Just in time resources for internal products
As organizations attempt to operate in an agile manner, many business analysts wonder where they fit. Here are the most common roles I see business analysts playing in agile organizations. The main factors in determining where you end up include: Your background, experience, and interests The nature of the product you are working on (is …
Introduction This lightly edited excerpt from Beyond Requirements:Analysis with an Agile Mindset describes a typical approach to analysis in software product development where teams exhibit an agile mindset. It places into context most of the techniques described in the technique briefs on the site. This approach to analysis happens in four steps, illustrated in the …
If you are a business analyst, you have probably wondered at some point how to convince people at your organization about the value you provide and grow your business analyst career. I’ve been there, and have found that the best way to do that is to show, not tell. Don’t spend your time and energy …
Last week I shared what you ought to know about user stories. In that post, I shared an example of stories for creating a membership site. George Dinwiddie called me out on my choice of using create, read, update, and delete stories as an example. He’s right. Ideally we want user stories to reflect what …
Stories get their name from how they should be used, not what should be written. – Jeff Patton If we get together and talk about the problem we’re solving with software, who’ll use it, and why, then together we can arrive at a solution, and build shared understanding along the way. – Kent Beck It’s …
Product development – whether it’s products for sale or internal products – is ultimately an exercise in working with people. To make it fun and interesting, those people have a wide variety of perspectives and have different relationship with the product. Those people are your team (a topic for another blog post) customers, users, and …
Last week I shared the approach I took to do a personal retrospective to identify new habits I was going to start in the new year and other habits (addictions?) that I was going to stop. So far so good. Of course it’s only the second week of the year. How do I know so …
What are action focused retrospectives Action focused retrospectives are a way for your team to reflect on your past cycle of work, discuss what you’ve learned, identify specific action items to pursue, and follow through on those action items. Action focused retrospectives typically follow the following structure (from Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana …
For my readers in the US, I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday and didn’t over indulge in good food, college, and professional sports. I’ve come to think that next to the last couple weeks of March, the week of Thanksgiving is my favorite week because there is a ton of good college basketball and …
What Is a Parking Lot Diagram A parking lot diagram is a way to visually communicate status of work on a product in the context of major blocks of functionality intended to deliver a specific outcome. The parking lot diagram uses boxes to indicate the relationship between the different levels in a product functionality hierarchy, …
I recently wrote an article to explain how I describe user stories. Since I published that article, I’ve received a request for more information on feature refinement, so I thought I would describe how I approach that in a bit of detail. What is a Feature Before I dive in too deep it’s helpful to …
Last week, I discussed how you can describe user stories using models, acceptance criteria, and examples as ways to aid your conversations and remember what you talked about. Using those techniques in the way I described allows you to define a solution in broad brushstrokes (identify the user stories you eventually want to deliver), and …
What is a Definition of Ready A definition of ready is an agreement on the set of conditions that need to be true in order to consider a backlog item ready to be included in an iteration for delivery. An Example The conditions that I see included most frequently in a definition of ready are …
What Is a Definition of Done The definition of done is an agreement on the set of conditions that need to be true in order to consider a backlog item done and at a point where it can deliver value to stakeholders. An Example Typical items in a definition of done include Acceptance criteria are …
What is a Delivery Board A delivery board is a way for a team to visualize their process for delivering functionality in a sprint. The best delivery boards consist of a whiteboard or wall divided into columns that reflect the various steps a team takes to develop and test backlog items in a sprint. The …
