Category: Agile Scrum

Let us discuss what is Agile Scrum. To become Business Analyst it is important to know about Agile.

what is a product owner in agile?

what is a product owner in agile?

Product owner plays important role in Scrum Team,

Below are Scrum Roles:

  1. Product Owner(PO): He will decide what needs to done in this sprint/project and he is the responsible for managing the product backlog. He will be the responsible person for product like how product should be and all. He interacts with Business Analysts and Customers. This role may be played by BA or any person who is having strong knowledge on product and who works with end users for a long time. Depends on the project client also may play this role.
  • Scrum Master   (SM) : He will monitor the performance of the team within the sprint. Team will raise all their concerns and issues to scrum master. He is responsible to provide solutions to the team. He will interact with the stake holders to address the issues and concerns raised by the team. This role can be played by any person in team usually Business Analyst will play this role.
  • Development Team( Cross functional team who are self organized)

what is a product owner in agile

What is a product owner in Agile?

Let us discuss and observe here about Product Owner.

Main responsibility of the Product Owner in Scrum is to build a successful product. Product owner is the single person to take all product related decisions.

To build successful products, product owner does the following.

  1. Define product vision and goal.
  2. Strategy to increase ROI based on scope, time and budget (Return On Investment).
  3. Creates roadmaps, strategy and release plans.
  4. Manage ROI, Priorities, Product backlog, prioritizing product backlog.
  5. Release planning and goal.
  6. Maintain release burn down.
  7. Engage Stakeholders and scrum teams.
  8. Define requirements and acceptance criteria.
  9. Participates in all scrum activities.
  10. Speaking to teams to provide clarity on work and business requirements.
  11. Write requirements in the form of user stories and groom them with the teams.
  12. Understand the business value and deliver value, communicate the requirements to team clearly.
  13. Accept, reject, and share feedback comments towards building successful product.
  14. Maintain transparency on release plan, scope and forecast.
  15. Product owner should be balanced personality who can give inputs on product, business, value and domain. A person with only understand technical expertise might not be an effective Product Owner.

I feel it will help to understand What is a product owner in agile and what product owner does in project.

Let us observe  more on what is a product owner in agile

and FAQ’s

For product Owner Certification

FAQ’S

What is the difference between a product owner and a product manager?

To break it down: The product manager discovers what users need, prioritizes what to build next, and rallies the team around a product roadmap. The product owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product by creating and managing the product backlog.

Is product owner a job title?

Product Owner is a role you play in an Agile team, whereas a Product Manager is the job title of someone responsible for a product and its outcome on the customer and the business. Now a lot of Product Owners out there are great Product Managers, and they should just change their title.

How do you become a product owner?

Build Shared Understanding
Get help from someone on your team. This often results in the Product Manager, Product Owner, and Business Analyst model of product ownership.
Find a good book focused on analysis techniques applied with an agile mindset. …
Get some training on analysis techniques.

Who does a product owner report to?

The product owner reports to stakeholders. The scrum.org page about product owners describes how this person is the interface between the scrum team and the rest of the world. Scrum doesn’t mention managers, project leads, etc. – those are all subsumed under the term “stakeholder”.

Is Product Manager higher than product owner?

In bigger companies, the product manager stands a level higher than the product owner and serves as a connector between the house and the outside world. This is why it’s sometimes so hard to draw a line between the two positions or jobs.

Is Product Owner same as project manager?

All in all a Product Owner is a Project Manager who is responsible for the project success and project environment. But at the same time, he delegated daily management of the project team to a Scrum Master.

Who can be a product owner?

The Scrum product owner is typically a project’s key stakeholder. Part of the product owner responsibilities is to have a vision of what he or she wishes to build, and convey that vision to the scrum team. This is key to successfully starting any agile software development project.

What is a SCRUM Development Team?

Scrum Development Team

The scrum development team plays important role in Scrum Team,

Below are Scrum Roles:

  1. Product Owner(PO): 

    He will decide what needs to done in this sprint/project and he is the responsible for managing the product backlog. He will be the responsible person for product like how product should be and all. He interacts with Business Analysts and Customers. This role may be played by BA or any person who is having strong knowledge on product and who works with end users for a long time. Depends on the project client also may play this role.

  2. Scrum Master   (SM) :He will monitor the performance of the team within the sprint. Team will raise all their concerns and issues to scrum master. He is responsible to provide solutions to the team. He will interact with the stake holders to address the issues and concerns raised by the team. This role can be played by any person in team usually Business Analyst will play this role.
  3. Development Team( Cross functional team who are self organized)

Let us discuss and observe here about Scrum Development Team.

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And Development Team Responsibilities:

Develop team is a group of people. Development team work together to reach the goal or complete the agreed tasks within committed time. Target of the development team is to build or develop the product with high quality. To achieve this team coordinates and communicates with each other, i.e how to develop the product and what are the things to be taken care to release the successful product.

