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What is Stand up Meeting (Daily Scrum)?

How to Conduct Stand Up Meetings?

Let us discuss about Stand Up Meeting or daily stand up meetings.

Stand up meetings are an important event that is used in the Scrum methodology. Their primary purpose is to keep the Scrum team updated on the team’s progress.

The stands up meetings are usually held daily and they are allotted short time frames i.e. 15 minutes or less.

What is a Stand Up Meeting?

A stand-up meeting is a short meeting that is held on daily basis. Usually this meeting will happen when day starts. This is very short meeting and usually it takes 15 minutes. Due to its short time frame, these meeting are usually held with the team standing up, hence the name – Stand Up Meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to update the status of the assigned user stories or tasks, like finished, in progress, or about to be started. All the teams join in these meetings. They will raise their concerns if they have any, then Scrum Master will note down and coordinate with concerned teams if there is any dependency on other teams and try to provide the solution.

So this meeting is to understand the status of User Stories.

How to conduct Stand Up Meetings?

The stand up meeting is to be brief and focused on the team’s progress. The Scrum Master is responsible for conducting the meeting so they should ensure that they keep the meeting straight to the point. No discussions will be allowed during this meeting. Only team members will update the status on the assigned user stories.

The Scrum Master should start planning the stand up meeting by choosing a convenient location and meeting time for all the team members. Usually these meetings held on the same place and same time.

If we have team in different locations and team is working on different time zones, ensure that you pick a time when they would all be in to work.

Once the meeting is scheduled, the Scrum Master should ensure that the team stays focused by answering the below questions:

What did you do yesterday?
What will you do today?
Is there any impediment, that is slowing or stopping you?

All the team members should ensure that they attend the meeting on time. So that time will not be wasted and it shows that they are respecting team member’s time.

Scrum Master should ensure all the team members must participate in meeting and sufficient time allocated to each team member to update the status.

When the team members are discussing their progress, they might get carried away and want to discuss details but the Scrum Master should try to keep them on track by asking them to take it “Offline”.

Taking it “Offline” means that the team member should schedule another meeting with the appropriate team members to discuss their encountered issues in more detail. Scrum Master is responsible to schedule the meeting.

While this might discourage some of the team members, the Scrum Master should remind them that the Stand Up meeting is a short one and other team members also have to provide their updates.

It is also called as Daily Scrum meeting or Daily stand up Meeting

This is also called as Daily Meeting, Daily Status Meeting, Daily Status update Meeting, Daily Scrum Meeting or Status call..

FAQ’s

What is the purpose of daily standup meeting?

Daily Scrums improve communications, eliminate other meetings, identify impediments to development for removal, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improve the Development Team’s level of knowledge. This is a key inspect and adapt meeting.

What does stand up meeting mean?

A stand–up meeting (or simply “stand–up“) is a meeting in which attendees typically participate while standing. The discomfort of standing for long periods is intended to keep the meetings short.

How do you do a stand up meeting?

7 Rules for Effective Stand-Up Meetings
Only meet when necessary. One common employee complaint is that many meetings could easily be replaced by an email. …
Keep it short and sweet. At it’s core, a stand-up meeting is brief. …
Establish a goal. …
Maintain structure. …
Make remote employees feel like they’re there. …
Give everyone a chance to talk. …
Don’t skip follow-up.

What happens in a stand up meeting?

A stand–up meeting is a short meeting between a team that is held on foot. The goal is to go over important tasks that have been finished, are in progress, or are about to be started. It is also known as daily stand–up or daily Kanban to teams practicing the Kanban method, due to the recurring cadence of the meeting.

What happens in daily standup meeting?

What are the three questions asked in daily standup call?

What did you do yesterday?
What will you do today?
Are there any impediments in your way?

What are the benefits of daily standup meeting in agile?

Listed below are few benefits of having daily scrum meeting:
Let’s the team to be in sync on how things are going.
Allows for corrections in the sprint.
Building trust between team members.
Encouraging personal planning.
High visibility of progress.
Self-organization in team.

How do I start a daily standup meeting?

Here are some effective tips for a successful daily standup meeting:
15 minutes or less. …
Be on time! …
Keep the team engaged. …
Put discovered problems on hold. …
Keep it fun! Start every standup meeting with a joke, meme, gif, comic, quote, etc. …
Say ‘thank you’. …
Hold your daily standup meeting around the task board.

Why is it important to meet every day for daily stand up?

