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» FEATURED: Agile vs. Traditional... - Part III: Winning Through Integrative Thinking

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Agile vs. Traditional... - Part III: Winning Through Integrative Thinking

Instead of taking for granted that either you find a flavor of agile that will fit the needs of your organization, or you must completely dismiss the use of agile methods, a much more valuable approach is to determine, for each individual project, which agile concepts should be embraced or not.

» FEATURED: Agile vs. Traditional... - Part II: Methods are a means to the end of project success, not the end themselves

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Agile vs. Traditional... - Part II: Methods are a means to the end of project success, not the end themselves

By taking a closer look at how your company is developing software, and what is working for projects with different profiles, it’s possible to leverage winning strategies and hybrid approaches to make your software initiatives equally or more successful in the future.

» FEATURED: Agile vs. Traditional Software Development: Why is the debate still going on? - Part I: The dangers of bounded rationality

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Agile vs. Traditional Software Development: Why is the debate still going on? - Part I: The dangers of bounded rationality

My understanding is that, in practice, successful agilists tend to bring together a number of activities, tasks, and deliverables that are from beyond the boundaries of what may be called “pure agile.” This mixing and matching of software process elements from agile and non-agile (more formal) approaches is a much more practical way of using these ...

» History Repeats Itself, But It Doesn’t Have To!

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History Repeats Itself, But It Doesn’t Have To!

Why does it take an 'act of congress' for some organizations to realize that what they are doing is not working? I have been in many industries(media, manufacturing, financial and the judicial system) and no matter what industry I've been in I’ve seen some of the same themes.

» FEATURED: The Influencing Formula for Business Analysts

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The Influencing Formula for Business Analysts

I often get asked, “How can I get stakeholders to attend my meetings?” or “How can I get stakeholders’ buy-in on the project?” These are complex questions and the easy answer is that you can’t. As BAs and PMs we can’t get anyone to do anything, but we can certainly influence them so that they want to.

» Estimating - Getting it Right

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It seems every now and then someone comes along with a new spin on how to estimate a project, either in its entirety or a portion of it. I have heard a lot of theories over the years, particularly in the Information Technology (I.T.) field where there is a tendency to pull numbers out of a hat, but I've long given up looking for panaceas.

» FEATURED: Understanding and Managing Agile Transitions

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Understanding and Managing Agile Transitions

Software development process is undergoing seismic shift from traditional waterfall software methodologies towards agile methodologies. Agile software development methodologies deliver high quality software products in rapid iterations with high flexibility and adaptability to changing conditions. This article discusses the dynamics of agile projec...

» The Role of the Implementation Consultant – 3 things you must know !

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The Role of the Implementation Consultant – 3 things you must know !

Congratulations! You've just won your first large client and you are being chosen to play the role of the Lead Implementation Consultant for the engagement. You are being chosen because you are, at your core, an excellent BA and have a very high level of expertise about the product or solution that has just been sold.

» Another Mega-System Disaster

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Recently, I was watching an episode of "60 Minutes" which discussed the prosecution of a whistle blower at the NSA regarding the development of a major system to be used in the War on Terror, code named "Trailblazer." Although the intentions of the developers may have been good, the project started to spiral out of control almost from the begi...

» FEATURED: The Product Backlog Board

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How come product owners and teams struggle to use the product backlog effectively? One of the reasons lies in the linear nature of a traditional product backlog: It is a list of "features, functions, technologies, enhancements, and bug fixes," as "Agile Software Development with Scrum" states. Such a list works well for creating a simple product. B...

» FEATURED: The Importance of Business Process Ownership

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The Importance of Business Process Ownership

The ownership of business processes is often a bone of contention – with various parties feeling that they should be considered the owner of certain processes and not of other processes. Inability to agree on ownership can lead to turf-wars when there are perceived overlaps, as well as impactful inaction when no clear owner has been identified. Th...

» FEATURED: The Tame, the Messy, and the Wicked

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Abraham Maslow once said “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” This article provides the project manager (PM) / business analyst (BA) a framework for categorizing business problems as a baseline for selecting a solution development life cycle (SDLC).

» How to handle tight deadlines as a business analyst

(4535 Views) (12 Comments)

How to handle tight deadlines as a business analyst

When you are assigned a complex project that has a short timeframe (as often happens), it can be nerve wracking - I know this from experience. It's like driving a racing car - you have to push close to the limits but any error can throw you completely off the track.

» How to Tell When the Requirements Are Done

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How to Tell When the Requirements Are Done

How far can you take requirements elicitation in a project? Clearly, no one knows the ultimate answer. It would be very costly (if even possible) to capture all requirements, assumptions, rules, relationships, and hidden connections associated with a solution being built, so how do we know when we are done?

» FEATURED: Objective Agility - what does it take to be an Agile company?

(4625 Views) (4 Comments)

Objective Agility - what does it take to be an Agile company?

Whether it is in software development, business analysis, portfolio management or business strategy, everyone wants to be Agile - and nobody wants to admit they aren't Agile. But what does it really take to be Agile? What is the state of Agility like?

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Business Analyst Articles: Business Analysis & Systems Analysis

Entries for the 'Project Management' Category

Join the Premier Community for Business Analysts, Business Process Professionals, Systems Analysts, Data Analysts, and more…

Business Analyst Articles: Business Analysis & Systems Analysis

Entries for the 'Project Management' Category

Join the Premier Community for
Business Analysts, Business Process Professionals,
Systems Analysts, Data Analysts, and more…