Ascend Integrated: Technology & Agile Management Solutions Blog

Social Media: Why Are You Posting?

by Mike Brown | Feb 12, 2016 | Ascend Blog

If You Think Your Business Doesn’t Need Social Media, Think Again

According to Forbes Magazine several years back, social media was seen by entrepreneurs and marketers as a “temporary yet passing fad that must be taken advantage of while it’s still in the spotlight.” What followed, after corporations discovered this marketing channel, was a marketing frenzy, spam, and uninviting or just plain annoying corporate advertisement posts / tweets / updates through social media. It was easier to block a popup ad in the 1990s in your Netscape browser than to avoid the onslaught of terrible social media marketing posts. Well, like it or not, we’re seeing that social media is here to stay. Effectively executing a social media strategy enables you to advertise and engage with your customers on a more personal level and helps drive traffic to your site.

Executing a great social media plan is a start, but really, why do you need social media and what can you realistically expect in terms of a ROI?

Customize Your Community

Social media has evolved significantly since the days of the Myspace top 10 and a video-less Facebook timeline. With the hashtag revolution, users hold the power to customize what they see on any given topic, anytime. This is significant because as a business owner, you now have the ability to target users in your niche market. Further, it’s a free platform! Yes, you can pay to boost your posts and sponsor your tweets; however you can derive significant organic traffic if you choose to play the game the right way. Hashtag tracking services such as Keyhole.co and Hashtagify.me will get you started with precise search data, while Twitter analytics will give you day-by-day data that will tell you if you’re hitting the mark with your targeted campaigns.

Live Audience Data from Twitter

Reputation Management

Using social media as a reputation management tool while connecting with consumers in a genuine way is absolutely key in today’s digital society. At Ascend Integrated, we know running a business is time consuming. However nothing beats the feeling of a great review on Yelp, Manta or Facebook . That being said, not every review is going to be super positive. This is where social media can make or break you. Our current social media channels can be as personal as you make them out to be. Responding to consumers in real-time, whether righting a wrong or thanking them for their business, goes a long way in today’s instant gratification consumer mindset.

“A well-executed social media strategy turns average shoppers into lifelong customers.”

Further, if you have an excellent product or service, people should know about it! The good reviews and compliments add to the ways in which customers perceive your brand.

Taco Bell nails it

The Real ROI

By now you’re probably asking yourself, “okay, I get it, but how does this affect my bottom line?” A well-executed social media strategy turns average shoppers into lifelong customers.

Twitter Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. provide businesses the opportunity to interact and connect with consumers through a platform consumers feel most comfortable. If your content and presence is genuine, your consumers will feel a stronger connection to you and your brand. Brand loyalty equals repeat sales and affording you a stronger sense of who your customers are and what they really want, giving you the information you need to create the best possible customer experience.

Co-Authored with Ben Dickshinski

References:

Forbes Magazine: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#61291f892a4d

A Business Christmas Carol?

by Mike Brown | Dec 18, 2015 | Ascend Blog

The novella, and subsequent multitude of film adaptions of Charles Dickens’ classic represent a long time honored pastime for Western civilization during the months leading up to Christmas and the holiday itself. In case you’ve not turned on a television between December (or rather late November), A Christmas Carol is the story of a billionaire (according to Forbes 2005 list of richest fictional characters) and a miser during the industrial revolution in London, England. He is visited by three spirits: past, present, and future, each providing him with a glimpse of shadows past and those, which have yet to be. Following Scrooge seeing his lonely tombstone, he is transported back to his bedroom where he begins reforming himself and becoming a generous Englishman. Today, we see this as another movie classic we watch between Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. However, what was the underlying meaning, what can we gleam from this retelling of fictional events nearly two centuries later?

One could argue from the successful, billionaire standpoint, Scrooge exemplified the modern objectivist philosophy argued by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Objectivism is the philosophy whose ethics are based around the ideals of self-interest and the use of logic to identify and reason with the world. I will not speak more to this theory, but I have listed several sources below if you are interested in reading more. This theory has gained traction over the years, but has been argued by many as being trite and arrogant. Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken critic of nearly all mainstream thought, repeatedly stated his views towards the theory of objectivism itself, claiming “I don’t think there’s any need to have essays advocating selfishness among human beings.”

