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Topic - The Role of the Business Analyst in Agile
Development Environments
Presentation of Research
By
Kaushi Boteju
1796925
INF80006 – Business Analysis Practice
Presentation Content
What is Business Analysis
Who is a Business Analyst
The Role of Business Analyst – The World View
Traditional Software Development Environments
What is Agile
Agile Software Development Environments
The Role of Business Analyst – Traditional Vs Agile
Conclusion
References
What is Business Analysis Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison
among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and
operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the
organization to achieve its goals.
Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to
accomplish their purposes, and defining the capabilities an organization
requires to provide products and services to external stakeholders.
Business analysis is performed to define and validate solutions that meet
business needs, goals, or objectives.
Who is a Business Analyst
As per BABOK, A Business Analyst works as a liaison among
stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate
requirements for change to business processes, policies and
information systems.
The Business Analyst is an agent of change.
Business Analysts must be a;
o Problem Solvers in Changing Environments
o Great Verbal and Written Communicators
o Critical thinkers and Analyzers
o Tactful Diplomats
o Good Designer
o Team Player
The Role of Business Analyst – The World View
The Role of Business Analyst – The World View (Cont .)
Meet with stakeholders to discover the preliminary issues pertaining to the business problem. The goal is to get various views on the macro and micro status of the problem.
Develop a definitive description of the core problem that is agreed upon by all stakeholders.
The BA must begin documenting the proposed changes, model using various tools as appropriate to the audience.
Establish defined means of communications with Internal and External Stakeholders
Traditional Software Development Environments
What is Agile
Agile is a software development methodology that depends on establishing a direct link
between developers and users. It is based on the premise that requirements will change and
as such, there’s no need to invest in producing time-consuming or lengthy Requirements
Specification Documents (RSDs). An initial requirements envisioning is done to clarify the
project scope, an estimate of effort required to deliver the software is produced and
requirements are elaborated as needed based on constant prioritization.
Agile Software Development Environments
The Role of Business Analyst – Traditional Vs Agile BA
BA Agile BA
• Requirements are documented in Use
Cases, Business Requirements,
Functional requirements, UI
Specifications, Business Rules.
• Requirements are documented in Epics,
User Stories and optionally Business (or
Essential) Use cases.
• Focuses on completeness of
requirement and spends time in
ensuring the requirement is
unambiguous and has all the details.
• Focuses on understanding the problem and
being the domain expert so that s/he can
answer questions from the development
team swiftly and decisively.
• Focuses on getting a ‘sign off’ on the
requirements.
• Focuses on ensuring the requirements meet
the current business needs, even if it
requires updating them.
• Often there is a wall between the
BA/Business and the Development
team.
• Agile BA/Product Owner is part of the
team.
Source : http://www.batimes.com/articles/business-analyst-and-the-agile-business-analyst.html
BA Agile BA
• Tends to dictate solutions. • Has to remain in the problem domain,
leaving the development team ‘space’ to
explore different solutions
• Long turnaround. • Quick turnaround.
• Focus on what the requirements
document said. In other words, output
(Artifact) is a well written thorough
requirements document.
• Focus on the functionality of the developed
software. In other words, output (Artifact) is
the software that meets the business needs.
• Needs the ability to look at the big picture
(with fewer details) but also needs the ability
to break the big picture into smaller pieces,
so that the development team can execute on
it in two to three week intervals
• Focus on being very specific in the
requirements (construed as inflexible)
• Leave room for negotiation (and be flexible)
as long as the problem is solved.
The Role of Business Analyst – Traditional Vs Agile (Cont.)
Conclusion
BA’s in Agile Development Projects should;
o Produce and explore requirements in collaboration with users, at a
different level of detail than we’re used to
o Always Identify missing requirements or look for missing requirements
o Work with users to develop acceptance criteria or test cases for the
system
o Mentor developers on how things work in the business domain
o Assume the role of “Product Owners”
o Work ahead of the team to get clarity on some (not all) requirements
before the next iteration
o Wear different hats: designer, tester, facilitator, product owner, etc
o Create a shared understanding of what the product is supposed to do
References
http://www.batimes.com/articles/business-analyst-and-the-agile-
business-analyst.html
http://www.iiba.org/babok-guide/babok-guide-v2/babok-guide-
online/chapter-one-introduction/1-2-what-is-business-analysis.aspx
http://businessanalystlearnings.com/blog/2013/4/21/traditional-
to-agile-the-role-of-bas-in-agile-projects
http://www.maestrointel1.com/best-practices.php?id=agile
http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-role-of-a-business-analyst.php
INF80006 Business Analysis Practice Session 1 - Roles & Practices of
BA’s (Class Room Lecture)
