Agile Extension to the BABOK Guide

The Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide describes business analysis areas of knowledge, their associated activities and tasks, and the skills necessary to be effective in their execution within the framework of Agile software development.

The purpose of the Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide is to act as a business analysis primer for Agile software development approaches and provide business analysis practitioners with:

• An introduction to Agile practices for business analysis
• An overview of business analysis techniques for Agile practitioners
• A set of definitions of typical working practices used by business analysts working on Agile projects
• An overview of the new and changed roles, skills, and competencies for business analysts.

The Agile Extension is of value to business analysts new to Agile, as well as those experienced in Agile approaches. Both groups, and all those in between, will find helpful information such as an introduction to the practice of business analysis in an Agile context, the mapping of existing business analysis techniques to Agile practices, and inclusion of techniques that are specific to the practice of business analysis in the Agile world.

As the Agile Extension highlights, any member of an Agile team may engage in the process of business analysis. To that end, each person on an Agile team will benefit from having a set of practices and tools from which they can select while working in any one of the different flavors of Agile. In the Agile Extension, we have called particular attention to the mindset a business analysis practitioner must have in order to effectively contribute to delivery of ongoing value to stakeholders. We have also described a number of techniques not found in the BABOK® Guide and expanded on others that needed to be described in greater detail. Many of the concepts described here, and the mindset we describe, will prove valuable to business analysis in any context or environment. Business analysts should always work to ensure that requirements are aligned with organizational goals and objectives and that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of those goals, objectives, and requirements. They must also work to manage risks and validate that the requirements, if delivered, will create real value for stakeholders. Agile approaches can help us find new ways to do these things that support continuous delivery of working software, but the responsibility to do these things is inherent to the profession of business analysis.