Author: Steve Blais

It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as We Know it? Part 6

Written by Steve Blais on August 20, 2013. Posted in Articles.

Being the serialized story of Brian Allen and Ann Brady, business analysts, and their Adventures in the New Oder of Agile

Excerpted from the forthcoming book from John Wiley, The Agile Business Analyst due out the end of 2013

Chapter 6: Wherein Verna addresses the business analysts and their final fate is known while Brian searches for the right theme song.

Brian saw Ken and Sandra walking slowly toward them from the end of the corridor with measured pace. He and Ann were walking toward them with the same measured pace. The corridor had emptied out. Brian heard the whistling trill from the theme song to “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” echo in his head as they approached each other. He immediately thought that he was at a disadvantage since he still had his backpack slung over his shoulder. “I got my updated resume in my backpack, just in case,” Brian whispered to Ann as they walked. She nodded.

Then Ken and Sandra turned to their left down an intersecting hallway. Brian and Ann turned left seconds later to follow them. Still no words were spoken. It was the way of Verna. The whistling in Brian’s head was now replaced by the bubbly, somewhat inane tune, “We’re off to see the Wizard…” and he looked at the floor to see if there were yellow tiles.

They turned left again and then right along passageways and halls that seemed to become narrower as they proceeded. Brian realized that he and Ann were in a sector of the Organization’s Headquarters that they had never been in before and didn’t even know existed. The theme song to :”The Twilight Zone” snaked into Brian’s brain replacing the jovial image of Oz with the dour visage of Rod Serling.

Finally they came to The Door. Sandra pressed a button and passed her badge over a green light and The Door opened. Inside was a large well lit antechamber with several desks with people busy doing things people do at desks, a couple of conversation areas and three doors leading to other offices. Brian wondered if he were going to get to pick which door Verna was behind.

Sandra led them to the left hand door and opened it after knocking. When the door opened everyone behind the desks stood up at attention. Ann, Ken and Brian entered the room. Sandra did not. She closed the door behind them. This was Verna’s office.

“Welcome, I’ve been expecting you,” came a disembodied voice that was strong and authoritative but seemed to carry with it a smile of understanding and empathy. The three looked around the large office, darkened by heavy drapes over the windows, and could not immediately see the source of the voice.

“Please, have a seat.” There were three chairs in front of the executive desk in the center of the room and an empty black executive swivel chair behind it. Then they saw Verna standing at the corner of the desk.

When Brian saw Verna he realized why she was rarely seen around the organization. She was 4’9” in height and was barely visible behind the large desk. He imagined her sneaking unseen around the corridors of the organization, and the theme song to The Pink Panther crept into his head. Verna pulled herself into the executive chair and they could see her clearly. She had short page-boy length hair and was of indeterminate age although her face spoke of volumes of experience in the corporate political wars.

“First of all,” Verna said. “I want to let you know that I am completely in favor of the entire concept of agile: agile software development, agile management, agile organization. I have been in favor of it long before it was agile. Back in the day being agile as you describe it now was just business as usual. We in the corporate world have lost touch with our ability to respond, to be flexible, to take chances and risks, and to make things up as we go. Management has a few set backs or failures along the way and suddenly we are all worried about risk management and making sure that there is a paper trail we call documentation to absolve us of blame. We all had the agile spirit at least once, when we were start ups – as organizations or when we first started up in the business field. But as things went on we lost it. So, now if we have to call it agile and take a slap in the back of the head or a glass of cold water in the face to wake us up, then I’m all for it. And that includes all of the precepts, such as removing the business analyst from between the business person with the problem and the development team with the solution.”

This pronouncement deflated Brian and Ann. Brian let his backpack slide to the floor next to his chair.

“You don’t need to pull your resume out of the backpack as yet, Mr. Allen,” said Verna with a smile.

Brian looked up and over at Ann. His face said “how did she know that?” Her faced responded with “Lucky guess, maybe?” He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Ken was smiling in apparent victory.

“I am talking about removing requirements as we know them: This absurd process of creating long documents followed by lengthy confirmation processes and approvals by executives who don’t even read the bloody thing, and then making changes which also require confirmation and approval are absurd. We need to be more flexible, fluid and responsive, and requirements documents do not get us there. There is too much time spent in arguing about how a requirement is written and the meaning of the words in the document than in defining what is necessary to be done to solve the problem.”

Now Brian could see Ken’s grin growing wider. Ann was looking down and nodding. Brian found that there was nothing that Verna was saying that he could disagree with. He had felt for a long time that defining requirements was a small and sometimes trivial part of his job, but he had always assumed it was necessary. After all, what is a business analyst without requirements? The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge seemed to be all about requirements as the Project Management Body of Knowledge was all about structure and documentation. And he knew; he had his PMP although he wasn’t sure anymore why he had it.

“But,” said Verna, interrupting Brian’s reverie, “That does not mean at all that we are considering eliminating the business analyst. The business analyst is vital to the success of this organization, more so than the technologists who develop the software solutions.” She aimed her last comment at Ken whose smile froze on his face and then fell into his lap. Ann looked up at Verna with a question on her face.

“Let me highlight the job you two have been doing for the organization. It hasn’t gone unnoticed,” Vern continued. “You have helped Marketing, especially Dmitri, many times over the past by ensuring that their initiatives mesh well with the rest of the organization and are aligned with our overall strategic goals. Marketing has a reputation for focusing only on what is necessary to achieve their goals without regard for the rest of the organization. And that is good. Without them we don’t go anywhere. But we need someone to provide an overall business view to what they are doing, and you have been doing that.

“The information you assembled and the analysis you provided on our strategic build or buy situation is going to save us a lot of money and contribute significantly to the success of Backbone. There will be less coding that has to be done…sorry, Ken…which means that parts of the overall system will come up sooner than expected giving us significant competitive advantage and return. And we thank you for those efforts.”

“We were just doing our job,” muttered Ann, still bewildered at Verna’s comments.

