Ever been a BA on an agile initiative where you’ve been presented with a ‘solution’ long before anyone has asked ‘what problem are we trying to solve here’? Ever found that the existing landscape is much, much more complex than anyone had anticipated and everything slows to a grinding halt? Or maybe you’ve ended up with an unmanageable backlog with hundreds (or thousands) of items because ‘everything is urgent’ yet nothing seems to be delivered? Then this session is for you!

One reason these issues can occur is that agile discovery either isn’t taking place sufficiently, or isn’t syncronised with the design and delivery. This highlights the importance of understanding what ‘discovery’ is and why it matters, and why it isn’t just a single ‘phase’..

Problematically, the term ‘agile discovery’ means different things to different people and is controversial at the best of times! In this panel of leading practitioners and experts, we’ll get to the bottom of what it is, why it’s important and how BAs ought to be involved. You’ll hear:

✔ What ‘discovery’ is and why it matters
✔ How BAs should be involved
✔ The typical techniques that can be used
✔ The conflicts that can occur
✔ What to do if you aren’t able to get involved in discovery
✔ …and much more besides!

You’ll be able to ask questions, so please come prepared with your thoughts and queries too!

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About the Panelists The panel is comprised of leading practitioners and experts: Angela Wick Angela is passionate about modernizing analysis practices, and this means more customer focus, outcome driven analysis and alignment, and lean requirement and discovery practices. She is the founder of BA-Cube.com, a frequent speaker, LinkedIn Learning Instructor, and author (or contributing author) on several BA and Agile BA/PO books. Connect with Angela on LinkedIn
Allan Kelly Allan Kelly wants software professionals to enjoy more fulfilling and satisfying work. He advises teams and leaders on using agile and OKRs to improve the way work is organised. Happier people and better ways of working make for more effective companies and superior outcomes. Despite being dyslexic he has written seven books – his latest is “Succeeding with OKRs in Agile”. His website and blog are at http://www.allankelly.net. Connect with Allan on LinkedIn
Angie Doyle Over the course of Angie’s career, she has shifted from working face-to-face with customers (Business Operations), to articulating what customers need (Business Analysis and Process Engineering), to working with teams delivering the solution (Product Development and Product Ownership), to evolving ways to deliver the solution (Agile software development), to improving collaboration and delivery of many teams working together (Scaling Agile), to helping organisations be more Agile (Business and Enterprise Agility). Connect with Angie on LinkedIn
Howard Podeswa Howard Podeswa is a thought leader in the intersection of agile and business analysis.  For over twenty years, he has been helping large organizations adapt and optimize their business analysis and planning practices for agile software development approaches. He is the author of The Agile Guide to Business Analysis and Planning: From Strategic Plan to Continuous Value Delivery (2021, Pearson), UML for the IT Business Analyst, 2nd Ed. (2009) and The Business Analyst’s Handbook (2008).  At Noble Inc., he has provided agile and business analysis services to clients worldwide, including the International Standards Organization (ISO), Moody’s, the Mayo Clinic, TELUS, TD Bank, LabCorp, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Mawer Investment Management Ltd., Bell Nexia, and REI Coop.Howard is a widely requested speaker at international BA and agile events, including European BA Day (Frankfurt, 2019), the Toronto Agile Community Conference (2015), the BBC Conference (2016, 2014), the agile Norway Developers Conference (NDC 2013), the BA Forum (Poland) and BA World conferences across North America. He is also a professional artist whose works have been shown extensively in commercial and public galleries. His exhibitions include “A Brief History” (Kelowna Gallery,  Koffler Gallery) and “Still Life with Paper” (Birch Contemporary). Connect with Howard on LinkedIn

The panel will be moderated by Adrian Reed.