From the course: Agile Analysis Weekly Tips

Swarming on current work

From the course: Agile Analysis Weekly Tips

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Swarming on current work

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- When there's an urgent matter at hand, I've seen many teams and organizations swarm really, really well to solve the problem. They drop everything and they closely work together to get the problem solved. In agile though, it's not just for emergencies, it's a way of life, it's a deliberate practice. High-performing agile teams swarm as a regular, daily practice of getting work done, not just for emergencies. These agile teams know that swarming is about solving real customer problems. They work proactively and deliberately on one backlog item at a time. They also swarm on hot issues, as well. Here is a major function, also, that analysis should play in this swarming effort. The first thing analysis does in swarming is reminds the team of the vision and what success looks like. Product owners and business analysts play a key role in this. As the team swarms on one user story at a time, a developer is developing, a tester and QA person are testing. And you might take one piece of acceptance criteria at a time. Where the BA and product owner are talking about it, making sure the team understands it and the scenarios, all while a developer is developing it, and the QA and testing person is running the test automation for it. All of them present at one time, working to swarm on one piece at a time. The second part that analysis falls into with swarming is about focusing the team on the definition of done. Really harnessing and focusing on what done means, not almost done. But it's about the product owner and BA being present to answer questions on all of the details that come up. These details will get us to done for every one of those acceptance criteria, swarming together to get to done. The third piece is making sure that under the speed and pace and intensity, the right things are in focus. This requires a product owner to be present. Details matter. The PO needs to be present to answer questions about the details and make sure that the details are contributing to the desired customer experience that they want. Swarming brings out a diversity of thought to solve problems as a team, and it brings out unique creativity. As a product owner or business analyst, you can be part of this positive momentum on the team.

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