In the other two blog entries in this series, I gave hints and tips for the agile Business Analyst up to the stage of documenting business requirements. In this entry, I will address the follow-up to that phase of the project life cycle with a few more tips.

• Once the requirements document is approved and signed-off, assist the team with the next step – System Design and Test Script/Test Case development work.
     • Be prepared to answer questions regarding the requirements.
• Take the role as liaison between the user community and the technical team.
     • The BA is the communication broker between the users and the IT team. As an ambassador of business and functional knowledge, you must be able to convey the business requirements clearly to both the Developers and the Quality Assurance Analyst.
• Participate in Change Management Board Meetings.
     • Document and track all the changes taking place.
• Participate in User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
     • In many cases, BAs don’t get involved in UAT sessions. However, from my experience, BAs must be prepared to play an important role in UAT to address the user testing phase.

Remember, Business Analysts do not merely document business requirements, but they also serve as liaisons and communication brokers between the technical team and the user community. Doing things right from the beginning will reduce the likelihood of making wrong steps during project development.

I wish luck to all the Business Analysts out there. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog entries.

This morning as I sat in front of my laptop to write this blog entry and share my thoughts with fellow bloggers, I remembered the very first time I was hired as a Systems Analyst, about ten years ago. For a minute, I indulged myself in a brief walk down memory lane. As a fresh grad with burning desires to take any challenges thrown my way, I had my share of ups and downs. The struggles to blend my student mindset with corporate professionalism are not easy to describe. However, they made me who I am now: a Senior Business Analyst, having a certain level of expertise in terms of both functional and technical knowledge, but still craving new knowledge and challenges on day-to-day basis.

The objective of this article is to share my working experience through some tips for the agile Business Analyst. Like those in some other IT roles, Business Analysts play a significant role in ensuring a smooth project implementation. If you consider the multiple phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) or Project Life Cycle (PLC), the business requirement gathering phase is the very first phase in the project pipeline. A precise and concise set of business requirements are the strength, backbone and foundation of the project implementation activities. Business Analysts are the people who face the firing squad of Business Users, Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts and other project team members, as well as other Stakeholders. They get involved in the early stages of the project, remain with the project as it evolves from one phase to another, work as a liaison between business users and developers, are fully accountable for the accuracy of requirements, produce documentation, and the list goes on.

First up, I will cover the preliminary stage, in which we do all of our groundwork prior to gathering the business requirements, along with some general hints and tips for the agile BA.

• Do your homework 
      • Take time to research the company history, business background and stakeholders.  This knowledge will increase your confidence when addressing the company’s business users or other stakeholders.
• Be prepared 
      • Develop questionnaires related to business processes, business user expectations, etc.
      • Prior to a meeting, send the agenda to business users so that they can be properly prepared.
• Be creative
      • Open yourself up to unconventional solutions.
• Communicate well
      • You are an ambassador representing the IT group. You must be able to communicate well not only with your teammates but also with business users, managers and everyone with a stake in the project.
• Break the rules 
      • Don’t take this to mean that you should literally break any of the company rules or policies. What I’m trying to say is that you should break the traditional way of capturing business requirements by incorporating new techniques, tools and methodologies in your requirement-gathering activities.
      • Explore options to present requirements in a strategic way that others will understand.
• Control the interview sessions
      • Always stick to your agenda and questionnaire topics.

In my next entry, I will continue through the project stages of gathering and documenting business requirements.