Conference Presentations

Better Software West 2018, Agile Dev West 2018, DevOps West 2018 The Five Biggest Mistakes Your Team Is Making in Requirements Definition
Slideshow

Google pioneer Alberto Savoia offered this sage advice: Build the right "it" before you build It right. But few software companies take the time to define, much less build, the right "it." The problem starts with a poor requirements definition process. In this session, join Kathryn Campbell as she examines the five most common mistakes that software companies make during requirements definition—and how to avoid them. First Kathryn defines thinking too small as a huge problem and shows you how to broaden your perspectives. Next, she exposes being stuck in the past, with legacy systems maintaining too much control of our innovation. The third mistake is assuming too much about your customers. Kathryn shares guerrilla techniques for gathering rapid, inexpensive customer feedback at every stage of your requirements and design process.

Kathryn Campbell
BSE Testing Rightsizing User Stories
Slideshow

User stories and their big brothers, epics, are an excellent way to describe requirements for a software system. They act as stakes in the ground to keep track of what the system needs to do, the type of user most interested in each feature, and the reason the requirement...

Dave Todaro
STARWEST Testing Get Involved Early: A Tester’s Experience with Requirements
Slideshow

Although requirements provide valuable information that informs and shapes testing, sometimes the information provided is incomplete or unclear. Join Julie Lebo as she shares her experience with requirements engineering and how she has integrated her testing group into the requirement...

Julie Lebo
Agile DevOps RAMP: Requirements Authors Mentoring Program
Slideshow

Industry data indicates that untrained and inexperienced requirements authors commonly inject thirty to fifty major defects per page of text. With many requirements specifications reaching several hundred pages, potentially thousands of defects are injected into the software development...

John Terzakis
Agile DevOps Improv(e) Your Requirements
Slideshow

Improvisational comedy—sometimes called improv—is a form of theater in which the performance is created spontaneously, in the moment. Successful improvisers learn and use a variety of skills and techniques which allow them to better extract ideas, expand on them, and make them meaningful...

Damian Synadinos
Agile DevOps Storytelling Techniques for Better Requirements
Slideshow

Do you struggle with making your ideas clear and understandable to others? Does it annoy you to sit in requirements sessions for hours only to leave with more questions than answers? As human beings, we’re made for storytelling. It is a natural form of communication. So, Jeff Howey...

Jeff Howey
The Role of Testers as Requirements Dealers
Slideshow

Those of us in the business analyst role are encouraged to communicate with clients, while other roles in an organization may not have the same opportunity. However, talking to clients must not be limited to business analysts. Jyothi Rangaiah believes that testers need to talk to the...

Jyothi Rangaiah
Collocated West Logo From Unclear and Unrealistic Requirements to Achievable User Stories
Slideshow

"What do you want the system to do?" can be a loaded question for agile teams. Ideally, the product owner gives you a product backlog with fully groomed user stories prioritized by business value, ready for team discussion and estimation. Instead, you may have the “big picture” product...

Jamie Lynn Cooke
Collocated West Logo Great Business Analysts “Think Like a Freak”
Slideshow

In today's competitive market, employers increasingly depend on business analysts to act as change agents. This puts BAs in the powerful position of influencers—providing the analysis and evidence needed to support an organization’s strategic direction and decision-making. In their book...

Faye Thompson
Collocated East Logo Requirements Are Simply Requirements—or Maybe Not
Slideshow

When talking about requirements, people use identical terms and think they have a common understanding. Yet, one says user stories are requirements; another claims user stories must be combined with requirements; and yet another has a different approach. These “experts” seem unaware of...

Robin Goldsmith, Go Pro Management, Inc.

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