“And that, my dear, is my point, you are doing your job,” responded Verna. “I also personally like the way you keep asking questions, even in the face of rampant enthusiasm, especially on the part of Marketing. You also challenge the technologists’ assumptions and the ‘no problem syndrome’. You apply upfront critical thinking which has saved this organization thousands in miscommunication and rework costs. I know anything “upfront’ is considered suspect by the agile authorities, but I tend to be old school and believe that any process that makes things work more efficiently is worthwhile no matter where it occurs or what you call it. And I particularly like the way you do it without a lot of paperwork, overhead or ceremony.

“You facilitate meetings and get problems addressed and solved. You effectively deal with conflicts, especially between IT and the business units and between the business units themselves. Unfortunately many of those conflicts are about how requirements are phrased, but we may have eliminated that source of conflict with this agile product development approach. You seem to be able to get the best out of people when you are around, helping them achieve their goals. You were instrumental in providing the information and argument that convinced Carl that his precious system needed to be replaced and not maintained.

“You have taken the time to keep up to date not only on technology so you can understand the technologists, but also the business side so you understand business jargon. And I’ve noticed that you don’t spend time just translating one set of jargon to the other, but facilitate the interactions between the suits and the nerds so that each will become more familiar with the other’s domain. Very good. Of course, it has led to the current demand by Ken and his cronies that you be removed from the ‘middle’. So you unwittingly were part of your own demise in that regard.

“I also noticed that people around the organization seem to call on you when they have problems and you are able to help them define what their real problems are and help them come up with solutions, even when those solutions do not involve software development or even IT at all.”

“But they work for IT,” Ken pointed out. “They should be defining IT solutions.”

Verna affixed a withering stare at Ken. He seemed to shrink in his chair until he seemed to be shorter than Verna. “They do not work for IT, sir. They work for the organization.”

Brian and Ann shared glances. They never assumed anything else.

“The bottom line is that business analysis is here to stay. What you do is the real backbone of the organization. You provide independent and objective information to the decision makers, define and solve business problems, improve business processes and make a multitude of other contributions..”

Ken appeared to have one more protest up his sleeve. “I was given the direction by Vince and others that we all have to be agile. The entire organization is going agile.”

“Yes, I believe that is true, and as I clearly stated, I am in agreement with everyone going agile. But these business analysts, for all intents and purposes, sir, are already agile. They are responsive, flexible, focus on the problems of the entire organization, collaborate at all times and facilitate collaboration wherever possible, and work to get the business customers with problems and the IT or other teams with solutions together to add value to the organization. How much more agile can you get, sir? I believe if you go back and look at your recent history, you will see that business analyst laid the groundwork for successful agile organizations.

“I would say, Mr. Allen and Ms. Brady, that you are certainly agile as far as the organization is concerned, at least as agile as the developers working with Scrum. So, since IT has decreed that they don’t seem to have any use for you, replacing your requirements definition duties with the agile process, then what I want is that you work directly for me. You will remain business analysts. And your scope will be the entire organization. I envision an entire team of business analysts moving the organization strategically, tactically, and competitively forward”

There was a long pause as Brian and Ann let the directive sink in.

“I have spoken,” commanded Verna, ending the meeting. \

Outside in the hallway, Ken nodded to them and bid them well and said that it was clear that he would be working with them on upcoming projects, including Backbone. He did not seem to bear any ill will. In fact, Brian almost sensed that Ken now welcomed their participation in the agile community as business analysts. But then, that remained to be seen.

As they stood in the lobby of Verna’s offices, Brian looked at Ann. “Do you know the way back?”

Ann replied, “I left the bread crumbs.”

“Looks like everyone is safe.”

“Yes, we did it. And we got to meet with Verna.”

“Hey, did you notice? No strange silences and eerie feelings when you said her name.”

“Yes. I wonder if it’s just because we met her or because we now know her real stature. She’s small, you know?”

A disembodied voice came out of hidden speakers someplace near where they were standing in the lobby of Verna’s area. “I heard that, Ms. Brady.” It was unmistakably Verna. They looked at each other and scurried out of the area and through The Door.
“How did…?” whispered Brian. Ann shrugged.

“Well for one thing,” said Brian, still keeping his voice soft as they moved down the hall. “This is going to be really challenging and very interesting.”

“Yes. And we love it that way. We are, after all, business analysts.”

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It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as we Know it? Part 5

Written by Steve Blais on July 30, 2013. Posted in Articles.

Being the serialized story of Brian Allen and Ann Brady, business analysts, and their Adventures in the New Oder of Agile

Excerpted from the forthcoming book from John Wiley, The Agile Business Analyst due out the end of 2013

Chapter 5: Wherein the business analysts encounter the Scrum Master, Scott discloses his concerns about business analysts and Verna summons

The organization was quite dynamic. Meetings were held in the hallways and corridors of the vast headquarters on a more frequent basis than in the meeting rooms. This might be considered by some to be an agile practice since the meetings were held not only standing up, but moving along, which meant that the meeting had to be completed by the time one or more participants got to their destination or their ways parted.

Thus it was that Brian and Ann attended meetings that morning. Brian ran into Ann as he came out of the elevators after arriving at work, his black Swiss Army backpack slung over one shoulder and a cup of coffee in his hand. Ann had had an earlier morning meeting with Belice Despacio who was assistant to the CFO. Ann was presenting the information she had amassed on the efficacy of buy versus build decisions on the Backbone project. She considered it her ‘kiss-off’ project for the organization.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve been avoiding people like the plague these past couple of days trying to get things in order.” Brian greeted her.

“Me, too. You mean you haven’t seen Ken or Scott?”

“Not yet. But it looks like the waiting is over.” Ken came down the hall toward them.

“Shall we make a break for it? If we run in different directions one of us will get away.” Suggested Ann.

“It’s all right, kid.” Said Brian doing his best Bogie imitation. “They’d find us wherever we went. We gotta stay here and face the music.”

“It isn’t even High Noon yet.”