Inherently, this is a flawed philosophy, leaving little time for your family or personal hobbies when taken to the literal sense. We see how Scrooge, who exhibits many of these traits, finds himself lonelier with each passing year. With his greed knowing no bounds, he takes over his former partner, and only remaining friend’s (Marley) estate. Scrooge’s business acumen allowed him to grow his fortune and a business empire, but was it his passion…rather was it really, what he had wanted to do? Ambition poignantly overtaking passion?

Dickens penned the novella during the Industrial Revolution within England, where the gap between rich and poor continued to grow and the Poor Laws, passed by Parliament required many of the beneficiaries to continue to work in horrid conditions. Dickens wrote the novella to shine light on how the industrial revolution displaced and disenfranchised many workers, moving from an agrarian lifestyle to the city, often times in the worst neighborhoods to work in factories and ‘treadmills’. If one were to look deeper still, Dickens childhood and father’s imprisonment for several months in 1824 influenced his novella and future work as well.

I really take heart to Alastair Sim’s version, as it shows Scrooge’s childhood, early career, and his ruthlessness in overtaking his mentor’s business. As his mentor, ‘Old Man Fezziwig’, who stands in stark contrast to Scrooge stated in Sim’s version, “It’s not just for money alone that one spends a lifetime building up a business…. It’s to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved.” In contrast, Scrooge’s attitude towards Christmas and his business. The themes of utilitarianism run throughout the movies and novellas, the greater good. We should get into business for the right reasons, not just money, but because we have something, we want to show the world, and change it for the better. In addition, when possible, help out those less fortunate grow with us as well.

Sources:

Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/fictional/12.html

Sim’s “A Christmas Carol”: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044008/

Christopher Hitchens on Objectivism: http://flavorwire.com/400084/the-all-time-greatest-ayn-rand-takedowns/7

Objectivism: https://www.aynrand.org/ideas/philosophy, you can also read one of her novels “Atlas Shrugged” or “The Fountainhead” to further understand the theory of objectivism.

Your Trusted Advisers (and Investors)

by Mike Brown | Dec 12, 2015 | Ascend Blog

As our “Startup DNA” blog series comes to a close, we would like to touch on a few important factors outside of company culture, employee motivation and the responsibility of the founder/s. In this installment we will discuss the role of the Board of Directors and why without them your company (especially a startup) could face a multitude of difficulties in its early stages.

Why The Board is Important

First off, it’s important to distinguish the differences between a Board of Directors and a Board of Advisers. The role of an advisor regards advising on a specific niche within your industry. This committee should be tailored to your specific industry and possess skill sets and expertise in areas applicable to your business. Think of this group as your crisis management team.

A Board of Directors is generally made up of key investors holding a stake in the success of your business. These individuals are most likely successful entrepreneurs and have high-level operating experience. Again, this group should be tailored to your business needs. You alone know how you respond to critique, so be sure to take this into account when selecting your Board as they will be thinking strategically about the long-term growth of your company.

How to Pick Your Board

First and foremost, you want to pick individuals who have an investment (either monetary or otherwise) in your company. The success of the company needs to be at the forefront of every decision you and your board make. As a general rule of thumb, it’s better to leave out family and friends from this role given that the emotional ties could cloud their judgment. Choose individuals who are experts in their given field and are not afraid to give you objective feedback. Further, your board needs to be comprised of people who believe in you and your vision as the founder of the company. Objective feedback is great, but butting heads at every meeting will only increase unwanted tension and delay progress.

Age in Consulting

Being an entrepreneur is a difficult task in a world full of well-established companies in nearly every industry. However, being a young entrepreneur is especially trying endeavor because of a perceived notion that “age is equivalent to experience.” We know that logically this simply is not true-and that some of the largest and most influential tech companies in the past decade have been founded by entrepreneurs under thirty. However established business norms have not changed over the past several decades. Establishing a board of directors will not only help legitimize you as a leader of your company, but also allow you to network with more established entrepreneurs, provide a foundation for your position as a founder. At Ascend Integrated, we pride ourselves in being lifelong learners, always trying new methods and learning from our network of mentors, colleagues and industry thought leaders. Ascend Integrated works closely with trusted advisers, consistently reaching out to both subject matter experts and a circle of trusted advisers for enterprise wide decisions and opportunities.

