Overview of business analysis and why your team may need one (or at least, someone doing this work).

1. WHAT IS A BA?
WHAT DO I DO WITH ONE?
DO I NEED ONE?
By Andrea Pellerito

2. About
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Education -
Western Michigan University
Intensive Quality Assurance
Bootcamp - Grand Circus
Member IIBA
Certifed ScrumMaster
Experience
Technical business analyst
Quality assurance analyst
Project manager
Accounting & finance
Other Stuff
Project management
SDLC
business writing
Atlassian tools
SQL/Java/html/CSS/etc.
UX
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Andrea Pellerito
Senior Business Consultant, Perficient, Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreapellerito/

3. Introductions
Name Occupation
Do you work
with a BA?
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4. Today’s objectives
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What is a Business Analyst (BA), anyway? What does a BA do?
Does my team need a BA?
As a developer, what should I expect when working with a BA?
Is a BA a project manager?
How does a BA fit into UX?
Why do I love/hate working with my team’s BA?
How does a BA fit into agile?
What skills do I need if I want to be a BA?

5. SO…
WHAT IS A BA,
ANYWAY?
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6. The BA’s
Responsibilities ■ Gather, document, and manage
requirements
■ Ask questions (dig deeper)
■ Discover assumptions, risks, constraints
■ Initiate discussions
■ Bridge between technical and non-
technical
■ Become a Subject Matter Expert (SME)
■ Rarely the decision maker
An Overview
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7. THE BA IS
LIKE A
SPONGE…
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8. What does a BA…do?
Discover Value…
• Shadow a business user,
Audit an experience, Ask
how can we improve?
• Evaluate market
research/analytics
• Calculate Return on
Investment
• Research regulations
Research Feasibility…
• Assumptions
• Risks
• Constraints
• Dependencies
Define the Problem –
and Solution
• As is and Future State
• Processes
• Data
• Systems
• Touchpoints
• Gather existing
documentation
• What does it look like today
and what will it look like when
we’re done?
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9. No, really, what do they do?
Research…
Ask Questions
Shadowing
Observation
Auditing
Process/Work item tracking
Collect data for metrics/KPIs
Review Sessions
Seek Feedback
And Document…
Collect existing documentation
Brainstorming Sessions
Journey mapping
Questionnaires
Surveys
JAD Sessions
Workshops
Interviews
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10. The Documents
■ Feasibility Analysis
■ Return on Investment (ROI)
calculation
■ Request for Proposal/Request for
information document (or
response)
■ Business Requirement Document
(BRD) Process Flows/Decision
Trees (Visio)
■ Presentations for Stakeholders
■ Meeting notes
■ Process Flows/Decision Trees
(Visio)
■ Backlog items
■ User Stories
■ Use Cases
■ Acceptance Criteria
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11. What is a
“Requirement”
■ Business requirements
– “I need customers to be able to read
their account statement.”
– No description of “how” this will take
place.
■ System requirements
– “The system shall allow user to
download a PDF of their account
statement.”
– No description of user experience
■ Functional and non-functional
requirements
– Functional – Must be able to
download PDF
– Non-Functional – System response
time <1 second
Business requirements: statements of goals,
objectives, and outcomes that describe why
a change has been initiated.…
Functional requirements: describe the
capabilities that a solution must have in
terms of the behaviour and information that
the solution will manage, and
Non-functional requirements or quality of
service requirements: do not relate directly
to the behaviour of functionality of the
solution, but rather describe conditions
under which a solution must remain
effective or qualities that a solution must
have.
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BABOK® V3
“
”

12. What a BA
does for
Requirements
Gather
Break
down
Analyze
Document
Validate
Prioritize
Traceability
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13. SO DOES MY TEAM
NEED A BA?
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14. I’m a developer, and I [blank] my BA!
Love
■ The BA helps me resolve blockers
■ The BA really understands the
project
■ The BA is involved in every sprint
■ The BA helps me save time
Hate
■ The documentation is incorrect
technically
■ The document is too many pages
■ The document is out of date
■ The BA never talks to me
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15. Who does a BA interact with?
The “Customer”
• “Client” aka “The Business”
• Managers/Sponsors
• Product Owner
• SMEs
• Users
• Practitioners
• External
• User Acceptance Testers
(UAT)
Delivery Team
• Developers
• Web, app, etc.
technologies
• Security team
• Solution architecture
• Database Administrator
(DBA)
• Business intelligence (BI)
• Quality Assurance
• System, System
Integration
As well as…
• Project Management/PMO
• UX/UI
• UX Designers and
Researchers
• UI Designers
• Vendors & suppliers
• 3rd parties
• Legal/compliance/audit
(SOX)
• “Existing system”
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16. Is the BA a PM?
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http://www.businessanalysis.in/2011/03/why-does-project-need-both-pm-and-ba.html