Self organize to do work and plan. When product owner tells”what” needs to be done, then development team discuss among them and decides “how” to achieve it.

Scrum development is cross functional. So that there is maximum effectiveness in reaching the goal and minimum dependencies on external. Usually Scrum development team will have 5 to 9 members depends on the project.

Scrum development team work collaboratively to design architecture, features incrementally and iteratively.

Scrum development team is cross functional, team has the required skills, required to develop the product within the team.

Scrum development team work collaboratively, share responsibility, and accountable for the successful delivery of the product which is assigned by product owner. Scrum development team completely responsible and accountable for the quality of the product.

Once dev. team finalized, team don’t change during sprint or afterwards. Any changes shall brink back them to forming stage and performance issues.

The dev. team has authority to manage their own work. This enables them to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.

Every team member has the same level of authority regardless of their contributions and they all share in the project’s accountability.

Even though the Product Owner is responsible for the product backlog, the dev. team refines the tasks in the product backlog as a team.

The dev. team has full control over the tasks in the product backlog and how many tasks they are assigned in a sprint.

They build in extra time for collaboration and knowledge sharing into the sprint. This helps support team bonding, knowledge sharing and gives them time to resolve any unexpected issues.

They regularly collaborate with the Product Owner and the Scrum Master to ensure that they are on the right track.

They continuously deliver features at the end of every sprint to ensure that there is a working product.

They review the product with the Scrum team and get feedback which they incorporate into the next sprint.

They ensure that the scrum board is updated to reflect what they are working on and what has been “done”.

Scrum Team = Product Owner + Scrum Master + Development Team (Project resources grouped as Scrum teams which comprises of BA, Developers, Testers)

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FAQS

Who is on the scrum team development team member?

These are as follows: It’s a cross-functional team, i.e., it includes UI/UX designers, programmers, architects, business analysts, testers, etc. A scrum development team size is typically between five to seven members. The best scrum teams are closely-knit and work together on a regular basis, preferably full-time.

Is development team member a role in Scrum?

So, that means the ‘developer‘ role in Scrum means a team member who has the right skills, as part of the team to do the work. The development team should be able to self-organize so they can make decisions to get work done. … The development team’s responsibilities include: Delivering the work through the sprint.

How many developers are there in a scrum team?

According to the Scrum Guide, the development team should be between three and nine people and should have all the skills necessary to deliver product increments. The number of developers is usually dictated by the needs of the product and usually is between two and five developers in a scrum team.

How do you create a scrum team?

Establish individual members expectations. …
Provide boundaries. …
Enable the team to self-organise. …
Provide channels for direct communication with the product owner. …
Don’t commit to work on the team’s behalf.

What is the best size for a scrum team?

The ideal size for a development is between 3 and 9 people, not including the ScrumMaster and product owner. Any smaller and the team couldn’t accomplish enough each sprint. Any larger and communication becomes complex and cumbersome.

What is difference between Scrum and agile?

Agile is a continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development process whereas Scrum is an Agile process to focus on delivering the business value in the shortest time. Agile methodology delivers the software on a regular basis for feedback while Scrum delivers the software after each sprint.

Why is it called Scrum?

The software development term scrum was first used in a 1986 paper titled “The New New Product Development Game”. The term is borrowed from rugby, where a scrum is a formation of players. The term scrum was chosen by the paper’s authors because it emphasizes teamwork.

What is Stand up Meeting (Daily Scrum)?

How to Conduct Stand Up Meetings?

Let us discuss about Stand Up Meeting or daily stand up meetings.

What is stand up Meeting

Stand up meetings are an important event that is used in the Scrum methodology. Their primary purpose is to keep the Scrum team updated on the team’s progress.

The stands up meetings are usually held daily and they are allotted short time frames i.e. 15 minutes or less.

What is a Stand Up Meeting?

A stand-up meeting is a short meeting that is held on daily basis.  Usually this meeting will happen when day starts.  This is very short meeting and usually it takes 15 minutes. Due to its short time frame, these meeting are usually held with the team standing up, hence the name – Stand Up Meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to update the status of the assigned user stories or tasks,  like finished, in progress, or about to be started. All the teams join in these meetings. They will raise their concerns if they have any, then Scrum Master will note down and coordinate with concerned teams if there is any dependency on other teams and try to provide the solution.

So this meeting is to understand the status of User Stories.

How to conduct  Stand Up Meetings?

The stand up meeting is to be brief and focused on the team’s progress. The Scrum Master is responsible for conducting the meeting so they should ensure that they keep the meeting straight to the point. No discussions will be allowed during this meeting. Only team members will update the status on the assigned user stories.

