates and commits to a deﬁnition
of “done”.
• BA’s help to negotiate standards and the speciﬁcs of
product requirements.


Agile: Analysis & Documentation

• Understanding the customer’s needs is essential.
• Who are your customers?
• How will your customer use your product?
• What are your customers priorities?
• User Stories capture requirements using the following form:
As a <user>, I want <product requirement>,
so that <desired beneﬁt>.


Agile: Analysis & Documentation

• Understanding “the why” can be as important as “the what”.

As an speaker, I want to As an attendee, I want to
make my presentation download the
available to attendees presentation, so that
online, so that I do not I share what I have
need to send it. learned.

• Information gems exist in knowing why our customers want
what they ask for.

Agile: Requirements Communication

• The best method of conveying project progress.
• Building a better customer/IT relationship.
• Emergent requirements.
• The product backlog.
• Burndown charts can help drive better project decisions.
• Taskboards can visually radiate project progress.
• Project documentation.


Agile: Assessment and Validation

• Delivering the solution in small bites.
• Reviewing requirements during planning.

• Reviewing requirements during demo.

• Requirements describe solution to business needs.
• Determining requirements as late as possible.

• Validating requirements through prioritizing delivery.


Business Analysts Are Crucial
to Agile Project Success
• Great products and happy customers
begin and end with pliable requirements.

• Change happens, how do we embrace it?

• Expanding our toolkit, redeﬁning nails as
opportunities.

• Continuous planning recognizes that
change can be good.


Wrap Up

• Great BA’s assist the customer is deﬁning the best possible
product, a standard consistently examined during the entire
project.
• Great products emerge from designs that evolve as a result
of information made available to the customer and project
team.
• Great project teams promote open and honest
communication, and utilize this information to tune their
behavior.


Your Call To Action

‣ Find experts that can point you in
the right direction.

‣ Recognize that training is the
proper foundation on which
team’s build.

‣ It takes time to get good at
anything, Agile is no exception,
but the rewards are well worth it.

‣ Getting started is easier than you
might think.

“Simplicity
does not precede
complexity,
it follows it.”
- Alan Perlis

“Whether your next project is
a SUCCESS or a failure
is not a matter of chance,
it is a matter of choice.”
- A wise Agile coach and trainer

Your Questions, My Answers
Note: For those questions we do not have time to answer during the webinar,
I will be providing a written response.


WRAP-UP

• Thank you.
• Bill Gaiennie, Davisbase Consulting

• bill@davisbase.org

• http://www.davisbase.org
• (949) 303-9109


The Agile BA (Business Analyst)

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