Archive for the 'agile anlayst' Category

Agile environment

Published by
Maria Murphy
at 21 August, 2007 in agile anlayst. 5 Comments

I recently attended the BA World symposium in Sydney and was finally able to have a word to describe my current project environment - “agile environment”. the conventional approach to software development assumed that it was possible to identify all the requirements early and that costs could be managed by limiting changes once the specifications and requirements had been accepted and signed off by the business. However, as we all know, the environment out there is changing and that change is rapid.


Doug Boast from Monash IT spoke about RAD Tools and Techniques for the BA in an Agile Environment.

 

Doug stressed that in an agile environment, we need Agile software development methods to meet this challenge. We now need Software development methods that attempt to answer the eager business community’s need for lighter weight along with faster and nimbler software development processes.It was noted that this is especially the case with the rapidly growing and volatile Internet software industry as well as with the emerging mobile application environment.

This is certainly the case in my current engagement, not only is change anticipated, we expect it, embrace it and have tried to ensure our approach to requirement analysis and design is flexible and nimble.

My Information Architecture (and fellow blog) friends Matt, Andrew and I are using storyboarding and rapid prototyping to meet the changing needs of the business and get constant feedback to inform technical decisions and the need to build the system whilst still developing the system requirements. It is an iterative process with a fast turnaround of weeks and days (not months).

The real key to our success in navigating this agile environment has been teamwork and collaboration between the development, analyst and business teams. Without this interaction, between members, our project would not be progressing well with the project. Communication is so important and as an agile analyst, I believe this capability is a core skill in an agile environment.

Requirements management

Published by
Maria Murphy
at 19 August, 2007 in agile anlayst and requirements. 6 Comments

Scope creep is annoying, but what is more annoying is doing all the business process maps and documentation in visio and word. The changes and flow-on affects of these changes then need to be manually changed in the documents.

I am currently looking at some software tools to support my current project so that I can have enhanced traceability and be able to quickly work out what requirements are impacted when a certain element changes (eg cannot now be delivered in this current release).

I am working in an agile environment where there is rapid change and the business needs are evolving and this needs to be manged. Requirements are never really complete until the project is finished as the needs of the business will inevitably change over the life of the project development. Telling the business “it is not in the spec” doesn’t solve the issue that they need this change.

In this type of environment it important to know the “ripple” effects of a change to a particular requirement (eg architecture, design, code, tests and deployment). What a first may be a minor change, can indeed be very costly.

Requirements management done well can help your project to deliver the benefits the business is looking for, without you having to get frustrated by the process. I am hoping that the tools we evaluate may help to support our requirements process and help to ensure we can adapt to the rapid changes required in this agile environment.