Success with Requirements

Volume 3 :: Number 11 :: 2009
ISSN: 1936-3583

Welcome to our Newsletter

Welcome to many new subscribers!

I have lots of news to share with you: desktop size of the popular Software Requirements Memory Jogger; thought provoking ideas on analysis debt; expanding your business analysis awareness by navigating the IIBA BABOK; and our "give back" - gratis training on agile requirements for out-of-work folks in the Boston area.

Please read on....

~ ellen

Ellen Gottesdiener,
President and Principal Consultant
EBG Consulting, Inc.
http://www.ebgconsulting.com
twitter: www.twitter.com/ellengott

In this issue:

Now Available: Desktop size of the Jogger

Gratis Agile Training for Out-of-Work folks (Boston area)

IIBA® BABOK® Navigation Tips: Kudos from Kristin

Analysis Debt

Agile Requirements Public Training (including Sashimi Stories)

Upcoming Events

Requirements Foundation eLearning

Archive Issues

Now Available: Desktop size of the Jogger

You asked for it and now you can have it: a larger print size of my The Software Requirements Memory Jogger book. It is the same book but printed in a larger font size and with a larger footprint. You can obtain it from Amazon or GOAL/QPC.

Gratis Agile Training for Out-of-Work Folks (Boston area)

Out of work or in job transition? Live in the Boston area?

EBG Consulting is offering a one-day, intensive agile requirements training course, and doing it gratis (free). The course, "Sashimi Stories: Slicing Requirements for Agile Success" will have a nominal charge established by the respective Agile Bazaar and IIBA Boston communities.

Our goal is to give back to our community in these difficult economic times in a way that can help you increase your skills and marketability. Mary Gorman and I will jointly deliver the Agile Bazaar offering; I'll deliver the IIBA-Boston offering. (The "Sashimi Stories" content is integrated in our Agile Requirements and Agile Business Analysis training).

Agile Bazaar: learn more about this offering (December 11th) and how to register here.

IIBA Boston: learn more about this offering (December 17th) and how to register here.

IIBA� BABOK� Navigation Tips: Kudos from Kristin

Last month we posted the recording of EBG Senior Associate Mary Gorman's webinar, "Navigation Tips for Exploring the BABOK®" on our media page. I really liked that Mary demonstrated "eating our own dog food" in her approach to navigating the IIBA® BABOK®.

I want to share, with permission, comments from Kristin Zaharias, a business analyst in Utah:

"I was unable to attend the BABOK Navigation Tips webinar when it was originally scheduled, but did watch the recorded version today and also downloaded the 4 BABOK Navigation listings that you created. Thanks for this valuable information. I am planning on taking the certification exam next quarter, and this information will prove valuable in my studying...I find all of the information (whether webinars or resources) from EBG very valuable in my career. Even though I am at a senior level status as a BA, EBG continues to provide me new insights that I have used and that translate into better process automation for my company."

Thank you for your kind words, Kristin. And I personally wish to thank Mary for the many hours of her own personal time she put into preparing these resources.

Mary intends to analyze additional pathways through the IIBA® BABOK® and publish them on a regular basis. So, your comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please send them to Mary: mary@ebgconsulting.com

Here are links to the Resources:

"Navigation Tips" webinar (via our Media Page - hear some intriguing questions and answers at the end Mary's
presentation!)

"Navigation Tips" webinar slides (especially check out the state diagram of a requirement)

Four BABOK® Navigation Listings Mary created to help you navigate the BABOK®. Use them to

quickly identify the 15 "embedded" techniques

quickly reference which tasks use a technique e.g., Decision Analysis is referenced by 8 tasks

quickly find "how to" links for tasks and techniques

Analysis Debt

Ward Cunningham uses the metaphor of technical debt to explain what happens when you sacrifice technical quality in the short term to get immediate value. As Ward points out, if you do not the address the technical debt of rushing code out the door by refactoring it your debt grows, and you can end up paying a lot of interest on that debt. Technical debt cripples your ability to enhance and maintain your software product.

In working with agile (and traditional) teams, we have observed a similar phenomenon: analysis debt.

So Mary and I teamed up to describe this issue, good and bad analysis debt, analysis debt causes, and analysis debt remedies. Read the article, entitled "Managing Your Analysis Debt." What do you think? Share your reactions by emailing me: ellen@ebgconsulting.com

Agile Requirements Public Training (with Sashimi Stories!)

There are still some seats available for our next public training course, Agile Requirements: Collaborating to Define and Confirm Needs (December 2-3, 2009, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA).

These two days cover the essential principles and practices of requirements development and management in an agile context, focusing on the "now view" (iteration level) of requirements within the context of the overall product ("big view") and product releases ("pre-view").

NEW: This offering will incorporate our latest work on what we call "sashimi stories": Like sashimi - those delectable morsels of seafood - your stories need to be thinly sliced and artfully arranged to deliver an optimal return to the business. In this training, you'll learn practical techniques for defining concise user stories that form the basis for development and delivery, as well as prioritizing, estimating, and planning. You'll study how to split minimal marketable features (MMFs) into right-sized stories.

If you're interested in this course, please register right away; our June offering was sold out. If you can't attend, I hope you'll kindly forward this announcement. And if you've passed the word already, thanks!

Course overview, objectives, and outline (IIBA Endorsed, 14 CDUs)

Registration via Maxtrain

Group discount info and registration questions: contact Patricia Miller, patricia@maxtrain.com or +1.513.322.8888 x105

Upcoming Events

1. Ellen and Mary are conducting workshop sessions and symposium talks at Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts in Anaheim, California, November 16-18, 2009.

2. Ellen will deliver EBG's Agile Requirements: Collaborating to Define and Confirm Needs at Max Train, Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 2-3, 2009.

3. Ellen will deliver a number of sessions on agile analysis, agile requirements, and collaboration on agile teams at the Enterprise Software Development Conference in San Mateo, California on March 1-3, 2009. Get a discount by using code SPKRVIP when you register.

Requirements Foundation eLearning

You can get a sneak preview of our 8-course Requirements Foundation curriculum, offered in an eLearning mode, by viewing the video tour. You'll see how the curriculum is aligned with the BABOK® and you can link to our Reference Guide - a cross reference of the eLearning curriculum, BABOK® and the Jogger.

Our eLearning clients have found it to be a useful resource for learning and understanding key concepts in the IIBA® BABOK® knowledge areas, and for preparing for the Certified Business Analysis Professional® (CBAP®) exam.

Success with Requirements subscribers get a discount (10%) on our 8-course self-paced eLearning training curriculum, Foundation for Requirements Development and Management. Use code FRSWR04 when you register here. This IIBA endorsed curriculum earns 24 CDUs.

Archive Issuess

Visit our archives to read our prior issues. Example topics include: Being There: Observations on Observation; Investing in Interface Analysis and more.

Publication & Reprint Information

I invite you to reprint material from Success with Requirements in other electronic or print publications provided 1) the following copyright notice is used, "Written and edited by Ellen Gottesdiener, copyright EBG Consulting, Inc., [year]. All rights reserved." and 2) a link to http://www.ebgconsulting.com/ is included in the credits.

Please send us copy of the publication that includes our reprint, along with a cover note referencing that it is a reprint.

Success with Requirements is a trademark of EBG Consulting, Inc.

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