An introduction to Agile Requirements definition and how it differs from traditional methods.

1. TheFARM Education
Agile Requirements

2. BACKLOG
History Of Software Requirements
A Little On The Agile Process
Telling Stories - Agile Requirements

3. THE JOURNEY - WATERFALL
Original software development was mostly a
“hack away until it works” effort.
Waterfall was born of the desire to better manage complex
projects.
Analyse
Design
Build
Test
Release
Welcome to the 1970s!

4. SLIPPERY RESULTS
Software project failure* exceptionally high at 61%.
The main reasons for failure include:
• Incomplete or Changing Requirements
• Lack of User Involvement or Bad Communication
• Delivered Late or Over Budget.

5. OLD REQUIREMENTS
Using Waterfall We Try To:
• Capture Detail About Requirements All At Once Before We
Start.
• Often Performed Independently of Eventual Delivery Team.
• Estimate Project Effort and Cost Off Requirements.
• Restrict Change by Penalising For It (and we still fail!)

6. OLD REQUIREMENTS

7. A NEW WAY
During the 1980s and 1990s approaches changed.
The goal: to fix what was wrong with IT project delivery.
The result: lots of new great ways to do project delivery.
The problem: which one to use?!
In 2001 a group came together in Utah and bought many
disciplines together and produced the Agile Manifesto.

8. AGILE MANIFESTO
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

9. AGILE APPROACH
Using Agile We:
• Start with a set of Stories in a Backlog.
• Collaboratively prioritise and refine Stories for build.
• Work using defined periods of time (a Sprint).
• Extract Tasks from Stories to complete in a Sprint.
• Accept that requirements can and do change.
• Always have shippable software.

10. AGILE REQUIREMENTS (STORIES)
Story Detail and Size (Points).

11. AGILE REQUIREMENTS (STORIES)
Acceptance Criteria.

12. AGILE REQUIREMENTS (STORIES)
Way Too Big… it’s an…

13. SCRUM BOARD

14. BURN DOWN

15. Are we Done?
(that’s a Scrum joke)

16. References
(1) REVIEW OF TRADITIONAL PROJECT FAILURE RATES
http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm
(2) AGILE REQUIREMENTS BASICS
http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/topics/user-stories