Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment
Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
Member Challenge
The process of navigating from waterfall to Agile can be incredibly challenging. Even more problematic; how do you operate your requirements management practices once there? There traditionally isn’t a role for a business analyst, the traditional keeper of requirements. It isn’t like switching on a light.
You likely find yourself struggling to deliver high quality solutions and requirements in Agile. This is a challenge for many organizations, regardless of how long they’ve leveraged Agile.
But you aren’t here for assurances. You’re here for answers and help.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
The temptation when moving to Agile is to deemphasize good requirements practices in favor of perceived speed. If you’re not delivering on the needs of the business then you have failed, regardless of how quickly you’ve gone.Impact and Result
Info-Tech’s advice? Why choose? Why have to pick between traditional waterfall and Agile delivery? If Agile without analysis is a recipe for disaster, Agile with analysis is the solution. How can you leverage the Info-Tech approach to align your Agile and requirements management efforts into a powerful combination?
Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment is your guide.
Use the contents and exercises of this blueprint to gain a shared understanding of the two disciplines, to find your balance in your approach, to define your thresholds, and ultimately, to prepare for new ways of working.
Research & Tools
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1. Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment Blueprint – Agile and Requirements Management are complementary, not competitors
Provides support and guidance for organizations struggling with their requirements management practices in Agile environments.
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Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment Storyboard
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2. Agile Requirements Playbook – A practical playbook for aligning your teams, and articulating the guidelines for managing your requirements in Agile.
The Agile Requirements Playbook becomes THE artifact for your Agile requirements practices. Great for onboarding, reviewing progress, and ensuring a shared understanding of your ways of working.
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Agile Requirements Playbook
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3. Documentation Calculator – A tool for determining the right level of documentation for your organization, and whether you’re spending too much, or even not enough, on Agile Requirements documentation.
The Documentation Calculator can inform your documentation decison making, ensuring you're investing just the right amount of time, money, and effort.
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Documentation Calculator
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4. Agile Requirements Workbook – Supporting tools and templates in advancing your Agile Requirements practice, to be used in conjunction with the Agile Requirements Blueprint, and the Playbook.
This workbook is designed to capture the results of your exercises in the Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment Storyboard. Each worksheet corresponds to an exercise in the storyboard. This is a tool for you, so customize the content and layout to best suit your product. The workbook is also a living artifact that should be updated periodically as the needs of your team and organization change.
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Agile Requirements Workbook
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5. Agile Requirements Assessment – Establishes your current Agile requirements maturity, defines your target maturity, and supports planning to get there.
The Agile Requirements Assessment is a great tool for determining your current capabilities and maturity in Agile and Business Analysis. You can also articulate your target state, which enables the identification of capability gaps, the creation of improvement goals, and a roadmap for maturing your Agile Requirements practice.
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Agile Requirements Assessment
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Onsite Workshop: Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Do-It-Yourself Implementation
The slides in this Best Practice Blueprint will walk you step-by-step through every phase of your project with supporting tools and templates ready for you to use.
Project Accelerator Workshop
You can also use this Best Practice Blueprint to facilitate your own project accelerator workshop within your organization using the workshop slides and facilitation instructions provided in the Appendix.
Module 1: Framing Agile and Business Analysis
The Purpose
Sets the context for the organization, to ensure a shared understanding of the benefits of both Agile and business analysis/requirements management.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Have a shared definition of Agile and business analysis / requirements.
- Understand the current state of Agile and business analysis in your organization.
| Activities | Outputs |
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| 1.1 Define what Agile and business analysis mean in your organization. |
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| 1.2 Agile requirements assessment. |
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Module 2: Tailoring Your Approach
The Purpose
Confirm you’re going the right way for effective solution delivery.
Key Benefits Achieved
Confirm the appropriate delivery methodology.
| Activities | Outputs |
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| 2.1 Confirm your selected methodology. |
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Module 3: Defining Your Requirements Thresholds
The Purpose
Provides the guardrails for your Agile requirements practice, to define a high-level process, roles and responsibilities, governance and decision-making, and how to deal with change.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Clearly defined interactions between the BA and their partners
- Define a plan for management and governance at the project team level
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 3.1 Define your agile requirements process. |
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| 3.2 Define your agile requirements RACI. |
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| 3.3 Define your governance. |
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| 3.4 Define your change and backlog refinement plan. |
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Module 4: Planning Your Next Steps
The Purpose
Provides the action plan to achieve your target state maturity
Key Benefits Achieved
- Recognize and prepare for the new ways of working for communication, stakeholder engagement, within the team, and across the organization.
- Establish a roadmap for next steps to mature your Agile requirements practice.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 4.1 Define your stakeholder communication plan. |
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| 4.2 Identify your capability gaps. |
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| 4.3 Plan your agile requirements roadmap. |
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Module 5: Agile Requirements Techniques (Optional)
The Purpose
To provide practical guidance on technique usage, which can enable an improved experience with technical elements of the blueprint.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An opportunity to learn new tools to support your Agile requirements practice.
| Activities | Outputs |
|---|---|
| 5.1 Managing requirements' traceability. |
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| 5.2 Creating and managing user stories. |
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| 5.3 Managing your requirements backlog. |
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| 5.4 Maintaining a requirements library. |
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Testimonials
Positive - Vince listened to our challenges around efficient BA & Requirements. He has tailored a short program around Requirement Gathering followed by Managing Requirements in Agile. Lets see how this progresses, but overall positive start
Alex offers fantastic insight and zooms in on the issues quickly. We have useful tips and guidance on how to perform at a higher level. Interestingly, a greater focus was on project issues outside of the Scrum process rather than Scrum. The team would li...