17. Do we need a BA if we have UX?
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https://www.slideshare.net/jacklynburgan/lean-ux14-final-version

18. So do we NEED a BA?
Definitely!
■ Many stakeholders
■ Team members can’t all attend all
conversations
■ Many interconnecting systems (and
owners!)
■ Migrating legacy system(s)
Might not…!
■ Fully engaged product owner
■ Co-located, fully crossfunctional
team (everybody always present)
■ System built and maintained by
only one team
■ Culture is okay with fast failures
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19. THE BA IN AGILE
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20. The
Manifesto
• Agile is a Mindset
• Agile is embracing change
• No titles or tasks are inherently
“waterfall” rather than “agile”
“Business Analysis is the practice of
enabling change in an organizational
context, by defining needs and
recommending solutions that deliver
value to stakeholders…. The Business
Analyst is an agent of change.”
http://www.iiba.org/Careers/What-is-
Business-Analysis.aspx
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21. The Three Amigos
Or Seven
■ Three key roles in your requirements sessions – from the beginning
– Business
– Developer
– QA
■ But we can also split “business” into product owner and business analyst, add our
UX researcher, UI designer, Project Manager, invite the front- and back-end
developer
■ Interpret as having the core team available early and often, and not requiring only
3 participants in the meetings
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Further reading:
https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/three-amigos/
https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/2013-april/introducing-the-three-amigos

22. Scrum
■ Scrum is a framework, consisting of roles, events, and
artifacts
■ Only 3 Roles – Product Owner, Development Team,
and ScrumMaster
– There’s no BA, there’s no QA, there’s no Manager,
and there’s no PM
– Where do these roles fit?
■ BA as extension of the Product Owner
(responsible for backlog)
■ BA as a member of the Development Team
(not everyone has to be a developer)
■ BA as a ScrumMaster (or, coach, “Sherpa”)
■ Artifacts – Product Backlog
– The Product Backlog needs to be prioritized,
groomed, and managed
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23. What does Agile documentation look
like?
■ Lives on editable wiki spaces with
version history (i.e. Confluence)
■ Links directly to the Product
Backlog (i.e. Jira)
■ While a PBI, might not have a lot of
detail
■ Ideally, 3 sprints being worked on
at a time – validate the past sprint,
working with development team on
current sprint, and finalizing
requirements for next sprint
■ May look like user stories
– As a [some type of user] I want
[some function] so that [some
objective or value].
– Should have acceptance
criteria detailed enough to
meet the needs of the –
■ Development team
■ Testers
■ Business
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24. WRAP UP
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25. I’m interested in being a BA! Now what?
Ask yourself…
• Do you ask a lot of
questions?
• Can you be persistent
without offending anyone?
• Is the glass half full?
• Are you more organized than
everyone around you?
• Do you write well?
• Am I already doing business
analysis, but I just have
another title?
Some career paths…
• You’re already a Subject
Matter Expert in some area,
such as accounting – get
involved in process
improvement!
• You’re a QA – you’re already
reading requirements, so
you know this stuff!
• You’re a developer – but
you’re always the one
clarifying information,
writing emails, and doing
the planning for the team
Next Steps…
• Join the IIBA and download
the BABOK
• Ask to shadow a BA at your
workplace
• Follow blogs, LinkedIn BA
groups and influencers
https://www.bobtheba.com/
http://www.ba-squared.com/
http://www.bridging-the-
gap.com/
• Network, network, network
• Don’t be afraid to apply!
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26. Takeaways…
1. So does your team need a BA (or someone doing this work)? What do you think?
2. Who are requirements for?
3. What is the purpose of traceability?
4. If you’re not getting along with your BAs, talk to them.
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27. Questions?
Resources:
■ BABOK® V3 A GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS ANALYSIS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
■ https://www.slideshare.net/jacklynburgan/lean-ux14-final-version
■ http://www.businessanalysis.in/2011/03/why-does-project-need-both-pm-and-ba.html
■ http://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/60264-techniques-used-in-business-requirements-gathering/
■ http://tynerblain.com/blog/2006/11/21/ten-requirements-gathering-techniques/
■ http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/F2015/Requirement%20Gathering%20Methods.html.htm
■ https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/three-amigos/
■ https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2013/2013-april/introducing-the-three-amigos
■ http://agilemanifesto.org/
■ http://www.iiba.org/
■ See also, “Selecting and Applying Requirement Gathering Techniques”
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