Agile, Lean, DevOps, Kanban, ATD, BDD, Cynefin – the New World for Business Analysts

On August 16 and 17, 2017, I had the honor of presenting “Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Business Analysis – Three Emerging Business Analysis Careers” to the IIBA® (International Institute of Business Analysis™) Cincinnati Chapter and the Bluegrass IIBA® Chapter. Angela is creating several short videos from that presentation so I can share it with all our loyal subscribers. I will release parts 1 through 6 over the next few weeks as they become available.

NEW COURSE: User Stories - A Collaboration Tool for Business and IT

How to Capture, Write, Prioritize, Rightsize, Split, and Flesh Out User Stories with Defined Acceptance Tests as Given-When-Then Scenarios

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In part 1, I will clarify some of the misconceptions about the new “LEAN and AGILE” world that you, as a business analyst, may face.

(BTW, remember that you don’t have to have the title “Business Analyst” to do business analysis work. MOF, most people doing the job of business analysis have a different job title. What all of them have in common, however, is that they are tasked with defining goals, objectives, and detailed business needs — i.e. user stories and other requirements, workflows, business data, etc. For this reason, I like to refer to them as “anyone wearing the BA hat™”.)

In this video, you will get a bird’s eye view of the most common “modern” software development philosophies, methods, and methodologies (i.e. Lean, Agile, Continuous Delivery, etc.) that you might encounter in your business analysis environment.

If you are interested in learning the presented business analysis techniques, check out our self-paced, online course Getting and Writing IT Requirements in a Lean and Agile World.

Self-Paced Course: Lean/Agile Business Analysis

Overview of the 6 part presentation

Find YOUR Business Analyst Career Path

The primary purpose of business analysis is to define a future that will allow an organization to achieve specific goals and objectives. In the real world, organizations define the purpose of business analysis as anything from mindlessly scribbling down “requirements” to predicting the future of the known universe.

Although often married to IT (Information Technology), business analysis is a fundamental business process regardless which organizational unit performs it. Because it defines the interface between people and technology, it is by nature complex. Based on experience gained in working with hundreds of organizations of various sizes around the world, we identify distinct differences in business analysis as practiced at three levels.

Strategic Business Analysis identifies long-term business goals and objectives as well as opportunities for improvement. This level produces business requirements that form the basis for future initiatives and projects.
Tactical Business Analysis flushes out the details of defined projects or initiatives by developing stakeholder requirements (often in User Story format) that support the defined business requirements.
Operational Business Analysis defines solution-level, functional and non-functional requirements, process specifications, and, in modern development environments, acceptance tests and test scenarios.

These three levels could represent three distinct careers although they share a great deal of common techniques. As the one wearing the business analysis hat™, you need to be aware of the level at which you are working to adapt your business analysis techniques to your situation for maximum returns.

TARGET AUDIENCE