The Power of the Agile Business Analyst: 30 Surprising Ways a Business Analyst Can Add Value to Your Agile Development Team

If the goal of an Agile project is to deliver the highest business value solution possible, why is the business user the least supported member of the Agile team?

It's good to be an Agile developer. The Agile community provides Agile developers with countless supporting resources including books, websites, forums, and conferences where Agile development issues can be raised, discussed, and jointly addressed by the group.

The interesting thing is that, where Agile approaches go to great lengths to provide developers with the foundation they need to deliver high-value software solutions, there is relatively little equivalent support provided for the business users. In most Agile methods, the business user is solely responsible for the identification, requirements gathering, clarification, and assignment of priorities for their requested system capabilities. Agile development teams rely on business users having sufficient knowledge, vision, objectivity, and time to ensure that these capabilities provide the best possible solution.

The Power of the Agile Business Analyst: 30 surprising ways a business analyst can add value to your Agile development team challenges whether Agile projects are truly positioned to deliver the highest-value business solutions without offering business users the equivalent level of support, validation, and collaboration that is provided for the Agile development team.

To address this challenge, The Power of the Agile Business Analyst proposes including an Agile business analyst on the development team to provide business users with the support they need, as well as a valuable resource to assist the Agile developers in their analysis, design, testing, and implementation work throughout the project.

Drawing on more than 20 years' experience as a senior business analyst and international solutions consultant, Jamie Lynn Cooke details 30 achievable ways in which Agile business analysts can increase the relevance, quality, and overall business value of your Agile projects.

Read this book and learn how to:

• Maximize the business value of your Agile solutions.
• Leverage the skills, experience, and opportunities an Agile business analyst can bring to your project.
• Find the most qualified Agile business analyst to complement your team.
• Identify how an Agile business analyst can help you address the most critical challenges on your Agile project.
• Use the strengths of an Agile business analyst to position your projects for ongoing funding and executive support.

The Power of the Agile Business Analyst also provides guidance for business analysts who want to transition their skills to work most effectively in Agile environments.

Bridge the gap between the business users and the Agile development team

The Power of the Agile Business Analyst explains how having a skilled business analyst on the Agile team provides business users with peer support for their most critical business requirements, and provides the Agile development team with a business-knowledgeable resource who is available to work hands-on with them throughout the project. These are only some of the ways in which Agile business analysts empower development teams to deliver the most successful Agile solutions.

Read this book and discover how an Agile business analyst can significantly increase the value of your solution.

About the Author

Jamie Lynn Cooke has 22 years of experience as a senior business analyst and solutions consultant, working with over 130 public and private sector organizations throughout Australia, Canada and the United States. Jamie has been working hands-on with Agile methodologies since 2003, and has researched hundreds of books and articles on Agile topics. She is a signatory to the Agile Manifesto, has attended numerous Agile seminars; and has worked with prominent consultants to promote Agile methodologies to large organizations. Jamie has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Psychology (Human Factors Engineering) from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts; and a Graduate Certificate in e-Business/Business Informatics from the University of Canberra in Australia.