Agile Grows UP: The Agile Business Analyst

Description:

The business analyst role seems conspicuously missing from most agile methods. There are product owners and on site customers, but no business analysts. Do agile methods make business analyst an obsolete role like a locomotive fireman? Certainly not! The iterative, incremental and opportunistic nature of the agile methods changes the business analyst role to a more exciting and fulfilling one. A rose by any other name still smells as sweet and the needs that gave rise to the discipline of business analysis do not vanish with the use of agile methods. But how do you integrate what is sometimes portrayed as a plodding and documentation driven role into an agile project?

This workshop helps dispel many of the myths surrounding the business analyst role and agile software development. Like all other agile software development roles, the business analyst is a much more integrated and collaborative role where the agile business analyst utilizes their domain knowledge and a burgeoning bag of tools to resolve the conflicting wishes of numerous project stake holders, satisfy the governance needs of the development organization, and ensure the project team clearly understand what is required of them. This course provides participants practical guidance for how the business analyst integrates and collaborates with all members of the team and how to improve the business analysis process by leveraging the agile software development process.

Target Audience

• Business Analysts
• Project Managers
• Software Developers
• Quality Assurance

Course Pre-requisites

This course is about creating an agile business analysis process and is not an introduction to agile or business analysis. Familiarity with business analysis, requirements, use cases, and agile software development methods (e.g. Agile 101 Workshop) are assumed.

Course Level

Intermediate

Course Objectives

• Understand the role of the business analyst in agile software development teams
• Understand the difference between user stories and use cases.
• Learn strategies for iteratively and incrementally developing requirements.
• Know how to reduce waste by taking a lean approach to software requirements.
• Know strategies for integrating requirements management into an agile software development process.
• Know when to effectively use different requirements modeling and documentation practices (e.g. use cases, IEEE 830, user stories, etc).
• Know guidelines and practices for designing and deploying an effective agile business analysis process.
• Know how to leverage the agile software development process to improve the quality and responsiveness of the business analysis process.
• Use the Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) to inform the design of a scalable agile process.

Course Outline

• Square Peg in the Round Hole? The Agile Business Analyst
• The Rise of the Business Analyst
• But Where is the BA in an Agile Process?
• Gazelles and Gazebos - User Stories and Use Cases
• Agile Grows UP
• Context, Context, Context! Agility and the Software Development Lifecycle
• Strategies and Practices for Integrating the BA with Agile Software Development teams
  

  • Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools

  • The Best Is the Enemy of the Good
  • Incremental Requirements Development
  • Leveraging the Agile Software Development Process: Incremental and Iterative Requirements Development
    
    • Shared vision – Aligning the Vision
    • Breadth Before Depth – incremental development of requirements from 30,000 feet down to the ground
    • Spiral Development - Iterative development of requirements
    • Ever Unfolding Story – keeping requirements manageable
    • Adornments – using use cases to integrate a wide variety of requirements artifacts
• Requirements Management in an Agile World
• The Requirements Process and Software Project Governance
• Business Analysis and Automated Testing
  
  • Tests As Requirements
  • FIT
• Creating an Agile Business Analysis Process

Delivery Format

This course is delivered using a variety of learning mechanisms, including lecture, question and answer and group assignments. During this course participant will work together do design an agile business analysis process that addresses the issues challenging their project.

This seminar may be delivered either on-site in-person or virtually.