is a business analyst required on an agile team?

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Hello!I’m Andy Birds

I’m here because I love to share.

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Is a Business Analyst required

on an agile team?

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What is Agile?

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Agile Values

We are uncovering better ways of developingsoftware by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and toolsWorking software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiationResponding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items onthe right, we value the items on the left more.

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Characteristics of Agile Working

Collaborative and inclusive

Time-boxed and rapid

Make the problem and potential solutions real

Iterative and feedback driven (embracing change)

Business value / implementation cost focused

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What is the difference between Agile and Scrum?

Agile Scrum

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Agile

Scrum

Kanban

LeSS

DSDM

DAD

SAFe

XPFDD

CrystalNexus

Lean

Scrumban

AUPAPM

PRINCE2 Agile

Agile Modeling

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Kanban

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ScrumP

rio

rit

y

Sprint

Demo

Potentially

Shippable Product

Increment

Epic

User Story

Epic

User Story

Epic

User Story

Product Backlog

Development

Team

ScrumMasterProduct

Owner

Retrospective

Inspect

&

Adapt

Sprint Backlog

Daily Stand-up

Sprint

PlanningAnalyse

Design

Build

Deploy

Test & Review

Sprint

Execution

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Development Team

Scrum Team

Product Owner

(What)

Scrum Master

(How)

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Requirements

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Requirements Change

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Adaptable

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Prioritised Product Backlog

(to do list)

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80% of value is in 20% of features

Focus on delivering Minimum Marketable Features (MMF) or defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

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Product Owner

Stakeholders Scrum Team

Internal stakeholders (business owners,

managers, programme management)

External stakeholders (customers, partners,

regulators)

ScrumMaster

Development Team (Developer, QA, UX, UI)

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Confusion

When the Product Owner role is introduced it often leads to significant organisational confusion about the distribution of duties and responsibilities between these two roles.

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“BAs aren’t required

in agile projects”

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Imagine

You're founding a startup!

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Legacy Systems

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Modernising

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Analysis

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Agile BA

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.

Source: IIBA’S BABOK v3

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What is the difference between a

Product Ownerand an Agile Business Analyst?

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POBAUser Story gathering & writing

Business impacts

Business Vision &

Value

Process Modelling

Facilitator

Customer Experience

Decision Maker

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Product Owner

Scrum MasterDevelopment

Team(Developer, QA, UX, BA)

Scrum Team(Could be BA)

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Technical Business

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Communication

Keeping communication open and effective amongst those teams, and with key business stakeholders from project inception through to final delivery.

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ComplaintsCIO

Fraud

Head of Store/

Branches

Risk

SecurityCompliance

Portfolio ManagerProgramme

Manager

LegalDirectorHR Director

Product Manager

Head of Strategy

Head of Distribution

Project Management

Office

Head of Communities

Marketing Business Intelligence

Head of Architecture

Service Manager

Business Readiness

Internal Comms

CEO

Head of Digital

IT Project Manager

Finance Director

Head of Telephony

Public AffairsProcurement

Supplier Management

Audit

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Product Owner

Business Analyst

Stakeholders Scrum Team

Internal stakeholders (business owners,

managers, programme management)

External stakeholders (customers, partners,

regulators)

ScrumMaster

Development Team (Developer, QA, UX, UI)

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“Just like other specialised roles, working on the team means engaging in a broad range of activities and becoming what’s sometimes called a generalist-specialist.”

Roman Pichler

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“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Albert Einstein

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#1 Collaboration between BAs and the

PO is vital to success

#2 Become a generalist-specialist

#3 Embrace change – experience is the

best teacher

Final thoughts…

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Suggested reading

1) Agile Software Development Ecosystems by Jim Highsmith2) Agile Software Requirements: Lean Requirements Practices for Teams, Programs, and

the Enterprise (Agile Software Development) by Dean Leffingwell3) User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development by Mike Cohn4) User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product by Jeff Patton 5) Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories by Gojko Adzic and David Evans

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Digital stuff…Scrum Alliance - https://www.scrumalliance.org/Mike Cohn - https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/Martin Fowler - http://martinfowler.com/Jeff Patton - http://www.agileproductdesign.com/index.htmlJeff Sutherland - http://www.scruminc.com/category/blog/Ron Jeffries - http://xprogramming.com/index.phpKen Schwaber - http://kenschwaber.wordpress.com/Roman Pichler - http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/

Nexus - https://www.scrum.org/Resources/The-Nexus-GuideSAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) - http://www.scaledagileframework.com/DAD (Disciplined Agile Delivery) - http://www.disciplinedagiledelivery.com/LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum) - https://less.works/

Spotify Engineering Culture Full Video -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2o-Xm3UVjs

Audible - Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time Hardcover by Jeff Sutherland