COURSE SPECIFICATIONS

Course Summary

Unlike other methodologies, Agile methodologies and in particular Extreme Programming, commonly known as XP, have only been around for 10 years or less. Their principles are changing our industry’s collective thinking about developing application systems. However, all is not evolving as expected and struggles with discovering, defining and documenting User Stories are surfacing.

Have you struggled with questions like these?

• How do I put User Stories in their proper context?
• How detailed should each User Story be?
• How do I write User Stories consistently?
• How do I determine the dependencies between User Stories?
• How do I deal with contradictory and ambiguous User Stories?
• What is the Extreme Programming Development Cycle?

We’ll answer these questions as well as dispel some of the myths surfacing around Extreme Programming, introduce you to the Extreme Programming (XP) and Extreme Analysis (XA) development cycles and of course focus on the development of solid User Stories in an XP environment.

This tutorial is intended for those who are relatively new to the User Story and Extreme Programming world and want to do it ‘right the first time’, or those who are experienced and want to pick up some tips and techniques before tackling their next XP project.

Delivery Options

Who Should Attend

Business Analysts, Business Systems Analysts, Systems Analysts, Project Managers, Business Managers

Sample Screen Shot

Learning Objectives

• Dispel some of the common myths surrounding Extreme Programming (XP).
• Gain an appreciation for the Extreme Programming development cycle, iteration planning and the “Planning Game”.
• Understand how to discover, describe and document “digital” User Stories that lower the estimation spike and enhance project velocity.
• Gain an appreciation for the Extreme Analysis process which marries to the techniques needed in the “Planning Game”.
• Tips and guidelines.

Features

Reviews

Urban Legends Debunked!
Reviewer: Peggy from Dow Chemical

Thanks for this. It really helped to clear-up some of my misconceptions of XP. I particularly liked the clear and concise XP overview.

Extreme Programming Requires Extreme Analysis
Reviewer: Beverley from Dow Chemical

This is the first time I’ve heard of “Extreme Analysis”. Having been exposed to an XP development effort in our shop I wish I had known about this process earlier .It would have saved our team a lot of churn.  I also think XA has applicability to SCRUM & FDD development.

”Digital” User Stories
Reviewer: Alex from Tangient Associates

I’m a Business Analyst and ever since my first experience with User Stories, I found that they were not written to a consistent level of detail and they were sometimes ambiguous and contradictory. Now that I know how to write User Stories “digitally” the developers can now provide confident estimates.

It Doesn’t Take That Long After All!
Reviewer: Roger from Citigroup Financial.

To all those who think that it takes too long to do analysis in the XP world need to look at these numbers. Analysis only takes 2-3% of the effort for a release, not 20-30% in the legacy days.

Course Content

Welcome

Mythology

• We don’t need to follow any development process
• We don’t need to do any documentation 
• We don’t need any Customer sign-off
• We don’t need to produce any kind of plan

Extreme Programming (XP)

• What is Extreme Programming (XP)?
• Extreme Programming Best Practices 
• The “Planning Game”
• What is the Goal of XP?
• The XP Development Cycle

User Stories

• What are User Stories?
• How User Stories are generated 
• Sample User Story
• Iteration Planning

Extreme Analysis (XA)

• What is Extreme Analysis?
• XA Example
• Developing User Stories 
• User Story Example - Expanded
• How Long Does It Take?
• Describe the Exceptions
• For each relevant variation, describe an Alternate Flow.

Benefits

Summary

Quiz

Next Steps

Reference Material Available