BA08: Agile for Business Analysts
About this Course
As more organizations are moving to agile delivery, it is becoming increasingly important for business analysis professionals to understand how to adapt their current skills to support different delivery frameworks. Even when organizations have not fully embraced agile, research shows that many teams are embracing ‘some’ agile practices. Traditional waterfall business analysis skills are still important, but so is professionally developing to understand how to adapt your processes and skills as delivery frameworks evolve.
Project success is dependent on effective business analysis, therefore business analysis professionals must continue to evolve their skillsets to keep up with the needs and expectations of agile teams. Many traditional project teams run into trouble when they try to define all of the requirements up front. The reality is that stakeholders often cannot articulate their requirements and the best design is not known until some prototypes are built. Every project and program can benefit from adopting some agile practices.
Agile for Business Analysts Course Overview:
In this course, you will develop your understanding of agile business analysis and the role of the business analyst on an agile team. You will learn how business analysis on an agile project is ‘the same’ and ‘different’ than business analysis performed on waterfall projects. You will understand how the business analysis role changes on an agile team. A number of business analysis techniques suited for supporting agile teams will be introduced as will the various standards available to the community to help teams and organizations transition. Since few organizations are pure agile, you will also learn about delivery approaches that use a combination of practices from waterfall and agile and will also be introduced to the important concept of business analysis tailoring – the key skill used to adapt business analysis skills to all environments – regardless of the delivery life cycle selected.
Added Bonus – Support for Pursuing your IIBA®AACTM Certification
Since demonstrating your agile competencies is important when pursuing your next role on any agile team; this course introduces the newest agile analysis certification in the marketplace IIBA-AAC. The IIBA-AAC credential enables you to identify yourself as someone who has mastered a firm understanding of agile business analysis and who has obtained a few years of experience in the process. You will obtain important information that defines the credential, explains the experience required to apply for the exam, the exam structure, its costs, and a thorough overview of what the exam covers and what you need to understand to sufficiently prepare to take the exam. You may not have considered obtaining an agile certification before, but should you decide, this course will provide you all the information you need to successfully begin your studies.
Audience Profile
Anyone with the need to understand how business analysis is performed to support agile projects or who must transition their existing business analysis skills and practices from waterfall to agile.
At Course Completion
In this course, you will:
Understand the fundamentals of agile delivery and agile business analysis
Compare and contrast business analysis on waterfall and agile projects
Explain the value proposition for agile product development
Define the 4 main types of project life cycles
Complete an in-depth walkthrough of the agile delivery life cycle
Explain the major flavors of agile
Understand the major standards available to assist in the transition of skills
Define business analysis tailoring and understand how to apply it
Learn over 20 business analysis techniques commonly used on agile projects
Outline
Module 1 – What is Agile?
What is agile
The Agile Manifesto
Agile principles
Agile benefits
Hands-on activity
Module 2 – State of Agile
The current state of agile
Agile trends
Agile skills
Value proposition
The business case for agile
The BA role changes on an agile project
Hands-on activity
Module 3 – Project life cycles
Project life cycle
Product life cycle
Incremental versus Iterative
Hybrid approaches to delivery
Choosing a project life cycle
Module 4 – An in-depth look at Agile
The agile development life cycle
A sequence of iterations
Essential concepts
Inside each iteration
Iteration goal
Iteration planning
Sequence of tasks
Work period
Testing
End of iteration activities
Evaluation and feedback
Structured walkthroughs
Evaluation guidelines
The BA role in structured walkthroughs
Scripting scenarios
Defect list
Retrospectives
Hands-on exercise
Module 5 – Types of Agile Delivery Approaches
The flavors of agile
Scrum
Scrum roles
Extreme Programming (XP)
Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM)
Feature Driven Development (FDD)
Testing
Best practices used by FDD
Kanban
Kanban Boards
Agile Unified Process
Scaling Frameworks
Module 6 – An Introduction to Agile Business Analysis
What is business analysis?
What is agile business analysis?
Framework for agile business analysis
Business analysis components
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®)
Project Management Institute (PMI®)
Context to business analysis
Our industry BA standards
Our industry Agile BA standards
Product Owners
What stays the same
What is expected to change
Agile requirements deliverables
Lightweight documentation
Requirements repository
Where business analysis fits in
The BA workload
Hands-on exercise
Module 7 – Business Analysis Tailoring
Business analysis tailoring (defined)
Tailoring considerations
What tailoring looks like
The PMI Guide to Business Analysis
Determining the ‘best’ BA approach
Methodology vs Standard
Why use methodologies
Determining your methodology
Business analysis impacts
Module 8 – Tools and techniques for agile business analysis
Agile BA techniques
Backlog refinements
Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
Burndown chart
Collaborative games
Definition of done
Definition of ready
INVEST
Iteration planning
Kanban board
Minimum marketable features (MMF)
Minimum viable product (MVP)
MoSCoW
Narrative writing
Persona analysis
Product roadmap
Progressive Elaboration
Prototyping
Purpose alignment model
Retrospectives
Story slicing
Hands-on Exercise
Module 9 – Prioritization Techniques
Requirements prioritization
Prioritizing on agile projects
Prioritization criteria
Business benefit
MoSCoW
Pair-choice comparison
Setting priorities with multi-voting
Cost to acquire and operate
Determining business value
Story point estimating
Planning poker
Project velocity
Hands-on activity
Module 10: Preparing for the IIBA-AAC
IIBA-AAC Explained
The IIBA-AAC Exam
7 Agile Principles Guiding Business Analysis
Scope of the Exam
Planning Horizons Defined
Exam Blueprint
The IIBA-AAC Exam Process
Agile Mindset
Required Proficiency Level
Strategy Horizon (Explained)
Level of Proficiency Required in Strategy Horizon
Initiative Horizon (Explained)
Level of Proficiency Required in Initiative Horizon
Delivery Horizon (Explained)
Level of Proficiency Required in Delivery Horizon
IIBA-AAC Terminology
IIBA-AAC Techniques
Are you Ready for the IIBA-AAC?
Module 11: Course wrap-up
Making the transition to agile
How my role will be different
Course summary
Retrospective
Questions
Appendix:
BA Techniques Table
Pair Choice Spreadsheet
Class Exercises
Exercise 1: Self-organizing teams
Exercise 2: Review the case study
Exercise 3: Create user personas
Exercise 4: Create user stories
Exercise 5: Applying the INVEST technique
Exercise 6: Planning poker to prioritize
Prerequisites
No prerequisites - This course is suitable for novice and experienced practitioners who are responsible for business analysis activities on projects using iterative or adaptive (agile) delivery methods. It is recommended that participants complete the BA01 – Business Analysis Essentials course prior to enrolling or have equivalent experience.