Capturing Requirements and Agile Planning

- defining the system to be built

Time: 13.30-17.00 May 14th.
Workshop leaders: Bent Jensen & Mads Troels Hansen

Developing software using standard agile processes does not per se ensure the optimal solution to customers problems, and products they love to use. To create that kind of products we need to pair a deep understanding of the end-users of the product and their domain, with superior technical skills and creativity. In this workshop, we will focus on achieving customer understanding that is more than just superficial, and how a collaborative environment, can become the foundation of success with agile methods.

Agile software development has a number of techniques that aim at better requirements handling. We use small batches of user-stories and frequent releases in Scrum, to ensure problems and mistakes are caught early, and in the best environments, development teams will have customers or the voice of the customer close to them. However, sometimes the in agile processes teams looses track of overall goals and the vision for the product, due to focusing on very granular items.  At other times, it is difficult to get the customers to be directly involved. Either because the users has other things to do, or they are not in the development organization, maybe just in a market segment.

Agile teams can achieve huge benefits, when they work deliberately on developing their understanding of the users and their domain, and  in a collaborative  process design systems metaphors and the key attributes of of the desired solution.

In the workshop, we will give you a first-hand experience with techniques to:
Generate a deep, emotional understanding of the users and the reality they operate in, by walking their shoes

• Interview customers in a way that allow them to present the true nature of current problems, and what they expect to accomplish with the software solution to be developed
• Develop a systems metaphor and the set of attributes that characterizes it
• Break down a project in manageable chunks, and collaboratively plan a schedule where all stakeholders are involved.