The System Shall...

I’m currently working with a client that is adopting agile, which really means there are people around that have done agile, but it’s not widespread nor is anyone on my particular project experienced with agile. As is common in these situations, I’ve gone through at different points to try to help them develop their agile mindset. My developers are well-versed in agile, but the client is acting as the product owner, so their understanding of agile is important to project success.

Before my team started development, the client started working on a “requirements document.” It’s full of statements like “The system shall allow the user to select a need by date” Now while each snippet can help provide information, the document as a whole is about impossible to digest in order to understand what we’re supposed to build. I’m going through the document and working with the client team to extract user stories. 

As I’m working with the client, I am also trying to build the agile mindset within them. Agile isn’t just about following a different process. It’s about thinking about what you’re doing, inspecting and adapting as you go. In order to do this effectively, you need to know the why behind your actions. Why are we writing user stories instead of requirements documents? Why do we work in short iterations? Understanding this will help them become more agile, even after my team and I leave...and maybe they'll no longer be writing "the system shall..."