The main aim of a stand–up meeting is to distribute relevant and important information and/or to make quick decisions. They are also used to make major strategic decisions and above all, they offer a chance to “go around the room” and get everyone to present their results from the day before.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

How to Become a Business Analyst in IT field

How to Become a Business Analyst

Here whatever I mentioned is based on my own experience; I feel it may help to someone who are preparing for BA and trying to get job as a Business Analyst.

A BA is in charge of understanding a business’s changing needs, and providing technological solutions to improve its processes and systems. Thus, a business analyst is often thought of as the link between the business and IT departments.

Let us discuss in-detail below to understand how to become a BA and what are the skills needed to prove as a BA.

How to become a Business Analyst

Once we got information from our friends or colleagues related to BA career and if we decided to become a Business Analyst, then first question in our mind is how to become a Business Analyst.

Then we start discussing or inquiring more about BA and start thinking about “How to become a Business Analyst and what skills needed to become a BA. Here I am trying to give some inputs which may answer to your question “How to become a Business Analyst”

Identify Skills:

Before deciding to become BA first identify what are the skills needed to become a BA and what BA will do on daily basis. Most of the people may think communication is very important to become BA that is partially true. Communication means not only speaking in English, as s BA we should know what to speak and what not to speak and how to convince the stakeholders. Once you identify the skills, analyze yourself whether you are suitable for this position or not. Once you decided that you are suitable for this position then start improving skills to become BA.

How to identify Skills :

Now a days we can get more BA blogs and videos online, we can get to know by reading BA blogs and watching some videos on YouTube.

What are the skills needed to become a Business Analyst

Develop Your Knowledge as a Business Analyst:

Once you decided that you are suitable for this position then start improving skills to become a Business Analyst by reading Business Analyst related blogs and by watching videos. And you can discuss with your seniors who can help you to build your career as a BA Start understand, how software application will be developed and what challenges team faced during the development of the Project. And start thinking as a BA, if you are in that situation as a BA then how you will react and you will resolve the issues are problems.

What BA does on his/her day to day life

Role of BA in a Project

Develop your Domain Knowledge:

Domain knowledge is very important for BA Example for Domain Knowledge: Banking, Insurance, Finance, Healthcare, Telecom etc… Domain knowledge will help you to understand client requirements easily. You may think that as a fresher how I can get Domain Knowledge. Start discussing with your friends and seniors who are working on multiple domains and multiple organizations. Try to understanding by them how bank will work and how IT Company will work. Most of the companies will not expect Domain knowledge if you are attending interview as a Fresher, but it is good to have some knowledge.

What is Domain Knowledge

What is domain knowledge and why domain knowledge is important for BA

Practice BA Tools:

BA will use some prototyping tools to capture the requirements. Stake holders can understand by seeing the prototypes what is the requirement and what client is expecting by this requirement.

What are the tools used by BA

Documents prepared by the BA during the SDLC

Prepare Resume:

Once you are confident then start preparing the resume and start attending to interviews. And ensure your resume should not be a template; change the resume as per the job description and company requirement. Before attending to any interview read the job description carefully and prepares yourself what interviewer is expecting from you and how to answer to him.

Don’t worry and don’t disappoint if you not answered any question, note down the questions which you not answered and prepare well for those. Don’t lose your confidence and keep attending the interviews.

Read Job Description of BA

Start Attending the Interviews:

Note down the questions:

I feel it helps you to understand how to become a BA/

Once you understand how to become a BA, then you can start prepare your resume and start attending interview.

Business Analyst Certification

FAQS:

What qualifications do you need to be a business analyst?

Desirable qualifications
Undergraduate degree in subjects such as computer science, business information systems, computing and systems development, and business management.
Postgraduate qualification

How do I start a business analyst career?

To start a career as a business analyst, initially educate yourself as a business analyst person by undergoing some business analyst training. Get certified: There are a number of BA certifications widely recognized in the industry today.

Is it hard to become a business analyst?

Business analysis is hard.
It’s an extremely creative activity – occasionally frustrating but generally very satisfying. I used to come home most days feeling like I’d done a good day’s work and would still have plenty of energy to apply myself to extra-curricular activities in the evening.

Is business analyst a good career?

A good business analyst can move from industry to industry with ease. You can move to where the work is needed. You are a very flexible resource. It is also a well paid career.

How do I become a business analyst with no experience?

Learn From Other Business Analysts.
Do Some Research On BA Work Deliverables.
Seek Out Training Opportunities.
Master Soft Skills.
Participate in Business Analysis Tasks.

How is business analyst as a career?

After eight to 10 years in various business analysis positions, you can advance to chief technology officer or work as a consultant. You can take the business analyst career path as far as you would like, progressing through management levels as far as your expertise, talents and desires take you.

