Getting and Writing Lean Requirements in an Agile World
Learn Business Analysis Techniques for Discovering Requirements, User Stories, Features, and Gherkin (Given-When-Then) Tests
Classroom Live ONSITE – Duration: 2 days (21 PDU/CDU)
Classroom Live ONLINE – Duration: 2-4 days (21 PDU/CDU)
Public Schedule
Try the self-paced version first or read the book (Kindle or Paperback).
Course Overview
Lean Business Analysis: Meeting the Agile, Lean, and Continuous Delivery Challenge
Get the right requirements from the right people at the right level of detail at each stage of your IT development process. That is a critical success factor for any modern software development approach. Lean Requirements are available on an as-needed basis. An ideal lean business analysis process defines each business need at the appropriate level of detail – just in time for the next step. That means:
- actionable business requirements for project go/no-go decisions
- understandable stakeholder requirements flushed out when developers need them for planning
- implementable functional and non-functional requirements, stories, examples, and scenarios for test-driven development
Lean Requirements reduce the cost and improve the outcome of your IT projects. They work for Agile Scrum, Lean Kanban, DevOps, Continuous Delivery, or traditional Waterfall.
A Lean Approach for Getting from Visions to Requirements to Test Scenarios
This exercise-rich, interactive workshop provides a proven set of core lean business analysis techniques, methods and tricks. The presented content will help agile teams, customer-side (aka business-side) teams, business analysts, product owners, test developers, and subject matter experts discover, capture, clarify, and confirm the kind of IT requirements that solution providers need to deliver the right information technology solutions for the business.
This instructor-led course can be delivered live at your site or online in a series of virtual sessions.
We Tailor the Content to Fit Your Needs
At no cost to you, we can assemble an optimal set of training topics based on your group’s current and desired business analysis skill levels. We can also use our Business Analysis Skills Evaluation (BASE) tool to establish these levels.
or call 702-596-6160
Target Audience
- Product Owners
- Business Analysts
- Requirements Engineers
- Business- and Customer-side Team Members
- Agile Team Members
- Subject Matter Experts (SME)
- Project Leaders and Managers
- Systems Analysts and Designers
- AND “anyone wearing the business analysis hat”, meaning anyone responsible for defining a future IT solution
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this skill-building experience, you can:
- Define how Lean, Agile, and Continuous Delivery Software Development Environments impact business analysis and requirements discovery, documentation, and deployment
- Adapt 10 different Requirements Gathering (Elicitation) Techniques to optimally support collaborative teams (e.g. The 3 Amigos, Kickoff Meetings, Replenishment Meetings, User Story Workshops, etc.)
- Leverage Business Problem Analysis to Identify Stakeholders and Discover Business Needs
- Express Business Needs and Wants in SMART Features, Requirements, and User Stories at the appropriate level of detail for effective communication
- Capture 17 Types of Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) With Scenarios for Testing to ensure that the delivered application meets the business community’s expectations
- Maintain a constant workflow for developers by grooming, managing, and prioritizing Backlogs, Kanban Boards, and other requirement repositories
- Drill-Down into Requirements, Features, User Stories, and Functions to reveal implied business needs and Identify Scenarios for Acceptance Testing
- Develop business-facing acceptance tests that support automated testing, Acceptance-Test Driven Development (ATDD), and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
- Use Gherkin to express scenarios in Given-When-Then structures using Examples, Outlines, and Engineered Test Data
Detailed Course Outline
1 Business Needs in a Lean and Agile World
- The modern IT Landscape: Lean, Agile, Continuous Delivery, DevOps
- Exercise: Applying Lean Principles to Requirements Discovery
- Requirements Constructs in a Lean Environment
- Completing Projects vs Developing Products: A Shift in Perspective
- Exercise: Roles and Responsibilities in Your Environment
- Introduction to Backlogs and other Product Requirements Repositories
2 Defining the Future of Your Organization (LEAN Elicitation Techniques)
- Knowing When to Do What (Lifecycles)
- Creating and Using a Product Vision (Next big thing)
- Defining a Minimum Viable Product
- Discovering Product Stakeholders
- Lean Communication Techniques
- Seed a Backlog Using Kick-off meetings, Discovery Workshops, and Sprint 0’s
- Lean Problem Analysis Reveals Business Needs
3 Communicating Current and Future Business Needs Effectively
- Addressing Ambiguity in Business Needs
- Writing SMART Requirements
- Creating a Feature List
- Capturing Epics and User Stories
- Defining Non-Functional Requirements (NFR’s)
- Developing, Presenting, and Analyzing Visual Models (Process, Data, Object, Workflow, etc)
4 Refining (Grooming) and Managing Your Business Needs Repository (Backlogs, Kanban boards, Tasks, etc.)
- What is Backlog Refinement (Grooming)?
- Collaboration Achieves a Common Goal (three amigos conversation)
- Prioritizing Business Needs (Backlog Items)
- Estimating Effort for Implementing Business Needs
- Using User Story Maps, Feature Maps, and Example Mapping
- Replenishment and Retrospective Sessions to Manage Your Backlog
5 Right-Sizing Your User Stories and Requirements
- Using Cynefin to Recognize and Leverage Complexity
- Splitting Stories and Epics
- Slicing Features
- Defining Success (Acceptance) Criteria
- Decision Tables Reduce Complexity
- Lean Use Cases
6 Acceptance or Business-Facing Testing
- Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) and Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
- Defining Acceptance Tests for the Evolving Software
- Writing Scenarios, Scenario Outlines and Examples in Given-When-then (Gherkin)
- From User Stories to Scenarios
- Using Decision Tables to Discover Scenarios
- Finding Functional Scenarios by Decomposition
- Getting from Use Cases to Scenarios
- Scenarios to Validate Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs)
- Example-Mapping and Test Data Engineering
7 From Showtime to Go Time!
- Accepting the Learning Curve
- Personal Improvement Plan