How do Agile methods impact the role of the Business Analyst?

This was the question we wanted answers to, and the folks at VersionOne, were willing to help us out. They offered up Certified Scrum Master Mike Cottmeyer and Certified Scrum Trainer Lee Henson (bios below) to address our questions. VersionOne is a leader in the agile project management software space, and with thousands of implementations under their belt they’ve witnessed the impact of agile methods on the role of the Business Analyst first hand.

One of the first things that struck me as we launched into the conversation was how many similarities I was hearing to the conversation a couple of weeks ago with Alistair Cockburn: the challenge of not being able to accurately capture a requirement by merely conducting an interview; the need for intensely iterative collaboration between BAs and their clients; and the need to simplify the requirements process by focusing on behavior and user stories instead of long lists of “shall” statements. There’s also a recurring theme that the BA role has become one of the most critical roles in the software development process, and that Agile methods push that role even higher up the critical list.

Download episode 7, and see some of the many questions we covered. Mike and Lee are working on a whitepaper, to be posted on requirements.net soon, that will dig more into this topic, as well. Once you’ve listened to the podcast I would encourage you to post any comments or questions to either this blog or the episode itself to further the discussion.

More about Mike, Lee, and the folks at VersionOne:

Mike Cottmeyer is a Product Consultant and Agile Expert for VersionOne, training customers on the VersionOne application and how to best apply the tool in an Agile development environment. Prior to joining VersionOne, Mike was a Senior Project Manager for CheckFree Corporation where he managed a portfolio of projects for their online banking and bill payment business unit. Mike has a traditional project management background but has worked primarily with Agile methodologies for the past four years. He is passionate about driving adoption of iterative and incremental development techniques and helping to bridge the gap between traditional and Agile project management methodologies. Mike is a certified PMP and a certified ScrumMaster. He was involved with the creation of the DSDM Agile Project Leader certification and holds certifications at the Foundation, Practitioner, and Examiner levels. Mike was recently named an honorary member of the DSDM Consortium, and not only serves on the board of Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) but is the current Treasurer.

Lee Henson is Product Consultant and Agile Expert for VersionOne whose background as a Certified Scrum Trainer, ADDIE Training Professional, and Agile Coach and Trainer helps provide customers with the VersionOne application training they need to be successful. Lee’s background spans a broad array of technical software production roles and responsibilities including GUI web developer, quality assurance analyst, automated test engineer, senior product manager, senior project manager, ScrumMaster, agile coach, consultant, and ADDIE training professional. Lee believes that team empowerment is the key to successful product and project releases, and views his role as is to inspire teams to be successful at any level.. He has worked with hundreds of teams to assist them in successful implementation of thousands of projects. Lee remains very active in the ScrumAlliance and is the founder of AgileUtah. He is also authoring a book to help people in every role see the benefits of working in an agile environment.

VersionOne provides Agile project management software for nearly 10,000 global software development teams. Enabling today’s leading agile methodologies, VersionOne helps teams accelerate the delivery of high-quality software through powerful, easy-to-use planning and project management tools. VersionOne enables:

• Faster delivery cycles,
• Greater business adaptability,
• Reduced project risk, and
• Enhanced project visibility and predictability.