How to create clear business documentation using Agile?

Learn how to create clear and legible business documentation for every stakeholder with the lecturer of the “Business Analyst from A to Z” course, Magdalena Straś.

 

The Agile Programming Manifesto states that the following should be valued more in work: people and interactions over processes and tools; working software over detailed documentation; cooperation with the client over contract negotiations; and responding to changes over implementing the established plan. So how can these principles be introduced into the work of a business analyst? We talk about this, as well as the differences between business documentation in classic and agile approaches and the challenges that business analysts face in a rapidly evolving work environment, with Magdalena Straś, Senior Business Analyst at Sii Polska.

Why do we need business documentation?

In fact, only and exclusively for one purpose – as business analysts list of conduit cn cell phone numbers we enter the organization and try to find the reason why we are changing something, present all the customer’s needs related to this change . Therefore, our task is to collect information about the actual state. We also create a vision of the future, desired state, and analyze how to achieve it. Already at this initial stage, we can face several challenges.

It is not uncommon for different stakeholders to have a completely different vision of the future. Very often, we also encounter a situation where something should work in a certain way, but it does work in a completely different way. Some stakeholders are aware of this, but there is also a group that has no idea about it at all, and that is why our first step is to define the requirements that are formed from conversations, interviews and workshops conducted while examining the needs of various parties. Remember that these should be relevant and validated requirements, not a list of stakeholder wishes. After us, someone may come who will build a system or improve a process based on these requirements, and without properly prepared business documentation that allows for quick corrections, presentation of the current status or validation to stakeholders, we will not be able to assess the situation or start further activities.

What does your day-to-day work look like?

The work of a business analyst means taking notes, writing down, bulleting, and connecting dots invisible to the naked eye. We record everything that happens: the situational context, people’s behavior, and even the way they validate requirements and relate to what they tell us.

What is the use of the classical approach in business documentation?

In the so-called waterfall analysis  midjourney: what is it, where does it live and how is it creating art with artificial intelligence? i.e. the one in which the analyst comes first and does the so-called pre-study , we worked in isolation. We worked with a client, with whom we conducted interviews and held workshops. We also tried to check how employees behaved, and how users of the system, and related it to some given state of affairs. Developers did not understand what we had written, and even found gaps in the document. Similarly, testers could not find their way around the content we had produced. Reading chapter by chapter, it was possible to gather a full picture of the situation and extract the necessary information, but sometimes the most important thing was missing, i.e. combining everything into a coherent whole, and not going from chapter to chapter in search of the necessary information.

What did recipients of such classic business documentation have the biggest problem with?

The recipients went through a set of cpa email list all business requirements, which – although presented as a complete whole – did not make it easy to refer to just one element of interest , such as user screens. During such a process, which we deal with in the case of classic documentation, it is easier to make a mistake.  And even if we find all references to one element of the project, it takes a lot of time. In addition, this type of documentation was largely textual, with a small number of visual elements. Only models appeared, which required the recipient to understand. Therefore, a huge need arose for a change of optics.

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