Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.
Agile Business Analysis
Description
Analysis
Implications
Applications
Examples
1. User Stories (US)
Create user stories to capture functional requirements and user needs.
– Collaborate with stakeholders to define user stories that describe specific features or functionalities. – Include user perspectives, acceptance criteria, and conditions of satisfaction. – Prioritize user stories based on business value and dependencies. – Continuously refine and update user stories as requirements evolve.
– Focuses on customer-centric requirements and user needs. – Encourages ongoing collaboration between the project team and stakeholders. – Allows for flexibility in responding to changing requirements.
– Gathering user requirements for software development projects. – Defining feature requests in product development.
User Stories Example: Creating user stories for an e-commerce platform, including “As a user, I want to add products to my cart for easy checkout.”
2. Backlog Management (BM)
Maintain and prioritize a backlog of user stories and requirements.
– Develop and maintain a product backlog that includes user stories, features, enhancements, and defects. – Continuously prioritize backlog items based on business value, customer feedback, and project goals. – Decompose larger items into smaller, actionable tasks. – Keep the backlog visible and accessible to the team for planning and execution.
– Provides a structured approach to managing project requirements and priorities. – Enables iterative and incremental planning and delivery. – Facilitates transparency and alignment within the project team.
– Managing a product backlog for software development sprints. – Prioritizing and sequencing tasks for a marketing campaign.
Backlog Management Example: Maintaining a product backlog for a mobile app development project, regularly updating priorities and adding new user stories.
3. Sprint Planning and Execution (SPE)
Plan and execute work in time-bound iterations known as sprints.
– Collaboratively plan sprint goals, select user stories from the backlog, and estimate the effort required for each task. – Define sprint duration (e.g., 2-4 weeks) and create a sprint backlog. – Execute tasks and user stories within the sprint, with daily stand-up meetings to track progress. – Review and demo completed work at the end of the sprint. – Retrospect to identify areas for improvement.
– Enables short-term, focused planning and execution cycles. – Promotes cross-functional collaboration within the sprint team. – Delivers potentially shippable increments of work at the end of each sprint.
– Implementing agile methodologies in software development projects. – Conducting marketing campaigns with iterative planning and execution.
Sprint Planning and Execution Example: Planning a 2-week sprint for the development of a website feature, including daily stand-up meetings and sprint review.
4. Continuous Stakeholder Engagement (CSE)
Engage with stakeholders throughout the project to gather feedback and ensure alignment.
– Establish ongoing communication channels with stakeholders to understand their needs and expectations. – Involve stakeholders in sprint reviews, product demos, and backlog prioritization. – Gather feedback, clarify requirements, and make adjustments based on stakeholder input. – Maintain transparency in project progress and changes.
– Keeps stakeholders informed and engaged in the project’s direction. – Allows for quick response to changing stakeholder requirements and preferences. – Enhances collaboration and trust between the project team and stakeholders.
– Involving end-users in user acceptance testing for software development. – Seeking input from customers during the design and development of a new product.
Continuous Stakeholder Engagement Example: Regularly involving business users in the testing and validation of new software features.
5. Adaptation and Iteration (AI)
Embrace change and continuously improve by iterating on work and processes.
– Emphasize adaptability and flexibility in response to changing requirements or market conditions. – Reflect on the results and lessons learned from each sprint. – Identify opportunities for improvement in processes, team collaboration, and product quality. – Implement changes and adjustments in subsequent iterations. – Encourage a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.
– Facilitates the ability to respond to evolving business needs and challenges. – Drives ongoing process improvement and optimization. – Promotes a culture of learning, experimentation, and innovation within the team.
– Iteratively developing and enhancing software products based on user feedback. – Continuously improving marketing campaign strategies based on campaign performance.
Adaptation and Iteration Example: Iteratively refining a mobile app based on user feedback and analytics, implementing updates in subsequent sprints.
Agile Business Analysis is significant for several reasons:
1. Customer-Centric Approach
It places the customer at the center of the development process, ensuring that the solutions delivered meet their needs and expectations.