The Scrum Master should start planning the stand up meeting by choosing a convenient location and meeting time for all the team members.  Usually these meetings held on the same place and same time.

If we have team in different locations and team is working on different time zones, ensure that you pick a time when they would all be in to work.

Once the meeting is scheduled, the Scrum Master should ensure that the team stays focused by answering the below questions:

  1. What did you do yesterday?
  2. What will you do today?
  3. Is there any impediment, that is slowing or stopping you?

All the team members should ensure that they attend the meeting on time. So that time will not be wasted and it shows that they are respecting team member’s time.

Scrum Master should ensure all the team members must participate in meeting and sufficient time allocated to each team member to update the status.

When the team members are discussing their progress, they might get carried away and want to discuss details but the Scrum Master should try to keep them on track by asking them to take it “Offline”.

Taking it “Offline” means that the team member should schedule another meeting with the appropriate team members to discuss their encountered issues in more detail. Scrum Master is responsible to schedule the meeting.

While this might discourage some of the team members, the Scrum Master should remind them that the Stand Up meeting is a short one and other team members also have to provide their updates.

It is also called as Daily Scrum meeting or Daily stand up Meeting

This is also called as Daily Meeting, Daily Status Meeting, Daily Status update Meeting, Daily Scrum Meeting or Status call..

FAQ’s

What is the purpose of daily standup meeting?

Daily Scrums improve communications, eliminate other meetings, identify impediments to development for removal, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improve the Development Team’s level of knowledge. This is a key inspect and adapt meeting.

What does stand up meeting mean?

A stand–up meeting (or simply “stand–up“) is a meeting in which attendees typically participate while standing. The discomfort of standing for long periods is intended to keep the meetings short.

How do you do a stand up meeting?

7 Rules for Effective Stand-Up Meetings
Only meet when necessary. One common employee complaint is that many meetings could easily be replaced by an email. …
Keep it short and sweet. At it’s core, a stand-up meeting is brief. …
Establish a goal. …
Maintain structure. …
Make remote employees feel like they’re there. …
Give everyone a chance to talk. …
Don’t skip follow-up.

What happens in a stand up meeting?

A stand–up meeting is a short meeting between a team that is held on foot. The goal is to go over important tasks that have been finished, are in progress, or are about to be started. It is also known as daily stand–up or daily Kanban to teams practicing the Kanban method, due to the recurring cadence of the meeting.

What happens in daily standup meeting?

Daily Scrums improve communications, eliminate other meetings, identify impediments to development for removal, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improve the Development Team’s level of knowledge. This is a key inspect and adapt meeting.

What are the three questions asked in daily standup call?

What did you do yesterday?
What will you do today?
Are there any impediments in your way?

What are the benefits of daily standup meeting in agile?

Listed below are few benefits of having daily scrum meeting:
Let’s the team to be in sync on how things are going.
Allows for corrections in the sprint.
Building trust between team members.
Encouraging personal planning.
High visibility of progress.
Self-organization in team.

How do I start a daily standup meeting?

Here are some effective tips for a successful daily standup meeting:
15 minutes or less. …
Be on time! …
Keep the team engaged. …
Put discovered problems on hold. …
Keep it fun! Start every standup meeting with a joke, meme, gif, comic, quote, etc. …
Say ‘thank you’. …
Hold your daily standup meeting around the task board.

Why is it important to meet every day for daily stand up?

The main aim of a stand–up meeting is to distribute relevant and important information and/or to make quick decisions. They are also used to make major strategic decisions and above all, they offer a chance to “go around the room” and get everyone to present their results from the day before.

Scrum Master Role in a Project

Scrum Master Role in a Project

Let us observe who  is Scrum Master and what Scrum Master Role is  in a Project.

Scrum team includes of Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development Team.

Scrum Master Role

Let us discuss some important roles of the Scrum master’s in project:

The primary responsibility of the Scrum Master is to build a Team. And he works closely with the team to deliver the project without bugs and he ensures to deliver on time. To achieve this Scrum Master needs to coordinate and discuss with internal and external stakeholders. Scrum Master acts as a guide for Scrum process, assistant, coach, facilitator and change agent.

Scrum Master facilitates the Scrum activities and removes impediment’s so that the team can build successful product. Scrum Master closely works with the team to understand the team concerns and challenges, and he works with the concerned teams to provide solution to the team to deliver successful product.

Facilitator: To adopt scrum for team, maintain transparency, bring effectiveness in meetings, resolve conflicts and bring best of team.

Guide: Scrum master act as a guide, he explains scrum frame work, roles, responsibilities and activities to the scrum team.

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Continue reading “Scrum Master Role in a Project”

How to write user stories effectively in Agile?

How to write User stories

Let us discuss here how to write user stories and what are 3 C’s of User Story.

User Story and how to write user stories.

