Kent J. McDonald

Beyond Requirements

Analysis with an Agile Mindset

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Beyond Requirements shows you how to employ business analysis practices and techniques to clarify problems, identify the best available solutions, and implement them. Going far beyond conventional business analysis, it draws upon disciplines ranging from agile methods to entrepreneurship -- helping you dramatically improve your value as a business problem-solver whether you carry the title of analyst or not.

Pioneering business analysis mentor, consultant, and trainer Kent J. McDonald focuses on when showing how to apply each available tool – and when to integrate multiple tools to achieve even better results. McDonald shares new insights into both problem spaces and potential solutions, and helps analysts bring new agility to the evolving challenges of requirements development. Coverage includes:

* Staying focused on the guiding principles of value, collaboration, iteration, simplicity, context, and adaptability

* Making the most of stakeholder analysis, requirements modeling, and solution validation techniques

* Integrating newer techniques ranging form value-add activities to strategic barrier analysis

* Understanding the full problem lifecycle, including 3Cs (cost, competitors, customers); strategy formulation and implementation; and progress measurement

Product Description
Beyond Requirements shows how to use business analysis practices and techniques to identify key business problems, find optimal solutions, and successfully implement them. Unlike most business analysis texts, it places analysis techniques in context, positioning them as a "means to the end" of solving organizational problems, not as an end in themselves.

Kent McDonald helps you integrate analysis with ideas and techniques from other domains to significantly increase your effectiveness. He also covers crucial topics ignored by many business analysis books, including enterprise analysis, stakeholder analysis, and linkages to agile methodologies.

If you're a business analyst, McDonald will help you transform your role and deepen your value to the organization. If you aren't an analyst, McDonald will empower you to leverage analytical techniques to solve your own business problems, and increase your own impact on the enterprise. Whatever your role, Beyond Requirements will help you clarify hidden risks and opportunities, collaborate and measure progress more effectively, provide better decision-making support, and formulate more successful strategy.

Features + Benefits

Integrates up-to-date analysis best practices with actionable ideas from other domains

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Addison-Wesley
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. September 2015
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 174mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 480g
• ISBN-13: 9780321834553
• ISBN-10: 0321834550
• Artikelnr.: 36720921

Autorenporträt

Kent J. McDonald uncovers better ways of delivering value by doing it and helping others do it. His years of experience include work in business analysis, strategic planning, project management, and product development in a variety of industries, including financial services, health insurance, performance marketing, human services, nonprofit, and automotive. He is active in the business analysis and agile software development communities helping people share stories about what does and does not work.   Kent has a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Kent State University.   Kent is also a coauthor of Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxv
About the Author xxvii
 
Part I: Ideas 1
 
Chapter 1: Guiding Principles 3
Introduction 3
Deliver Value 4
Collaborate 5
Iterate 7
Simplify 8
Consider Context 9
Decide Wisely 10
Reflect and Adapt 11
Conclusion 12
If You Remember Nothing Else 12
 
Chapter 2: Helpful Concepts 15
Introduction 15
Needs and Solutions 15
Outcome and Output 19
Discovery and Delivery 20
If You Remember Nothing Else 23
 
Chapter 3: Influence of Lean Startup 25
Introduction 25
Customer Development 25
Build-Measure-Learn 29
Metrics 31
If You Remember Nothing Else 38
 
Chapter 4: Decision Making 39
Introduction 39
A Structure for Decision Making 39
Real Options 46
Cognitive Biases 48
If You Remember Nothing Else 53
 
Chapter 5: Deliver Value 55
Introduction 55
Feature Injection 55
Minimum Viable Product 63
Minimum Marketable Features 65
If You Remember Nothing Else 67
 
Chapter 6: Analysis with an Agile Mindset 69
Introduction 69
What Is the Need? 71
What Are Some Possible Solutions? 71
What Should We Do Next? 72
What Are the Details of This Part (i.e., Telling the Story)? 73
If You Remember Nothing Else 73
 
Part II: Case Studies 75
 
Chapter 7: Case Study: Conference Submission System 77
Introduction 77
The Need 77
The Possible Solution(s) 78
The Deliveries of Value 79
Lessons Learned 92
 
Chapter 8: Case Study: Commission System 95
Introduction 95
The Need 96
The Possible Solution(s) 96
The Deliveries of Value 97
Lessons Learned 98
 
Chapter 9: Case Study: Data Warehouse 101
Introduction 101
The Need 101
The Possible Solution(s) 102
The Deliveries of Value 103
Lessons Learned 110
 
Chapter 10: Case Study: Student Information System 111
Introduction 111
The Need 111
The Possible Solution(s) 114
Lessons Learned 118
 
Part III: Techniques 121
 
Chapter 11: Understanding Stakeholders 123
Introduction 123
Stakeholder Map 124
Commitment Scale 129
User Modeling 133
Persona 138
 
Chapter 12: Understanding Context 141
Introduction 141
Purpose-Based Alignment Model 142
Six Questions 147
Context Leadership Model 150
 
Chapter 13: Understanding the Need 159
Introduction 159
Decision Filters 160
Project Opportunity Assessment 163
Problem Statement 167
 
Chapter 14: Understanding the Solution(s) 171
Introduction 171
Impact Mapping 173
Story Mapping 177
Collaborative Modeling 182
Acceptance Criteria 188
Examples 192
 
Chapter 15: Organizing and Persisting Solution Information 199
Introduction 199
Discovery Board 200
Definition of Ready 204
Delivery Board 206
Definition of Done 211
System Documentation 213
 
Part IV: Resources 219
 
Glossary 221
References 245
Index 249