Quick look how Business Analysts contribute to Agile teams and the future of Project Managers

1. allan kelly
Twitter: @allankellynet
http://www.allankelly.net
Is there a role for
Business Analysts &
Project Managers in Agile?
PAM Summit
Cracow Poland
June 2013

2. Allan Kelly
• Business Analysis and Leadership, Pullan &
Archer 2013
• 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know,
Henney, 2010
• Context Encapsulation in Pattern Languages
of Program Design, Vol 5, 2006
 Consulting software
development & strategy
 Training for Agile
Author
– Changing Software Development: Learning
to be Agile (2008, Wiley)
– Business Patterns for Software Developers
(2012, Wiley - ISBN: 978-1119999249)

3. How many BAs in the room?
How many Project
Managers in the room?
How many think you are
doing Agile?

4. Look beyond the
label

5. There is work
to be done• Meat
• Sausages

6. How do you manage work?
People (think devs)…
• Inherently dislike work
• Must be controlled and
directed
• Shun responsibility
• Have little ambition
• Want security
People…
• Work leads to
satisfaction
• Can exercise self-
direction
• Will be committed to
objectives if the
rewards are valued
• Seek responsibility
From McGregor, D. 1960. The human side of enterprise
Theory X Theory Y

7. The great divide…
• Agile predicated on
Theory Y
You will find it hard to work
with Agile practices &
techniques if you believe
Theory X
• Agile evangelists believe
Waterfall is predicated
in Theory X
Indeed, this might be the
case

8. There is work
to be done• Meat
• Sausages

9. Constraints
9
Features
Resources
(People)
Time
Lots of work
to do
Cost =
Resources x Time
Quality = free
Time boxed
Scope Creep –
run backwards
Fixed over
short run
(Brooks Law)

10. Traditional Development
• Negotiate Features at start
• Cut Test
• Demand more time
• Demand more people
• Demand more money
• Argue
• Renegotiate features when
you can no longer get more
time, money, people
Agile Development
• Negotiate features on Day 1
• Negotiate features on Day 15
• Negotiate features on Day 29
• Negotiate features … (every 2
weeks)
• (Fix time, Fix money
• Accept the people you have
• Pursue quality)
The Difference

11. Who you gonna call?
What should
we build?

12. Business Analyst as a….
12
Investigator –
gathering the details
Strategist – looking long
range, the big picture
Evaluator
– Does it make sense?
Customer proxy
– Did it make sense?

13. Business Analysts – Yes!
• Lots of useful skills & experience
• They can be…
– Professional Customer Proxy
– Product Owner
– Tactical Product Owner
– Requirements expert (between sprints)
– Specification expert (inside sprint)

14. Project Managers,
What you gonna do now?
• Traditional parameters fixed
• Gantt charts done
• Quality is always high
– Cutting quality slows work
– Cutting quality increase cost
– Cutting quality upsets
customers
Time fixed

15. Successful products live
• Successful software is not Temporary
– Requires ongoing changes & support
• Outcome is not defined
• Resources change
A project is: “A temporary organization that is
needed to produce a unique and predefined
outcome or result at a pre-specified time
using predetermined resources.”
PRINCE2 definition
of project

16. The End of Projects
• Projects are accounting codes
• Finished Software is Dead Software
– Living software changes
– Living software doesn’t end
• Project thinking kills software

17. The End of Project Management?
• Projects are for accountants
• Organize work by
– Work streams and/or
– Products
• Aim for stable teams
– Occasional personnel changes
– Continuity
– Living, changing code bases

18. Management work to do
• Large teams -> More admin
• Large organizations -> Lots of reporting
• Line Management
• “Manager” -> More authority to fix
• Supplier / Client relationships
– Contracts to discuss, police
– Role shoot out: “they have an X manager so we
need an X manager”

19. John Smith
Project Manager (Aries Project)
Big Corporation
John.smith@bigcorp.com
Tel: +123 456 7890
Payments Manager
• “Project Manager” becomes:
– First Line Manager, Junior Manager, Development
Manager, Team Manager, Team Leader, or or or
• You have continuity
– Projects end; Products don’t

21. Management needed
• Manage the system
– Watch the numbers
– Manage with metrics
– (Learn your statistics)
• Manage the flow
• Trust the people
• Kill non-beneficial work
– Fail fast, fail cheap
Only Y type
managers need apply

22. Take-away
1. Lots of BA work to do
– Skills & Experience to work
with customers & proxy
2. Projects are meaningless
 Successful software lives
3. “Project Management”
will be replaced by
something new
 Type Y management
allan kelly
Software Strategy Ltd.
www.allankelly.net
allan@allankelly.net
Twitter: @allankellynet