Conclusion:

Starting a business at any age poses challenges, but a board of directors and advisers allows a business to grow and flourish. Your boards consist of investors and subject matter experts who believe in both you and your company. Establishing a strong board of directors and board of advisers will enable your business to grow.

Co-Authored: Mike Brown & Ben Dickshinski

Startup Culture: Why it Matters

by Mike Brown | Oct 27, 2015 | Ascend Blog

In our “Startup DNA” series we have previously discussed what separates startups from traditional businesses and why the vision, voice and buy-in are absolutely critical for success.

In this installment we will be discussing why culture is an especially important factor when evaluating the present or future success of your company.

Defining Who You Are

Millennials are not only looking for careers, they are also looking for both inspiration (through mentorship) and challenges. Incorporating these ideals into your corporate culture can be tricky. It starts with hiring practices based on skill set and cultural fit.

However, in order to do this you must first define your culture. Starting with the founder/s, it is the company vision and how it aligns with a particular set of values. These values will help shape and define your culture, allowing you to recruit employees who meet these values. Define these values, and keep track of your values over the years. Often times, startups begin for one reason, and end up down a different path. Listen to your first group of hires and allow them to help mold your corporate culture.

Communication (Saying it Out Loud)

In past blogs we’ve detailed the importance of communicating the vision of the company from the top-down. From an evolutionary standpoint, the ability to clearly articulate and outline your cultural values is the next step after you communicate your company vision.

The vision and goals of an organization must be communicated consistently throughout the tenure of an employee.

There are many ways to communicating the company cultures and values, including adding these to your website, business cards, social media, and consistent training throughout an employee’s career. Explain why the corporate values matter, why the startup operates as it does, and an employee’s overall purpose and goal.

The Culture Shift

Many envision startups as a casual work environment, with an open office atmosphere, Foosball and Ping-Pong tables, and unlimited soda or beer from the refrigerator. This is just not the case, as many startups operated by Generation X and Y are changing the traditional hierarchical structure found in many large organizations. The younger generations have changed the style of communication between management and employee forever. Utilizing small teams with efficient, technology-driven communication, ideas and data points become a continuous flow of information exchanges among informed individuals.

Startups utilize these lean management techniques primarily because the culture has already allowed for a greater freedom of expression of ideas and concerns, helping employees of startups work together towards a common goal.

Typically, when an employee wishes to air a concern, share a new idea, etc. he or she speaks to a manager, who then speaks to another manager, who then speaks to the department head-so on and so forth, until a decision is eventually made. If you are interested in learning more about this type of culture, watch the “Triumph of the Nerds” and “Networking the Nerds” documentaries by Robert Cringely. Cringely briefly examines the bureaucracy around IBM’s decision-making abilities. There was at one point so much bureaucracy around IBM to the point where it was nearly impossible to implement change. With larger companies (like an IBM at one point), lean management techniques are more difficult to implement. However, through the utilization of smaller teams, open communication and delegating more responsibility to the average employee, you can improve efficiency and effectiveness within your department.

Correctly aligning your company vision with your culture will help your business maintain its identity and will ultimately lead to happier employees.

Our next blog installment on this series will detail the importance of the Board of Directors as an advisory body and the role of the Founder/s in maintaining the long-term success of the company. Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup, put it best “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”

Co-Authored: Mike Brown & Ben Dickshinski

What Startups Do Differently

by Mike Brown | Oct 5, 2015 | Ascend Blog

Welcome to part-two of our “Startup DNA” series where we discuss the key components every startup needs to be successful. If nothing else, you will walk away from these blogs with a deeper understanding of the startup environment, cultural differences and why each piece of the startup puzzle is necessary for any small business.

In this installment, we will outline the key factors of communication and leadership frequently separating successful startups from their competition.

The Vision

In any organization, it is imperative the Founder/s have a clear and concise vision for the company. This means a comprehensive growth plan including current employees and departments. In order for the company vision to be realized and the leadership’s credibility to grow, the vision must be realistic, attainable, and each employee must understand how their work helps achieving common organizational goals. This not only builds the credibility of the leadership, but also helps develop a lasting company vision and enabling success across the organization.

