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9 Things We Should Talk About from the Agile2016 Conference
As a practitioner of mindset over methodology and value over process, the Agile2016 conference was a giant slice of professional heaven! The conference was put on by Agile Alliance, an organization that promotes the "Big Tent of Agile"--meaning agile as a mindset and...
Design Thinking and User Centered Design: A Lens for Modern Requirements!
What can BAs and Agile Product Owners learn from Design Thinking and User Centered Design? It's not all about UX and UI! It's about the customer journey and the end-to-end customer experience with the organization or process. It's about seeing the product and process...
What Does a BA Practice Look Like in Agile?
An agile BA practice is part of, and an extension of, the product ownership team. The BA practice helps the team build the RIGHT product and features, in the most valuable order, aligned to the organization and product strategy. BAs ensure the RIGHT features are built...
Do Tight Timelines Make You Feel Like a Document Dispenser?
Tight timelines put pressure on the entire project team. When the project plan dictates unreasonable durations, BAs become document dispensers focused on cranking out BRDs or cramming user stories into JIRA. PM pressure often forces BAs to focus on documents instead...
Bring Your Requirements Practices Out of the ’80s!
What are you hanging on to? What do you need to purge from you project closet? Still fond of the requirements equivalent of MC Hammer parachute pants, jackets with shoulder pads, stirrups, acid wash jeans or jelly shoes? If you’ve been using the same requirements...
Is Your PM/BA Collaboration a Pressure Cooker?
Is your project’s red-yellow-green status for requirements based on percentage complete of the requirements document? Or percentage complete of the JIRA stories documented? Maybe this is why requirements are taking so long! Is the focus on the status of the document...
5 Things The Legendary Musician and Artist Prince Can Teach Us
When I sat down in a Canadian hotel room to write this article, I had a completely different topic in mind—a rant about the length of TSA pre-check lines and how bad processes make life miserable for users. But as I was writing, I became more and more distracted by...
Great Things Happen When BAs and POs Become BFFs
Despite the fact that business analysis provides HUGE benefits to agile teams, it's still rare to find teams that know how to maximize the agile BA role. The most successful teams create strong partnerships between business analysts and product owners. When great BAs...
2 Requirements Tasks You’re Probably Spending Too Much Time On
Can you guess the number one question I get from requirements leaders across the world? Whether their team is agile, traditional or hybrid, whether their team has 2 members or 250, whether they are creating cutting edge products or maintaining legacy systems, their...
What Can Aerobics Teach us About Collaboration?
Are you old enough to remember the aerobics craze in the ’80s? Denise Austin donned her leotard and leg warmers, and Richard Simmons sweat to the oldies on The Love Boat in his sparkling tank tops and white crew socks. Whether you went to a class at the gym or...
Adapt to Every Project Environment With These 3 Tools!
Is it possible for Business Analysts to shift seamlessly between agile, traditional, hybrid, waterfall and package software projects? Yes! BAs can build a toolkit that promotes success in every environment, and honestly, that Swiss-Army skill set is a necessity for...
3 Reasons Value Needs To Be At The Center Of Your Project Triangle
Over the years, I’ve helped many teams find success by identifying and removing roadblocks. One roadblock that seems to be appearing with greater frequency is “project prominence”— an emphasis on the project over the product or solution being delivered. Teams spend so...