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PROJECT, PROGRAMME & PORTFOLIO
AgileBA® guidance,
training and certification
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Develop the skills needed to become a proficient
Agile Business Analyst.
Approved training courses available globally via APMG’s
network of accredited training organizations (ATOs).
Foundation and Practitioner level certification available.
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AgileBA ® (Agile Business Analysis)
AgileBA Handbook Approved Training Certification
Official guidance via Accredited Training Foundation + Practitioner
Organizations (ATOs)
Published by Accredited by APMG to Syllabus & exams
Agile Business Products offer approved training services developed by APMG
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Developed in partnership with Agile Business Products –
the leading not-for-profit professional body for promoting
and enabling business agility worldwide.
www.agilebusiness.org
Agile Business Products created the AgileBA Handbook and partners with APMG
to develop the supporting accredited training and certification program.
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The Agile Manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.
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Background
Agile’s influence on the project management industry continues to rise at pace.
Increasing numbers of organisations and project professionals are embracing Agile
tools and frameworks as they aim to increase the success of – and return on
investment from – projects, product / software development and other change
initiatives.
Despite originating in the software development arena, Agile methods and
frameworks are becoming increasingly popular in a wide variety of industries and
projects as the benefits over more traditional frameworks and methodologies are
realised.
As organizations and individuals embrace and transition to Agile ways of working, the
roles of key personnel can evolve significantly, requiring fresh guidance, concepts
and techniques.
Prior to AgileBA, there was little in the way of detailed guidance directly addressing
the role, responsibilities and skills of the Agile Business Analyst.
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Role of the Business Analyst, in an Agile world
The Business Analyst’s role is to study the overall business and information
needs of an organization, in order to facilitate solutions to business problems.
This may involve:
Strategic analysis, modelling strategic themes and drivers
Business capability modelling – modelling what the business does (conceptual
activity models), as opposed to how it does it (physical process models)
Process and value stream (value chain) mapping
Skills and competency mapping
Process re-definition / re-engineering
Data definition and events identification
Liaison between different business and technical disciplines
Requirements engineering
Discovery and definition of cost-effective, valuable solutions to business needs
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Role of the Business Analyst, in an Agile world
Business analysis operates from the top level of the organization,
dealing with the Vision, Mission, Objectives and Strategy, right through
to the tactical level where programmes of work are set up to address
strategy and where solution development projects often reside.
At the higher level, the Business Analyst is a business architect,
defining and modelling what the business will do strategically. High-
level organizational models allow robust and coherent business
architecture to be defined, with clear objectives and measures. This
will then support tactical decisions of how the objectives are to be
achieved at programme and project level.
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Why AgileBA?
Introducing an Agile approach has a significant impact on
the role of the Business Analyst, on their existing skills and
their way of working.
Whilst traditional skills are still valuable, new skills and
ways of working need to be adopted to harness the
benefits of a new way of working and to appreciate the
different relationships with co-workers.
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Why AgileBA?
There is a growing body of evidence that an Agile approach is an effective way
of working in projects. Key features:
The collaborative working and involvement of people with the right skills,
including those of the customer and end-users of the product we are
producing
An incremental approach, delivering value early and regularly
The acceptance that we cannot know all of the detail at the outset, and that
we will inevitably learn more as work progresses
The definition of fine detail only just before we need it, to avoid the waste of
trying to predict the detail too early
The empowerment of people at the right levels, to make decisions on
detail.
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The AgileBA Handbook
Provides useful, practical and comprehensive
guidance on the role of the Business Analyst
working in an Agile way (the Agile BA).
Gives context to the BA role beyond the
individual project, in relation to organizational
mission and strategy.
Offers additional depth and guidance for the BA
role.
Guidance based on Agile Business Product’s
Agile Project Framework (established for 20+
years and regularly refreshed)
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What’s in the Handbook?
