Beyond Requirements: Analysis with an Agile Mindset (Paperback)

Satisfy Stakeholders by Solving the Right Problems, in the Right Ways

In Beyond Requirements , Kent J. McDonald shows how applying analysis techniques with an agile mindset can radically transform analysis from merely “gathering and documenting requirements” to an important activity teams use to build shared understanding. First, McDonald discusses the unique agile mindset, reviews the key principles underlying it, and shows how these principles link to effective analysis. Next, he puts these principles to work in four wide-ranging and thought-provoking case studies. Finally, he drills down on a full set of techniques for effective agile analysis, using examples to show how, why, and when they work.

McDonald’s strategies will teach you how to understand stakeholders’ needs, identify the best solution for satisfying those needs, and build a shared understanding of your solution that persists throughout the product lifecycle. He also demonstrates how to iterate your analysis, taking advantage of what you learn throughout development, testing, and deployment so that you can continuously adapt, refine, and improve.

Whether you’re an analysis practitioner or you perform analysis tasks as a developer, manager, or tester, McDonald’s techniques will help your team consistently find and deliver better solutions.

Coverage includes

• Core concepts for analysis: needs/ solutions, outcome/output, discovery/delivery
• Adapting Lean Startup ideas for IT projects: customer delivery, build–measure–learn, and metrics
• Structuring decisions, recognizing differences between options and commitments, and overcoming cognitive biases
• Focusing on value: feature injection, minimum viable products, and minimum marketable features
• Understanding how analysis flows alongside your project’s lifecycle
• Analyzing users: mapping stakeholders, gauging commitment, and creating personas
• Understanding context: performing strategy (enterprise) analysis
• Clarifying needs: applying decision filters, assessing project opportunities, stating problems
• Investigating solutions: impact and story mapping, collaborative modeling, and acceptance criteria definition

Kent J. McDonald uncovers better ways of delivering value. His experience includes work in business analysis, strategic planning, project management, and product development in the financial services, health insurance, performance marketing, human services, nonprofit, and automotive industries. He has a BS in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Kent State University. He is coauthor of Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility (Addison-Wesley, 2009).

滿足利益相關者，通過解決正確的問題以正確的方式

在《超越需求》中，肯特·J·麥克唐納（Kent J. McDonald）展示了如何應用敏捷思維的分析技巧，從僅僅“收集和記錄需求”轉變為團隊用於建立共同理解的重要活動。首先，麥克唐納討論了獨特的敏捷思維，回顧了其背後的關鍵原則，並展示了這些原則如何與有效的分析相關聯。接下來，他在四個廣泛而發人深省的案例研究中應用這些原則。最後，他深入探討了一整套有效的敏捷分析技巧，並通過示例展示了它們的工作原理、原因和時機。

麥克唐納的策略將教你如何理解利益相關者的需求，確定滿足這些需求的最佳解決方案，並建立一個在產品生命周期中持續存在的共同理解。他還演示了如何在開發、測試和部署過程中迭代分析，以便不斷適應、改進和提升。

無論你是一個分析從業者，還是作為開發人員、經理或測試人員執行分析任務，麥克唐納的技巧都將幫助你的團隊始終找到並交付更好的解決方案。

本書涵蓋的內容包括：

- 分析的核心概念：需求/解決方案、結果/輸出、發現/交付
- 將精益創業思想應用於IT項目：客戶交付、建立-測量-學習和指標
- 決策結構、識別選項和承諾之間的差異，以及克服認知偏差
- 關注價值：功能注入、最小可行產品和最小可銷售功能
- 理解分析如何與項目的生命周期並行
- 分析用戶：利益相關者映射、評估承諾和創建人物
- 理解上下文：進行戰略（企業）分析
- 澄清需求：應用決策過濾器、評估項目機會、陳述問題
- 調查解決方案：影響和故事映射、協作建模和驗收標準定義

肯特·J·麥克唐納揭示了交付價值的更好方法。他的經驗包括在金融服務、健康保險、性能營銷、人力服務、非營利組織和汽車行業從事業務分析、戰略規劃、項目管理和產品開發。他擁有愛荷華州立大學的工業工程學士學位和肯特州立大學的工商管理碩士學位。他是《退後並交付：加速業務敏捷性》（Addison-Wesley，2009）的合著者。