The Voice

Oftentimes the vision is not linear and thus it is necessary to review current and past steps and reassess company goals and objectives. Successful startups utilize various communication methods to give employees up-to-date information without the time wasting and red-tape that can impede progress.

You may not be the Founder or VP of Marketing; however you do have a voice in the say and direction of the company you work for. Frequently, successful startups will utilize town-hall style meetings between management and employees in order to address specific issues and even recognize some recent successes.

Short standing meetings and 1-on-1 employee-manager meetings are also popular communication methods in successful startups because they emphasize personal growth and open-door policy among employees. If you’re a Founder, using these communication techniques with a personalized approach will empower your staff and lead them to what is known as “The Buy In.”

The Buy In

Without trusted leadership and a solid vision in which to grow, startups will undoubtedly flounder. However, with these two elements in place it is possible to achieve what notable leadership author John C. Maxwell identifies as “The Law of The Buy In.” Maxwell writes that people (employees) follow “worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes.” That is why the initial leadership foundation is so important. Without the foundation of trust in the leadership, the vision can never truly be realized. Maxwell also writes that “a leader must get his/her people to buy into them (as a leader) before the vision has any chance of becoming reality.”

Communication is the foundation of trust, and without the initial trust in leadership, the vision can never really come to fruition.

Our next installment will detail the importance of “The Startup Culture” and how the 21^st-century workplace has seen such a significant change when compared with preceding decades.

Co-Authored by Ben Dickshinksi & Michael Brown

HIMSS AsiaPac15: A Look Back

by Mike Brown | Sep 18, 2015 | Ascend Blog

As many of you know, HIMSS AsiaPac15 recently wrapped up in Singapore. There were two main sections of the conference, the courses held in separate rooms and the Exhibit floor. Our blog will focus on the great content we observed at HIMSS. If you have any additional ideas or items you saw, please feel free to comment on this blog! There was too much to see and do, so we limited this blog to only two exhibits and three courses we attended.

The Exhibit Hall:

The Exhibit Hall itself was small, but efficient and very open. Ascend had excellent conversations with a number of vendors and consultants operating the booths. In particular, we enjoyed speaking with two companies on the HIMSS exhibit hall floor: EMC Corporation and Mulesoft.

EMC Corporation designed a Healthcare Analytics dashboard application allowing users to view large data sets. Underlying the technology is the use of Hadoop, an open-source framework used for the processing of large data sets across one or a cluster of computers.
Mulesoft was another interesting company we spoke to, a company centering its products and services on enabling mobile healthcare and healthcare interoperability. Their platform integrates SaaS / cloud based software with on premise software, driving mobile innovation in healthcare.

The Conference Courses:

There were a number of excellent courses offered by HIMSS and sponsored by multiple corporations and organizations. While there were many, we thought the following three courses resonated with our values and our business line.

The Mobile Clinician (presented by Dr. George Margelis): This was an excellent overview for the need of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and mobile capabilities. One of the main issues Dr. Margelis covered was the lack of mobility around EHRs as they are currently implemented (e.g. large battery powered desktop computers sitting atop a movable cart). Mobile EHRs must be designed with the doctor in mind: allowing them to use technology without disrupting their workflows.
HL7 FHIR (presented by Grahame Grieve): Grahame from HL7 International provided an overview of the upcoming HL7 FHIR specification (due out this week). FHIR will be used to enable not only mobile but also desktop EHR interoperability by using the best aspects of HL7 2 and HL7 3, CDA and DICOM.
Detalytics (presented by Dr. Florence Jennings): Detalytics provided an interesting perspective on human resource management specifically around providers. Specifically, they spoke to how to manage your aging and increasingly stressed healthcare employees.

There were a number of other courses and exhibits omitted here, but overall HIMSS AsiaPac15 was an excellent conference, and we look forward to HIMSS North America in Las Vegas.

Let us know your thoughts on HIMSS AsiaPac15!