“Well,” said Ken with a vacuous smile. “It’s the Last Brigade, or maybe I should say Lost Brigade? I see that you have managed to infiltrate your business analysts into the projects anyway.”

“Nope,” said Brian continuing to walk. “There are no business analysts on the Backbone project. There are new developers who used to be business analysts and there are product owners who used to be business analysts.”

“And there are impact analysts working with the product owners,” added Ann.

“Why do I feel this is a trick? Once a business analyst always a business analyst.”

“First of all,” said Brian, putting his backpack down and facing Ken. “There is no such thing as ‘once a business analyst’. None of us were born business analysts nor did we plan to be business analysts throughout school. We all gravitated or were inserted into the position and the profession. Most of us came from other disciplines like systems analysis or engineering for which we were initially trained. Both Ann and I have done some turns as project manager. Many of us came out of school as engineers or with IT degrees. So it’s not that difficult to move back to one of our former positions. Besides, you have a lot of former Java and C++ programmers working on your dot-net and C# programming projects. Do we say the same thing about them? ‘Once a Java programmer always a Java programmer’?”

Ken ignored Brian and walked away. “Good luck in your new jobs elsewhere in the organization, Allen. But remember, the New Order of Agile is taking over. Two more divisions have decided to also go with agile. There won’t be any place to go soon.”

As Ken walked down the hall and Brian shouldered his backpack, Ann mused, “We were avoiding that? I wonder what he really wanted to see us about.”

“I guess I distracted him.”

“O, well, looks like today is the day. Here comes Scott, and he looks like he knows why he wants to see us.”

Scott looked troubled. He came straight at them like a shark after its prey. Brian could hear the Jaws theme playing in the background.

“I’m glad I found you,” breathed Scott. “Can we go someplace to talk,” he said conspiratorially looking over both shoulders. “How about a cup of coffee.” Brian stared at the cup of coffee in his hand and then at Ann and said, “Sure. Why not? I’m not on the clock yet anyway.”

After they got settled in a corner table of the cafeteria with their coffees, Scott leaned forward, put his glasses on the table and pushed back his longish black hair. “What do you know about Scrum Masters?”

“It’s a Zen discipline arising from the sport of Rugby in which there is both a ball and not a ball and the less you try to score the more goals you make,” offered Brian.

“My, we are quick this morning, aren’t we, and only on the first cup of coffee,” commented Ann. “We know what a Scrum Master is, Scott. What’s your problem?”

“We drafted our Scrum Masters from our developer teams. We let them volunteer because we didn’t want to impose any management selection of roles on them. These are, after all, self-organizing teams.” He paused for acknowledgment, and receiving none, continued. “Those who said they would like to be Scrum Masters were sent to Certified Scrum Master classes at our expense. So we got a number of CSMs to fill the role for the Scrum teams. Of course it was difficult. Most of the developers did not want to give up their coding to run interference for the teams. Many also felt that the Scrum Master had to indulge in politics and wanted no part of that. “

“I’m not sure I understand,” interrupted Ann. “What ‘politics’ are they concerned about?”

“One of the primary duties of the Scrum Master is ‘removing impediments to the development team’s progress’ * and another is working with the organization to promote and promulgate Scrum: ‘The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t’ And these things mean that you have to deal with the rest of the organization and that means politics.”

“Isn’t that what you and Ken are doing?” asked Brian.

“Yes. And we take seriously those edicts. And we are ‘leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption’. But that is beside the point. And the point is that we don’t have enough Scrum Masters, and those we do have are not working as well as they should.”

“Didn’t they go to class and get certified?” Asked Ann.

“Yes. I said that. And the certification is two days of class followed by an exam. And it’s a fairly easy exam, too.”

“You passed it?” asked Brian. Scott didn’t pick up the sarcasm. He continued: “And they tell you what to do, but there is no real training in how to do it. And, for example, in one of my teams a senior developer is somewhat arrogant and is shredding the new, young product owner. She has left the room in tears as a result of his questions. And all he says is ‘there is no crying in software development’. And I have no experience in dealing with such things, since I am basically a developer.”

“Once a developer, always a developer”, chided Brian, only for Ann’s benefit as Scott was oblivious.

‘As I recall,” Ann tried to bring the conversation back to the point. “The Scrum Master also “Leads and coaches the organization in its Scrum adoption, causes change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Teams, coaches the development team in self-organization and cross-functionality’ *, and so forth. Those are high expectations for a developer, or anyone for that matter. Was your plan that they should be able to do these things with a two day class?”

“No. In agile it’s about learning. Each of the Scrum Masters would learn how to deal with people and learn how to play their Scrum Master roles. But they are not learning fast, and some don’t seem to be able to learn, or want to learn. And I’ve had three tell me they don’t want the position anymore. And the others on the team see that happen and they don’t want to step in. And I think we are discovering that learning soft skills is not as easy as learning a new programming language or hardware platform.”

“It seems to me as though the Scrum Master job description was written as an inducement for organizations to bring in experienced, qualified consultants. I recall one of the tenets says the Scrum Master ‘coaches the Development Team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet full adopted and understood,’ and ‘Helps employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development’. So why don’t you just bring on the consultants?” Asked Brian.

“No can do. I think we oversold the simplicity of the Scrum concept to Carl and Vince. And they won’t pay for consultants. They say the self-organizing teams should be able to handle it themselves. And they were willing to allow for a ramp-up time and the classes. And they expect that since the developers are able to talk directly to the business now that they should be able to do the Scrum Master roles as well. So, no consultants.”

“Yes,” agreed Brian. “It would seem contradictory to the concept of simplicity to have to bring in a high paid consultant to get things started. But what about the project managers?”

“Ken didn’t want any of them around. He wasn’t sure they could successfully drop their authority around the team. And even if they were able to stop managing and start coaching, the teams would still see them as project managers and that would make them ineffective. And, besides, Carl grabbed all the good project managers and assigned them to other projects in the organization and let the others go.”

Ann sat back and sipped her coffee. “Hmm. OK. Sounds like a problem. What do you want us to do about it? Offer suggestions?”

