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Role of Business Analyst in SCRUM
Scrum is a framework that has been used to manage and work on complex products. Business analyst role begins with the planning of the requirement, then conducting various requirement gathering sessions and analyzing the requirements. Finally, the requirement is listed as ‘FEATURE LIST’. This feature list is drafted by BA and discussed with the product owner. This LIST will have all the enhancements and existing features.
A business analyst in general does the following job. The need to understand this is important to know how the agile works.
BA is the owner who makes all decisions concerning the business as he possesses analytical skills.
BA elicits requirements which later on has to be worked on.
BA maps the process flow, use case diagrams, other flow charts relevant to the project they are working upon.
BA communicates with the customers and other stack holders continuously to make a final decision on how the product Development would take place.
BA in agile also does the same above listed jobs plus more challenging and responsible. The primary difference in an agile project is how the requirements are managed and communicated.
The key role of a business analyst in agile
BA in agile adds necessary steps the product backlog. The product owner prioritizes the backlogs and then handover to the BA for grooming them further.
BA interacts with the customer to analyze their need and find solutions.
BA creates user stories, Activity diagram and other flow charts to make the customers and stakeholders clearly understand the product outcome.
Many a times project owner makes user stories and BA will review them and check if they are in line with business rules, business governance of that particular company.
Business Analysts makes it clear and precise at every stage that there are no gaps in any level so that there are no confusions in later stages.
Business analysts creates all the documents from BRD, FRD,SRD design flows and wire frames.
From the above pointers, it is clear that the business analyst role in agile is prominent and advanced when compared to a traditional BA. This is because in Agile we have terms like product backlog, user story, Activity diagrams and various static and dynamic diagrams which help in making the product design look flawless and acceptance criteria repeatedly in agile projects. Thus, there is a need for the BA to know them to work along with them. And unlike in traditional waterfall model Agile scrum takes place in iterative steps where result is shown by BA to stakeholders after every iterative process.
BA’s rule in different organization can differ, various roles played by BA are as follows: –
1) Business Analyst as Product Owner
Let us first check the business analyst role in agile fits in as a product owner. When this is the situation remember that BA becomes the most powerful as a product owner role and the BA role gets blend as one.
Business analyst is the sole in charge all the questions related to business, product and documentation. Whatever the stakeholders or the developers have queries, business analysts must clarify them.
BA acts as a pilot between stakeholders and the developer team, BA takes them all.
BA acts as a canter of pivotal circle, where he interacts with clients, understand what they need and give them solution. He takes the requirements, explains the stakeholders about the outcome of the product. He then sends the requirements to the developing team, conducts brainstorming sessions, questionnaire and various other meetings to properly take the Development of the product.
BA has to be present to carry out all the development as there is no product owner beside BA.
Business Analyst as Scrum Team Member
Team members playing a business analyst role in agile will have its benefits. This means the team member who understands the requirement, creates documents, and develops product backlog will as well work on it individually. The technical team will be relieved as communicating with the BA becomes easy as he/she is part of the product development.
Business Analyst understands the requirements prepare documentation and grooms backlog.
BA starts working along with the team on backlog.
BA offers information by creating documentation, various flow diagrams,
BA will be part of customer discussions, stakeholder meetings and sprint discussions.
BA can completely break down user stories to help the team understand them and by creating dynamic stories team will get a clear picture of the product that they have to develop. Thus, the product to be developed gets ready in iterations with complete standards. In each release of iteration, BA will come forward to explain each and every point of the product developed in that particular iteration.
A BA can successfully fulfill his role in Agile by following some of the tips mentioned below: –
- BA can study about the agile methodology and understand how it works?
- Start thinking in terms of user stories. Product decisions can no longer be taken at the decision-making level but you need to understand story points and their importance. 3
- Give importance to the business value and start improving negotiation skills. 4
- BA must have good communicating skills, this is important part of the BA’s work.
