Overview
The Business Analyst’s role changes significantly as organizations rapidly replace their traditional system-development methodologies with more iterative or agile approaches. More and more companies are realizing the benefits of faster product deployment at a lower cost, with less rework due to missed requirements. Effective business analysis is key to developing those requirements and keeping projects on track. This indispensable course explores the contributions of good requirements development in an Agile environment and equips business analysts with the critical thinking, analytical skills, and necessary people skills they need to add value to every Agile project.
This practical workshop provides participants with an understanding of the changing role of the business analyst, the tools and techniques best suited to Agile, and the timing for performing key tasks and events. Explanatory, demonstrations, and practice exercises will provide you with the experience needed to create user stories that meet business needs.
Iterative development methods such as Agile require a paradigm shift from the traditional approaches used for business analysis. Agile moves the analysis away from gathering big up-front requirements and towards iterative and incremental techniques. The analyst becomes the “keeper of value” — the value conscience for the team. To designate the difference in skills and focus, the Agile business analyst is referred to as the Business Value Analyst (BVA). The BVA must guide the team through iterative and rapid product development to maximize business value. To do so requires a mindset shift for the business analyst – the business value mindset.
ICP-BVA
Velocity Knowledge’s Business Value Analysis course is the first step towards achieving the coveted expert level in ICAgile’s Value Management track (ICP-BVA certification). The course gives you the much-needed skills for the value-based approaches required for successful agile development.
As a stepping-stone towards becoming a Value Manager, the BVA course focuses not only on skills and techniques but also on the mindset shift for the analyst in an Agile environment. The course includes tools and techniques to gather requirement details in an iterative fashion – at the right time and at the right level. The learner will develop an appreciation for Value Management as an Agile discipline and craft.
The ICP-BVA is one of two Continuous Learning Certifications (CLCs) on ICAgile’s Value Management Track. The certification focuses on value-driven software delivery, the accompanying mindset, and key agile practices designed to emphasize customer value. It also looks at creating organizational and team environments that are conducive to frequent and transparent collaboration between the business and development teams. The learning objectives highlight specific techniques and practices such as lightweight requirements, prioritization methods, progressive elaboration, roadmapping, story mapping, effective user stories, and acceptance criteria. Participants who complete this certification will gain an excellent foundation in value-based agile solutions delivery.
The Business Value Analysis course gives you a jump-start on your agile journey. It provides the essential, value-based analysis skills needed to lead teams towards greater agility.
In this course you will learn:
- The Need for Value Management
- The Business Value Analyst role
- Value Management in Various Agile “Flavors”
- Critical thinking skills and behaviors
- Define value and scope
- Understand backlog management and release planning
- Practice agile techniques like defining personas and roadmaps
- Review requirements elicitation and discovery methods
- Understand story decomposition and lightweight modeling
- Assess the importance and priority of product features
This course is also available publicly via Live Virtual Classroom: