Over the past decade, business analysis has found itself increasingly challenged by the widespread adoption of agile methodologies. We’re asked to produce requirements faster and often to take on the role of the “product owner”–without the authority we need to do so, or without an understanding of how the role is supposed to work. The problem is that Scrum is a new product development methodology–designed for the creation of products in new markets. It’s not designed for the kind of changes business analysts are involved in–the development of software to improve the effectiveness of business processes. However, agile isn’t going away–rather, we need to change how we do business analysis. BAs need to move from a focus on developing software requirements to focusing on value realization and process improvement. Fortunately, there’s a set of techniques for doing just that, and ones which are not only compatible with agile methods, but which were the basis for many of them–Lean process improvement. We’ll show you how to solve the “product owner” problem and develop a vision for your agile projects that delivers real business value, and how to combine ongoing process improvement with software development.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to map value streams
• Analyze processes to see where waste occurs and find the greatest opportunities to increase value
• Translate opportunities into user stories and acceptance criteria to support truly agile change