User Stories and how to write user Stories

When we are working on agile process (methodology), user stories are very important.  Because we have to write requirements as a user story to understand easily.

To write user stories first we need to understand who the user/Actor is and what his role in application is and what actions user will perform by using this product.

  • User story should be understandable
  • And User story should be Testable.

Usually product owner will write the user stories with the help of the team, team will participate on discussions to understand what the requirement is clearly.

A User Story has three primary components. Before writing user story we must understand below.

  • Who is the user?
  • What action he will perform?
  • What outcome or benefit he will get?

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This is the standard template using to write user stories.

  • As a <user role> of the product,
  • I can <action>
  • So that <benefit>.

In other words, the written text of the story, the invitation to a conversation, must address the “who”, “what” and “why” of the story.

What are The Three ‘C’s of User Story

  • Card:  The Card, or written text of the User Story is best understood as an invitation to conversation.
  • Conversation. The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner which involves all stakeholders and the team.
  • Confirmation.

Let us discuss in detail below what are the 3 C’s of User Story

Discussions/ Team meetings:

The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner / Scrum master which involves all stakeholders and the team.

As much as possible, this is an in-person conversation.

The conversation is where the real value of the story lies, and the written Card should be adjusted to reflect the current shared understanding of this conversation.

This conversation is mostly verbal but most often supported by documentation and ideally automated tests of various sorts

Confirmation

The Product Owner must confirm that the story is complete before it can be considered “done”
The team and the Product Owner check the “done status” of each story in light of the Team’s current definition of “done” .Specific acceptance criteria that is different from the current definition of “done” can be established for individual stories, but the current criteria must be well understood and agreed to by the Team. All associated acceptance tests should be in a passing state.

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INVESTii

The test for determining whether or not a story is well understood and ready for the team to start working on it is the INVEST acronym:

  • Independent — The story should be independent.
  • Negotiable — Can this story be changed or removed without impact to everything else?
  • Valuable — Does this story have value to the end user?
  • Estimable — Can you estimate the size of the story?
  • Small —Is it small enough?
  • Testable — User story should be testable.

User Stories FAQ

What is a user story in Agile?

A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end user perspective. The user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. … A user story can be considered a starting point to a conversation that establishes the real product requirement.

What are 3 C's in user stories?

The Three ‘C’s
This discovery occurs through conversation and collaboration around user stories. In other words, the written text of the story, the invitation to a conversation, must address the “who”, “what” and “why” of the story

What are the characteristics of a user story?

The INVEST acronym, given by Bill Wake, suggests characteristics of good user stories. The acronym stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimative, Small, and Testable. Let us examine each characteristic in detail. User Stories are often inherently dependent on each other

Who writes a user story?

Anyone can write user stories. It’s the product owner’s responsibility to make sure a product backlog of agile user stories exists, but that doesn’t mean that the product owner is the one who writes them. Over the course of a good agile project, you should expect to have user story examples written by each team member.

How do you define a user story?

A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective. A user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. A user story helps to create a simplified description of a requirement

Are user stories requirements?

A User Story is a requirement expressed from the perspective of an end-user goal. User Stories may also be referred to as Epics, Themes or features but all follow the same format. A User Story is really just a well-expressed requirement. … It defines the requirement in language that has meaning for that role

Agile vs Waterfall or Difference between waterfall and Agile

What are the differences between Waterfall and Agile?

Differences between waterfall and Agile Methodology / Agile vs Waterfall

To understand what are the differences between waterfall methodology (Agile vs Waterfall) and Agile Methodology, first we will understand what are the advantages and disadvantages of these methodologies then we will look into Agile vs Waterfall.

Before learning Agile vs Waterfall we will discuss what are the advantages and disadvantages of Waterfall and Agile Methodologies.

Advantages of Waterfall Methodology (Model):

https://www.bacareers.in/sdlc-waterfall/

  • It is one the easiest model to manage. Because of its nature, each phase has specific deliverable’s and a review process. In each phase we will get to know what to deliver and when to deliver.
  • Faster delivery of the project
  • Process and results are well documented and documentation plays important role in Waterfall methodology.
  • Easily adaptable method for shifting teams.
  • This project management methodology is useful to manage dependencies.
  • It works well for smaller size projects where requirements are easily understandable.

Disadvantages of Waterfall Methodology (Model):

  • This model is not suggestible for Large projects
  • If the requirement is not clear at the beginning, we can’t use waterfall methodology because every phase is dependent on previous phase.
  • Here next phase will start once previous phase completed.
  • Very difficult to move back to makes changes in the previous phases.
  • The testing process starts once development is over. Hence, it has high chances of bugs to be found later in development where they are expensive to fix.
  • There is no team work in this model.
  • Difficult to manage change requests in this model.