2. Adaptability
Agile Business Analysis allows organizations to respond quickly to changing business conditions and customer requirements, fostering adaptability and resilience.
3. Continuous Improvement
The iterative nature of Agile promotes continuous improvement, enabling organizations to refine and enhance their solutions over time.
4. Collaboration
Agile Business Analysis encourages collaboration among cross-functional teams, breaking down silos and fostering a shared understanding of project goals.
5. Risk Mitigation
By delivering smaller increments of value and obtaining regular feedback, Agile Business Analysis helps mitigate project risks and reduces the chances of costly errors.
Principles of Agile Business Analysis
Agile Business Analysis is guided by a set of principles that underpin its practice:
1. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
Foster collaboration between Business Analysts, stakeholders, and development teams.
Prioritize understanding customer needs and preferences over rigid contractual agreements.
2. Working Solutions over Comprehensive Documentation
Emphasize the creation of working, tangible solutions rather than extensive documentation.
Documentation is essential but should serve as a means to an end, not the end itself.
3. Responding to Change over Following a Plan
Embrace change and adapt to evolving requirements and priorities.
Maintain flexibility in project plans to accommodate new insights and feedback.
4. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools
Value individuals and their interactions within the project team.
Recognize the importance of communication and collaboration among team members.
5. Value Delivery over Project Completion
Prioritize delivering value incrementally and regularly throughout the project.
Aim to satisfy customer needs and create a tangible impact.
Agile Business Analysis Practices
Agile Business Analysis encompasses a range of practices that support its principles:
1. User Story Mapping
Collaboratively create visual representations of user stories to illustrate the flow and sequence of features.
Helps teams gain a shared understanding of the user journey and prioritize work accordingly.
2. Backlog Refinement
Regularly review and refine the product backlog to ensure it reflects changing priorities and stakeholder needs.
Break down large user stories into smaller, manageable pieces.
3. Persona Development
Create user personas to represent different customer segments and their unique characteristics, needs, and goals.
Personas serve as a reference point for designing solutions that cater to specific user groups.
4. Impact Mapping
Visualize the relationship between project objectives, stakeholders, and the delivery of value.
Clarifies the “why” behind project goals and helps teams stay focused on delivering meaningful outcomes.
5. Continuous Feedback
Gather and incorporate feedback from stakeholders and end-users throughout the development process.
Feedback loops ensure that the solution aligns with customer expectations.
6. Collaborative Workshops
Conduct workshops and collaborative sessions with cross-functional teams to elicit requirements, define scope, and generate ideas.
Promote communication, creativity, and shared ownership of project goals.
7. Visual Modeling
Use visual models such as flowcharts, diagrams, and wireframes to represent requirements and design concepts.
Visual aids enhance communication and understanding among team members.
Understanding Agile Business Analysis
With many organizations now adopting agile principles, the role of a business analyst within an agile project team is critical.
Many traditional approaches to project management are outdated in the sense that they are rigid and inflexible.
While modern businesses have a greater need for flexibility and adaptability, the services of a skilled business analyst in finding process improvements are still required.
The certification is designed for aspiring or current business analysts who wish to adopt a flexible, collaborative, and fast-paced approach to doing business.
Importantly, Agile Business Analysis ensures that this approach does not come at the expense of robust business management standards.
Core outcomes of Agile BA training
AgileBA training is based on a handbook published by the Agile Business Consortium. The handbook is the first comprehensive guide for business analysts working on agile projects.
It seeks to assist analysts in several areas, including:
The application of AgileBA principles, processes, and philosophies in a real-world project scenario.
Identifying and then applying popular Agile techniques such as MoSCoW and timeboxing.
Using the Agile approach to manage or prioritize project requirements using requirement lifecycles.
Understanding the various roles and responsibilities of individuals within a project team.
Understanding support and facilitation mechanisms within an Agile project.
Testing, estimating, or evaluating the delivery of benefits associated with Agile processes and projects.
Benefits of Agile Business Analysis to business
An analyst qualified in AgileBA can offer several benefits to businesses.
