Agile Business AnalystHUONG TRAN – SEPTEMBER 2015

Agenda

Introduction of the Business Analyst (BA)

BA in Agile project

8 Steps to Being an Effective Business

Analyst

Introduction of the Business Analyst

“”

The business analyst is who understands

business problems and opportunities in the

context of the requirements and

recommends solutions that enable the

organization to achieve its goals.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS (IIBA)

Who is Business Analyst?

Role of Business

Analyst on Projects“A bridge among stakeholders”:

Business Sponsors

External Customers / End Users

Internal Teams / Developers, Testers, Project Managers, etc.

Acts as organizer, listener, investigator,

facilitator, communicator, collaborator &

innovator

What do BAs do?

Business Analyst in Agile project

Traditional BA vs Agile BA

Traditional BA Agile BA

Focus Requirements Documentation Value Delivery in the form of

Business Outcomes

Artifacts Requirement Documents Backlogs

Requirements

Definition

All requirements defined upfront Defined continuously in small

batches (i.e., Features)

Requirements

Format

Written by BA Written by anyone and

collaboratively elaborated

Negotiability Non-negotiable Negotiable

Sign-Offs Formal Sign-Off obtained Quick feedback

Requirement Changes Strictly controlled after baseline Changes are anticipated and

welcome at any time

Location Usually separate from the

development team

Often collocated and part of the

development team

Source: Enfocus Solutions Inc 2014

Difference in Agile Requirements

Requirements are defined iteratively

and incrementally

Requirements are maintained in

backlogs, also in requirement documents (if need)

Solution requirements are defined via

conversations between the team and

users

Business analysis work is done in

increments rather than all up-front

Just enough, just-in-time

More emphasis is placed on verbal and visual communications than

written documents

Reference: Enfocus Solutions Inc 2014

Influence BAs Have in the Quality of

Documentation in Agile Projects

More emphasis is placed on verbal and

visual communications than written

documents

=> Is there any value in even talking about

documentation in this type of project?

Adriana Beal, bridging-the-gap.com

Influence BAs Have in the Quality of

Documentation in Agile Projects

To remind the implementation decisions and hard-to-remember requirements when an iteration starts

To hand off the project to another team that will maintain the product

To help end users understanding how to operate the software when start to use new product or feature

To document the permanent record of implemented system behavior when regulation and compliance issues need it

Adriana Beal, bridging-the-gap.com

Agile Requirement Hierarchy

Mike Cohn, Agile Requirement Hierarchy

Theme

Epic

Story Story Story

Task Task

Epic Epic

Our company

Example for Agile Requirement

London Agile Discussion Group

Agile Requirement Defined - INVEST

Bill Wake, INVEST model

Being an Effective BA

8 Steps to Being an Effective BA

Laura Brandenburg, bridging-the-gap.com

References

International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)

https://www.iiba.org/

A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge book

(BABOK guide)

Bridging the Gap - http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/

The Agile Business Analyst – white paper of VersionOne

The Agile Business Analyst – John Parker - Enfocus Solutions

Scrum & Kanban http://scrumandkanban.co.uk/

Q&A

Thanks for listening