Advantages of the Agile Methodology(Model):

https://www.bacareers.in/sdlc-agile-scrum/

  • Agile teams are extremely motivated and self-organized so it likely to provide a better results from the development projects.
  • Client involves in every phase of the SDLC, so requirements are clear and if team needs any clarifications also we can close as soon as possible.
  • Agile software development method assures that quality of the development is maintained
  • The process is completely based on the incremental progress. Therefore, the client and team know exactly what is complete and what is not. This reduces risk in the development process.
  • Change requests are welcomed at any phase of the SDLC.

Disadvantages of Agile Methodology (Model):

  • It is not useful method for small development projects.
  • It requires an expert to take important decisions in the meeting.

What are the difference between Waterfall and Agile Model?

                                               Agile vs Waterfall

              Difference between Agile and Waterfall Methodologies/ Agile vs Waterfall

                                  Agile

              Waterfall

It separates the project development lifecycle into sprints.

Software development process is divided into separate phases.

It follows an incremental approach

Waterfall methodology is a sequential design process.

Agile methodology is known for its flexibility.

Waterfall is a structured software development methodology so most times it can be quite rigid.

Agile can be considered as a collection of many different projects.

Software development will be completed as one single project.

Agile is quite a flexible method which
allows changes to be made in the project development requirements even if the initial planning has been completed.

There is no scope of changing the requirements

Agile methodology, follow an iterative development approach because of this planning, development, prototyping and other software development phases may appear more than once.

All the project development phases like designing, development, testing, etc. are completed once in the Waterfall model.

Test plan is reviewed after each sprint

The test plan is rarely discussed during the test phase.

Agile development is a process in which the requirements are expected to change and evolve.

The method is ideal for projects which have definite requirements and changes not  expected.

In Agile methodology, testing is performed concurrently with software development.

In this methodology, the “Testing” phase comes after the “Build” phase

Agile introduces a product mindset where the software product satisfies needs of its end customers and changes itself as per the customer’s demands.

This model shows a project mindset and places its focus completely on accomplishing the project.

Prefers small but dedicated teams with a high degree of coordination and synchronization.

Team coordination/synchronization is very limited.

Products owner with team prepares requirements just about every day during a project.

Business analyst prepares requirements before the beginning of the project.

Test team can take part in the requirements change without problems.

It is difficult for the test to initiate any change in requirements.

Description of project details can be altered anytime during the SDLC process.

Detail description needs to implement waterfall software development approach.

The Agile Team members are interchangeable, as a result, they work faster. There is also no need for project managers because the projects are managed by the entire team

In the waterfall method, the process is always straightforward so, project manager plays an essential role during every stage of SDLC.

Agile and Waterfall are very different software development methodologies and are good in their respective way. Organizations will follow the methodology which suits for the project and requirements how ever it is better to know the differences between Agile and Waterfall (Agile vs Waterfall).

  • Usually Waterfall methodology will be used for small projects where requirements are clear and there is no chance to change the requirements.
  • Usually Agile methodology will be used for large projects where requirements are not clear and client is changing the requirements frequently.
  • Documentation plays important role in waterfall methodology.

I feel it helps to understand difference between waterfall and Agile (Agile vs Waterfall ) For More about Agile vs waterfall…….

Difference between Waterfall and Agile Methodologies

Difference between Waterfall and Agile Methodologies

Let us discuss and observe below in  details  what  is the Difference between Waterfall and Agile Methodologies.

difference between Waterfall and Agile
difference between Waterfall and Agile
Advantages of Waterfall Model:
  • It is one the easiest model to manage. Because of its nature, each phase has specific deliverable’s and a review process. In each phase we will get to know what to deliver and when to deliver.
  • Faster delivery of the project
  • Process and results are well documented and documentation plays important role in Waterfall methodology.
  • Easily adaptable method for shifting teams.
  • This project management methodology is useful to manage dependencies.
  • It works well for smaller size projects where requirements are easily understandable.

Disadvantages of Waterfall Model:

  • This model is not suggestible for Large projects
  • If the requirement is not clear at the beginning, we can’t use waterfall methodology because every phase is dependent on previous phase.
  • Here next phase will start once previous phase completed.
  • Very difficult to move back to makes changes in the previous phases.
  • The testing process starts once development is over. Hence, it has high chances of bugs to be found later in development where they are expensive to fix.
  • There is no team work in this model.
  • Difficult to manage change requests in this model.

Advantages of the Agile Model:

  • Agile teams are extremely motivated and self-organized so it likely to provide a better results from the development projects.
  • Client involves in every phase of the SDLC, so requirements are clear and if team needs any clarifications also we can close as soon as possible.
  • Agile software development method assures that quality of the development is maintained
  • The process is completely based on the incremental progress. Therefore, the client and team know exactly what is complete and what is not. This reduces risk in the development process.
  • Change requests are welcomed at any phase of the SDLC.