Does business analyst need MBA?

MBA degree is not necessary for an individual to take up a Business Analyst (IT Business Analyst) role. Those who start their IT business analyst careers , most of the times do not have good skills in all the three areas. … So an MBA is not necessary to take up an IT business analyst role.

How is business analyst career path?

After eight to 10 years in various business analysis positions, you can advance to chief technology officer or work as a consultant. You can take the business analyst career path as far as you would like, progressing through management levels as far as your expertise, talents and desires take you.

Is business analyst a technical job?

No, it is not. It is more of a techno-functional role but doesn’t require technical skills. Here are some extracts from Adaptive US’ blog on Business Analyst Job Description : … Managing requirements both at the project level and organization level are vital in fulfilling business needs.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs and Websites To Follow

The bacareers blog: Career Path for Business Analyst

Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs and Websites To Follow

Recently https://www.bacareers.in Career path for Business Analyst was named the top Business Analyst blog on the web! Top 15 Business Analyst Blogs

This is the most comprehensive list of Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs on the internet and I’m honored to be a part of this! Included in the list are some wonderful blogs.

Feedspot uses this criteria to create their rankings:

Relevancy
Domain authority
Age of a blog
Alexa Web Traffic Rank and many other parameters

Google reputation and Google search ranking
Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
Quality and consistency of posts.
Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review

Recognition never comes easy, and is often the result of collaborative work. Thanks to the much-appreciated support of its subscribers and visitors to its website, I did not expect this result when I started blogging, my intention is to help and support the people who are interested to start their career as a Business Analyst.

I am very happy when bacareers.in Career path for Business Analyst has just been listed by Feedspot among the Top 15 Business Analysis Blogs on the Web.

No doubt, this honor is an encouragement for us to try even harder than we have done over the past 8 months to bring you the whole story, good and not-so-good, about Business Analyst.

Thanks again.

Our heart-felt appreciation goes to the dedicated team of Feedspot.

Thank you Feedspot.

Hope you find some new Business Analyst blog to improve your knowledge.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Top Blogs for Business Analyst

Top Blogs to improve knowledge as a Business Analyst.

Let us see here some important or top blogs and websites to refer to get more knowledge on Business Analyst.

Usually I keep on search to identify some blogs and websites to improve my knowledge, while searching I got some websites and blots, after seeing that I felt it is worth to share with you all. I gone through so many websites and I felt below mentioned websites will help us to improve our knowledge.

I am sharing this information as per my personnel experience, may have some other blogs also but as of now I found this websites and want share with you all.

I feel it is better to visit the website and understand the things are better rather than I explain here on every website.

https://www.batimes.com/
https://www.bridging-the-gap.com/
http://businessanalyst.techcanvass.com/
https://businessanalysisexperts.com/
https://theuncommonleague.com/blog/
https://www.busanalysts.com.au/blog/
https://www.adaptiveus.com/blog/
https://seilevel.com/requirements/
https://businessborderlines.com/index.php/category/blogs/
http://www.adrianreed.co.uk/
https://www.bacareers.in/home/
https://blog.fhyzics.net/bcs-business-analysis-artificial-intelligence
https://www.businessanalysishub.com/blog
https://www.irmconnects.com/business-analysis/

To get certifications :

https://www.iiba.org/
https://www.scrum.org/

Let us know if you got any other websites which you feel, it will help to improve skills as a Business Analyst.

Please share in comments section so that it can be help to others also.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

What is Business Analyst Role in Testing / BA in testing

Business Analyst Role in Testing / BA in testing

Let us discuss here what is Business Analyst Role in Testing

Business Analyst Role in Testing / BA in testing

As I mentioned in the main page, in a software company there will be Testing team. In industry terms we call it as Quality Assurance (QA) team or Quality Control (QC) team. Most popular terminology is QA or testing. Let us try to understand what is Business Analyst role in Testing.

My intention of putting ‘testing’ knowledge here is to make Business Analyst aspirants to know about testing not intended for Developers and testers. As a Business Analyst it is important to know how testing is done and how testers perform in real life scenarios. Let’s see now, how and what a ‘tester’ will do in real time projects;

First let us understand why testing team is needed in Software Company or software project or why team needs to test the software application or product?

“Testing” will not applicable only for software product or application. “Testing” is applicable everywhere in our day to day life also. For example, before buying clothes we will test whether these clothes will suit to us or not.

Another example: Before buying two wheeler or four wheeler we will test the vehicle whether it will suit to us or not and all the functionalities are working or not.

