Understanding of Business Analysts in Agile Development
Scrum and Kanban are the two well-known modern frameworks for effective software
development. As compared to the traditional, there is more novelty and flexibility, customer
interaction, and change incorporation in agile. This makes it possible for teams to develop
working software in the shortest possible time as they incorporate emerging demands.
Agile Development recognizes the utilization of business analysts (BAs) but isn’t as definite
regarding their position on an agile team. In this respect, how does the agile BA role differ from
the convention BA on a waterfall model project? Here we will see how the BA integrates in an
agile environment.
Agility comprehends ten fundamental values and principles.
First of all, a BA who works in an agile environment must grasp the basic principles and values
of agile. Among the four primary values stated in the Agile Manifesto, two of them are: ‘Working
individuals and interactions are somehow more valuable than tools and processes’ and
‘Customers are always preferable to be contracted’.
Agile teams are more inclined to discuss face-to-face and deal with the end-users instead of
focusing on documentation and contracts. In this approach, BAs need to change from a more
rigid hierarchy and accept the flexibility combined with cooperation. They may still produce
artifacts such as use cases and user stories, but the focus here is on passing a conversation
with the POs and users.
Empowering the Product Owner
In agile approaches such as Scrum, the product owner takes a central position regarding the
description of business requirements and ranking of functionalities. As such, the BA plays more
of an advisor to the product owner compared to being the primary interface between the two
views of the organization.
The BA informs the role and responsibilities of the product owner on the development of clear
requirements and use of user stories. They also assist the product owner in prioritizing the
backlog so as to bring value to the business. The BA uses their problem solving, interpersonal
communication, and business acumen to support the product owner of the project. However, the
ultimate ‘owner’ of the backlog is the product owner, who makes the final call.
Embracing Change
Because agile teams practice short iterations and always gather customer feedback, they have no choice other than to welcome change in requirements. The thing to do is “adapt.” This reproductive flexibility is significantly different from the more conventional waterfall model, in which it was claimed that the requirements were frozen at the start. It used to be the BA’s job to lock in those fixed specs. But with agility, the BA must accept that he has a target constantly in motion and shifting user stories.
Communication with the other members in the delivery team
Agile emphasizes integrating the business side with the delivery teams more than any other
methodology that has been proposed for implementation. As a result, it is perhaps the BA alone
that is ideally placed to overcome the above divide and facilitate the described reciprocity of
communication.
The BA should be with the developers, designers, testers, etc. and not alone with PO. The BA
creates social links and credibility by integrating with the team doing the delivery. They get
development team information, enabling them to be more helpful in developing stories that can
realistically be delivered within each sprint.
Supporting Planning and Review Meetings in a Sprint
The BA interacts a lot with other members during important Agile ceremonies such as sprint
planning and sprint review. They used to plan to explain user stories, define acceptance criteria,
identify dependencies, and clarify the breakdown of the stories that they committed to.
During the sprint review, the BA gets to know how the actual delivered functionality favors what
the user wants. They keep direct user feedback to be used in the next sprint backlog. The BA is
the ‘customer representative’ in these discussions.
The next pattern that identifies itself is the focus on the user experience.
As with many agile mottos, there is the notion of delighting users through software.
Consequently, BAs in an agile context also look beyond fundamentals and broaden the
perspective to include the usability of the final product.
They do research into users, develop prototypical user types, customer experiences or touch
point diagrams, and user testing. These UX activities support the software requirements that are
described in stories. Combined, they assist the team to create products that are intelligent to
use that trigger the ‘ah-ha’ factor in users.
The third generic lesson is a shift to an Agile mindset.
Agile, depending on the type, can be very active and nippy for business analysts who have only worked in the
conventional sequential development models. In fact, the moment when one has embraced
such values as direct communication, releases worked in cycles, requiring constant feedback,
and readiness to tolerate excessive amounts of uncertainty, the process becomes extremely
gratifying.
They are able to collaborate more directly with both users and developers, watch the product
grow toward the vision in real time, and enjoy the fruits of labor that result in the continuing need
for product adjustments. In other words, instead of the change disrupting the process, the BAs
assist the agile team to leverage change to increase value. Hence, BAs can find themselves as
valuable players in agile circumstances with the correct perspective towards it.
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