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An Agile Business Analyst’s Creed (Part One)
I have been working on a creed for business analysts in an agile project. The purpose of this is to help guide and give direction to the various business analysts we have working on a number of different teams in our organization. This has not been an easy process nor is it complete. I believe it is important that we follow the agile manifesto http://www.agilemanifesto.org, adapting to the individual and to the organization while still providing direction to encourage improvement.
If we look at the extreme roles from the c2.com wiki http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ExtremeRoles there are a number of places a business analyst could fit: The Customer, The Tester, The Doomsayer and The Manager. Based on my historical knowledge a business analyst will be more than one of these roles and this should be encouraged. Pigeon holing any one person into a clearly defined role assumes that everyone has the same skill set. When creating a creed we must ensure that it does not limit the role(s) the business analyst can perform within the team.
Every company has a different model, a different set of customers and issues that prevent the “ideal” agile management and development scenario. In our organization we have a customer base rather than a customer and a large number of stakeholders each with their own areas of expertise. The business analyst acts as customer proxy and is responsible for gathering information from a number of sources and writing the users stories (though not generating them). The process that we follow is as a result very different then if we had one internal customer that sits at the next desk over. When developing a creed it must be for a specific organization.
It seems clear that the creed needs to be dependent on the organization. It should be general enough to allow the business analyst to fill the best position for them in the team while giving enough direction to guide them towards making working software.
With all that in mind I give you our creed item number one:
A business analyst must be a subject matter expert for all user stories that are in development
By: James Townley
Twitter, a business tool?
I admit that I tweet the occasional remark where I try to be witty, edgy, or intelligent. It was not however till I was at the Real Estate Standards Organization RESO RETS conference that I realized the power of twitter for research and information. On a lark I did a twitter search for RETS and discovered a percentage of the people where tweeting about the conference in real time. I added a number of people I deemed interesting and since then I have seen all types of information and details on RETS. There have been references to interesting blogs, videos and data. I have since applied it to other interests Point2, Agile, Business Analysis and a few others with great success.
Social media to the rescue again!
By: James Townley
Mmmm Breakfast
Today our morning energy level was given a boost by our Customer Service Representative (CSR) team. Not only did they manage to organize “pyjama day” as part of this they also cooked breakfast for the whole company. Waffles, fruit, juice, chocolate milk, whipped cream, sausage and most importantly BACON was provided. Gluttony for all.
Gestures like these are always a benefit to the team as a whole. Many staff get right into the dress up aspect of the day and breakfast is always a good excuse to talk about the upcoming day.
We often do things up here; Hawaii day, crazy hair day, etc. I know it’s cheesy but mixing it up at work to me is always a motivator.
By: James Townley
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