Agile Business Analysis Flashcards

In an agile project, what is the PRIMARY purpose of sprint retrospectives from a business analysis perspective?

Answer: Identifying improvements to the team's business analysis and collaboration practices

From a BA perspective, retrospectives are opportunities to assess and improve business analysis practices — the quality of user stories, elicitation effectiveness, and collaboration with stakeholders.

What is a 'definition of ready' (DoR) in agile business analysis?

Answer: The criteria that a user story must meet before it can be selected for a sprint

A Definition of Ready specifies the conditions a user story must meet before the team commits to it in sprint planning — ensuring stories are sufficiently understood and refined to be implementable.

How does the business analyst's role differ in agile versus traditional waterfall projects?

Answer: In agile, the BA works more collaboratively with the team throughout, continuously refining the backlog rather than creating formal requirements documents upfront

In agile, the BA contributes throughout all sprints in a more collaborative, iterative way — continuously refining the backlog, facilitating elicitation, and supporting the product owner, rather than completing a requirements phase upfront.

What is 'timeboxing' in agile and why is it relevant to business analysis?

Answer: A fixed time period (like a sprint) within which work must be completed, constraining the scope of business analysis activities

Timeboxing fixes the duration of an iteration, which means business analysis activities must be scoped and prioritized to fit within the available time — it drives prioritization and just-in-time analysis.

In agile business analysis, what is the purpose of 'story mapping'?

Answer: Creating a visual two-dimensional backlog organized by user activities and implementation priority

Story mapping organizes user stories into a two-dimensional view: horizontal activities (the user's journey) and vertical depth (implementation priority), enabling teams to see the big picture and plan coherent releases.

What is 'continuous discovery' in agile business analysis?

Answer: An ongoing practice of learning about users, validating assumptions, and refining requirements throughout the product lifecycle

Continuous discovery is the practice of ongoing learning about users and validating assumptions throughout the product lifecycle, rather than treating discovery as a one-time upfront phase.