Business Analysis

Tutorials

MM The Role of the Agile Business Analyst

Steve Adolph, Blue Agility

Mon, 11/10/2014 - 1:00pm

The business analyst (BA) role seems conspicuously absent from most agile methods. Does agile make the BA role obsolete? Certainly not! But how does a BA exploit the short cycle times and collaborative nature of agile methods? Drawing from the principles of lean product development flow, Steve Adolph introduces five principles for the agile BA—Open the Channels, Chart the Flow, Generate Flow, Lean Out the Flow, and Bridge the Flow. As a communicator, the BA must Open the Channels and Chart the Flow to align all stakeholders.

TF Risk Management: Project Management for Grown-Ups NEW

Tim Lister, Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc.

Tue, 11/11/2014 - 8:30am

Many organizations are childlike. They blithely plan the project as if nothing will go wrong. And then, when something does go wrong, they are shocked and dismayed. Risk management is not just worrying about your project, and it is not about running away from risk. Risk management for software projects is all about when you make decisions and when you take action. How do you deal with uncertainty? When do you decide to deal with a risk while it is still just a risk, and when do you decide to wait to see if the risk does turn into a problem and manage it then?

TL Get the Requirements Right―the First Time NEW

Tim Lister, Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc.

Tue, 11/11/2014 - 1:00pm

One group—customers, users, and business—need a software system to help them work more efficiently or make more money, but they don’t know how to build it. Another group—software developers and testers—know how to build the system, but they don’t know what it is supposed to do. Bridging this gap is where requirements—the work products describing the system accurately and concisely while at the same time not missing important customer and user needs—are essential.

TQ Product Owner Imperatives for Championing Agile Projects NEW

Paul Reed, EBG Consulting

Tue, 11/11/2014 - 1:00pm

Engaged and passionate product owners balance strategic and tactical activities to ensure that the right product is built—and built right. Yet how do these product owners guide planning toward longer-term goals while also ensuring that requirements are sufficiently understood for development and delivery? Join Paul Reed as he shares techniques for setting context and collaboratively establishing a shared understanding of requirements. Discover methods to envision the product and identify the stakeholders and their value considerations.

Concurrent Sessions

BW2 Requirements Are Requirements—or Maybe Not

Robin Goldsmith, Go Pro Management, Inc.

Wed, 11/12/2014 - 11:30am

Many people talk about requirements. They use identical terms and think they have a common understanding. Yet, one says user stories are requirements; another claims user stories must be combined with requirements; and yet another has a different approach. These “experts” seem unaware of the critical inconsistencies of their positions. No wonder getting requirements right remains a major challenge for many projects.

BW14 Big Data Business Analytics: Get Ready for Tomorrow’s Projects

Candase Hokanson, Seilevel

Wed, 11/12/2014 - 4:15pm

Normal people don't look at data sets just for fun; they analyze them to make business decisions. More and more often, business analysts and product managers find themselves on strategic projects that require turning large—and often highly complex—data sets into meaningful information from which conclusive decisions and actions can be derived. In most IT organizations today, analysis of big data is a reality and will grow in significance as businesses look to better understand capturing, structuring, and learning from their data.