Co-Authored by Mike Brown & Ben Dickshinski

The Startup DNA – Startups, Leadership and Culture Change

by Mike Brown | Sep 2, 2015 | Ascend Blog

Here at Ascend we traditionally blog about Health IT, Agile, and SCRUM. However, we felt that since we are still in the startup phase and growing, we could share some of our insights. Everyday many new startups emerge in technology, e-commerce, engineering, etc. As a company who has gone through some growing pains, we hope that our advice and guidance can be useful to companies of all sizes and industries.

What do Startups do Differently?

The importance of the word “startup” is that eventually it either transitions into a failed business or a stable enterprise. When they transition into a successful organization, today’s startups are revolutionizing the leadership and communication inside organizations of any size, industry or profitability. As a leader, you must trust your employees and trust yourself that you have communicated your mission and company values clearly, so that there is no disconnect.

Why Does Culture Matter?

The millennial generation (age 18-34) is now the largest workforce in the United States at 53.5 million. Further, hiring managers claim that 58% of millennials will leave their job within 3 years. What does this tell us? That our current method of creating a satisfactory company culture has failed. Startups offer the perfect opportunity to test oneself and work on new ideas and projects, inspiring individuals to create and innovate amongst their peers.

Founders-What exactly do they do?

Good founders have an idea; great founders have an idea and passion. Founder(s) articulate the company’s vision and values and to establish a solid foundation on which the company can grow. Without a solid foundation on which to build and innovate, an idea is only worth the paper it is written on.

The Board of Advisors

The Board of Advisors should be those who have little to no financial interest in the company, rather they serve to help guide the vision of the founder(s). The board should act as an independent advising group and advise on things such as management, accounting, finances, and development of the vision.

Conclusion

We’ve outlined multiple factors that have been influential in the success of our own startup as well as observations from the ever-changing startup environment. Foundational leadership, the concept of culture and the role of your board all play a critical role in your new business venture. We will discuss each topic in detail over the coming months, starting with “What Startups do Differently.”

Co-Authored by Mike Brown & Ben Dickshinski

What To See At HIMSS AsiaPac15!

by Mike Brown | Aug 17, 2015 | Ascend Blog

Healthcare IT is continuing to evolve; over the past several years we have seen a shift in healthcare away from several antiquated standards and technology to the adapting of new, lighter, and more usable technologies than ever before. Leading Healthcare IT is the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a non-profit organization focused on “better health through information technology.” HIMSS AsiaPac15 is used to promote information technology in healthcare. You can find the full schedule for AsiaPac15 here: https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/ap15/292940/

Here at Ascend, we are very pleased to see that after looking through the agenda, the focus of HIMSS AsiaPac 15 centers around healthcare mobility and healthcare data analytics and intelligence. Great stuff! So, what are we going to be looking for while we are there?

Solutions around Big Data and Healthcare Predictive Analytics

This is an ever-changing and ever-growing market. How can we collect our data, distill it, and organize it in such a way to make effective business decisions? How can we do this from both a payer side and a provider side?

Mobile Healthcare and emerging standards, including HL7’s “Fast Health Interoperability Resource (FHIR)”

FHIR is HL7’s newest standard for interoperability, from both a mobile and desktop perspective. We would love to look at an interoperability showcase and see the progress made towards facilitating secure and understandable healthcare communication across multiple platforms.

Patient Engagement through Mobile Technology

Whether it be a secure SMS message reminding a patient of their appointment time or the ability to track and map moods or diet-engaging patients in a fun and creative way is important to ensure quality of care.

Last but not least, a collaborative and fun environment!

HIMSS is a great place to meet new folks and network. While we are there, feel free to reach out to us! We will be wandering the halls and attending a variety of seminars. Come join us and learn how healthcare IT is being adapted in the Asian / Pacific countries.

See you there!

Co-Authored by Mike Brown & Ben Dickshinski

Designing Mobile Solutions for the Enterprise

by Mike Brown | May 21, 2015 | Ascend Blog

Probably nothing in this blog is news to anyone. In fact, I plan to get a little techie. At this point, nearly everyone is reading this blog post through their smartphone or tablet. It’s weird that only 5 years ago, the idea of an iPad, while not too farfetched (face it, we survived using our Palm Pilots) was still out of our mental reach. Mobile applications enable businesses to increase productivity and mobility (shock!).

