Lean Business Analysis for Agile Teams
To stay competitive in today’s globalized economy, you need to bring products to market sooner and with fewer resources. The widespread adoption of Agile software development has enabled organizations to react to change must faster.
Agile teams now build robust products incrementally and iteratively, requiring fast feedback from the business community to define ongoing work.
For Product Owners, Agile Team members, Subject Matter Experts,
and anyone wearing the Business Analysis hat
Your Requirements Discovery Process Needs to Keep Pace
As a result, the process of defining IT requirements is evolving rapidly. Backlogs replace requirements definition documents. User Stories, Epics and Features replace requirement statements. Scenarios and Examples replace test cases. The timing of business analysis activities is shifting like sand.
Defining all requirements upfront, working in silos, and checking quality at the end no longer works. The bureaucracy that went with traditional Business Analysis is a death trap for any Agile initiative.
We no longer have business as usual,
so why would we do Business Analysis as usual?
Adapt LEAN Principles to the Business Analysis Process
It’s time for the practices of requirements elicitation, capture, clarification, and validation to catch up. Applying Lean principles dramatically improved manufacturing and other business processes. Lean thinking can make just as drastic of a change if we adapt it to the business analysis process.
Lean Business Analysis Cuts Waste at Every Level
It provides:
- a flexible response to change
- a value increase using fewer resources
- waste reduction during requirements discovery
Learn how Lean principles applied to your Business Analysis process can help you. Check out our newest book “Lean Business Analysis for Agile Teams”, for sale now on Amazon.
Get Your Copy
Learn how to reduce waste in your Business Analysis practices to optimally support the new Lean and Agile software development world
Table of Contents
From the Author
Preface
How Do Lean Principles Affect the Business Analysis Process?
Business Needs Discovery and Analysis in Agile Software Development
Applying Lean Thinking to Business Analysis
A Bird’s Eye View of Four LEAN Software Development Philosophies
Lean and Kanban
Agile and Scrum
Continuous Delivery and DevOps
Continuous Integration and ATDD/BDD
Potential Wastes in Business Analysis and Requirements Discovery
6 Lean Principles to Combat Waste in Business Analysis
Lean Principles Applied to Business Analysis
How Lean Principles Cut Down on Wasteful Business Analysis Work
The Shift of Focus from Project to Product Thinking
Project vs. Product Thinking
Adopting a Product Mindset
Lean Requirements Are the Ultimate Goal of Lean Business Analysis
The Need for LEAN Requirements
Conventional Requirements Levels
Requirements Constructs in an Agile/Lean Environment
Features, Epics, and User Stories
Lean Business Use Cases
Business Rules
Constraints
Scenarios and Scenario Outlines
Outcomes of Conventional vs. LEAN Business Analysis
Product Backlogs, Kanban Boards, and Other Requirements Repositories
Product Requirements Documents (PRD)
Using Backlogs as Requirements Repository
Kanban Boards
Knowing When to Do What in a Lean and Agile World
Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Business Analysis
Timing of Analysis in a Lean and Agile World
Seeding, Managing/Grooming the Product Backlog
Elaborate (Prepare) User Stories for the Next Iteration
Lean and Agile Business Analysis Techniques
The Product Vision Statement (a.k.a. Next Big Thing)
The Product Roadmap
The Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
What is a Minimum Viable Product?
How Do You Define an MVP?
Lean Requirements Communication Techniques
Preparing to be a Lean BA
Picking the Right Mode of Communication
Managing Risk Alleviates Uncertainty
The Cynefin Framework
The Stacey Matrix
Pain-Point Analysis Reveals Your MVP, Potential Features, and User Stories
Pain-Point Analysis for Business Needs Elicitation
Agile and Lean Pain-Point Analysis Techniques
Problem/Symptom Reduction (PSR)
Ambiguity in Features and User Stories
The Need for a Mutual Understanding
What Exactly Is Ambiguity and Subjectivity?
Removing Ambiguity and Subjectivity with INVEST
Drilling Down on Epics, Features, User Stories, and Requirements
User Story Splitting
Functional Feature Drill-down and Story Decomp
Decision Tables
Lean Use Cases
Developing, Presenting, and Analyzing Visual Models
Acceptance or Business-Facing Testing
ATDD and BDD
Acceptance Criteria and Scenarios
Test Data Engineering
Growing a LEAN Business Analysis Process
What You Will Learn:
This book offers a brief overview of how you can reduce waste in Business Analysis practices to optimally support the new lean and agile software development world. Learn how lean principles:
- Gain business agility by shifting from Project to Product Thinking
- Accelerate time-to-market with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Combat waste in your Business Analysis Life Cycle
- Optimize software development with effective Product Backlogs
- Improve the outcome of your Business Analysis techniques
- Express business needs in Features, User Stories, and Scenarios
- Deliver product quality with Acceptance (Business-Facing) Testing
Get it Now!
Learn how to reduce waste in your Business Analysis practices to optimally support the new Lean and Agile software development world