Similarly testing team will test the software product/ application before releasing to client or market. Without proper testing we will not find quality product. If testing not done properly then software will have so many problems or issues. It leads to project failure, because no one will accept application with issues or problems.

So testing is very important during the project execution.

In ‘Testing’ there are 2 major types

a) Black-box testing
B) White-box testing

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Black-box testing: Let me put in simple words, black-box testing deals mainly with the functionality testing. Here we test – if ‘x’ is input, are we getting ‘y’ as output.

White-box testing:

here also tester will test if ‘x’ is input ‘y’ is the output or not but this type of testing deals with technical things. How program logic is written? Based on the code is the input and output are proper or not? How input is interacting with backend database and how results are fetched.

In simple words you can say, black-box testing needs functional knowledge and white-box needs technical knowledge.
As you know, Business Analyst will do Business requirements gathering and prepare SRS/FSD/FRS and share the documents with Development and testing team. Testers will read the SRS /FSD/FRS and if any doubts are there then they will ask Business Analyst for clarifications. Then Business Analyst will clarify all the doubts and arrange meetings if needed. After all the clarifications are made as first step; ‘Testing Lead’ will create high level Test Scenarios. In the test Scenario it will be mentioned – what to be tested? What all modules are to be tested and what all are the high-level expected results?

Testers will write Test-cases which will be based on the SRS /FSD/ FRS document provided by Business Analyst. Test cases will be written in detail for each field and each function.

For entire application and including all the modules ‘test cases’ will be written. Usually MS-Excel will be used to write test-cases. Once test cases are ready then a senior tester or any of the other testers will review the test-cases.

Once Developers code the functionality build will be passed to testing team. (What is Build? – Build is the terminology used. Build means – Developed code.) Build will be tested in phase wise and accordingly to test plan prepared by Testing team leader. Testing will be done based on the test cases written. Usually it is called “test-case” execution. Before testing team start testing there are some tests.

Before build is passed to testers there are some testing done. Yes!! Developers themselves do a round of testing before passing build to testing team. We call it as “Unit Testing”. Developers will write Unit Test- cases and execute unit test cases.

After unit testing is done, there is one more testing called BVT (build Verification testing). This testing is done by developers or testers or deployment engineer. The main purpose of this test is to ensure the Build is stable or not. (note: there will be different servers like development or lab server, test server, production server) when build is deployed in different server all the path and connections need to be changed and build should be ensured working. If not working Testers will not be able to test build. Also if any major bugs (what is Bug: it is terminology again. Bug means mistake or error) testing team will reject the build form testing.

After BVT is done testers will start testing the build as per test-cases written. Any bugs found will be logged into central repository. There are some tools specifically for testing team which will act as repository and as well as tracking purpose. Any bugs can be logged into tool and assign to development team. An email will be triggered to developer on that bug. Developer will check and if it is a bug he will fix that bug. If not bug developer will write his comments for that bug and close the bugs]

When testers log bugs and it will be fixed by developers, again it will be tested. The fixed functionality will be tested – this is called “Patch testing”. Usually any patch or fixes done by developers will have impact on different functionality so again from start application need to be tested. This type of testing is called “Regression Testing”

The other testing types are;

Smoke testing: This is a sort of high level testing done on all the major functionality to ensure all the main parts of software are working. This does not do in-depth testing minute level.

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Sanity testing:

This is to ensure all parts of software are working but this testing focuses on minute level of functionality.

Integration Testing:

Software will be developed in phases or modules. Each module developed will be tested separately and at the end all the modules will be clubbed and tested. This is called Integration testing.

System testing:

This is to ensure entire software is working properly. In this test not only testers but business analysts, consultants and other people will test. This is something like preparatory exam before main exam. After system testing is done build will be deployed for UAT.

UAT:

User Acceptance testing – this is done by clients.

Beta Testing: This is done by both client and testing team or business analyst. Once UAT is passed and application is deployed for usability for some period application will be on Beta.

Now lets see bug classification:

Blocker bugs
Major bugs
Critical bugs
Normal bugs
Trivial bugs

Defect or Bug Life Cycle

Blocker Bugs are those which blocks testers from further testing, say for example if application is having Login function and after login testers are supposed test some functions BUT if they are not able to login. i,e. some problem in development with respect to login function we call it as Blocker bug.
other important bugs which are critical will be categorized into major and critical.
Some small bugs like not accepting numbers, telephone number is accepting alphabets are considered as normal and trival bugs.