Here are a few of them:
Highlighting process improvements through data analysis and metric tracking. Certified analysts assess projects holistically and provide guidance when a project is too wasteful or has suffered from scope creep.
The clear communication of agile ideas and principles to key stakeholders and decision-makers.
Assisting in the defining and designing of user interfaces and relevant user requirements.
Helping businesses remain goal-oriented. To some extent, this allows businesses to enjoy the tighter controls of traditional management structure while also benefitting from Agile principles.
The adding of value to project development teams. Note that the business analyst does not implement valuable solutions, they simply ensure that valuable solutions are created. Such solutions are defined as any solutions that address consumer needs and align with broader organizational goals.
Key takeaways
Agile Business Analysis helps business analysts improve Agile project management in modern organizations.
Agile Business Analysis is based on the AgileBA handbook, the first such book to provide comprehensive guidance on the role that an analyst plays in the context of Agile practices.
Agile Business Analysis has many benefits to business operations. Chief among these is ensuring that projects are relevant to individual and organizational needs, stay on track, and achieve their stipulated goals.
Key Highlights of Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA):
Definition and Purpose:
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is a certification program designed to provide guidance and training for business analysts working in agile environments.
It helps business analysts relate agile projects to broader organizational missions and strategies while maintaining robust business management standards.
Role of Business Analyst in Agile:
In the context of modern organizations adopting agile principles, the role of a business analyst in agile project teams becomes crucial.
Agile Business Analysis emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and adaptability while ensuring process improvements are identified.
Core Outcomes of AgileBA Training:
AgileBA training, based on the Agile Business Consortium handbook, covers areas such as:
Applying AgileBA principles, processes, and techniques in real-world projects.
Using popular Agile techniques like MoSCoW and timeboxing.
Managing and prioritizing project requirements using Agile approaches.
Understanding project team roles, responsibilities, and support mechanisms.
Testing, estimating, and evaluating benefits delivery in Agile projects.
Benefits to Businesses:
AgileBA-certified analysts offer several benefits to businesses, including:
Identifying process improvements through data analysis and metrics tracking.
Clear communication of agile concepts to stakeholders and decision-makers.
Assisting in defining user interfaces and requirements.
Balancing traditional management controls with agile principles.
Adding value to project development by ensuring valuable solutions are created to address needs and goals.
Key Takeaways:
Agile Business Analysis enhances Agile project management within modern organizations.
Based on the AgileBA handbook, it offers comprehensive guidance for the role of analysts in Agile practices.
Benefits include project relevance, alignment with goals, staying on track, and achieving project objectives.
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.
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Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.
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Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.
Business modelinnovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.
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An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.
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Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a process called just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.
Jidoka was first used in 1896 by Sakichi Toyoda, who invented a textile loom that would stop automatically when it encountered a defective thread. Jidoka is a Japanese term used in lean manufacturing. The term describes a scenario where machines cease operating without human intervention when a problem or defect is discovered.
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was first proposed by American physicist and engineer Walter A. Shewhart in the 1920s. The PDCA cycle is a continuous process and product improvement method and an essential component of the lean manufacturing philosophy.
RAD was first introduced by author and consultant James Martin in 1991. Martin recognized and then took advantage of the endless malleability of software in designing development models. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a methodology focusing on delivering rapidly through continuous feedback and frequent iterations.
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle. These are the five stages of a retrospective analysis for effective Agile project management: set the stage, gather the data, generate insights, decide on the next steps, and close the retrospective.
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Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.
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Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating errors or defects in a product, service, or process. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a management approach based on quality fundamentals in the early 1980s. A decade later, it was popularized by General Electric who estimated that the methodology saved them $12 billion in the first five years of operation.
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an early form of lean manufacturing created by auto-manufacturer Toyota. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1940s and 50s, the Toyota Production System seeks to manufacture vehicles ordered by customers most quickly and efficiently possible.
The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework is a technique based on the premise that employees continuously work on their ability to provide value to customers. Importantly, the word “total” means that all employees are involved in the process – regardless of whether they work in development, production, or fulfillment.
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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