Catalyze Webcast - Carey Schwaber From Forrester Research - 10 Tips For Driving Better Project...

Welcome to the Catalyze Monthly Webcast

Thank you for joining today’s webcast – we will start about 3 minutes or so past the top of the hour.

Questions - Please send a Chat message to the Host and Panelists if you have any technical questions before or during the presentation.

Q&A Session – We will have time at the end of the webcast for Q&A. Please use the Q&A feature to send any questions to the Host, and we will answer them at the end of the presentation.

Posting Slides and Recording - We will be posting the slides and recording from the webcast to Catalyze in the next few days.

www.catalyze.org [email protected]

Carey SchwaberSenior Analyst

Forrester ResearchJune 12, 2008

10 Tips To Improve Project Outcomes

For internal use only

3 Entire contents © 2008 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theme

Business analysts can makeor break a software project.

Forrester has identified ten tipsto help business analystsimprove project outcomes.


Tip No. 10: Define the business-IT division of labor

• Shared responsibilities are too often abdicated responsibilities

• Too little or too much business involvement is a common pitfall

• Careful articulation of roles and responsibilities goes a long way

“Our customer’s attitude is that requirements are our

problem.”

“The business usually hands IT a document that

dictates a solution.”


Sample business and IT requirements responsibilities

Business responsibilities

Develop business requirements that do notpresuppose design or implementation details

Prioritize requirements based on relative needand available resources

Provide signoffs only after carefully evaluating allmaterials and ensuring thorough comprehension

Communicate changing business needs and collaborate with development to determine theimpact of these changes

Understand business goals and business context

Identify and employ appropriate techniques todefine functional and non-functional requirements

Communicate about progress toward fulfillmentof requirements

Manage relationships between requirements andother life-cycle artifact to ensure fulfillment ofrequirements

IT responsibilities


Today’s four types of business analyst (two relatively new)April 2008 “The New Business Analyst”


Tip No. 9: Be part of the team

• Cross-functional delivery teams are the most effective and efficient– Business customer, business analyst, architect, developer, tester,

project manager

– Cross-functional in the sense of including all roles

– Cross-functional in the sense of blurring lines between roles

• No matter where they report, business analysts must behave as part of the delivery team

• The alternative is not pretty: – Spending inordinate amounts of time documenting all of the things the

delivery team might need to know

– Throwing requirements over the wall and hoping that the delivery team will ask questions as necessary


Delivery team

How functional silos and cross-functional teams can intersect

Architecture TestingBusinessanalysis

PM DevDevBA DevLead

Dev Dev Tester Tester


Tip No. 8: Assess the true impact of change

• The pressure to improve efficiency of business operations drivessoftware integration, which results in hairy dependencies

• Unmanaged dependencies derail projects time and time again

• Business analysts need to understand and help communicate the impact that changes have on:

– The application(s) they are made to

– The applications these applications integrate with

• This helps set business expectations about:– How long certain changes will take to implement

– Why some changes need to be grouped with other changes


Tip No. 7: Understand future as well as present business needs

• The true outcome of a project extends well beyond the initial implementation, though this is easy to forget

• How well do the deliverables suit business needs not just today but also tomorrow?

• “Building for change” is one of today’s most pressing IT imperatives– How easily can software evolve to meet changing business

requirements?– How independently, if at all, can the business implement changes in

business processes, rules, etc?

• Business analysts can help by: – Understanding likely areas of business and application change– Working with development to devise strategies for accommodating

change– Assuming responsibility for implementing business changes through new

development paradigms like business process management


It’s too hard to change business appsSeptember 2007 “The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative”


Tip No. 6: Remember non-functional requirements

• Very few IT organizations adequately define non-functional requirements

– Performance and security are the most glaringly absent

• Lack of expertise in these areas on the project team is no excuse

• Invite individuals with expertise and vested interest in these domains to requirements sessions

• Make requirements sessions worth their time– Prepare them

– Engage them

– Follow up with them

www.iRise.com

Visualize Your Business

13

Peter IndelicatoSenior Product [email protected]

ww

w.iRise.com

14

Business people can’t interpret text, use cases, process flows and static screen shotsBusiness people don’t know what they want until they see and interact with itCoded prototypes are too expensiveGlobal sourcing brings these risks into sharper focus

The Problem with Business Software

“50% of project timelines are now spent on rework.”Standish Group Chaos Report, 2007

ww

w.iRise.com

15

The ImpactLate stage reworkCost overrunsProject delaysGlobal sourcing nightmaresMissing featuresExtraneous featuresBlown business plansFinger pointing

“In the last year, 70% of projects failed to meet deadlines, and 50% of projects fail to meet the needs of the business.

80% of the issues stem from poor requirements.”Standish Group Chaos Report, 2007

ww

w.iRise.com

16

The SolutionVisualize before you buildBusiness analysts, product managers and UX professionals assemble three dimensional simulations of business softwareBusiness and IT stakeholders “test drive”and provide feedback in rapid, iterative definition cyclesDramatically improves communication between business and IT

“iRise gets business and IT aligned much faster than ever before.”COO, Global Wealth Organization

ww

w.iRise.com

ww

w.iRise.com

Studio and Reader

ww

w.iRise.com

19

What Can You Simulate With iRise?