Once bugs are raised testers will pass it to developers, once developers fix those bugs it will be passed back to testers for verification of fixed bugs. if again there is some problem with fixed bugs testers will pass it back to developers. This cycle repeats and once bug is fixed, testers will verify and close the bugs.
There are some open source tools like Bugzilla which are used to keep track of bug status. i.e. opened, closed, verified etc..

Also there are 2 more types of bugs called Invalid bugs and duplicate bugs. If testers raise some bugs which have no problems then developers will mark it as Invalid bugs. If same bugs are repeated then developers will mark it as Duplicate bugs.

(Note Again: this article is for Business Analysts and not for testers because for testers testing document need to be in depth. This is just for understanding QA or testing cycle).

Business Analyst involves in Testing phase, so it is good to have knowledge on testing.

Depends on the organization Business Analyst participates in all the phases of SDLC except Development.

It does not mean that Business Analyst will not participate in development phase, Business analyst explains the requirements to development team if team needs more clarity on the requirements.

I hope this article helped you to understand what is Business Analyst role in testing

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FAQS: Testing and UAT

What is the business analyst role in UAT?

The Business Analyst Role is central to achieving success in UAT sessions. … UAT helps stakeholders to determine whether the system can be put to use in real-life business scenarios or not. 2. The UAT session is an opportunity for users to see the solution in action and confirm that it meets their needs.

Who writes UAT test cases?

When it comes to UAT, often the UAT is composed of Business Analysts and selected end-users who will perform the actual UA testing. But QA, who have an overall responsibility to ensure the application/product works as required, should be part of the process for test definition

Who is responsible for UAT?

In summary, quality assurance is the responsibility of the business user and it therefore Party R responsible for executing the UAT. While a project manager (Party D) can help facilitate the time line and sign off process, and should support and be accountable for getting it done with Party R responsible for UAT.

Who runs UAT?

For many, UAT belongs in the hands of business analysts and corresponding business owners. These individuals collaborate to create the test plans and test cases and then determine how to implement and track their progress, all the while integrating the skills of technical experts and a quality assurance team.

Is UAT functional testing?

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a type of testing performed by the end user or the client to verify/accept the software system before moving the software application to the production environment. UAT is done in the final phase of testing after functional, integration and system testing is done.

Why is UAT important?

UAT is important because it helps demonstrate that required business functions are operating in a manner suited to real-world circumstances and usage. Verified and tested by the people who are going to be working with it on a daily basis. Basically you and your team are getting a better piece of software

What is UAT sign off?

UAT Sign–off: When all defects are resolved, the UAT team formally accepts (or recommends acceptance to the project manager) the software application as developed. The approval shows that the application meets user requirements and is deployable.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Scrum Master Role in a Project

Let us observe who is Scrum Master and what Scrum Master Role is in a Project.

Scrum team includes of Scrum Master, Product Owner and Development Team.

Let us discuss some important roles of the Scrum master’s in project:

The primary responsibility of the Scrum Master is to build a Team. And he works closely with the team to deliver the project without bugs and he ensures to deliver on time. To achieve this Scrum Master needs to coordinate and discuss with internal and external stakeholders. Scrum Master acts as a guide for Scrum process, assistant, coach, facilitator and change agent.

Scrum Master facilitates the Scrum activities and removes impediment’s so that the team can build successful product. Scrum Master closely works with the team to understand the team concerns and challenges, and he works with the concerned teams to provide solution to the team to deliver successful product.

Facilitator: To adopt scrum for team, maintain transparency, bring effectiveness in meetings, resolve conflicts and bring best of team.

Guide: Scrum master act as a guide, he explains scrum frame work, roles, responsibilities and activities to the scrum team.

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Continue reading “Scrum Master Role in a Project”

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

How to write user stories effectively in Agile?

How to write User stories

Let us discuss here how to write user stories and what are 3 C’s of User Story.

User Stories and how to write user Stories

When we are working on agile process (methodology), user stories are very important. Because we have to write requirements as a user story to understand easily.

To write user stories first we need to understand who the user/Actor is and what his role in application is and what actions user will perform by using this product.

User story should be understandable
And User story should be Testable.

Usually product owner will write the user stories with the help of the team, team will participate on discussions to understand what the requirement is clearly.

A User Story has three primary components. Before writing user story we must understand below.

Who is the user?
What action he will perform?
What outcome or benefit he will get?

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This is the standard template using to write user stories.

As a <user role> of the product,
I can <action>

So that <benefit>.

In other words, the written text of the story, the invitation to a conversation, must address the “who”, “what” and “why” of the story.

