BCS EXIN Agile Business Analysis

BCS EXIN Agile Business Analysis

This BCS Agile Business Analysis course is for anyone wishing to understand and apply business analysis tasks in the agile context. In agile teams, the product owner and development team members perform tasks that lead to the discovery and delivery of requirements. The cadence and depth of these activities for agile teams differ though from traditional life cycles. This course provides an overview of the agile business analysis approach and teaches techniques that fit the agile approach and philosophy well.

This course is based on the BCS publication “Agile and Business Analysis” (ISBN: 978-1780176178).

Certification

The exam is based on the BCS EXIN Agile Business Analysis syllabus.

It is 90 minutes ‘closed book’ exam with 40 multiple-choice questions. Candidates are entitled to additional 15 minutes if the examination in a language that is not their native/official language.

The pass mark is 65%: 26 correct answers out of 40.

Positive exam results will award delegates with the BCS Professional Certificate in Agile Business Analysis.

Content of the course

Module 1: Agile Philosophy
This module explains the rationale for adopting an Agile approach, the Agile Manifesto, and the three overarching aspects of Agile.

Module 2: Agile Principles
This module focuses on understanding 12 Agile principles grouped into collaborative working, self-organizing teams, continuous improvement, iterative development, incremental delivery, and building in change.

Module 3: Agile Methods
This module discusses defined vs empirical methods, common characteristics of Agile methods, and their advantages and disadvantages.

Module 5: Understand the customer
This module discusses stakeholder groups, introduces personas for customer representation and defines the concept of business value.

Module 6: Agile Modelling
This module explains the rationale and principles for Agile modeling. It introduces the hierarchy of models using the functional model map (FMM) and zooms into specific models such as capability model, value stream mapping and use case models.

Module 7: Decomposing and organising goals
This module explains goal decomposition vs functional decomposition and the benefits of a goal decomposition. It also covers story mapping concept.

Module 8: Agile requirements
This module focuses on the hierarchy of requirements and how this relates to Agile teams, user roles, and user stories. It also covers tips on how to write good user stories. The definition of Ready, the user story life cycle, and Behavior-Driven Development for acceptance criteria development and test automation are also in the scope of this module.

Module 9: Managing requirements
This module tackles aspects of managing the backlog, refinement sessions, relative estimation, planning workshops and real options.

Module 10: Managing the iteration
This module discusses calculating and utilizing velocity, and techniques to manage the iteration.

Module 11: BA role in Agile projects
This module discusses the business analysis tasks in an Agile team. It summarizes business analysis tasks and who can contribute to defining and achieving business value.

Module 12: Exam

During the course delegates work with a scenario which covers all the aspects of the syllabus, to allow delegates to practise the framework and its techniques.