Next Steps As An AGILE BA?

dranzer01

I have a lot of questions with regards to becoming an AGILE BA.

I will be working on an EPIC very soon. However, in the meantime, the product owner has assigned me a number of user stories to work on. These are within the 'TO DO' column on KANBAN board.

What do I do when they are in the TO DO column?

After I have completed what would have been needed to do on the story, what is the next step after that?

When it comes to changing the status of a story who does that? myself or the product owner?

Do I need to reassign a story to a tech/dev person once I have completed working on the story or?

Are there any liaising I need to do with the users/stakeholders within the 'TO DO' part? Or would this have already been covered off by the product owner?

(The product owner informed me to '''make sure I have sufficient information to define the stories under 'TO DO' column. The stories need to meet the Definition of Done as defined in the TOM''') 

Just looking for a clear and concise logical flow of what and how the process would be/looks like working on a story and how it flows through/who changes what on the status/ etc , etc

Many thanks!!!

JReacher1

It depends on what your workflow is, they’re all different.

Very high level…

Any story you’re working on should be assigned to you. This will allow the owner to be identified by the scrum master/delivery manager and can be discussed in the daily standup. 

If the story will ultimately go to a developer work on then once you have the acceptance criteria confirmed you should really refine the story with the development/testing teams. Once everyone is happy that is can be picked up by a dev it should be moved to wherever your workflow puts “ready for dev” tickets and unassigned. It will then be picked up by the next available dev. 

You should hopefully have someone in your organisation e.g. an agile coach, a delivery manager etc who can help you with this process. 

dranzer01

From my understanding, it goes from myself (BA) to the Product Owner. Dont believe we have a Scrum Master (although there are Project Managers somewhat lingering in the middle I have seen, so essentially they are?)


Essentially, I semi grasp the flow of Jira and the Kanban Board itself, but I want to know am I working on the stories solely by myself with the information already within the stories so that I can create the user stories/Gherkin & Acceptance criteria? Or during this process just outlined , am I liaising with any form of stakeholders/users to get this information?

JReacher1

If you’re a BA I would expect you to be working with the stakeholders to get the requirements. You then convert these into acceptance criteria which you will put in the story. 

DullGreyGuy

The Product Owner should be responsible for maintaining the backlog of user stories, ensuring they are complete, dependencies understood and prioritised. Typically the PO will propose the candidate items for the next sprint and the sprint team, in conjunction with the Scrum Master or PM will confirm what is doable within the time box of the sprint and set the sprint goal.

Obviously this all depends on what flavour of Agile you are following and how fully embraced Agile has become. I've had many a client claiming to be Agile but really they want the early phases of the project to follow Waterfall and only switch to Agile during delivery. 

beckstar1975

For us, in the name of agile once you have done your bit (with stakeholders PLEASE) your ticket would be moved to done, and new ones created/pulled out of the backlog for developers. We tend to break ours down by owner - and whilst there is some back and forward we keep the tickets separate so we can show where blockers are more easily (BAs with not having acceptance criteria/user stories ready or Dev for not building quick enough!).

We are always accused of being too waterfall by our PM though!

dranzer01

Its an interesting one because on one hand the product owner is the one who liaises with the stakeholders/users and gathers ALL the requirements and then populates the user stories briefly...

I have heard about certain stakeholders I potentially would be liaising with, but just wanted to be 100% certain that I actually do need to liaise with them.

(The reason for this is because I have come from a waterfall background and I did one project which had elements of Agile in it - whereby I was doing multiple pieces of work at once... basically) No Jira was used or Scrum elements, so this is my first gig you can say.

Im just trying to iron out all these niggling questions so that I can effectively get on with the stories which will inevitably be pushed my way in the coming days.

Especially trying to 'gather as much information as possible'. What/where would that come from? Assuming the Product Owner here is referring to the stakeholders on this

gm0

Methodology spoiler - it doesn't matter which one you pick - it matters whether the whole team (inc business) follow it, measure it and improve it over time.  The difference between a team that does this and one that doesn't is bigger than the differences between the various methods.   Your motivation to understand where you fit in in this cycle and how the process is meant to work right here right now is commendable as a new team member.  Hopefully what you learn will be fairly consistent and what you are measured on and tracked on will also converge.

If your product is of any scale.  The product owner will not be able to follow up and solve all the detailed clarity issues and information requests personally - you are providing additional bandwidth as a BA but swimming in whatever lanes are agreed for who takes how much time and from where across the operational business. Any protocol for this.  Build reviews, workshops, nominated individuals in particular process areas to contact and consult - whatever it is.

A bit of asking product owner permission to forage issue by issue and open communication to start with (they will tell you to stop asking once comfortable), and more asking forgiveness later - as you land your stories successfully and are trusted.

Clearly they will want new team members to demonstrate they are effective and not wasting stakeholder time going over already covered (and captured) ground - i.e. that you are read up on the project common bits and your areas - and have the communication skills not to cause trouble.

Assuming you can work solely inside the data already captured is a dangerous assumption that would propagate into development in unhelpful ways.  Incomplete/wrong requirements are certainly possible where clarity is lacking.  Agile will catch this fairly quickly (iteration) but there is still waste vs creating better inputs at the right time.

If you are setup to work within a box and not to roam much - then you need to think about what risks you are spotting as you work on each one and raise appropriately with the product owner. And also whoever is closest to being the information model / data architect guru on your broader project.  If something doesn't fit - then something they should care about may be missing and of broader import.

Assuming you can rely on the product owner to follow up all details is also dangerous.  Sending them an email into a full queue wanting clarification is not finishing your pack. 

If you are diplomatic and solution focused and respectful of others time - then you won't go far wrong in most reasonable cultures.  Your project leaders will have determined if they want to wait longer to get these right - or if they just want the best job possible by next Friday - flexing content not schedule of iteration.

Right, Fast, Cheap.   Pick 2.

DullGreyGuy

dranzer01 said:

Its an interesting one because on one hand the product owner is the one who liaises with the stakeholders/users and gathers ALL the requirements and then populates the user stories briefly...

I have heard about certain stakeholders I potentially would be liaising with, but just wanted to be 100% certain that I actually do need to liaise with them.

(The reason for this is because I have come from a waterfall background and I did one project which had elements of Agile in it - whereby I was doing multiple pieces of work at once... basically) No Jira was used or Scrum elements, so this is my first gig you can say.

Im just trying to iron out all these niggling questions so that I can effectively get on with the stories which will inevitably be pushed my way in the coming days.

Especially trying to 'gather as much information as possible'. What/where would that come from? Assuming the Product Owner here is referring to the stakeholders on this

The PO owns the user stories (and other backlog items) but that doesn't mean they exclusively have to do all the work themselves. Depending on the scale of the change and teams sizes you may have just a PO doing all the work or they may have a small army of BAs dealing with all the details and the PO is more active in the Epics and more quality control on the lower items or your PO may become a Prod Manager and then you have .

Their role as the voice of the customer is the same; they've overall ownership but individual questions etc could be better responded to be a BA or may be allocated to one to find the answer if no one in the event knows