...We know that focus groups are a method available to us (see BABOK v3, section 10.21). But we Business Analysts know very little about when, why, and how to run them.

And a lot of what people have written is plain wrong.

Like the Hooli phone, this situation is “messed up.”

BAs new to agile environments typically make seven big mistakes. If you avoid them, you’ll be well on your way to success (and avoid some pain along the way).

Features are much faster to ideate then to actually design, develop, and test. So, your problem will soon be finding a way to work with the Product Owner to manage a large number of stories.

There can be an expectation from management to have requirements “done” one to four sprints in advance. This expectation isn’t in line with the agile mindset, and BAs ask what can be done about it.

Self-organization is awesome.

And we Business Analysts often have the most difficult time with it.

Indeed, Agile is an approach, a mindset, a set of values. And from that mindset follow all the innovations of Agile.

Many of us are raised with the notion that we should be humble, team-oriented, self-effacing... This kind of upbringing creates some serious downstream disadvantages for people that are raised that way.

Networking, in the way that we Business Analysts usually think of it, is a waste of time.

It’s unproductive; it’s ineffective; it’s inefficient; it’s time-consuming; and it is a major challenge for those of us who are introverts.

There is a better way.

Some product backlog items and user stories can be developed based on the shared understanding of the customer that the team and Product Owner already have.

Others cannot.

We have a problem in agile business analysis where many of us BAs don’t understand the role that we are expected to play on an agile team. There is a solution.