What are The Three ‘C’s of User Story

Card: The Card, or written text of the User Story is best understood as an invitation to conversation.
Conversation. The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner which involves all stakeholders and the team.
Confirmation.

Let us discuss in detail below what are the 3 C’s of User Story

Discussions/ Team meetings:

The collaborative conversation facilitated by the Product Owner / Scrum master which involves all stakeholders and the team.

As much as possible, this is an in-person conversation.

The conversation is where the real value of the story lies, and the written Card should be adjusted to reflect the current shared understanding of this conversation.

This conversation is mostly verbal but most often supported by documentation and ideally automated tests of various sorts

Confirmation

The Product Owner must confirm that the story is complete before it can be considered “done”
The team and the Product Owner check the “done status” of each story in light of the Team’s current definition of “done” .Specific acceptance criteria that is different from the current definition of “done” can be established for individual stories, but the current criteria must be well understood and agreed to by the Team. All associated acceptance tests should be in a passing state.

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INVESTⁱⁱ

The test for determining whether or not a story is well understood and ready for the team to start working on it is the INVEST acronym:

Independent — The story should be independent.
Negotiable — Can this story be changed or removed without impact to everything else?
Valuable — Does this story have value to the end user?
Estimable — Can you estimate the size of the story?
Small —Is it small enough?
Testable — User story should be testable.

User Stories FAQ

What is a user story in Agile?

A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end user perspective. The user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. … A user story can be considered a starting point to a conversation that establishes the real product requirement.

What are 3 C's in user stories?

The Three ‘C’s
This discovery occurs through conversation and collaboration around user stories. In other words, the written text of the story, the invitation to a conversation, must address the “who”, “what” and “why” of the story

What are the characteristics of a user story?

The INVEST acronym, given by Bill Wake, suggests characteristics of good user stories. The acronym stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimative, Small, and Testable. Let us examine each characteristic in detail. User Stories are often inherently dependent on each other

Who writes a user story?

Anyone can write user stories. It’s the product owner’s responsibility to make sure a product backlog of agile user stories exists, but that doesn’t mean that the product owner is the one who writes them. Over the course of a good agile project, you should expect to have user story examples written by each team member.

How do you define a user story?

A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective. A user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. A user story helps to create a simplified description of a requirement

Are user stories requirements?

A User Story is a requirement expressed from the perspective of an end-user goal. User Stories may also be referred to as Epics, Themes or features but all follow the same format. A User Story is really just a well-expressed requirement. … It defines the requirement in language that has meaning for that role

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Elicitation Techniques used by Business Analyst.

Requirement Elicitation Techniques

As a Business Analyst we need to understand the requirements clearly, to understand the requirements as a Business Analyst we need to use techniques to understand the requirements. Let us observe Business Analyst elicitation techniques.

Elicitation is the process of digging out the information from the stakeholders. Requirements Elicitation serves the foundation in documenting the requirements.

Elicitation Techniques

Let us see here below:

Brainstorming
Document Analysis
Focus groups
Observation
Workshop
JAD (Joint Application Development)
Interview
Prototyping
Questionnaire (Survey)

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FAQ’s

What are requirement elicitation techniques?

Requirements elicitation practices include interviews, questionnaires, user observation, workshops, brainstorming, use cases, role playing and prototyping. … Before requirements can be analyzed, modeled, or specified they must be gathered through an elicitation process.

What techniques do business analysts use?

S.W.O.T. stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. This is the most important technique used in business analysis. It is conducted by a group of people with different mindsets and perspectives in the company in order to access a changing environment and react accordingly.

What is elicitation in business analysis?

Requirements Elicitation. A Project’s Foundation

Requirements elicitation is the set of activities where information is given by stakeholders, users, and customers to be applied to the design of the initiative or the solution. Elicitation is a perpetual process during a project development.

What are the three main techniques of business analysis planning?

List of Best Business Analysis Techniques
SWOT Analysis. The term SWOT stands for its four elements– …
MOST Analysis. The term MOST stands for its four elements – …
Business Process Modelling (BPM) …
Use Case Modelling. …
Brainstorming. …
Non-functional Requirement Analysis. …
PESTLE Analysis. …
Requirement Analysis.

Which requirement elicitation is most popular?

Having said that, brainstorming, document analysis, interviews, prototyping and workshops are the most widely used requirement elicitation techniques.

Why is requirement elicitation a difficult task?

Why is Requirements Elicitation a difficult task ? Explanation: Users specify unnecessary technical detail that may confuse, rather than clarify overall system objectives. … Explanation: Requirements traceability provides bi-directional traceability between various associated requirements.

