So you're an Agile BA. What's next? (IIBA event, 2014))

In June 2014, I spoke at an IIBA event about what's next for Agile BAs. Here's the intro:

I’ve been inspired by some recent conversations with people in analysis roles who are interested in talking about ‘what’s next?’ As Agile moves into the mainstream, I’m having fewer conversations about ‘why agile?’ and more about continuous improvement and exploring the diverse ways that analysis skills and experience can help with the ‘early delivery of business value’.

Whether it is doing value-stream mapping with one of our DevOps experts, using visualisation at the portfolio level to help with the prioritisation and tracking of work, working with product owners to find the fastest way of validating their assumptions, or helping to nut out a grid of examples for automated testing - I love the incredible range of opportunities that working in agile teams can offer.

In this session we will establish some common ground about key aspects of the Agile BA role, then I’ll ask you to reflect on the nature of your own role, your skills and where you sit in the product, business, technology mix. We’ll look at concepts of mastery and discuss ways you can assess your own skills and grow them to the next level.

Depending on the autonomy of your team, you may also encounter challenges if you try to explore new areas/skills. So we will wrap-up by discussing ways to approach making a change in your role.