ALM DevOps

W16 Effective Agile Software Requirements

05/18/2016

3:00pm - 4:15pm

Level: Intermediate

Richard Hundhausen

Consultant & Trainer

Accentient

The process wars are over. Agile won. So why do people still waste so much time and effort creating upfront requirements and documentation? Perhaps it reduces risk, leads to better design, produces higher quality software, or generates more accurate estimates? For certain complex projects, this might be true. For software development, though, they're all myths. For most software development efforts, upfront requirements and documentation are waste.

In this session, you will learn why this is true. You will be introduced to techniques you can use to break down the wall between the "requirements givers" and the "requirements developers" and replace it with a conversation instead. You'll use Visual Studio Online to create agile requirements in the form of user stories, assign business value, estimate their effort, refine and order them. By the end of the session, you will be able to identify waste and see new value in a leaner approach-all tactics you can use on your current or next project.

You will learn:

  • How to write, cultivate, and manage effective Agile software requirements using Visual Studio
  • How to reduce waste by separating the "what" from the "how"
  • When to stop analyzing and specifying a new requirement