“Actually, I’m looking for advice, and maybe a little help. One of the aspects of business analysts I have admired is their facilitation skills: they seem to be able to enable discussions and get people involved. And, like you two guys, you seem to be able to get things done when you’re on a project, especially outside the project boundaries, working with other projects and business areas.” Brian and Ann exchanged glances, both with raised eyebrows “And I am thinking that we might be able to co-opt some business analysts into being Scrum Masters. For example, Shelly. Shelly is able to make a meeting work well. I go into a meeting and have no idea why I am there. And even when there is an agenda, all it does is list the attendees and none of us know why we are there. But a meeting with Shelly always goes well. And when any of us walk out of a meeting that she attends we know exactly why we were in the meeting and always feel that we spent our time well. And, she, like, asks questions and gets the attendees to come to conclusions, even when the meeting isn’t hers. And she seems always to be able to resolve conflict among the attendees if there is any, even among developers, and sometimes even before it starts. And I’ve seen you two do this as well.”

“Well,” replied Ann. “That could be arranged. We can send a few of our remaining available business analysts to Scrum Master classes and they can be Scrum Masters for your teams.” Ann hid her delight at having this solution drop into her lap.

Brian on the other hand had another question. “Scott, you seemed to be totally against business analysts. And now you are singing our praises. What gives?”

“I am not singing the praises of all business analysts. I’ve been in meetings with the users and your typical business analyst. And I’m there in the meeting for technical support and half the time I just sit there and daydream or wish I could open my laptop and do some coding. And the business analyst just sits there and takes notes. And whoever it is says that they are there to get the requirements and then records what the users tell them. Sometimes I have to ask questions when the users ask for something outrageous. And the BA takes everything down, you know? And it all ends up in the requirements document. And the BA tells us, ‘it’s what the customer wants.’ I mean, we could do that, and we’d spend more time asking questions And then later we find out that it’s not quite what the customer wanted because the user forgot to mention something or didn’t state it clearly. And the BA complains about the customer changing their mind or never knowing what they want. And, I mean, we could do it, you know? And, even if we did the same thing, which I doubt, at least we’d be getting the straight scoop, and getting it earlier. And the business analyst just does not add value to the exchange. Present company excepted, of course.”

“Of course.” Said both Brian and Ann together.

So it was agreed. Shelly and Juan and a couple of others would start work as Scrum Masters applying their business analyst facilitation skills to ‘facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed’ *. They could use their influence, negotiation, mediation, and conflict resolution skills to support the teams and the projects as Scrum Masters. Scott and Ann would schedule them into Certified Scrum Master classes as soon as possible. Scott agreed that both Brian and Ann would make excellent Scrum Masters, just as they might make excellent Product Owners, but they had been business analysts too long and the imprimatur of their role and their reputations in the organization would act against them in being successful as servant leaders, just as the former project managers would have run into difficulty. “And besides, there’s Ken standing in the way”, concluded Scott.

“Well, that’s it,” breathed Ann as they left the cafeteria. “Looks like we did it. That’s everyone accounted for. ”

“Except us,” said Brian hoisting his backpack on his shoulder. “However, that is all the meetings, right? Everyone who was looking for us found us.”

“Not everyone.” Ann was afraid to say the name. Just then Sandra, Verna’s Personal Assistant, rounded the corner and headed straight for them with Ken at her elbow. Ken looked like he remembered why he had been looking for them.

Was Ken in Cahoots with Verna? Had he swung Verna over to the New Order of Agile Development? Would this be the end of Rico? And do we have to hear Scott say ‘and’ one more time? And where is Cahoots, anyway? Tune in for the season finale where we find out what happens to the last two stalwart business analysts in the organization and finally meet Verna although like the Sopranos, the screen may go blank when we do.

* Quoted from Schwaber & Sutherland, “The Scrum Guide, the Definitive Guide to Scrum: the Rules of the Game”, published by Scrum.org, July 2011

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It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as we Know it? Part 4

Written by Steve Blais on July 2, 2013. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as we Know it? Part 4

Being the serialized story of Brian Allen and Ann Brady, business analysts, and their Adventures in the New Oder of Agile

Excerpted from the forthcoming book from John Wiley, The Agile Business Analyst due out the end of 2013

Chapter 4: Wherein the business analysts confront Dmitri and his curtains and provide a positive impact, and Verna phones in

Brian and Ann entered Dmitri’s office as he hung up from his phone call with Verna. He was still standing at attention behind his desk, his chair pushed back as though he had jumped to his feet involuntarily. He smiled at them and motioned them to seats in front of his mahogany desk while he pushed back the French cuffs of his shirt and sat down. Dmitri was slight of build and had longish blonde hair pulled back and parted in the middle.

Brian began the conversation. “Something is different in here than the last time I was in your office, Dmitri.”

“It’s curtains, Brian,” replied Dmitri. “I had them installed last week.”

“Not bad. I guess you are doing well, then.” Brian paused and Ann picked up the slack.

“What are the new projects that you are undertaking, Dmitri? Do you have a prioritized list with some timeframes?”

“Of course.” He pointed to a white board on the side wall where there were a number of what appeared to be user stories written in different colored markers. In front of the white board was a small round table and several chairs, “This is where I have my product planning meetings and sometimes the teams gather round for their sprint planning sessions.” He said with pride and a trace of superiority as though to say, “and you are not invited or needed.”

Brian felt somewhat annoyed if not betrayed. He had worked with Dmitri in the past. . He and Dmitri had spent hours evaluating impacts of new functions and features that Dmitri and his staff wanted to implement. Brian’s analysis of Dmitri’s proposed initiatives usually uncovered unforeseen impacts in other departments in the organization. Brian then met with the impacted constituents to mitigate or ameliorate the impact, allowing Dmitri to go ahead with this initiative. And now Dmitri preferred a white board to Brian.

Dmitri rose from his desk and walked over to the white board. He read, “as a sales person I want to have access to product line information on my mobile device, so that I can provide that information to clients on an as needed basis.”

