The Agile Pocket Guide: A Quick Start to Making Your Business Agile Using Scrum and Beyond

Chapter 2

What the Business Wants from You—Managing Requirements

The jungle is perilous, fraught with danger, and always in a state of change. In your jungle, the business comprises many different tribes, teams, or departments. Each of these units within this business has its own personality and history. Even though the business is one major unit, the factions give rise to warring with one another and fighting for the same resources—namely, your Agile Team.

The jungle is not a safe place for even trade. The leaders of each tribe try to work with one another to find a common ground, and they work with you as they give rise to half-baked parchments of work (requirements). The marketing tribe to the sales tribe, the finance tribe to the customer service tribe—all need to utilize your team in order to get what they need done. Unfortunately, they don't always know what “done” is, and they often give you incomplete or nebulous requirements. The tribes have heard that your new Agile Team is taking a new approach to development that is agile, flexible, transparent, and adaptable. How will you communicate to the business that your tribe and Agile practices will knock their socks off? How can you convince them that taking an Agile approach is far better than the mystical waterfall processes and approaches?

So why are Agile requirement processes and change management good for the tribes?

1. Stakeholders and interested parties get to work together to build the right requirements.

2. Stakeholders ...