Posted by Robert Merrill on September 15, 2009 under Agile BA, Agile Methods, Business Analysis and Requirements |
I gave a presentation on “The Role of the BA in an Agile Environment” at the meeting of the Madison chapter of the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) on Tuesday 9/15/2009. Because I delivered the presentation like an Agile project, with the audience developing a “product backlog” of topics for me to present in priority order, I had deliberately prepared more material than I had time for.
For you Madison IIBAers who’ve come here looking for the material, I haven’t posted my PowerPoint slides (and don’t plan to) because they aren’t able to stand on their own. As I get the chance, I’ll turn some of them into blog posts. Please let me know what would be most valuable to you and I’ll work on that first, according to the “maximize value within constraints” principle.
And thank you for being such a high-energy audience. I had a blast, but was totally wiped out when I left for home. I know that the Agile methods are rocking your world, and I want to help you, to quote Kent Beck, “Embrace Change,” if I can.
Posted by Robert Merrill on July 13, 2009 under Agile BA, Agile Methods, Estimation |
If you’re an IT shop considering agile methods, your existing Function Point Analysis (FPA) capability can be a a valuable asset. It freaks many agile-methods advocates out when I tell them, but I routinely follow a user story workshop with a Function Point count.
I already knew FPA when the project-contracting house I worked for went agile. I found I could count the Function Points from a couple of dozen user stories in a half day or less. (Often I discovered some missed stories in the process.) With some project history on hours per FP for the teams I supported, and some multiplication, I had a quick, factor-of-two effort estimate. Flip the factor-of-two uncertainty off of the effort and onto the scope (you know those stories are going to change, anyway), and there’s the core of an agile project proposal. We had about a 1-in-3 close rate, and less than 10% of our projects failed.
Now that I’m consulting for software-intensive businesses and their software teams, the same estimate can be used to request a team and a budget through your established governance process. Read more of this article »