Brian realized that Dmitri was just showing off his new toy but he just couldn’t help himself. “Are there enough sales personnel who use their mobile devices during sales calls to warrant this feature? Or are we going to have to have all of the salespeople trained on how to use the new feature?”

“That is not my problem,” replied Dmitri.”I provide the facilities; it’s up to Sales Management to make the salespeople take advantage of it. That is a management issue, and is not part of the agile development of this product.” He said dismissively and quickly turned back to the white board. “Here’s another one.” He read a user story written in red with a date marked next to it, “as a customer, I want to earn points for my purchases, so I can exchange them for additional free goods.”

Ann chimed in, “what is that feature all about?”

“That is one we’re already working on,” Dmitri answered with growing enthusiasm. “We are building a reward program for frequent buyers to increase our repeat customer percentage. We’re going to award points, based on price and volume of purchase, which can be exchanged for gifts from a catalog. It will be like the airlines’ frequent flyer programs, except we’re not going to call it ‘frequent buyer program’. We’re working on the name of the program. We will put our higher-priced or slower moving products in the premium catalog. Everyone wins. It’s a great program. We’ve been working on the supporting software for three sprints and already have user screens for point exchanges to add to the website, the programs and the database that accumulates the points for each customer, the maintenance screens for the Points Database, and the program that calculates the value of the points and the exchange. We are also doing the marketing program in an agile way as well. We have three graphics artists developing the user interface. Got a couple of copy editors writing up the copy. Everyone’s turning things around in two-week iterations.”

Dmitri’s excitement about the program was almost infectious, but both Brian and Ann saw warning flags.

Brian couldn’t stop himself again and asked: “you seem to be addressing the web-buying population. But what about the stores, the distribution channels and the retail outlets? Your user story does not limit to just web purchases. If you’re trying to attract more people to the web this might be a good program to do so, but it might enrage our distributors and retail outlets would perceive a loss in sales. If we lose our retail and distribution, we are doomed.”

Ann: “Did you consider that there will also be taxes to be paid on the gifts picked up with points? And if you order over the web, there is shipping. Will you charge the customer for that or absorb it?”

Brian: “Have you determined exactly who will be doing the maintenance and handling the customer support questions, of which there likely will be a lot? Corrine over in Customer Service has been complaining to me for a long time about how overworked her staff is. I doubt if they could take on this initiative at this time”

Ann, “Did you get together with the accounting people, to determine how this is going to be carried as a liability? Basically, you’re creating an IOU to the purchasing customer for goods you’re going to deliver in the future. Accounting won’t let you start the program until that is all sorted out.”

Dmitri seemed somewhat deflated, or at least as deflated as a marketing person can be. “The team didn’t bring the issue of liability. They only addressed how the information would be transferred from the Points Accumulation Database to a general ledger interface.”

Ann interrupted: “That’s because they talk file layouts, not accounting principles.”

Dmitri looked at Brian. “We didn’t discuss anything but the web-based interface and how it was going to be created. The team should have thought about this and brought it up during the discussion of the user story.”

“It’s not their job, Dmitri,” said Brian. “They assume that you will take care of all the business impacts. They want to know what they need to do to implement the user story. If there are other impacts, they need to see other user stories. For example, have you considered how the points are going to be awarded at the cash registers of our stores and in the retail outlets that are selling our goods? And, how about inventory? The first time an item is taken out of inventory as an award the inventory will be out of balance. Since there will be no sales order to charge against and our current order entry system requires a sales order for inventory removal.”

Dmitri slumped noticeably and went back to his desk. He flopped into his chair. “I don’t understand. We never had to worry about such things before. We just come up with programs, see them through from a marketing and sales perspective, and then we do them. Who is taking care of these ancillary issues now?”

“This apparently is the New Order of Agile, Dmitri. What did Ken say to you about this?”

“I don’t think he did. He just said the product backlog is my responsibility. We have been using the user stories successfully for a number of iterations now. Are you telling me that when we finish all the work we are doing now that we still won’t be able to put the rewards program into operation?”

“I think, Dmitri, that you will run into a lot of production problems if you tried. Not to pat our own backs, but in the past Brian and I have handled the impacts and initiated projects for other departments to accommodate the marketing initiatives. We defined the capabilities that were necessary for your initiative to be successful, and you didn’t have to worry about it.”

“But there are no business analysts in agile. Ken and Vince say so. And I certainly don’t want to meet with all the other departments and business areas. They are all so retrograde.”

“Yes,” warned Brian in a whisper. “But interruptions and impacts to operations come under Verna’s purview.” They observed a moment of silence staring down at the phone on the desk expecting it to light up with a call. The phone remained silent.

“Well,” Ann stood up and walked over to the whiteboard. She turned around with a wry smile on her face. “If the business analyst worked directly for you and was your emissary to the rest of the business he or she could identify the impacts and interfaces with the other business units and business processes. The business analyst could define what would be necessary to allow a successful implementation. The business analyst could bring back new user stories, or modified user stories that you, as product owner, could add to the product backlog in whatever priority order you desire. Then you can present the stories to the Development Team. So the business analysts aren’t really in agile, they’re not between you as product owner, and the developers.”

Brian chimed in, “not only that, but the business analyst assigned to your projects could meet with the business analysts who were still on non-agile projects and make sure that all impacts are resolved and all the projects are in synch. After all, Ken was quite adamant about the problems of still having waterfall projects in place with which his agile projects would have to interface. He wants the world to be agile and only agile, so he has no prescribed means of dealing with the non-agile teams.”

“I like it,” said Dmitri. “So you will assign at least one of your business analysts to work with me as impact analysts on all of these initiatives to make sure that all impacts to other business units and departments will be accounted for?”

“I think that can be arranged,” said Ann.

“Looks like we dodged another bullet,” breathed Brian as they walked toward the cafeteria for a cup of coffee after the meeting with Dmitri.

“Do you think we got Dmitri on our side?”

“What side is that?:

“In favor of business analysts. Realizing our value.”