What is elicitation in teaching?

Elicitation is a technique by which the teacher gets the learners to give information rather than giving it to them. A teacher elicits the rules for the structure of the first conditional by asking learners to look at some examples, then writing ‘We make the first conditional in English with…?’ on the board.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Business Analyst Challenges:

Business Analyst Challenges

Here I am listing down the real time challenges faced by the Business Analyst. There can be other challenges but here I am mentioning few which are facing by the Business Analyst in day to day life. I believe it may enough when you are trying a fresher, one or two experience.

Frequently changing requirements
Freeze requirements
Coordination with developers and testers
Change management-with respect to cost and time lines
Drive UAT phase – on time completion of UAT·
Manage Stakeholders availability for requirements and conducting meetings
Lack of training
People Management , Coordinating with different teams and different people.
Making sure status reporting is effective
Domain Knowledge
Overall making sure project health is in good shape and delivered as per the timelines without any issues.

Changing Requirements:Client may change their requirements very frequently. As a Business Analyst it is Very difficult to manage internal and external stake holders when they are frequently changing the requirements. We can’t accept every change request because already we committed the deadline of the project and committed the timelines to client and higher management and it may impact on project cost also. And development team also started work for committed requirements.

And it will take good amount of time to discuss and understand the requirement on the new change and feasibility of the same.

And we can’t say ‘No” to the client because it may impact on the project, so we need to convince client with proper reasons.

Before saying “Yes” or “No” as a Business Analyst we need to analyze what is the impact of this change and how much effort needed to deliver this change.

Every client may not change their requirements frequently but it may happen in general.

Freeze Requirements:

We need not to consider this as a tough challenge but sometimes client may make you struggle to give sign off and sometimes client will delay on providing the sign off. Because of this development may delay, and we can inform the same to client during the meetings.

This is not a tough challenge but for some reasons, client will not sign-off on the requirements or delay sign-off. The reason is, once client provide sign-off on the requirements, any changes will be charged additionally. So client will take some time to sign-off but this will again impact our project schedule.

However in real time, we start follow-up with client to get sign-off and we will commit the delivery dates once we get sign off from the client only. Unless we get signoff from the client on FSD we will not start work on this project. It will happen rarely but there is a chance to take place this scenario.

Challenges during Development:

This is also a common challenge for business analyst across organizations.

Developers will understand in a different way and do coding but when it comes to testing, testers might have understood in a different way and they will raise as a defect (bug) on developers. Developers will not easily accept the bug because they developed it and it will impact on their performance. Testers will argue it as a bug and finally it will be parked over Business Analyst. How to avoid these situations? Usually Business Analysts will share SRS / FSD containing requirements with developers and testers but Business Analyst should make sure that joint sessions to be organized with development team and testing team. Business Analyst should explain the requirements in joint session to both developers and testers and give them some time to read and understand. In case of any doubts Business Analyst should clarify then and there to avoid further confusions. And Business Analyst needs to conduct meeting with the internal stake holders frequently to get the project updates and to get to know whether team is facing any issues during development.

Change Management:

As we discussed previously once requirements are signed-off from client, any changes to the requirements will have impact on cost and schedule. So change management needs to be involved. i.e client should agree to provide more cost and additional time to deliver.

Most of the time, clients will not easily agree to the additional cost and time. This will require some sessions to convince clients. This will consume some effort.

However this is not exactly a challenge of Business Analyst, it will be project manager who will coordinate with customer for additional cost and time but since requirements are involved Business Analyst will also be engaged in change management process.

Challenges faced by the Business Analyst during UAT (User Acceptance Testing):

Once development and system testing is done from project execution team & before taking software / application go live, UAT has to be done. In the project execution your project Manager will reserve some time exclusively for UAT. In real time clients will not start UAT in time. So, any delay in UAT will have impact on project roll-out. So Business Analyst should drive UAT and make sure clients start testing from their end in-time. In case of any defects in UAT phase Business Analyst should quickly resolve with help of developers and testers. And if these are related to application functionality then business analyst needs to address it as soon as possible.

Again, just like getting sign-off on requirement documents, Business Analyst should get a sign-off on UAT as well. Client should confirm that UAT is performed and no pending issues.

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Manage Stakeholders Availability for requirements:

Requirements’ gathering is most important phase in the SDLC. Business Analyst will arrange sessions with clients to understand the requirements. Most of the times Business Analyst will need business units, tech teams, Architects & other stakeholders to discuss about the problem statement and collect end customer needs but not everyone will be available at the same time.