Today, enterprises and even small businesses find it difficult to survive without a mobile application presence. This is pretty much general knowledge / information. So how can an enterprise / business build an application? What are the major strategies, pros and cons to each strategy for developing a mobile application?

Currently there exists three types of mobile development strategies, each with their strengths and weaknesses. A company / enterprise may have a mobile presence either through a mobile website / accessible through a mobile browser, a dedicated or native application, and finally a hybrid application. Choosing one of these strategies will largely depend upon the target audience (the users) and the desired application functionality. The sections below are a breakdown of each of these mobile development strategies, the tools for each, and when they are best used. As a business owner, you need to be assured your application reaches the most users and directly or indirectly benefits your business.

Mobile Website / Accessible through a Mobile Browser:

The mobile website or application is accessible through the mobile browser in the mobile device. Generally, developers utilize a combination of front-end languages: HTML 5, JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in developing these types of applications. They must live on a server somewhere (much like a website).

Pros:

Require less time to develop overall.
Can be accessed on any mobile device through the mobile browser. Independent of the platform.
Updates can be pushed live to the application without requiring users to download an update to the application.

Cons:

Do not allow for access to a lot of mobile features, including:
- Multi-Touch
- Graphics
- Accelerometer (the component built into your smartphone / tablet measuring tilt and motion, shaking, etc.)
- Camera
- Contacts
- Local storage
- Navigation
WIFI / Internet connectivity required (your application is acting as a thin-client accessing the application through the browser)
Screen sizes (JQuery libraries would have to be correctly implemented / configured allowing the application to properly fill the screen.

When to use:

Shopping / ecommerce websites
Static text websites
News sites

Dedicated / Native Application:

Native applications are apps which are developed using a dedicated programming language for a mobile device. Applications are distributed / purchased through an “App store”. Generally, developers use application programming languages such as the Android SDK and Java libraries (for Android), and Objective-C / X-Code for iOS based systems.

Applications built using either Objective-C or Java will only work on the device OS they were originally developed for, so an application based in Java could not be run in an iOS environment. Luckily, developers foresaw this problem occurring for native applications, and developed Cross-Platform mobile development tools. We’ll explore these more in the Hybrid development approach. When developing a native application, you will have to figure out how it can be built-out and accessed across multiple mobile devices.

Pros:

Native applications can access all aspects / features and make the best use of the mobile device (remember all those things above that the Mobile site couldn’t access? Well the native app can!)
Best performance wise. Processing is done using the mobile device hardware.
Can be accessed without WIFI / internet connection

Cons:

Takes a LONGGG time to develop a native application.
Requires a great deal of development resources / experience when compared to other development strategies
Native applications may be required to go through an app store and subject to constraints / approvals.

When to Use:

Intense processing applications (i.e. Games / dashboards)

The Hybrid:

A hybrid application is an application which contains the look and feel of the native application, but utilizes HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS libraries. This front-end code is wrapped in a framework (such as Apache Cordova). This allows the application to access features / functionality native to the mobile device. Recently, frameworks such as Unity3D (for gaming), Appcelerator (www.appcelerator.com) allow users to code in a variety of languages in order to achieve a mobile application usable under multiple OS’s, this allows users to develop native applications faster. So, why build the hybrid application?

Pros:

Make the best use of everything from Native applications.
Generally less time to develop than a Native app

Cons:

Performance: often times these apps suffer from performance and a great deal of time in development is spent optimizing performance on the mobile devices.
Must go through extensive testing to ensure screen sizes and functionality is maintained across multiple devices.

When to Use:

Pretty much anytime a Native application can be built

Conclusion:

Mobile applications can be built in a variety of different ways to fit the needs of the users and the business. How does your organization value mobility? What kind of mobile solutions have you built in the past?

Sprinting to the Requirements

by Mike Brown | Mar 8, 2015 | Ascend Blog

It has been a while since posting on this blog. Apologies to my readers, Ascend has been growing at a rapid pace thanks to our Agile project management and software development methodologies. As we continue to pick up steam, it is important for us to remind ourselves and others the importance of Agile project management. Also, please enjoy the Vince Vaughn business stock photos. I always found these to be hilarious.

Do Agile Projects Need Requirements Analysts?