“Not quite. He is using ‘business analysts’ as ‘impact analysts’. He clearly does not equate the two. He has been brainwashed by the New Order of Agile zealots.”

“Well, a business analyst by any other name is still a business analyst.”

“Let us keep that to ourselves, shall we?”

As they lined up amidst a crowd of caffeine lovers to get their coffee, Raj intercepted them, having to shout over the numerous mid-morning-break conversations around them. “Scott is looking for you. He seems desperate.”

“Wonder what that’s about?”

“Oh, and Ken is looking for you and he does not seem happy. Oh, and Verna’s secretary told me in the hall that Verna is also looking for you.” The cafeteria went silent.

Will the business analysts be able to remain business analysts in the New Order of Agile or will they have to change their names to protect the guilty or worse? What do Scott and Ken want now? Will Verna finally appear and put them out of their misery? Tune in next time when you will hear Scott say “there’s no crying in software development”, and see Brian sling his backpack over his shoulder.

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It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as We Know It? Part 3

Written by Steve Blais on June 4, 2013. Posted in Articles.

Being the serialized story of Brian Allen and Ann Brady, business analysts, and their Adventures in the New Oder of Agile

Excerpted from the forthcoming book from John Wiley, The Agile Business Analyst due out the end of 2013

Chapter 3: Wherein the doomed business analysts are introduced to the Product Owner and Verna makes her entrance

At the lunch table Brian asked Ann why Helen called her to tell her about the impending cut backs.

“I’ve done work with her before. She asked me to collect information on the current projects and talk with the people on the PMO and other management groups to see where the cut backs might occur. It’s kind of an irony. I am going to be reporting back that I don’t have a project to be on. I’ll be basically firing myself.”

“No” reassured Brian. “That’s not going to happen. Listen. We are business analysts. We need to evaluate the information we have, gather the information we don’t have, assess the problem and define a solution. It’s what we do. Except that now we are doing it for ourselves and not some other part of the business.”

“We are a part of the business,” suggested Raj.

‘For now,” grumped Ann.

“Listen, Ann. If you need any help, It looks like we won’t be spending a lot of time in the planning stages of Backbone, so give me a call. In the meantime, I’ll go break the news to Jennifer, Jocelyn and Stan that they will likely be placed on one of the Scrum teams as developers. I don’t know how they will take it.”

“Better than the others who don’t have any team.” Commented Raj.

The next day Ann took Brian up on his offer and asked him to accompany her to talk to Pam one of the business managers who was designated to lead the Backbone effort and Dmitri, one of the senior marketing managers who was in charge of several of the new marketing efforts and web sites. They first met with Pam.

Pam was concerned. She had been told by Ken and her boss that she was to be the Product Owner and she did not really understand what a product owner was supposed to do. She was told that she would have to be available almost full time to the team and that she was responsible for the ‘product backlog’ and to talk to the team about what was on this ‘product backlog’. They told her that her job would be about defining what she wanted in the form of user stories. She was glad that Ann was there. Although Pam was the organization’s authority on internal operations, having worked her way up through the ranks in operations, she had depended on Ann to provide her the technical perspective in terms that Pam understood; Pam had worked in the organization a long time and tended to use the telephone and in person meetings rather than email. Ann called Pam her “favorite troglodyte”. Pam was not enamored of the idea that she would be dealing directly with the technologists.

“I don’t know what to do, Ann.” She looked pensive. She stared out the window of her office at the parking lot. “Frankly I would have wanted you to work with me, because we had already had a good relationship, but…”

“I know,” said Ann to Pam’s back. “Ken and cohorts are insisting on this product owner thing.”

“Oh, those nerds. No, it’s not them. It’s Verna.” The name brought a chill to the room. Verna! None of them had ever seen Verna. Or at least no one talked about having seen Verna. Or at least no one still with the company had seen Verna. Verna was the Vice President of Global Operations and some said that she was really the power behind the CEO. She was Vince’s prime competition for the top position when the current CEO steps down. There was a reverential pause in the room. Ann and Brian both instinctively looked over their shoulders at the doors as though the mere mention of Verna’s name would summon her as the Gods of Ancient Greece were summoned in the temples of Athens. The moment passed. Ann shuddered.

“Verna? Really?”

“Yes,” said Pam dolefully turning back to her desk. “And I don’t know how much time I can devote to writing this product backlog creation and rearranging business or what does Ken call it? ‘Grooming’? I don’t even know what that means. Do I need scissors and a clipper?”

“From what I understand, Pam,” offered Brian, “you need to write user stories that describe the functions and features of the system.”

“All of them? There are nearly four thousand people worldwide using this system for I don’t know how many different functions. There’s purchase ordering where I spent a lot of time, and vendor assessment, and inventory control, and updating the general ledger and, I mean, it’s big. I don’t have time to write these,” she paused considering a number of different pejorative adjectives. “user stories”. She pointed to a stack of blank index cards on her desk. “Ken left me these and told me to just write down all the features I would need on the system. He has got to be kidding. Do you know my schedule over the next weeks alone? I am in meetings in five different cities in four countries to evaluate local vendors. Then I am in meetings onsite for the evaluation of the new purchase order system that we are going to modify. All day meetings. And he wants me to be available to his teams? I’m going to be in Tokyo! That’s twelve hours’ time difference!” She was still standing up, but leaning forward with the palms of her hands flat on the surface of her desk and her voice rising. “Does he want me working twenty four hours a day so I can be available to his team whenever they have their stupid questions? If it weren’t for Verna…” She paused and sat down. Brian and Ann surreptitiously glanced toward the door. The chill passed. “I don’t know what to do,” whispered Pam to Ann. “If only you were not being replaced as business analysts. You certainly helped me out in the past.”

“I have an idea.” Pam leaned forward. “You know Summer. She worked on several of your previous projects with me. She has also worked in a number of positions in the company before becoming a business analyst: HR, communications, accounting, marketing, and so forth. She also knows the systems. Why don’t you let her take over as your product owner?”

