The Agile Requirements Gathering & Iteration Planning training focuses on the project team skill set needed to successfully participate on Agile Projects. The workshop provides training in collaboration techniques needed for gathering requirements, developing release/iteration plans and defining the iteration detailed requirements for Agile Projects. The seminar focus is:

• Requirements gathering and collaboration techniques for Agile Projects
• Training for UML techniques, user stories and agile use cases with agendas and scripts for facilitating
• Practical experience in facilitating for agile requirements gathering
• Planning the iteration and defining the Iteration Detailed Requirements

The objectives of the seminar are to:

• Provide an understanding of the Agile deliverables needed for scoping and requirements gathering
• Supply sample agendas, scripts and checklists used to capture the requirements for Agile Projects
• Provide practical exercises for building agendas and conducting collaborative workshops for capturing an agile project vision, scope and requirements using agile modeling techniques and best practices
• Provide tips and techniques for defining and planning the iterations of an Agile Project
• Give each seminar participant the opportunity to conduct collaborative workshops using specific agendas for an Agile Project Case Study and be provided with feedback and an evaluation by the instructor

• What is agile and iterative development?
• How does agile differ from waterfall development?
• Agile Manifesto and Principles
• Strengths and weaknesses of waterfall vs. agile
• What is Scrum, XP and UP and what are the key practices used for each?
• Factors to consider when deciding on the methodology and practices to use for your projects
• Exercise - discuss the practices your groups have used outlining their benefits and pitfalls
• What are some common mistakes?

• Tactics for success
• Collaboration Techniques
  • JAD workshops
  • Focus Groups for Iterative Requirements
  • Role of JAD and Focus Groups in Agile Projects
• Key Agile Requirements Techniques
• Timeboxing for Agile Projects
• Who are the key players for a successful Agile Project Team?
• What is the environment needed to succeed for the agile development approach?

• Workshop approaches
• Storyboarding
• Interviewing
• Kit Reviews
• Prototype walk-through and end of iteration demos

• Key components of an agile workshop
• Basic facilitation skills
• Active listening skills
• Exercise - Practice interviewing skills exercise
• Leadership styles
• Basic facilitation rules
• Managing conflict
• Tips and techniques for handling group dynamics
• How to handle problem people
• Presentation skills
• Techniques for creative thinking
• Building an meeting agenda

• Building an agenda
• Facilitation skills and presentation skills
• Group decision-making and consensus building
• Managing conflict and people problems

• Each student is asked to select a topic and facilitate a short meeting practicing their facilitation and presentation skills. Each student is given an opportunity to build an agenda, become familiar with the facilitation experience and perform the new skills and techniques learned in class. Feedback is provided from both the instructor and class participants.

• Agile principles for discovering the Project Vision and Scope
• Defining the problem statement and root causes
• Writing the vision statement
• Techniques for capturing the vision statement
  • Product Vision Box
  • Use Case Diagram
  • Moore-Style Vision Statement
• Capturing and writing the success criteria
• JAD Agendas, scripts, facilitation techniques for conducting collaborative Vision & Scoping Workshops
• Case Study Exercise - Facilitating a collaborative workshop for building the Vision Statement, Use Case Diagram to define the project scope, writing the success criteria

• Agile principles for discovering the Requirements
• Constructing the High Level Activity/Swimlane Workflow Diagram using UML
  • UML notations
  • Uses of Activity Diagrams in scoping and iterative requirements
• Capturing and writing the project requirements features lists with product sheets
• Guidelines and Checklists for writing effective requirements features lists, user stories and success criteria -"Epics"
• Non-Functional requirements for defining the architectural impacts
• Techniques for defining the risks
• Benefits of Use Cases vs. User Stories
• High Level Use Cases
  • Using High Level Use Cases to define the "Epics"
  • Guidelines for writing the high level use cases
• JAD Agendas, scripts, facilitation techniques and requirements document template for conducting Requirements Analysis Sessions
• Case Study Exercises - Facilitating a collaborative JAD workshop using the activity using swimlanes workflow diagrams, high level use cases for requirements definition, capturing the non-functional requirements and risks for the project

• Reviewing and validating the solution and final acceptance with the business
• Defining the priorities for the product releases and iterations
• Tracking project success criteria to requirements and use cases for requirements traceability
• Case Study Exercise - Prioritize and define an iteration

• Agile principles and terminology for Iteration Detailed Requirements
• Storyboarding the activity diagram with swimlanes for a use case
• Writing Detailed Use Cases for Development and Acceptance Testing
  • Guidelines and template for writing detailed system use cases
  • Storyboarding paper prototypes
• Storyboarding techniques using Site Maps, State Charts and State Transition to define the UI navigation and usability requirements
• Capturing and documenting non-functional requirements
  • What are the "ilities" requirements?
  • Guidelines and checklists using the IEEE standards for non-functional requirements
  • How to define the qualities the software must have to be acceptable
• JAD Agendas, scripts and facilitation techniques for conducting iterative detailed requirements using focus groups sessions to define the "Sprints"
• Case Study Exercise - Writing detailed use cases and storyboarding paper prototypes for the iteration detailed requirements

• Status Tracking
• Scrum Product Backlog
• Use Case Tracking

• This simulation demonstrates how the entire life cycle of a project fits together and how the artifacts taught in class build on each other. Each student facilitates the different agile modeling techniques for scoping, high level requirements and iteration requirements using the collaborative techniques and agendas learned in the class. Each student is provided with feedback from the instructor and is given a written evaluation. Students can be videotaped and photographs of the class deliverables can be used (optional).