1. Down with the
Revolution
hacking the hype and clearing a path
for agile business analysis
DavidJCMorris CSM CBAP ITCP

2. what do
agile practices
really mean for
business analysts ?

3. why am I here to talk about this ?

7. health warning

8. on with the show ...

10. agile
BA

11. DON’T PANIC

13. cutting through the
hype

14. a brief
lesson in grammar

15. “Most media today
report that Agile
has reached
mainstream usage”
“Most media today
report that agile
has reached
mainstream usage”
“Most media today
report that agile
practices have reached
mainstream usage”

16. dictionary definition
ag·ile [aj-ahyl]
–adjective
1. quick and well-coordinated in movement; lithe.
2. active; lively.
3. marked by an ability to think quickly; mentally
acute or aware.

17. a brief
history of time

18. is this an agile revolution?

19. there will always be cowboys

20. use simple frameworks

21. a brief
debunking of hype

22. HYPE is a root cause
of antagonism

23. waterfall practices are bad

24. agile practices are on a spectrum
waterfall
‘rigid’
‘chaos’agile
iterative kanban

25. if you’re not doing XP or
pure Scrum you’re not agile

26. Snowbird, 2001

27. individuals beat processes
working software beats documentation
collaboration beats contracts
change beats plans
… we have come to value …
individuals and interactions over processes and tools
working software over comprehensive documentation
customer collaboration over contract negotiation
responding to change over following a plan
while there is value in the items on the right
we value the items on the left more.
Evil plans for world dominationAgile Manifesto

28. oh, yeah, we’ve implemented Agile
already

29. Agile projects are just an excuse
for no discipline or planning

30. so if it’s
not a revolution,
what’s really changed ?

31. accepting uncertainty
shift happens

32. did the cat survive in the box ?

33. no plan survives first contact ...

34. new approach to risk

35. purpose of gates

36. gates on ‘waterfall’ projects
Analysis
Design
Development
Verification
Release

37. gates on agile projects

38. gates on agile projects
© 2010 International Institute of Business Analysis

39. value-driven

40. what is business value ?

41. Value-driven vs plan-driven
Plan-
driven
Value-
driven
Fixed Scope Resources Time
Waterfall Agile
Estimated ScopeResources Time
What will it cost to
deliver this scope?
What scope can we deliver?
What’s highest value?

42. one more thing

43. on agile projects, there is nowhere to hide.
A G I L E

44. what does it mean for
business analysts ?

45. the need for
agile business analysis

46. change in approach

47. roles for the
business analyst

48. Systems analysis

49. Requirements facilitation

50. Requirements ownership

51. Product owner (proxy)

52. business analysis
on agile projects
© 2010 International Institute of Business Analysis

53. closing

54. questions
Please note: no kittens were harmed in the making of this presentation

55. thank you
linkedin.com/in/DavidJCMorris
twitter.com/DavidJCMorris
david@DavidJCMorris.com
DavidJCMorris.com