CHAPTERS
The Role of the Business Analyst, in an Agile World
Agile Fundamentals and the Agile BA
The Agile Business Case APPENDICES
Stakeholders in the Agile Project A: Glossary
Requirements and User Stories B: Modelling Techniques
Prioritisation C: Project Approach Questionnaire (PAQ)
Workshops D: Facilitated Workshops
Modelling E & F: Bibliography & Index
Timeboxing and Iterative Development
Requirements Planning and Estimating Throughout the Lifecycle
The Requirements Lifecycle in an Agile Project
Making the Transition to Agile BA
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TRAINING & CERTIFICATION
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AgileBA certification – the syllabus
Four key areas:-
– Business Analysis Fundamentals
– Strategy and Organisation
– Practices
– Requirements
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AgileBA Exams
FOUNDATION PRACTITIONER
Multiple-choice format Objective-testing format
50 questions 4 questions (20 marks each)
50% pass mark (25/50) 50% pass mark (40/80)
40 minutes 2.5 hours
Open-book
Closed-book
(Handbook permitted)
No pre-requisites Foundation pass pre-requisite
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Foundation complementary modules (optional)
We live in a VUCA environment which sees the business landscape continually evolving. The world
of business analysis is, of course, no exception to this. We are continually discovering new
approaches and techniques for tackling key challenges.
The AgileBA Foundation complementary modules (introduced in 2023) reflect the evolving nature of
business analysis. Candidates for the new modules will be introduced to new and innovative thinking
and concepts concerning key aspects of business analysis in an Agile environment.
The complementary Foundation modules are optional. Candidates can choose to study and certify for
individual modules, or all three combined.
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Foundation complementary modules (optional)
The new modules address the following topics:
❑ COMPLEXITY AND NAVIGATION
Exploration of how technology has impacted life on earth, leading to a profound
rate of change, and the rise of business agility to address volatility, uncertainty,
complexity and ambiguity (VUCA).
❑ VISION AND VALUE
How do you define the parameters of a successful solution? Business Analysts
need to focus on value delivery, but how do we define value in the VUCA world?
❑ EXPERIMENTATION AND VALIDATED LEARNING
To support better decision-making, experimentation and validated learning is
used extensively in VUCA domains. This module introduces a process for
creating experiments that can be performed rapidly so that ideas can be tested
in a safe-to-fail manner.
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Training
Train / certify to Foundation level only or Foundation + Practitioner
Approved training courses available via APMG ATOs
(Accredited Training Organizations)
(RECOMMENDED)
APMG accredited processes, courseware and trainers.
ATOs offer a range of course options, from traditional tutor-lead to fully online.
Self-study is also an option.
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AgileBA target audience
Practicing and aspiring Business Analysts operating in
an Agile environment
Practicing and aspiring Business Analysts operating in
a traditional environment looking to migrate to Agile
Agile team members with BA responsibilities
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AgileBA – benefits for organizations
AgileBA will provide an organization with a standard approach to executing
agile projects, as the approach is aligned with AgilePM and AgilePgM.
Implementation of AgileBA delivers the following advantages:
Informs Agile and traditional project managers – who often also have
business analysis responsibilities, of the content of an Agile business
analyst role in addition to educating them on Agile techniques.
Scrum developers will benefit from gaining an understanding of the
Business Analyst role. AgileBA fills the gap of lacking Business Analyst
understanding as a result of there being no defined roles for Scrum
developers.
Product Owners will benefit from the Agile development skills delivered
during the AgileBA training courses.
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AgileBA – benefits for individuals
The guidance and training provides business analysts involved in Agile projects,
large and small, with the tools they need to adopt an agile approach.
It gives advice on focus and value-delivery and guidance on working with business
stakeholders, developers, testers and outlines the skills needed to deliver solutions
incrementally.
It equips the business analyst with techniques to incorporate Agile approaches into
a programme and to align change with organizational objectives.
Individuals will gain:-
– Knowledge and understanding of AgileBA
– Agile Business Analysis techniques
– How to move from traditional to more agile ways of working
Successful candidates can claim an additional Business Agility Professional Level 1
digital badge from the Agile Business Consortium, offering candidates additional
recognition of their achievements.
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Find out more….
www.apmg-international.com/AgileBA
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Also available…
www.apmg-international.com/AgileDS www.apmg-international.com/AgilePM www.apmg-international.com/AgilePgM
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Find out more at:
www.agilebusiness.org
Including:
Membership (individual and corporate)
Free-to-download resources
Training and certification
Events
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