An Agile BA

Companies adopting Agile software development methodologies are becoming a growing trend. The roles responsible for managing and participating in these types of projects must make a significant shift in focus when moving from the waterfall development process to a more adaptive way of working. Even with the growing adoption and increasing amount of study around Agile, the literature and texts prescribing the various Agile methodologies do not address the specific role of the Business Analayst. In this paper, the role of the Business Analyst in Agile is explored through a qualitative study within a large software development organization utilizing Agile development. Through the course of directly participating and observing Agile project work, five distinct themes of the BA role were identified: Communication, Agile Process, Analysis, Prioritization, and Dependency Management. The study concludes with a discussion of the limitations of this inquiry and approach as well as suggestions for further research.