Traditional system-development methodologies are rapidly being replaced by more iterative or agile approaches. More and more organizations are realizing the benefits of faster product deployment at a lower cost, with less rework due to missed requirements. Effective business analysis is key to developing those requirements and keeping projects on track. This indispensable course explores the contributions of good requirements development in an Agile environment and equips business analysts with the critical thinking, analytical skills, and necessary people skills they need to add value to every Agile project. This practical workshop provides participants with an understanding of the changing role of the business analyst, the tools and techniques best suited to Agile projects, and the timing for performing key tasks and events during the project. Lively lectures combined with insightful demonstrations and realistic practice exercises provide you with the competence and confidence you need to improve project outcomes through better requirements definition.

Evaluate a variety of Agile "flavors"

Review levels and types of requirements

Define the roles of Agile project team members

Practice defining personas

Work as a team to discover and write user stories

Review requirements elicitation and discovery methods

Understand story decomposition and modeling with simple graphical methods

Practice eliciting and validating information from project stakeholders

Assess the importance and priority of product features

Hone your problem identification, definition, and solving capabilites

If you're involved at all with Agile projects or you want to learn more about how to incorporate Agile approaches into your projects, you simply must participate in this workshop.

This course is perfect for you if you are a:

• Business customer, user or partner
• Project Sponsor or Project Owner
• Business Analyst
• Business Systems Analyst
• Systems Analyst
• Project Manager
• Systems Architect or Designer
• Systems or Application Developer
• QA Professional
• Systems Tester
• Leader of Systems projects or teams
• Anyone wanting to enhance their Agile business analysis skills

Getting Started

• Introductions
• Course Objectives
• Impact of other Domains on Agile Beginnings
• The Agile Conversation
• Working Agreements

Agile Overview

• Lean Beginnings
• Why Agile?
• Agile Manifesto &
• Principles
• Agile Practices

Building an Agile Team

• The Team as a System
• The Business Analyst

Project Initiation

• Five Levels of Planning
• Vision
• Themes & Roadmap
• User Roles and Personas

Backlog Planning

• The Product Backlog
• Writing User Stories
• Guidelines for Good Stories
• Acceptance Criteria

Managing the Backlog

• Prioritization
• Estimating

Release Planning

Backlog Refinement

• Agile Documentation
• Requirements Elaboration

The Iteration

• Iteration Planning
• Iteration Execution

Inspect and Adapt

• The Iteration Review
• The Demo
• The Retrospective

Agile Adoption