Spikes In Agile Business Analysis

What Are Spikes In Agile Business Analysis?

According to the IIBA:

Spikes are used to time-box research, design, exploration, investigation, or prototyping activities in order to understand the effort required to deliver a backlog item or an initiative.

Spikes are a common strategy employed in agile project management and business analysis. They are used as short-term initiatives or experiments, designed to answer questions, explore ideas, and test assumptions to help the team quickly identify the extent of the work needed for a project. Spikes are especially beneficial when an analysis or technical problem is encountered, allowing the team to gain clarity or better understand the issue before committing to a solution.

Spikes can also be used to assess the complexity of a problem, estimate the effort required to address it, or assess the viability of a potential solution. Furthermore, spikes can be used to develop new skills or gain technical knowledge, allowing the team to stay agile and move quickly to deliver the project. They are a great way to remain flexible and responsive to changes while still being able to make progress on the project.

Spike Goal Element

• Not to produce a production-read code or a shippable product
• Look for an alternative
• Do research of two libraries
• Do some googling
• Time-box

Types Of Spikes

• Functional - used to determine how to break down a complex story into smaller stories
• Technical - used when you need to determine what the feature/solution should be
• Exploratory - used to investigate the organization’s risk for a backlog item

Spikes must be used wisely and only when there is high uncertainty or there are many unknowns.

Strengths Of Spikes

• Allow delivery teams to learn how to deliver a working product effectively and efficiently
• Permit team members to spend time on value-driven research
• Encourage knowledge-sharing

Limitations Of Spikes

• If created too often, it might be an indicator that the product backlog refinement is not meeting team needs
• Can be too large or require long time-boxes

In Summary

A spike story is an Agile user story that needs more information so the team can estimate how long the original story will take to complete. The goal is not to determine the solution, just gauge the estimate for that original story. Hence, a set amount of time is outlined for the spike investigation. Spike stories seek to answer a single, specific question not multiple questions.

Spike stories benefit teams by enabling them to move forward with their sprints after properly estimating the need needed to complete stories, allowing the team to create more accurate user stories. Spike stories should also reduce waste and increase the team’s understanding of the user story.