© ThoughtWorks, 2007

Getting Agileor How I learned to stop worrying and love the index cards

CIPS Business Analysis SIG Event

JOHN JOHNSTON

ThoughtWorks

40

4

1

100

I have not always been as I appear to you now

waterfall and structured methodsWeb developer

COBOL

12 years in IT5 years in college

August 2005

August 2005

First exposure to agile

What’s changed?

I thought my job was to

write specifications

Now it’s the delivery of working software into

production

for real end users

Eh?

a change of emphasis

delivering business value

agile makes this easier

business analysis

Business Analysis

Business Analysis

delivering business value

not fetishising requirements on paper

solving business problems

may involve software

just a means to an end

do what you need to do to deliver

implementation over documentation

agile focuses on outcomes not artefacts

1 of 4 agile makes it easier to focus

on business value

getting started

i saw a lot of these

and people doing this

Where the wild things are

working with stories

BAs write stories

developers write code

Therefore stories are requirements, right?

WRONG!

(a bit) WRONG

(a bit) WRONG (sometimes)

(a bit) WRONG (sometimes)

i am a consultant

a unit of planning not documentation

agile mindset

implementation over documentation

road-map over end-state

Ron Jeffries - 3 Cs

http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/expCardConversationConfirmation.htm

card conversation confirmation

stories have a lifecycle

become documentation

at the end

stories are a roadmap towards implementation

MartinFowler.com:RollerSkateImplementation

2 of 4

stories as a unit of planning helped me understand the agile

mindset

good practice

INVEST

I N V E S TIndependent

I N V E S TNegotiable

I N V E S TValuable

I N V E S TEstimate-able

I N V E S TSmall

I N V E S TTestable

effective stories define user, goal and business benefit

As a [user]

I want [to do something]

So that [I achieve a valuable goal]

tell me what, not how

keep stories business focussed and

implementation neutral

find out why that story matters

challenges

“All stories should deliver business value”

releases deliver business value

“we must do the login story first”

new dimensions

user centred design

customer proxy & user champion

contextual inquiry

“you can observe a lot,

just by watching”Yogi Berra

Joe – Contract Engineer

Day to day: Supervises the construction of the new plant. Works 8 days, followed by 4 days off in a remote location.

TIM Usage: Grudgingly submits time reports on a weekly basis

Priorities: Finishing the plant construction on time and safely. Focused on his fellow engineers.

Needs: A simple data entry system. The computer Joe uses is shared by all site engineers. He hasn’t spent a lot of time working with computers, and doesn’t want to ‘waste his time’ learning.

Joe is a contract engineer assisting in the construction of a new plant.

He’s worked with the company for 30 years. Joe was semi-retired but had some necessary expertise; he was convinced to come back and oversee this project.

“I just want to finish this job so I can get back to building my retirement cottage.”

low fidelityprototyping

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/paperprototyping

usability testing

usability testing

“on 10 cents a day”

Steve Krughttp://sensible.com

Don’t Make Me Think

visual models

“We’re agreed then?”

“Ah!”

“We are agreed then”

common understanding

3 of 4

Now I consider how I can visually share what I’ve learned so I can get feedback

and finally

one french egg

just un oeuf

just enough

doing just enough

breadth then depth

work at the lower levels challenge assumptions made higher up

how much is just enough?

what do we need to know next that we don’t know at the

moment?

4 important points to remember

1.Agile makes it easier to focus on business value

2.Understanding stories as a unit of planning helped me understand the agile mindset

3.Now I consider how I can visually share what I’ve learned so I can get feedback

4 of 4getting agile took good coaching and trying it out

Resources

Books

“User Stories Applied” Mike Cohn

“Lean Software Development” Mary & Tom Poppendieck

“Don’t Make Me Think” Steve Krug

Blogs

Marc Mcneill - http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/

Jeff Patton - http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/

ThoughtBlogs – http://blogs.thoughtworks.com/

Me! - http://cardsahoy.wordpress.com/

Websites

Ask Tog (Interaction Design) - http://www.asktog.com/

Jakob Nielsen (Web Usability) - http://www.useit.com/

Photo Credits

The following images are used with thanks under the Creative Commons licence;

Important Documents from jon.t’s photostream

http://flickr.com/photos/titusjon/1216912767/

Kermit from pictureclub_2000’s photo stream

http://flickr.com/photos/andy-germany/2047566335/

Money from Tracey Olson’s photo stream

http://flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391/

Butterfly from Dystopian_Optimist’s photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dystopian/37004247/

Rollerskates from the Flooz’s photostream

http://flickr.com/photos/flooznyc/839704353/

Coach from dsanden’s photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daphid/148844023/

what questions do you have?