Disadvantages of Agile Model

  • It is not useful method for small development projects.
  • It requires an expert to take important decisions in the meeting.
By reading above  we can understand difference between waterfall and Agile.

Let us observe  in table in details  what  are the difference between Waterfall and Agile

Difference between waterfall and Agile Methodologies

                              Agile

                Waterfall

It separates the project development lifecycle into sprints.

Software development process is divided into separate phases.

It follows an incremental approach

Waterfall methodology is a sequential design process.

Agile methodology is known for its flexibility.

Waterfall is a structured software development methodology so most times it can be quite rigid.

Agile can be considered as a collection of many different projects.

Software development will be completed as one single project.

Agile is quite a flexible method which allows changes to be made in the project development requirements even if the initial planning has been completed.

There is no scope of changing the requirements

Agile methodology, follow an iterative development approach because of this planning, development, prototyping and other software development phases may appear more than once.

All the project development phases like designing, development, testing, etc. are completed once in the Waterfall model.

Test plan is reviewed after each sprint

The test plan is rarely discussed during the test phase.

Agile development is a process in which the requirements are expected to change and evolve.

The method is ideal for projects which have definite requirements and changes not  expected.

In Agile methodology, testing is performed concurrently with software development.

In this methodology, the “Testing” phase comes after the “Build” phase

Agile introduces a product mindset where the software product satisfies needs of its end customers and changes itself as per the customer’s demands.

This model shows a project mindset and places its focus completely on accomplishing the project.

Prefers small but dedicated teams with a high degree of coordination and synchronization.

Team coordination/synchronization is very limited.

Products owner with team prepares requirements just about every day during a project.

Business analyst prepares requirements before the beginning of the project.

Test team can take part in the requirements change without problems.

It is difficult for the test to initiate any change in requirements.

Description of project details can be altered anytime during the SDLC process.

Detail description needs to implement waterfall software development approach.

The Agile Team members are interchangeable, as a result, they work faster. There is also no need for project managers because the projects are managed by the entire team

In the waterfall method, the process is always straightforward so, project manager plays an essential role during every stage of SDLC.

Agile and Waterfall are very different software development methodologies and are good in their respective way. Organizations will follow the methodology which suits for the project and requirements.

  • Usually Waterfall methodology will be used for small projects where requirements are clear and there is no chance to change the requirements.
  • Usually Agile methodology will be used for large projects where requirements are not clear and client is changing the requirements frequently.
  • Documentation plays important role in waterfall methodology.
I hope it helped you to understand the difference between waterfall and  agile.

In interview also they may ask what is  the difference between waterfall and agile methodology.

If you need any clarifications on difference between waterfall and agile, you can post here.

Agile Methodology in Software Development Life Cycle

Agile Methodology in Software Development Life Cycle

Agile Methodology in Software Development Life Cycle

Now a day’s most of the companies are looking for Agile methodology because it is light weight and faster delivery. We can say if we not mentioned Agile methodology  in our resume we may not get calls from the interviewer also.Let us discuss what is Agile methodology and advantages

What are the differences between Waterfall and Agile Methodology?

What is Agile Methodology in Software Development Life Cycle

Minimum documentation

Agile Methodology is one of the methodologies under which we will develop a software/application in incremental base and deliver it in small chunks.

Scrum: Scrum is not a methodology, Scrum is a framework. That means it provides opportunity to work as per the project needs or requirements with cross functional team to reach the project goals.

Mostly it will use in implementation of projects.

Product Backlog :

Need to prepare the product backlog, it contains the list of user stories, user story is nothing but requirements.

Once we prepare the Product backlog, will prioritize the user stories which can be implemented in this Sprint.

Scrum Roles:

  1. Product Owner(PO) :He will decide what needs to done in this sprint/project and he is the responsible for managing the product backlog. He will be the responsible person for product like how product should be and all. He interacts with Business Analysts and Customers. This role may be played by BA or any person who is having strong knowledge on product and who works with end users for a long time. Depends on the project client also may play this role.
  • Scrum Master   (SM) : He will monitor the performance of the team within the sprint. Team will raise all their concerns and issues to scrum master. He is responsible to provide solutions to the team. He will interact with the stake holders to address the issues and concerns raised by the team. This role can be played by any person in team usually Business Analyst will play this role.

 

  • Development Team ( Cross functional team who are self organized)

Scrum Team : Resources who are working in this project are formed as Scrum team which comprises of  Business Analyst, Developers and Testers.

Sprint Zero:

In this phase all the stakeholders will join in meeting, and we have high level requirements in this phase.