New custom developmentEnhancements to current systemsCustomizations to SAP, OracleMobile applications such as iPhoneWeb 2.0 & Rich Internet Applications

ww

w.iRise.com

20

Value of Software Visualization

Get to market twice as fastVirtually eliminate reworkOutsource more new developmentImprove customer experienceDiscover new innovations

“General Motors has to succeed through innovation. That’s where iRise leads and that’s the whole philosophy

of the company right now.”Dr. Richard Frost, Global Director, Information Systems & Services, General Motors

ww

w.iRise.com

21

What’s in it for Developers?

Forces the business to articulate what they want in a language everyone can understandDoesn’t let them change their minds in the middle of a projectGets business off developer’s backs while they’re designing, coding, deliveringVirtually eliminates rework

"iRise is a rapid, iterative definition solution that helped the bank get the most out of our Agile development approach. iRise lets us get more done

faster." Alan Buffington, Executive Vice President, KeyBank

ww

w.iRise.com

22

By 2020 all business software will be visualized prior to development, the

same way that visualization is a common practice in the design of

every car, airplane and semiconductor today

The iRise Vision

ww

w.iRise.com

iRise Customer Successes


Tip No. 5: Make requirements painless for the business

• Business engagement in the requirements process is a critical success factor

• When business customers are frustrated by requirements practices, they lose faith in the project team and may mentally check out

• But the requirements processes often seem designed to torture business stakeholders

– One business analyst does dramatic interpretations of 100+ page requirements documents to keep business customers engaged

– Several businesspeople a telecom report being forced to spend months on requirements that they know will be obsolete before coding starts

• Business analysts must: – Stay attuned to business customer satisfaction not just with deliverables

but also with methods– Take it upon themselves to make the absolute best use possible of

business customers’ time


Tip No. 4: Measure project progress in terms of requirements

• Most companies measure software project progress in terms of activities

– Requirements complete, design complete, coding complete, etc.

• There is minimal business value in anything other than working software

• Progressive companies measure software project progress in termsof fulfilled requirements

– 50% of requirements successfully implemented, from start to finish

• This requires traceability from requirements through to test cases


Burn-down charts measure requirements fulfillment

Stories


Tip No. 3: Don’t rely solely on text

• Text-based requirements are: – Insufficient, as some things simply can’t be communicated in text

– Inefficient, as they take far longer to consume than visual requirements

– Ineffective, as text often creates a false sense of agreement

• A picture, on the other hand, is worth a thousand words

• Use text-based requirements, but only as a starting point

• Text-based requirements are critical for: – Non-functional requirements in areas like performance and security

– Labeling units of work

– Compliance purposes


Tip No. 2: Maximize feedback on requirements

• All defects becomes more expensive to resolve as time passes: – Architecture, functionality, performance, security, usability

• Defects in requirements have the potential to go unresolved the longest

• Minimize defects in requirements by maximizing the amount of feedback you get on requirements

• Maximize feedback by maximizing requirements visibility: – Posting requirements (in the lunch room, not just on a network drive)

– Inviting Tom, Dick, and Harry to requirements walkthroughs

– Doing frequent demos for projects sponsors and end users

– Delivering working software incrementally


0.75855.00Total

0.12700.40Bad fixes

0.12800.60Document

0.09951.75Coding

0.19851.25Design

0.23771.00Requirements

Delivered defects

Removal efficiency, %

Defect potentialsDefect origins

Source: Capers Jones, Software Assessments, Benchmarks, and Best Practices, Addison-Wesley 2000

U.S. averages for defect removal efficiency


Tip No. 1: Invest in future project outcomes, too

• The projects just keep on coming

• Find the time to make changes that improve all project outcomes, not a single project outcome

• Use this time to investigate, define, and implement changes to people, processes, and tools

• Set your schedule and budget to allow this, with the expectation that in doing so you will recoup the time you spend

• In sum: – Step off the treadmill

– Take time to save time


Business Analysts Rely Heavily On Informal Training MechanismsApril 2008 “The New Business Analyst”


In summary

10. Define the business-IT division of labor.

9. Be part of the team.

8. Understand and communicate impact.

7. Define future as well as present business needs.

6. Remember non-functional requirements.

5. Make requirements painless for the business.

4. Measure project progress in terms of requirements.

3. Don’t rely solely on text.

2. Maximize feedback on requirements

1. Invest in future project outcomes, too.


Carey Schwaber

+1 617.613.6260

[email protected]

www.forrester.com

Thank you

Catalyze Webcast - Carey Schwaber From Forrester Research - 10 Tips For Driving Better Project...

Business

Transcript of Catalyze Webcast - Carey Schwaber From Forrester Research - 10 Tips For Driving Better Project...