PMI-ACP Tools and Techniques: Agile Analysis And Design

[PMI-ACP® Exam Study Notes] Agile Analysis And Design is one of the ten Tools and Techniques for the PMI-ACP® exam. The “Tools and Techniques” accounts for a total of 50% of all the questions to be found on the exam paper. According to the PMI-ACP® exam content outline, Agile Analysis And Design includes Agile product roadmap, user stories/backlog, story maps, progressive elaboration, wireframes, Agile project chartering, personas and Agile modeling.

PMI-ACP® Exam Importance: around 3-6 questions (~5% of all questions)

PMI-ACP® Tools and Techniques: Agile Analysis And Design

• Agile analysis and design involves analyzing the product backlog, prioritizing the backlog items, creating story maps and elaborating the design progressively
• Requirement Hierarchy: Epics -> Features -> User Stories -> Tasks
• Agile Product Roadmap
  • a high-level view of product features (theme / epic for the imminent product releases) to support the product vision
  • to categorize and prioritize requirements and to suggest the release schedule
  • The customer [Scrum: Product Owner] creates and owns the project vision (revisited annually) and product roadmap (revisited twice a year)
  • also includes a list of customer required features, the architecture needed to support them and the business value of the releases
• User Stories
  • user stories: user requirement (small bite-sized understandable chunks of business functionality) written on small cards with the typical template of
    

    As a <type of user>, I want <some goals> so that <some reasons>; OR

    Given <a situation>, when <some actions>, then <some actions> (useful for non-functional / system-based requirements)

  • user stories must provide values to the customer and be INVEST:
    • Independent – user stories can be re-prioritize and developed in any order
    • Negotiable – can be negotiated between development team and customer
    • Valuable – can add value to the project
    • Estimatable – can be estimated for the efforts involved
    • Small – keep user stories small, i.e. between 0.5 – 10 days
    • Testable – can be tested to confirm completion
  • user stories is preferable if it impact all architectural layers of the systems:
    • presentation layer
    • validation layer
    • business layer
    • database layer
  • User Story vs Use Case
    • Use Case is used for written communication for projects following Agile Unified Process. The description is more elaborated (i.e. long and detailed).
    • User Story is used for general Agile projects as backlog items
• Backlog / User Story Backlog
  • a backlog is a collection of prioritized user requirements, usually expressed as user stories
    the product backlog will become inputs to the release planning
  • product backlog: is a list of requirements (as user stories) to be implemented in the product, updated by the product owner [in XP, the term user stories is used]
  • iteration backlog: a list of tasks, with time estimation, to be performed by individual team member on daily basis, updated by team members
  • if the items on the iteration backlog cannot be finished in the iteration, the item is put back to the product backlog
  • defect backlog: a list of bugs and issues
  • non-functional backlog: a list of process improvement / quality / system items
• Story Maps
  • story maps: a way to arrange related user stories into a structured model to help team members to understand the big picture of the requirements and the product
    • core requirements / features are grouped into each release
    • additional features will be left for subsequent releases
  • functional dependencies can also be visualized
  • help to prioritize user stories for roadmap / release planning
• Wireframes
  • a prototyping tool to visualize functional / behavioral arrangements (the relative prioritization) without going into the details of visual design
  • useful for products with human-computer interaction (e.g. user interface UI)
  • focuses on “what a screen does, not what it looks like”
• Personas
  • a character created to represent the attributes of a group of typical product users
    • provide archetypal descriptions of users
    • goal-oriented, specific and relevant
    • can be based on a real person or composites of multiple users (must be grounded in reality)
    • tangible and actionable
    • to generate focus, e.g. when determining whether a feature is needed, can ask questions like “does Personas David need it?”
  • assist in decision making on features/functionality, priority and visual design
  • augment requirements
  • includes: name, photo, description, values, tasks to perform, etc.

Agile Analysis And Design Tools and Techniques

• Agile Project Chartering
  • The project charter is a formal document to justify, explain, define and authorize a project including the following elements (at a minimum):
    • Vision: “why” of the project (purpose)
    • Mission: “what” of the project (what will be done)
    • Success Criteria: “how” to define success
  • Addresses the 5W1H of the project (Why, What, Who, When, Where, How)
  • Can be detailed and formally approved or barely sufficient
  • Unlike the PMBOK® Guide, there is no pre-defined formal process in Agile to create the project charter
  • Must be created for Agile projects and traditional projects alike
• Progressive Elaboration
  • over time the team’s knowledge about the product increases which allows more elaborated insights into the work packages so that estimations and planning will become more accurate
    • including plans, estimates, risks, tests, requirements, etc.
    • e.g. breaking down of user stories into tasks is done only for backlogs in the current iteration (just-in-time elaboration)
  • to delay making commitment which will reduce wastes
  • also known as Rolling wave planning: an iterative planning technique making use of progressive elaboration to only elaborate on near-term work plans while keeping future work plans with bare details
• Agile Modeling
  • Agile Modeling in details
    • Agile Modeling a practice-based methodology (including a collection of values, principles, and practice) for effective modeling and documentation of software-based systems based on best practices
      • a model is a pre-defined way of doing things
    • more flexible than traditional modeling methods (e.g. requirements collection -> specifications drafting -> specifications approval -> development -> testing -> launch) to fit fast-changing environments
    • Agile modeling can be tailored, used alone and is supplementary to other Agile methodologies (e.g. XP, RUP)
    • five core values of Agile modeling:
      • communication – good communication is a must
      • simplicity – keep it simple
      • feedback – constructive and valuable feedback from customers/team
      • courage – have courage to try new ways of doing things
      • humanity – human at the centre
    • best practices:
      • Just barely good enough (JBGE) artifacts (the KISS principle)
      • Architecture envisioning at the beginning for  a viable technical strategy
      • Lookahead modeling is used to reduce overall risk.
      • Multiple models to fit the use
      • Active stakeholder participation
      • Requirements envisioning at the beginning to identify the scope of the project
      • Prioritized requirements according to values
      • Iteration modeling as part of the iteration planning
      • Test-driven development (TDD) – a JIT approach to write requirements as tests
      • Model storming on a just-in-time (JIT) basis for requirement/design issue.
      • Document continuously
      • Document late
  • also refers to the various modeling techniques that are commonly used on Agile projects
    • examples
      • use case diagrams
      • data models
      • screen designs
    • Agile models are often lightweight (often hand sketched without being polished) and recorded with photography
    • better be lightweight, easy to change and barely sufficient

Summary: Agile Analysis And Design

This PMI-ACP® Exam Study notes touches upon one of the many tools and techniques of the PMI-ACP® exam syllabus – Agile Analysis And Design. Agile Analysis And Design knowledge includes Agile product roadmap, user stories/backlog, story maps, progressive elaboration, wireframes, Agile project chartering, personas and Agile modeling.