Based on the requirements Product backlog will be created
Product backlog will have user stories (user stories means Requirements.).
Once Product backlog is prepared, there will be 3 activities performed
(a) along with core team – Scrum master will conduct story point estimation session. In this session team will discuss on prioritized requirements, how many man days needed and how to do and all.
(b) Team will prepare high level architecture document
(c) Release Planning

Sprint Planning

Sprint : Sprint is nothing more than that set period of a time to complete the prioritized requirements, usually sprint duration is two weeks. It may vary based on the product and project. Usually for banking project they scheduled for 4 weeks.

Assigned work should be completed within the sprint and it should be ready for product owner to review the completed task.

Before development starts, team will do sprint planning. i.e how many sprints are required to complete the project? Which stories will go under which sprint?
Usually sprint duration will be ranging from 2-4 weeks maximum.
Sprint-1 starts
During sprint, we will take the user stories Design>> Develop>>Test>> Integrate
We will have ‘Show & Tell’ Session. Product owner will give his feedback in this session. If any rework to be done based on feedback, we will take those points and add it to next sprint. (these points to be updated in Product backlog as user stories)
Participants : Client, developers, testing team and Business Analyst.

Business Analyst will split the requirements and prepares the product backlog.

Will discuss with the client regarding backlog, then client will prioritize the requirements which we need to deliver on priority. So, team will first work on prioritized requirements only.

For example, out of ten requirements client prioritized 1,2 and 3.

So, in this sprint planning session we will discuss about 1,2 and 3 only even though we have 10 requirements in backlog.

Business analyst will write user stories; user story is nothing but requirement.

Will discuss about how much effort needed to complete this prioritized user stories.

Will use the JIRA tool to track the requirements.

Release Testing

Release testing is done by product owner. This is similar to UAT phase of Waterfall.
Product owner will test the functionality and ensure all the stories are covered. If any defects that will be taken care from core team

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Release & Deploy/Go live/Implementation:

In the typical waterfall, we will have one release. In agile methodology project there can be multiple releases.
Releases are done based on the release planning. Release decision will be Product owner decision.
We can group sprints under release-1, release-2, release-3 based on the need and we implement as per release plan.

Support and Maintenance:

As per the alignment, there will be warranty of 6 months, 12 months , 2 years or more. Core team will support during this period and once warranty is done. Project will be closed.

Scrum Meetings

Meetings:

Daily Scrum Meeting: This happens every day where team will just discuss on 3 questions. Everyone should participate in this meeting, and meeting should be completed in 15 to 30 minutes.

  1. What you do today?
  2. What will you do tomorrow?
  3. Is there any impediments stopping you?

Sprint Review Meeting:

This will happen at the end of the sprint where team will give demo on completed stories to product owner.

Sprint retrospective Meeting: This will happen at the end of the sprint where team will answer these 3 questions.

  1. What went well in the sprint?
  2. What did not go well?
  3. What are the required areas of improvements in next sprint?
Scrum Meetings
Scrum Meetings

Business Analyst Role in Agile Methodology Scrum :

To start with, once a project kicked off, BA does the requirement planning, then conducts various requirement gathering sessions and analyses the requirement.

Then the requirement is listed as “Feature List” This feature list is drafted by Business Analyst and he will discuss with product owner. This feature list will have all enhancements and existing features.

From the Feature list, BA identifies the Epic and breaks them as Themes and then to User Stories.

User story

User Story will have below information:User Stories

         As a <user>

         I want to <What is the purpose>

         So that <What you gain by this story>

Ex :  As a customer

         I want to login to the net banking

         so that I can perform banking activities.

Acceptance Criteria:

This area will have mandatory information that is needed for this user story.

Then Business Analyst briefs the story to development team and regularly supports the team for development.

And Business Analyst also does the integration Testing and system testing to ensure the system performs as per requirement.

I hope this helped you to provide the overview of Agile Methodology

To  know more about Agile Methodology you can visit Agile Methodology official website.

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Agile FAQS

What is agile and how it works?

Agile is a process that helps teams provide quick and unpredictable responses to the feedback they receive on their project. It creates opportunities to assess a project’s direction during the development cycle. Teams assess the project in regular meetings called sprints or iterations

What is the difference between Scrum and agile?

Difference Between Agile and Scrum. Agile describes a set of guiding principles that uses iterative approach for software development, while Scrum is a specific set of rules that are to be followed while practicing the Agile software development.

What are the 12 Principles of Agile?

Satisfy the Customer. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome Change. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. …
Deliver Frequently. …
Work Together. …
Build Projects. …
Face-To-Face Time. …
Measure of Progress. …
Sustainable Development.

What are the 4 values of agile?

individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
working software over comprehensive documentation;
customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and.
responding to change over following a plan.

What is agile tool?