“Can I do that?”

“She’d have to give up being a business analyst.” Brian reminded them.

“That’s all right. I’m sure she is willing. She has had many jobs, including as a manager, so she knows how to manage and handle authority.” Turning to Pan, Ann pressed on. “She certainly can create user stories or whatever is necessary for the product backlog based on her business analyst experience, and she knows enough to be able to clearly express those Product Backlog items, order the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve your goals and missions. Since she did a lot of the acceptance testing for several of the systems we have in place, she will also ensure the value of the work the Development Team performs. She also has the facilitation skills that all business analysts possess to ensure the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed.” *

“Sounds perfect.” Pam responded her mood picking up. “She can be the product owner for this initiative and report to me.”

“But she has to have full authority to make decisions on behalf of the product,” cautioned Brian.

“No problem,” assured Pam.

“Well, that was fortuitous,” breathed Ann as she and Brian walked down the carpeted hall from Pam’s office. “We have Summer reassigned now as a product owner.”

“Yes. And I believe Raj can perform the same role for Georgy in Supply Chain.”

“You are right! Quite a few of our business analysts can be Developers or product owners. The role may disappear, but the people won’t.”

“But we need to consider the rest of us. We can’t program and I for one am not in favor of giving up my analysis and facilitation roles to become a management type again. I have already been a project managet.” muttered Brian.

“Me, too.”

“I wonder why Verna in involved with this whole thing?” mused Brian and they both stopped walking and looked in front and behind them. The usual noise level of the corridors of organization headquarters seemed to turn to deathly silence at the mere utterance of the name. The both instinctively checked their phones to see if some ethereal message had appeared. Nothing.

“I don’t know. It’s strange.” Whispered Ann. “She usually doesn’t ‘get involved in things like this. I guess we see Dmitri next. We have to get this information back to Helen soon.”

“Wonderful. The sooner we get the information back to her the sooner we will be out of jobs here at the organization. The irony! Incidentally, do you have your resume dusted off?”

“No. I can’t stand to even think of it.”

“Well, Dmitiri won’t be a fan. He works for Vince and you know where Vince stands, and he and Ken have worked on some of the pilot scrum teams so he is an experienced product owner. Besides, I don’t think he likes business analysts in the middle either.”

As they entered Dmitri’s office, they heard him hanging up the phone. “Yes, Verna. I understand. They are here now.”

Will Dmitiri be the death knell for Brian and Ann and the other business analysts? Will they drown under the wave of the Agile New Order? Will Brian and Ann stop looking around every time Verna’s name is mentioned? Who is Verna anyway? Tune in next time when we hear Dmitri say, “It’s curtains, Brian.”, and Brian say, “We are doomed.”.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

* Adapted from Schwaber & Sutherland, “The Scrum Guide, the Definitive Guide to Scrum: the Rules of the Game”, published by Scrum.org, July 2011

It’s the End of the Business Analysis World as We Know It Part 2

Written by Steve Blais on May 14, 2013. Posted in Articles.

Being the serialized story of Brian Allen and Ann Brady, business analysts, and their Adventures in the New Oder of Agile

Excerpted from the forthcoming book from John Wiley, The Agile Business Analyst due out the end of 2013

Chapter 2: Wherein the doomed business analysts figure out a plan to embrace change

When we last left Brian Allen he was facing the Perils of Pauline the head of the organization’s PMO.

Brian was worried, not just for himself and Ann, but for the other business analysts in the group. There were the senior business analysts, Stan, Shelly and Summer. And there were the junior business analysts: Jennifer, Jocelyn, and Juan. What would become of them if all the business analysts were eliminated from the software development process? The other business analysts worked on other projects not currently threatened by Ken and the Agile Forces. But they soon would be, especially if Ken’s project were successful. Brian turned his attention to Pauline who sat framed in her office window with the sunlight bouncing off her black curls.

“I have gotten the word not to assign a project manager to the new Backbone Project. They are going to be using this agile thing to develop the software and manage the project. Do you know anything about it?” Pauline asked with her eyebrows arched. She spoke through compressed lips.

“Yes,” Brian replied. “I was aware it was coming down the pike, but thought that cooler heads would prevail and we might start with a small project first. Maybe a new label printing project or something equally benign.”

“Well, it is happening and as you are probably aware, that also means that the PMO will not be assigning any business analysts either.”

“You never assigned business analysts before.”

“That is irrelevant. We will not be doing it now.”

“I suppose those of us originally assigned to the Backbone project will have to be reassigned to other projects now?”

“That would normally be the situation. However, most of the new projects are in Marketing, and the Vice President has decreed that all his projects from now on will be run as agile projects. There is no place for business analysts there either.”

“In other words…?”

“In other words, there are no projects for you to go to that are not agile right now.”

Brian looked down between his feet. “Any idea of what we can do?”

“Not in the least,” snipped Pauline. “I have my own problems. I need to figure out what happens to the PMO and my job when there are no project managers and software developers start working directly with the business owners.” She was being dismissive.

Brian got up to leave wondering why Pauline called the meeting. As he reached the door he realized that she was actually asking for his help, but would not do so directly. “I’ll see what I can do, Pauline,” he said as he left noting that she smiled for the first time. He guessed that she was coming to him since he was instrumental in evolving the processes that developed into the first PMO at the organization.

As he walked down the hall he passed Ann who was with Raj on their way to talk to Pauline.

“Any luck?” asked Ann apprehensively.

“No. But we’re not fired immediately. Basically, we have to figure out how we will fit within the New Order,” replied Brian.

“Not a good proposition,” said Raj. “I perceive we are up against the wall on this. Ken does not like business analysts and I doubt he ever has, although I only know the man for a few years. He thinks they add no value to the process of developing software. He says that they get in the way; they are an obstacle. He says that business analysts only copy down what the business people tell them as requirements and then reformat them and give them to his developers.”

“We do more than that!” said Brian emphatically. Then after pausing and getting no supporting reaction from either Ann or Raj, added, ‘Don’t we?”

