Reasons Why a Business Analyst in Agile works
When I first heard of the business analyst role in an agile team, I felt like it was a red flag. My thought was that any team that has a BA must be in a team that thought they were agile but were stuck in waterfall. I had many questions like ‘I thought writing stories is the PM’s role?’, or ‘I thought helping the team move faster is the scrum master role’. However since I have seen the business analyst in action, I have changed my tune.
In a large organisation you need a role to specialise in stakeholder interactions, analysing customer feedback and setting the vision (The PM). You also need a role to specialise in working with the development team day to day, ensuring they know exactly what they are doing and why (The BA).
These roles are both too important to have a single person running around doing an OK job at both. You need to be doing an awesome job in both roles order for your team to be truly successful. Teams in large organisations will benefit from having both a BA and a PM.
These are the 5 top areas of focus for a BA in agile
- Be the single SME for the development team
A development team will have questions that need to be answered all the time. Some are simple story clarifications, others are larger items that will need to be followed up. If your product manager is in meetings all day, then the story can easily become blocked, slowing the team down. BA’s will help the team move faster.
2. Gather requirements
Sometimes business rules can be quiet complex. A dedicated person who is skilled at asking the right questions and get teams aligned can save the team a lot of pain. Without a dedicated person to gather requirements, developers often end up doing “Spikes” which are essentially requirements gathering. This is not what developers want to do, or the most efficient use of their time.
3. Create and manage backlog
Writing user stories, leading refinement sessions, prioritising stories based on knowledge of where product is at and where external teams and services are. Keep development team aligned with vision.
4. Contribute to roadmap and planning
While a product manager is responsible for managing the roadmap, who else is better to give valuable input than the person who knows the team and product better than literally anybody else?
5. Challenge product manager
A good BA works really closely with the PM and knows the ins and outs of what is coming down the line. This puts them in a great position to challenge anything that they feel might not work 100% for the team. It also gives the PM somewhere to bounce ideas.
What is the divide between the PM and BA?
- BA is more hands on with team
This diagram does not show all communications channels. Of course the product manager interacts with the team, and the BA will talk to the stakeholders, but this highlights the main focus areas. A PM is the face of the product to the stakeholders, the BA is the face of the product to the development team. The scrum master will need to have good communication channels with Dev team, BA and PM. I have split customers and stakeholders up, because customer focus is a big task on its own.
- BA is more technical
A BA needs to be able to talk shop with developers. They need to understand the technical implications of product decisions. They need to be able to gather complex technical requirements so that they can clearly articulate what a developer needs to do
- BA spends less time with stakeholders
The PM works a higher, more strategic level. They build up good relationships with stakeholders and understand the various initiatives and the reasons why they are important. The BA does not need to be involved in all these conversations.
How to make sure it works?
- Teamwork between PM and BA
I see PM’s and BA’s as two people performing a single function, ensuring the team is working as best they can towards the best vision. They need to ensure they trust each other, share a common vision and communicate regularly,
- Clear division of roles
If there is not a clear division of roles, it can very easily end up having two people doing the same thing. For eg. if a BA is doing refinement, does the PM need to be there? If a PM is responsible for analytics, is there a need for the BA to be in the analytics meeting?
- Allow roles to change if required, based on personalities and skillset of PM and BA
There is no set list of responsibilities for a PM and BA. Work out what interests both parties, and where the skillsets lie. Then figure out how to divide the large number of tasks in a way that works. If something isn’t working after a few weeks, talk about how it can be changed. Maybe some responsibilities need to be moved around or maybe some don’t make sense anymore.
TL; DR
There is too much work for a single person to fulfil in typical product manager role in a large org. PM’s should focus on stakeholders and prioritisation, BA’s work closely with team. If BA’s and PM’s work together well, it can be a great thing that will help the team a lot.
I also really like this article on the subject.
