How to Write User Stories
User stories are a way of capturing requirements that are commonly used on agile software development teams. The cornerstone of a user story is a single statement in the following syntax: “As a [user], I …
Agile Business Analysis
The Agile Business Analyst: 4 Crucial Strategies for Success
Many business analysts feel like their role is not needed in agile. We hear that agile teams don’t want “requirements” and so we assume they don’t want business analysts! Nothing could be further from the …
The Agile Business Analyst: 4 Crucial Strategies for Success
How to Transition to Agile as a Waterfall Business Analyst
So, you’ve heard the news – your organization is going agile. Or you are looking for jobs, and every single one requires agile experience. What does this mean for you, your career, and business analysis? …
Secrets of Successful Agile Analysis: How to Make Your Business Analysis Skills Indispensable
Are you exploring a business analysis career in an agile software development environment? Are you concerned about keeping your business analysis skills relevant in an increasingly agile world? Would you be interested in learning how …
Secrets of Successful Agile Analysis: How to Make Your Business Analysis Skills Indispensable
Technical Specifications and System Documentation Can Take Different Forms
Do you demand that your documentation serve double duty as a technical specification and a system document? While in the past I’ve done exactly that, my recent forays into more agile practices forced me to …
Technical Specifications and System Documentation Can Take Different Forms
How to Groom the Product Backlog for Improved Sprint Planning
In an agile environment your week-to-week and day-to-day focus quickly can become integrated with what the development team was working on each sprint. If you go into a sprint planning session without a properly-groomed backlog, the …
How to Groom the Product Backlog for Improved Sprint Planning
How to Define Scope in an Epic
Agile teams typically differentiate between “epics” and “user stories.” In most cases epics are just really large stories that sit far down on your product backlog until the team is ready to flesh them out …
How to Keep a Big Picture Perspective on an Agile Project
Based on my experience analyzing requirements in user stories, I’m convinced that a fundamental challenge for the agile business analyst or product owner is to maintain and communicate the “big picture” while also detailing out requirements in …
How to Create a Product Backlog: An Agile Experience
The product backlog is really the core deliverable that maintains and evolves the requirements in an agile environment. Ownership by the agile business analyst (or a product owner with BA responsibilities) is critical. A product …