The Business Analyst: How To Be More Than a Proxy

The Business Analyst: How to be more than a proxy

Diane Zajac-Woodie AGILE AND BEYOND 2015

green jeans consu l t i ng

Agenda •  Demonstrate the value of feedback

•  What is a proxy?

•  Identify ways that BAs can help their teams

•  Create Story Maps

- 10 min break –

•  Write requirements as acceptance criteria

•  Close


Product: Origami Flower Target Users: kids shopping for Mother’s Day

User’s Needs:

•  Beautiful

•  Colorful

•  Handmade

•  Inexpensive (one sheet of origami paper)



BA to the rescue…


1.  Assign a BA, rest of team are developers

2.  Move chairs back-to-back: so BA can’t see devs work

3.  BA comes up for a handout. DO NOT SHOW YOUR DEVELOPERS!

4.  BA verbalizes the requirements to developers while the developers build


How did that go?


Folding w/ Feedback 1.  Move chairs back to

normal. You can collaborate now!

2.  Switch BA roles – get a new handout - DO NOT SHOW YOUR DEVELOPERS!

3.  BA verbalizes the requirements while the developers build AND provides feedback

How did that go?


Definition

 noun: A person who is given power or authority to act on behalf of someone else, especially in voting


Proxy Examples  1. Think of an example where you acted as a proxy or a time when someone acted as your proxy.

 2. Share with your neighbor.


What do teams need?  1. At your tables, silently write down all the things that teams need – ONE PER INDEX CARD.


BA can help with these

BA can’t help with these

 2. Take turns reading your cards to the group as you add them to the center of the table. Remove duplicates. Add more as you think of them.

 3. As everyone is sharing, organize your index cards into 2 stacks:

•  System Access

•  Proper equipment

•  Continuous Integration

•  TDD training

•  Setting up automated regression test suite


BA can help with these

BA can’t help with these

•  Collaboration

•  Feedback

•  Facilitation

•  Documentation

•  Visualizing their work

•  SME’s

•  Testing

•  User stories

•  Stakeholder management

•  Continuous improvement

•  Team Space

•  Management support

•  Team agreements

•  Release management

Exercise: Your A & B Story  1. Using the same color stickies, silently write down all the conference-related things you’ve done today.


Have break-fast

Drive to Adoba

 2. Take turns reading your stickies aloud as you add them to the center of the table. Remove duplicates.

 3. Start grouping the activities into natural groups.

Register in the a.m.

Exercise (continued)  4. Label each grouping with a different color stickie.


Have break-fast

 5. Organize the groupings chronologically, from left to right.

Register in the a.m.

Drive to Adoba

Registra-tion


Exercise (continued)  6. Break down some User Tasks into smaller User Stories.


Have break-fast

Have coffee

Eat a danish

Eat a crois-sant

Why are Story Maps useful?


Break time BACK AT 3:55 PM


Coke or Pepsi?


Cat or Dog?


Bank teller or ATM?


Apple or Android?


Requirements •  Ubiquitous language


•  Collaborative

•  Verifiable (Ideally “automate-able”)

•  Just in Time

Feature: As a conference attendee I want to share my experiences at A & B So that my peers think I’m cool


Scenario: Tweet a photo that includes a conference reference Given I am signed in to Twitter When I tweet a selfie with my conference badge Then my followers see my selfie

Scenario: Verbally share my conference experience Given I do not like Twitter When I tell my neighbor why I like A & B Then my neighbor smiles and nods

Scenario: Use conference hashtag in a tweet Given I am signed in to Twitter When I tweet with the #aab15 conference hashtag Then my tweet is in the #aab15 search results

Acceptance Criteria •  Easy to understand?


•  Could you work on it together?

•  Easily testable?

•  Just in Time


Scenario: Use conference hashtag in a tweet

Scenario: brief description of desired behavior

Given is set up, what has to happen before the test

When is the action, the trigger

Then is the test, the expected behavior

Given I am signed in to Twitter When I tweet with the #aab15 conference hashtag Then my tweet is in the #aab15 search results

Feature: As a conference attendee I want to share my experiences at A & B So that my peers think I’m cool

Feature: brief description of goal, user story clarified

Writing Acceptance Criteria


Scenario: brief description of desired behavior

Given is set up, what has to happen before the test

When is the action, the trigger

Then is the test, the expected behavior

Feature: brief description of goal, user story clarified As a… I want… So that…

1.  Select a User Story & write a Feature 2. Write 2-3 Scenario descriptions 3. Write the Given/When/Then’s for your scenarios


Writing (continued) 4. Swap cards with the pair next to you 5. Read their scenarios & provide some feedback

•  Is the goal of the user story clear (Feature)? •  Is there a set up (Given)? •  Is there an action (When)? •  Is there a clear test (Then)?

1.  One Validation: write down one thing that you heard that validated what you already knew

2.  One New Idea: write down one new idea that you learned

3.  One Next Step: Write down one next step that you will do because you came to this session.

4.  Share with your neighbor.


Session Feedback Please write me an index card with any positive comments or suggestions for improvement. Put it up here on this table or just

leave it on your table & I’ll collect them when I clean up.

Any and all feedback is appreciated!

Thanks for being here!


Diane Zajac-Woodie @AgileSquirrel [email protected] www.greenjeansconsulting.com

Resources  Story Mapping: http://winnipegagilist.blogspot.com/

 http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/the_new_backlog.html

 Electronic Story Boards: https://cardboardit.com/ or

 https://www.featuremap.co/en

 Cucumber tool: https://cucumber.io/

 History of BDD: http://dannorth.net/introducing-bdd/

 More BDD: http://lizkeogh.com/behaviour-driven-development/


Image Attribution   Flower scribble:

http://www.swiss-miss.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/08/isd004o_3.jpg

  Origami gone wrong: http://www.origamisources.com/origami_sightings_comedy.htm   Couple sitting back-to-back:

https://computing.ece.vt.edu/~santol/projects/zsl_via_visual_abstraction/interact/interact_stand-alone_dataset/imgs/2SMB2YU98JHSGUO94V6BP9ITU61NBC_09.jpg

  Finger pointing: http://misfitpolitics.co/2012/11/wait-for-it-here-it-come-the-finger-pointing/   Story Map: http://winnipegagilist.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-create-user-story-map.html   Coke:

http://pizzaforcoins.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/_/2_liter_coke.jpg

  Pepsi: http://b.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/slideshow/2013/12/3023648-slide-1-pepsi-can.jpg

  ATM: http://www.marshallstreetcheckcashing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/atm.gif   Bank Teller: http://cliparts.co/cliparts/Lcd/orE/LcdorELxi.jpg


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The Business Analyst: How To Be More Than a Proxy