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At 6:00 pm PST this evening, we will be live streaming an important announcement at Google Campfire One about our latest developer efforts on the Google Developers YouTube channel. Dont miss it!

Posted by Ryan Boyd, Developer Advocate

I ran into Kevin Brennan tonight at #agile2011. I was glad for the chance to talk to him because Ive received quite a few questions from BAs in Winnipeg about how their role will change when they work on agile projects and Kevin has been doing a lot of work with the agile extension to IIBAs BABOK.

Here are is a summary of our conversation:

• How many BAs can articulate the goals and objectives of their company, team, or project? Start here if you cannot.
• Even if you are able to articulate the goals and objectives - can your team? Without understanding the project goals and objectives the team doesnt have enough information to help them make decisions about scope and priorities and often makes decisions based on Is this helping somebody? which can increase the scope of the project.
• BAs can help facilitate the alignment of priorities and goals - enabling the business to speak to the development team with one voice.
• Facilitate requirements and a common understanding of the proposed system through inclusive modeling techniques (eg. user story maps, silent brainstorming, product box - see more here)
• Facilitate the acceptance of change (rather than the restriction of it).
• BAs dont do any less analysis, but they will end up doing less documentation. This reminds me of this tweet:
  

  “Documents we write communicate our good thinking. You can write one without thinking. You can communicate good ideas without a document.” – Jeff Patton (Jan. 19, 2011 - twitter)

• As a BA, if you need to create a document, it will more likely be after the story is complete rather than before creating the story. Some additional guidelines for documentation on agile projects can be found here.

Plus, here are a few more that I thought of after our conversation:

• Collaborate with testers who share many of the same concerns about priorities, goals, scope, and requirements.
• One thing that doesnt change is the need to work with the business as any software produced by the team may change the business processes. Even with iterative delivery, there will be adjustments to be made.

If you have others to add or even disagree with some above - please comment or find Kevin or myself during the conference and well chat.

I have been putting off updating my word wall for so long, but Ive finally done it!  Ive spent nearly two full days on these fabulous word wall sets and I am so excited for them!

First things first, lets start with a fun freebie!  These alphabet picture cards have super cute pictures on them, and the vowels are a different color border than the consonants!  So fun! 


Now... before we move onto the word wall sets, let me back track to one of my first posts... spelling success!  Each time I introduce a new word to the class, we put the word on the word wall and one lucky student gets to wear a crown that has the same word/picture on it.  I attach the word to the crown via velcro for easy storage.


Anyway... each of my word wall sets have two copies of the word... one that is the perfect size for your word wall, and one that is the perfect size for a word crown!  Each of the sets is $4, and theyre available at TPT by clicking the pictures below!







It was a lot of work but I absolutely love how they came out... particularly the borders for the preview page!!!

Im linking the alphabet freebie signs up with manic monday!

The more I read the more I think that the blogger followers box wont be disappearing just yet... but to be safe I backed up all the blogs I follow over at Bloglovin!  Since so many people have been switching over to Bloglovin, I figured Id write up a tutorial on how to add a bloglovin button to your blog.  Here it is!

Its Tuesday again!  For a while, the poll was acting screwy, but the votes were all restored just in time!  The winner was "How to Make a Simple Frame in PowerPoint!"



For next weeks poll, Im going to add how to add an easy border to your pictures... like I did with the pictures on the post about my pumpkin bulletin board!

Study Guides & Strategies: http://www.studygs.net/
Exercises & Games: http://www.studygs.net/exercises.htm
Thinking Like a Genius: http://www.studygs.net/genius.htm

1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
2. Visualize!
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
6. Think in opposites.
7. Think metaphorically.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
9. The practice of genius

Web 2.0 Tools in Education: A Quick Guide by Mohamed Amin Embi

The best quick guide (230 pages) for Web 2.0 Tools in Education that I have come across (Ever!). 230 pages sounds a lot, but when you are covering 20 learning tools with screenshots, it is pretty quick and lovingly light!

Useful? I certainly think so!

I remember sitting next to my APA citation guide in college and struggling to find the right page... and it was a painful process.  Then, I stumbled on this website and my life changed.  This book turned bibliographies from a stressful thing that I needed to do (just when i thought i was finished) to a breeze.

What format do you use? APA? MLA? Chicago? Turabian?  What do you need to cite? Books? Websites? Journals? Newspapers?  Whatever it is... you can probably make a bibliography in 5 minutes... no joke. 






For next weeks poll, Im going to add the option how to search on any blog, which is particularly helpful when a pin leaders you to a main blog page and not directly to the post you want!

Thank you everyone for voting on the technology poll!  This week, the winner was How to Put a Watermark on a Photo!!!


Again, more than half of you voted for this in the poll!


I included two versions of this tutorial.  In light blue, youll find directions on how to do everything right in GimpShop.  Honestly, this is what I tend to do, as Im pretty comfortable using the program.  For those of you who feel overwhelmed by the Gimp interface, I included alternate directions (in a medium blue) which include a brief portion in Gimp, and the remainder of the tutorial in Gimp.  They both have the same effect, so its totally up to you! 
Before I start the tutorial this focuses on how to use an image as a watermark.  If you want to add text on your picture, click the picture below to check out my previous tutorial:

Now... onto the tutorial!







Now, for the tutorial that incorporates PowerPoint!






As far as next weeks poll is concerned, I just came across a MAJOR find in PowerPoint...  Do you remember my previous post on giving a picture a transparent background?  Well... I just stumbled across a way to do this right in PowerPoint!!!  So obviously that will be on next weeks poll!

URL: http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?PAGE_ID=10569&bhcp=1

I just love all of the silly things my kids say!

<div align="center"><a href="http://aturntolearn.blogspot.com/" title="What Did They Say!?"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OIhmtxluCS0/ULwEfazkl1I/AAAAAAAADpM/MMMzxm23B0Y/s320/What+Did+They+Say+Wednesday.png" alt="What Did They Say!?" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

My class is heading out on a field trip next week, and it reminds me about a funny story from last year!


They watch way too much TV!


Rules for the Linky Party:

1. Share a story that one of your kids said on your blog!  If you dont have a blog, leave a comment with your story!
2. Use the HTML code at the top of this post to link back to the post!
3. Comment on the two blog posts before yours!

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