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New Post 3/5/2014 8:01 AM
User is offline Gandalf the White
3 posts
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Faux-Agile 

Hi all, Wondering if anyone else has this experience and how you manage it. I am a contractor and the last few places I have worked they are running the project with Agile. So, we have sprints, retrospectives, utilization of JIRA, etc. but the methodology is truly a hybrid of agile and waterfall and a butchering of Agile at best.

I am functioning as a BA for this project and the developers are all working way ahead to get their integration plumbing done. To do so, we find through happen-stance that they are meeting with the business to get requirements/basic understanding of what’s needed so they can design/develop integration accordingly. These conversations are not documented and the technical documents produced are 100,000 foot levels with virtually no details as to why the design/development was done in the particular way chosen. After all, it’s agile so there is no or minimal documentation…cause that’s what Agile is, right? (Just kidding)
 
Weeks later, a BA like myself gets assigned to do the BA work for this piece of Integration. I have no documentation to work from, no frame of reference, have had no contact with the business and now I need to find out where the designers/developers received their direction, follow up with those individuals and essentially pull meetings together with the business to get the direction I need. Inevitably, some of the requirements are relayed to me differently or have changed from what was developed and the developers don’t want to go back and re-do much of anything as they have moved on to other items to which a BA has yet to be assigned…And so the cycle continues. It really makes coming to work so not enjoyable.
 
One last point, we don’t really have any say in how the methodology gets executed so we just mention these same issues over and over and nothing changes. Is anyone else finding this to be a consistent experience with companies that are supposedly doing Agile?
 
Thanks!
 
New Post 3/28/2014 8:34 AM
User is offline Martymar
1 posts
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Re: Faux-Agile 

 I find it curious as to why a BA would be assigned to a project "weeks later".  And on the same note, why are the devoplers meeting with the business at all?  I wouldn't expect you to be able to answer that, but it sounds like they are cutting the BA role from the process.

As for the requirement changes, it sounds like the team needs to get on board with a change requirement process.  What did they expect when it sounds like the dev's are designing what they want?

In my use of Jira, all projects are backlogged and given a priorty.  Only when we decide to move them to an epic may the dev's begin work.  This way, we are working ahead of them, and not the other way around.

Tough spot.

 
New Post 3/31/2014 11:17 AM
User is offline fred
13 posts
10th Level Poster


Re: Faux-Agile 

 Run from that project. It will be a certain death march. 

 
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