Especially if company is into consulting, tech teams will be working on multiple projects. You need to match client’s time with every stakeholder which seems easy but really challenging.

If meetings get delayed, project plan will be affected and hence delivery/implementation date gets postponed, your client will not agree and difficult to convince.

Lack of training :

Sometimes you may face the client without proper training, as you do not have enough knowledge and enough training on product, you can’t convince the client and you can’t provide suitable solutions to client. Due to this client may lose confidence and trust on you. If you want to prove as a good business analyst it is very important to maintain good relationship with all the stake holders to things get it done smoothly.

Lack of Domain Knowledge

Domain knowledge is very important for business Analyst, so that business analyst can understand what client is trying to explain and what exact requirement of the client is. It will help us to explain the functionality to developers and internal stakeholders.

I hope it helped you to provide overview on Business Analyst Challenges

To know more about Business Analyst Challenges, you can browse on google.

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Business Analyst Challenges: FAQs

What are the challenges faced by business analyst?

Getting Stakeholders To Make Time.
Lack of Clarity.
Inadequate Time Allotted For BA Work.
Conflict Among Stakeholders.

What does a business analyst do?

The analyst is involved in the design or modification of business systems or IT systems. The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts in order to understand their problems and needs. The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business needs and requirements

What is the role of business analyst in SDLC?

Role of Business Analyst during SDLC Process
Then leads in analysis and designing phase, dictates in code development, then follows the testing phase during bug fixing as a change agent in the project team and ultimately fulfills the customer requirements

What are the qualities of a good business analyst?

Impressive Communication. Imagine hiring a business analyst who mumbles every time they speak. …
The Ability To Solve Problems. A problem occurs within the company. …
Critical Thinking. Finding the ideal solution doesn’t “just happen.” …
An Analytical Mind. You don’t have to be born with it. …
Process Modeling Knowledge

What does a BA do in Agile?

The AGILE BA defines improvements to business processes, assists decision-makers in gathering information to make decisions, helps quality assurance test solutions and products, designs user interfaces and even steps in as a product owner, scrum master, or project manager as the occasion calls for.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.

www.bacareers.in

Business Analyst Role in Product based Company

Business Analyst Role in Product based company:

Let us observe Business Analyst Role in product based company, When Business Analyst is working in product-based company, then he needs to understand the product of the company, like how it works and functionality of the product. Then only he can able to provide the suitable solutions to client. If Business Analyst not have the enough knowledge on his own product then he can’t convince the stake holders. Because of this stake holders may lose the confidence on the Business Analyst.

If you want to prove as a good business analyst, then you should build a good relationship with internal and external stake holders, it is possible when business analyst has knowledge on product. Role and Responsibilities of Business Analyst

Leet us discuss in detail below.

What is product-based company:

Business Analyst Role

IT company will have the concept and they invest time and money to build the product. IT company team will work to deliver this product. IT company initiates the development and company is the owner for this developed product. Then company sales team will sell the same product to multiple clients or customers. Customizations and configuration changes may be done as per the client requirement. Here Business Analyst needs to understand what changes to be done in existing product as per client requirement and where it fits. Business Analyst needs to understand that it should affect the functionality of the application.

Deployment will be done at client place: Business Analyst ensure to deployment should be done with out any issues, Business Analyst should coordinate with internal and external stake holders during deployment. Business Analyst should ensure that all the stake holders should be available during the deployment of the product, so that we can investigate and fix the issues or bugs if anything observed by the client during deployment.

Example for Product development IT companies: Oracle, IBM, SAP, CRM etc.,

Briefly we will see here Business Analyst Role in Product Development Company:

Understand the product features
Understand the product domain
Understand the client requirements
Understand what customizations are needed to this product to fit in the client requirements.
Understand where this product fits in the Domain
https://www.bacareers.in/business-analyst-role-in-testing/

I feel this helps you to understand the Business Analyst Role in Product based company.

What is Application Development Company:

Here client will have the requirement, and client will coordinate with IT company to develop the IT application. Client initiates the development; IT company will share the updates and status of the development of the IT application to the client during meetings and when client asked for status of the development. Client is the owner of the developed application.

Client will be the only customer for this application because application has been developed as per this customer requirements only and client is the owner. Deployment will be done at the Clients place.

Business Analyst needs to understand the client industry and domain to provide suitable solutions.

I feel this helps you to understand the Business Analyst Role in Application Development company.

Pallavi

Business Analyst , Functional Consultant, Provide Training on Business Analysis and SDLC Methodologies.