Within Agile projects, project roles associated with a traditional Waterfall based Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) are given at times new names, and new definitions. Many agile projects have team members wearing multiple hats at any one time, for instance a SCRUM Master, a common role within an Agile / SCRUM project, may also be the lead developer or architect.

The Requirements Analyst is the important in-between for the business owner / client and developer. They help facilitate, elicit, capture, translate, and communicate requirements between the business owner / client (who gives the requirements) and the developer (who incorporates or builds the requirements into a system). The Requirements Analyst, for all sense and purposes, is a necessary step in the development process. Often times, developers cannot be a requirements analyst, as they are more focused on building the system, not capturing the details of the system to be built. This is not always true, but often times, at least in my experience, a developer would rather troubleshoot his code for hours than spend time in a meeting trying to figure out what a business owner or client is conveying in regards to the system.

When are Requirements Captured?

One of the major differences found between Agile and traditional Waterfall methodologies is the use of iterative development to achieve a desired product for the customers. As a requirements analyst in an agile project, requirements are captured iteratively within a Sprint or iteration of the software. Unlike a traditional SDLC, the business owner / client does not need to know all the requirements upfront. Only the broad scope, or vision of the project is defined, with all requirements captured adhering or mapping to this vision.

As the project progresses, the team can see the software take shape. As the software takes shape, the client can provide feedback and experience the way the requirements were interpreted and implemented. From a requirements analyst perspective, they continue to capture the client’s or business owners’ needs (and may I emphasize needs, not wants), and ensure these points fit within the vision of the product.

How are Requirements Captured?

Prior to the beginning of a project, the Requirements Analyst must understand the stakeholders, both from a political and systems usage perspective. Requirements will need to be implemented, and many may be given by different stakeholders. Subsequently, if a Requirements Analyst does not understand the different kinds of users / stakeholders, the system will not be properly designed. Stakeholders must be defined in the vision.

Within each iteration, additional requirements are captured. Requirements are captured into User Stories. A user story represents a statement of a piece of functionality a user wants to see. It replaces the traditional “The System Shall…” statements. User Stories are captured from the users’ point of view, and speaks to the typical piece of functionality a user would like to see in the system. The template looks as follows:

As a <user> I want to <do something> so that <something happens / goal is satisfied, etc.>.

These User Stories are captured, stored and prioritized in the Product Backlog. User stories can be captured using traditional requirements gathering techniques, including interviews (single one-on-one and group), focus groups, and surveys.

What Modeling Techniques are Used?

One of the main points / principles of the Agile Manifesto is the delivery of “Working Software over comprehensive Documentation.” What does this mean? Well, according to the Agile Manifesto, it is better for us to develop software, which is working, rather than analyzing, re-analyzing, and continuing to develop out documentation, which may have little or no use to the project itself.

Several of the Agile prescribed modeling techniques include building out a usage model, UML models, and a user interface prototypes.

Usage Model: Exactly what it sounds like, it is a collection of user stories or use cases on how the system will be used. Often times these are documented in either documents, cards, and subsequently prioritized.
Unified Modeling Language (UML) Modeling: Many of the UML Models and diagrams go to painstaking detail to describe how a system shall function. Rather than spending time ensuring all these painstaking levels of detail, it is often better to use a Class Diagram, for object orientation and to describe an object’s methods & properties. The Use Case Diagram is another excellent UML diagram, showing how different users will interact with the system.
User Interface Prototypes: Getting the system to look correctly is arguably as important as getting the system to function properly. A UI Prototype / Diagram conveys to the client / business owner how the system will look when it functions. The UI Prototype also allows developers to visually see how the system may look. It is important to note that UI Prototypes should have an accompanying explanation to each of the elements, speaking to their functionality and purpose.

Conclusion

The requirements analyst is a necessary and important role within both traditional Waterfall SDLC project teams and Agile project teams. They are the liaison between the business owner / client and the developers, capturing, eliciting, and documenting requirements. The requirements analyst uses a variety of techniques to ensure the requirements are captured correctly, developed, and implemented per the business owner’s / client’s expectations. Whether working in an Agile or Waterfall SDLC environment, it is important to always note the Requirements Analyst represents the voice of the client, and is an important role which helps the system tasks / user stories “get to Done.”

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