Most of the Business Analysts are now working in Agile engagements. We all know that a Business Analyst in Agile project will work as a Product Owner and he should be responsible for the product backlog (requirements). In this article I’m going to highlight crucial factors that an Agile Business Analyst should take into consideration.

1. Business Priorities – You may know all the requirements that are listed in product backlog but that doesn’t mean you know the business priorities. With each and every requirements you must have a priority ranking which will be provided by Business Stakeholders. Do not assume the priority and add the stories in sprint. Also take help from Business team or sponsor to know which epic or story should be part of which sprint.
2. Requirements Mapping – Whenever you add a user story in the sprint, you should also validate the related user stories and map them logically. Suppose you have added a user story for customer’s dashboard design, then you should also look for what data are required on the dashboard and which system should provide the data. In this scenario you should create two user stories, one for UI and another for Data. Finally map them in Jira.
3. Team Structure – Don’t always depend on the scrum master to take the call on team’s capabilities. You must know the capacity and capabilities of your team members in terms of technical Knowledge and delivery assurance. Blindly don’t pick up any story that will be too complex for the team to deliver, rather based on their capabilities you may split the complex story in small ones.
4. Testing Team – As a Business Analyst you are supposed to clarify all the requirements not only to the development team but also to testing team. Sometimes you will have to handle conflicts between development and testing teams when they argue on a defect.
5. Agile Learning Curve – However it’s scrum master’s responsibility but still you should also measure if the team’s learning curve is inclined or declined. All the members should improve their productivity as they progress in the sprint. E.g. a functionality took 5 days to develop in sprint 1, should take much less time to develop in sprint 5 if the requirements are similar. Also it should require less discussion for clarification.

Agile is vast area for project management prospective but a Business Analyst one must ensure there is a common understanding across the team members on the requirements and functionality. Hence the 5 Crucial Factors are undeniably the responsibility of Business Analyst during Agile engagement.