“Well,” said Raj. “I have to recall that his comrade, Scott, says that ‘BA’ also stands for ‘Band Aid’. I would not take that as a positive sign.”

As if on cue, Ken and Scott rounded the corner and came upon the three business analysts. Ken was tall with short cropped blonde hair and a stubbly beard on his face, and Scott had long, dark-haired, was shorter and rounder, and wore sliver glasses that were rectangular shaped.

“It’s the requirements gatherers,” Ken said with a sneer. “Hello, Gatherers, let the hunters through. We have projects to do. We’ll get them all done and have dinner on the table before you even get your first set of interviews done.”

“Speed,” echoed Scott, ”is what it is all about. You gather while we produce.”

“We don’t gather requirements,” protested Brian. “We gather information and then analyze the requirements from that information to make sure that the requirements solve the business problem. How are you going to know you’ve solved the business problem if you don’t even analyze enough to determine what the business problem is before you start?”

“We adjust. We adapt. We learn. We let the problem and the solution emerge through our collaborative activities. We don’t do the Waterfall thing with each group creating a document to pass on to the next group. Everyone works together in agile.”

“So, why not have business analysts involved with the collaboration? I think we have plenty to offer. After all we are the organizational communicators and problem solvers. We are part of the team.”

“Not in Scrum you are not. Scrum recognizes no titles for Development Team members other than Developer, regardless of the work being performed by the person; there are no exceptions to this rule.* And we don’t want any groups of business analysts lurking about either. Development Teams do not contain sub-teams dedicated to particular domains like testing or business analysis.* In other words, there is no place on our development for anyone but developers. Tough luck, Gatherers, you need to find a new job.”

Ann, Brian and Raj looked at each other and then back at Ken and Scott as they walked down the hall. As the two of them reached the corner, Scott turned to the business analysts and shouted, ”Oh, we’re having a memorial service for the Waterfall later this week. You’re invited. And the business analyst might be next to go.”

Ann pushed her blond hair across her forehead in her signature gesture and asked, “So, what are we going to do? The eight of us had been assigned to the Backbone project and Helen over in HR said that she has already gotten the official request for transfer for all of us. And she said she doesn’t really have anywhere to put us since marketing is supposedly going all agile and they have most of the new projects.”

“What are our options, Raj. You know more about this than we. You’ve been working a bit with the web guys”

“There are only three roles in Scrum: product owner, scrum master and developer. The product owner represents the business and provides the work to be done by means of the product backlog. The scrum master helps the team with the Scrum process and removes obstacles to the team’s success. And the developers write code and test.”

“That’s it?” said Ann. “I think we are doomed. I need to get my resume dusted off.”

“No. Not yet.” Said Brian. “I have an idea.”

“To get them to back off agile?” asked Ann.

“No, I think that ship has sailed.”

“Then perhaps to sabotage the ship so that it sinks, and they call us back in to rescue the project and survivors?” suggested Raj.

“Excepting of course, Ken and Scott,” Ann added.

“No, not that either, although that does sound appealing.”

“Then what?” asked Ann as they entered the lunch room and saw the rest of the business analyst team huddled together in the corner over their lunches and looking very worried.

“I recall something about the definition of the development team that Scott didn’t mention: Individual Development Team members may have specialized skills and areas of focus, but accountability belongs to the Development Team as a whole. *” Ann stepped away from the counter to take a cell phone call.

“Yes, Brian, that is true,” responded Raj, picking out a salad, “But everyone on the development team must be able to code. Everyone is a developer. You are not supposed to have someone who is just one specialty.”

“Right. But here’s the thing, Raj. The development team is supposed to be cross functional and consist of “generalizing specialists” as Scott Ambler says, right?” Raj nodded. “Then we suggest that each of the three pilot teams take Jennifer, Jocelyn and Stan. They are all recent programmers who have moved into business analysis. They have the coding skills, and Jocelyn also has testing skills, so they are already generalizing specialists. They would bring their facilitation skills to the mix and make it easier for the teams to talk to the business. They also bring some business acumen that the developers don’t have since they have been working on this side of the house for a while.”

“But they will not be business analysts anymore?”

“No, that’s true. I don’t think any of us here will be business analysts after this. It is after all a New Order.”

“That is fine,” said Raj helping himself to a bowl of watermelon and mixed fruit while Brian picked a slice of double chocolate cake and wished the organization’s cafeteria served beer or wine with lunch. “But that is only three of the business analysts. What about the rest of us? Certainly you cannot code anymore. It has been at least twenty years since you last coded.”

“True. And no one uses PL/1 and ALGOL anymore anyway. I mentioned those three because I know they have technical skills and probably would not mind being back in the technical fray again. There may be many business analysts who are capable of applying their technology training or experience and can leverage that technical ability with the facilitation and communication skills they picked up as a business analyst. They would actually be doing more true business analysis work than if they just transcribed requirements from the business community.”

“OK,” smiled Raj. “That is a solution. But only a partial solution.”

“Guys,” interrupted Ann as they were paying for their lunches. “I just got off the phone with Helen. She says that the organization is instituting some belt tightening measures. There will be layoffs. They are going to start with all the older employees and move to those who support the older technologies. Anyone who is not specifically spoken for and that means business analysts who are not attached to a project.”

“That means all of us.”

“Except Jennifer, Jocelyn and Stan and any other business analyst who can morph into the role of Scrum Developer.”

“Brian, you have any other ideas?”

“Looks like you will be burning the midnight oil again tonight, Brian.”

Now there was an even more pressing need for action and ideas. The organization has announced There Will Be Blood. Will our own Captain Midnight be able to rescue the rest of the business analysts (including himself)? Will the Bell Toll for business analysis as well as Waterfall? Will Ann get to eat lunch? Join us next month for another thrilling episode of Brian and Ann in the New Order od Agile.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

* Quoted from Schwaber & Sutherland, The Scrum Guide: the definitive Guide to Scrum: the Rules of the Game, published by Scrum.org., July 2011