Jira Software is an agile project management tool that supports any agile methodology, be it scrum, kanban, or your own unique flavor. From agile boards to reports, you can plan, track, and manage all your agile software development projects from a single tool

What is Agile SDLC?

Agile SDLC model is a combination of iterative and incremental process models with focus on process adaptability and customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of working software product. Agile Methods break the product into small incremental builds.

Why Agile is used?

and Why Do We Use It? Agile Methodology is a type of project management process. The agile method anticipates change and allows for much more flexibility than traditional methods. Clients can make small objective changes without huge amendments to the budget or schedule

What is Business Analyst Role in Agile Project.

Business Analyst Role in Agile Project.

Business Analyst Role in Agile Project

Here I want to share Business Analyst role in Agile project, now a days most of the companies are looking for Agile methodology because software will be delivered frequently so that client will happy.

I observed people are thinking Business Analyst is needed in Waterfall methodology and not needed for Agile Methodology as it is team work and scrum team will handle everything. Business analyst title is not present in scrum roles; however someone needs to analyze the requirements and should be decision maker. Business Analyst job is not only to prepare the documents.

I can say Business Analyst is needed when we are working on Agile Methodology too, because even if we are following Agile methodology below things needs to be followed.

  • Elicitate  the requirements
  • Analyze the Requirements
  • And prepare the documents, (here need not to maintain the documentation as we maintained in Waterfall methodology, however BA needs to document the requirements in the form of User Stories.
  • BA needs to track the requirements.
  • Communicate with internal and external stakeholder to deliver the requirements on time without bugs.

Can read below to understand the Business Analyst Role:

I feel it helps you to understand the overview of Business Analyst Role in Agile Project.

If you want to do certification, then you can visit IIBA

FAQs

What are the roles and responsibilities of business analyst?

Business analysts (BAs) are responsible for bridging the gap between IT and the business using data analytics to assess processes, determine requirements and deliver data-driven recommendations and reports to executives and stakeholders.

Are there business analysts in agile?

There is an opportunity for Business Analysts to become effective members of an agile team but they need to be prepared to rethink the way they approach their jobs. … Additionally, while Business Analysts provide significant value to an Agile team, all team members have a responsibility to do “business impact analysis”

Can a business analyst become a scrum master?

No, You Cannot Be The Business Analyst and ScrumMaster.
The ScrumMaster focuses on the team and how to continuously improve. The Business Analyst focuses on product backlog, stakeholders, and customer needs. Despite these shared skills, it is difficult for one person to assume both roles successfully . It depends on organization to organization. In some companies Business Analyst act as a Scrum Master.

What does a business analyst do agile?

What is an Agile Business Analyst? The main goal of an Agile Business Analyst is to solve business problems as and when they occur. While the rest of the Agile team is focused on producing new pieces of working software in every iteration or sprint, they are focused on the main goal of the entire project.

Is business analyst part of agile team?

Even though the role of business analyst is rarely mentioned in descriptions of agile it does not mean that business analysis does not occur. In fact, agile’s focus on delivering value to customers requires the entire team to collaboratively perform business analysis on a frequent basis.

What is a BA called in agile?

Agile Business Analyst Summary: The business analyst (BA) has played a key role in software development. But within a modern agile context, the role of the BA is less clear, and there is some confusion as to whether the product owner role subsumes that of the traditional BA.

What is the role of business analyst in sprint planning?

The business analyst’s role in Sprint planning is to mentor, coach and support the PO in ensuring the product backlog items (PBIs) for a particular Sprint are “ready” (refined) as possible.

Does business analyst write user stories?

User stories are written throughout the agile project, however, the Business Analyst assigned to the project should produce user stories in the discovery phase. After the discovery phase, everyone on the team will then participate to create a product backlog of user stories

Is a scrum master a business analyst?

No, You Cannot Be The Business Analyst and ScrumMaster.

The Scrum Master focuses on the team and how to continuously improve. The Business Analyst focuses on product backlog, stakeholders, and customer needs. Despite these shared skills, it is difficult for one person to assume both roles successfully.

Where does a BA fit in Scrum?

The Business Analyst, also known as BA, plays a crucial and drastic role in the Scrum Team, though a BA role is not formally defined in the Scrum Framework. They act as the link between the Product Owner/customer and the technical IT team

What are the essential qualities of an agile BA?

Key Characteristics of a Good Agile Business Analyst

  • Communication Expert. Effective communication is the key to the success of any business. …
  • Problem-Solving Ability. …
  • Critical Thinking. …
  • Analytical Bend of Mind. …
  • Process Modelling. …
  • Relationship Building Skill.

Which is a better role Scrum Master or business analyst?

The scrum master ensures the team’s efficiency, consistency, and continuous development. On the other hand, a business analyst is more objective, focusing on the business operations or requirements and tackling concerns such as product backlogs, customer needs, marketing strategies, etc

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