Agile for Business Analysts

Agile Methods for Business Analysts

© 2009 – 2010 SQUARE PEG CONSULTING, LLC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Today’s speaker

John Goodpasture, PMP

Program manager, system engineer,

author, and coach

Managing Principal

Square Peg Consulting, LLC

www.sqpegconsulting.com

www.johngoodpasture.com

John’s new book

• Agile in the enterprise

• Multiple methodologies

thoroughly explained

• From business case

to benefit capture

PUBLISHED BY J. ROSS PUBLISHING

Production assistance for today’s

presentation from

Todd W. Ruopp

A speaker, facilitator and coach

who promotes understanding

and integrated teamwork

Co-founder & President of

Unleashing Performance, Inc.™

Todd empowers professionals

to develop the knowledge & ability

to drive personal, professional

and organizational growth.

www.unleashingperformance.com

Dilbert

We need 3 more programmers.

Boss

Use agile programming methods.

Dilbert

Agile programming does not mean

doing more work with less people.

Boss

Find me some words that do mean

that and ask again

Dilbert™ is a creation of Scott Adams

It’s not about productivity

• Almost any methodology can be

made to work on some project.

• Any methodology can manage to

fail on some project.

• Heavy processes can be

successful.

• Light processes are more often

successful, and more importantly,

the people on those projects credit

the success to the lightness of the

methodology.

It’s not the holy grail

Alistair Cockburn

The Requirements Paradox

• Requirements must be stable for

successful development; but user

requirements are never stable

• We don’t want requirements to

change, but because changing

requirements are a known risk,

we should provoke change now.

It’s about requirements!And requirements analysis

Niels Malotaux

Requirements

Dilemma

Not everything the customer

wants is known at the outset

Requirements evolve with

operational experience

Build in Increments

Freeze requirements over short cycles

Define a little, build a little

Allow evolution, encourage creativity

Embrace change and innovation

No Big Bang!

Waiting until the end invariably misses the mark

Five Essential Points

Embrace change —

rather than fight it

Accept incremental

progress and results

Respect short delivery cycles

Keep value proposition

current and relevant

Leadership & Management1

Orient best value to the customer or end-user

Deliver the most bang as seen through the customer’s eyes

Best Value Method2

EXTREMELY

URGENT

Most Important

3

Deliver frequently & incrementally

Respect urgency and the importance

conveyed by the customer

Frequent & Incremental

Six to twelve people

Self-managed

Performance oriented

Small Teams4

Focus relentlessly on outcomes, not activities

Knock down barriers to team success

Communicate to sponsor and beneficiaries

Coach for success5

Business case: a

framework for details

Only the goal—the shape of

the outcomes—not the

details

‘Just enough’ for

a mind’s eye of how it will be

‘Just enough’ for

compelling attraction

Value begins in

the business case

Customer pays

or accumulates

advantage to realize

value of investment

3

Project transforms investment

into outcomes with potential

customer value

Sponsors

visualize and

invest

1

2

Value in Three Steps

Milestone

Milestones,

not Gantt charts

Investment, Milestones & More

Investments,

not budgets

Vision, not

specifications

Details will

emerge

Partition project goals

Sequence the most urgent first

Schedule sequences to hit milestones

Most Urgent

Most Important

Least Urgent

Least Importa

nt

The Incremental Project

1 + 2 + 3 = 6

Use Cases, User Stories, &

Backlog

User Stories Vignettes

Use Case ScenariosActionable backlog

22Copyright 2010 John Goodpasture, All Rights Reserved

Backlog cycle

One Time box

Lessons learned

Creative ideas

New cycle plan

Dynamic Backlog Cycles

Must be completed

Should be completed

Milestone

Work on

Backlog

Feedback Make Course

Corrections

TIMEBOX

Time boxes regulate team work

Increments of the backlog are delivered at milestones

Time box throughput: rate of go-live value added

Throughput benchmark: enables planning predictably

Team work benchmarks

Cadence

is the

key

Team 2

Team 1

Team 3

All time boxes are planned within one horizon

Plan to the horizon

END

Throughput only measures “value added”

Throughput AccountingMeasure Value Added to the business

Benefit realization

Throughput is where the benefit is

Benefit is not realized until customer pays

and / or

Benefit is realized when the deliverable advantages the customer

Beneficiary linkages

Sponsor recovers investment

Project manager earns the value of the deliverable

Beneficiary pays according to the value of benefits

More information

www.johngoodpasture.com

PUBLISHED BY J. ROSS PUBLISHING

Send John questions at

info@sqpegconsulting.com

johngoodpasture.com

Square Peg Consulting, LLC