Articles
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Estimating Cost of Delay in Agile Projects with Time-Value Profiles The cost of delay for releasing a product can be due to many factors, but that value loss can seem like an abstract concept. Attaching hard numbers to a release timeline in the form of a time-value profile helps the development team and business stakeholders have a conversation about how long they have to build a product and when it would be best to enter a market. |
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Instead of MVPs, Maybe We Should Be Releasing SMURFS The term minimum viable product, or MVP, has come to be misunderstood and misused in many organizations. It doesn’t mean you should be releasing half-baked, barely feasible software. Instead, you should be thinking of your product’s capabilities as a Specifically Marketable, Useful, Releasable Feature Set—or SMURFS! |
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4 Secrets to Successfully Scaling Agile Tech Teams There comes a time for every successful tech team to expand. But how do you scale in an agile way without losing productivity? Here are four secrets to successfully managing this transition, from deliberately choosing an incremental growth process to hiring new team members and retaining efficient communication. |
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How to Guarantee Failure in Your Agile DevOps Transformation Many organizations make the same agile and DevOps scaling mistakes year after year, then attempt to rectify them by putting together a great new strategy—only to miss the reasons causing the failure. If you want to refuse to evolve and, as a result, cause your organization’s agile and DevOps transformation efforts to deliver zero business value, be sure to follow these seven antipatterns. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
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Six Ways to Use Business Analyst Superpowers in Agile There are those agilists who believe there is no place for a business analyst on their team. Joy Beatty and James Hulgan, both experienced agile consultants, refute this belief and explain how business analysts can enhance the effectiveness of most any agile team. |
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Painful Lessons I Learned from Bootstrapping a Startup If you are considering leaving the nest to self-fund your own endeavor, you may want to read about Mike Botsko's experience creating a cloud-based, bug-tracking app called Snowy Evening. What started out as a lot of fun quickly turned into a tough journey. Don't worry—it has a happy ending! |
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How Can You Get More Effective with DevOps? By emphasizing better communication and collaboration between software development and IT, this article explores ways to establish trust by focusing on customer value. For example, Manoj Khanna suggests continuous integration and validation as techniques that helps build that trust. |
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Requirements Reuse: Fantasy or Feasible? Software development teams think nothing about reusing code, but what about requirements? The benefits include faster delivery, lower development costs, consistency across and within applications, fewer defects, and reduced rework. |
Interviews
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The "Show Me the Money" Approach to Software Development: An Interview with Michael Harris
Podcast
In this interview, Michael Harris, the president and CEO of David Consulting Group, explains his five-step Value Visualization Framework. He discusses how he came up with the idea, how it can help your team right now, and its similarities to the agile methodology. |
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STAREAST 2015 Interview with Rob Sabourin on Exploring Usability Testing for Mobile and Web Technologies
Video
In this interview, Rob Sabourin talks about his STAREAST presentations. These cover how to elicit effective usability requirements with storyboarding and task analysis, and how to blend the requirements, design, and test cycles into a tight feedback loop. |
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Acceptance Test-Driven Development and Communication in Agile: An Interview with Jared Richardson
Podcast
In this interview, principal consultant and Agile Artisans founder, Jared Richardson, explains how misunderstanding requirements can cause major issues within an organization. He covers why team members need to communicate, how big projects are often mishandled, and the value of agile. |
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How Agile Helped a Business Analyst Discover Her True Value: An Interview with Diane Zajac-Woodie
Video
Diane Zajac-Woodie sat down to discuss her upcoming presentation at Agile Development and Better Software Conference West 2014, why the business analyst role doesn't get the attention it deserves, how the BA role can make a difference on agile teams, and her alter ego as the Agile Squirrel. |
Conference Presentations
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Great Business Analysts “Think Like a Freak”
Slideshow
In today's competitive market, employers increasingly depend on business analysts to act as change agents. This puts BAs in the powerful position of influencers—providing the analysis and evidence needed to support an organization’s strategic direction and decision-making. In their book... |
Faye Thompson
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The Business Analyst’s Critical Role in Agile Projects
Slideshow
Are you a business analyst, wondering how you fit into agile projects? Are you a ScrumMaster who wants to work with business analysts for a stronger project team? Are you a product owner who needs to supercharge your product backlog? Mark Layton introduces you to the critical role of the... |
Mark Layton, Platinum Edge, Inc.
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STARCANADA 2013: Quantifying the Value of Static Analysis
Slideshow
During the past ten years, static analysis tools have become a vital part of software development for many organizations. However, the question arises, “Can we quantify the benefits of static analysis?” William Oliver presents the results of a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory study... |
William Oliver, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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The Right Question for the Right Requirements
Slideshow
How often have you gone down the road of developing software almost to completion only to discover new requirements that require significant design and coding changes at the last minute? Requirements analysis is not just writing down what customers say they want. It's about digging down and discovering what they need. Without real analysis, our requirements often end up as poorly defined lists, anemic mock-ups, and incomplete or inconsistent models. Jack Jones spotlights one simple technique to discover these needs: Ask "why?" When the customer states a requirement, ask "why?" to delve down a level to discover their real problem, need, or opportunity. You may find you need to repeat "why?" a number of times. Join Jack to explore the very real consequences of not comprehending customer needs early in the process, and practice better communications techniques to avoid unnecessary requirements and scope changes. |
Jack Jones, KMI
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