With the increase in the use of Agile methodologies, teams have to look at the competencies of their members to ensure that in the smaller groups they have all the skills that they need in order to deliver on what they have committed to as part of Iteration Planning. Techniques are becoming critical for high performing teams in order to be able to produce to the shorter timescales in an effective and efficient way.

The number one cause for project failure is poor or changing requirements. This is highlighted in the Planit Index year on year, as seen in figure 1 below.

Figure 1 - Reasons for Project Failure

With Agile methodologies and their associated higher collaboration and collecting detail “just in time” one has an ideal opportunity to reverse this trend.

High Performing Teams

Agile methods have a strong culture of “use the team” to solve the problem, by making the team self-organising and self-managing. This implies that some-one within the team must have the skills to analyse the business requirements, elicit these with a given business value, and articulate them in such a way that both the business and technical team have the same understanding of what is needed.

Agile is about creating high performance teams and these types of teams have the characteristics listed below:

1. They have the right people on the team
2. They are led, not managed
3. They understand their mission
4. They communicate and collaborate continuously
5. They are accountable for their results

Why choose Certified Agile Business Analysis (CABA)? 

“Business Analysts who want to work Agile should take a professional training like the Certified Agile Business Analyst”, Leanne Howard recommends. This recommendation is a result of her experience as an Agile Practices Consultant and a specialist with over 25 years of experience in the implementation of practical ways of working. “Whilst this course is aimed at the Business Analyst, anyone identifying requirements in an Agile environment will benefit from this course, particularly Product Owners. Learn how to contribute to a high performing team as the Business Analyst through the use of the right techniques and language”, says the expert.

The Business Outcomes for this course have been designed with these questions in mind:

• Identify the role of the business analyst in Agile software development projects
• Participate in Agile teams developing software
• Articulate the BA’s responsibilities to both the enterprise and the Agile team
• Understand the BA’s contribution to the Agile process analysis frameworks
• Identify BA specific techniques that contribute to the delivery of artifacts that add value to the enterprise initiating Agile projects
• Appreciate the importance of, and how to contribute to, continuous improvement through retrospectives

During the CABA training these questions and more are directly answered using activities, tasks and skills defined by the experts of leading BA organisations.

For more information about what the course covers, the target audience and prerequisites, visit the Certified Agile Business Analysis course page.