OK, here goes nothing. Consider this an informal discussion rather than a formal mapping. For the purposes of this post I’m going to link to Ambler’s Agile SLDC but I’m sure this would work for many others. I’m not going to reproduce everything here, so I suggest you read that page as well. I’m also not going to hit every BABOK task here, just the important ones.

Iteration -1
This iteration is going to involve a lot of BAP&M and EA. Selecting a lifecycle means that Plan the Business Analysis Approach is complete. The Agile lifecycle also mandates a particular Requirements Management Process (evaluate new requirements, including defects, at the start of each iteration) so that’s done. Iteration -1 also includes Conduct Stakeholder Analysis and the first three EA tasks.

Pretty much the entirety of Iteration -1 maps directly to the BABOK.

Iteration 0/Warm Up
Here we perform Define the Solution Scope and Develop the Business Case from EA. We also start to see some initial Elicitation and Requirements Analysis work to build the product backlog (through the identification of user stories). Some non-BA tasks also start to enter the lifecycle, as the team gets assembled, initial solution design begins, and the work environment is set up.

Construction Iterations
At the beginning of each construction iteration we Prioritize Requirements to pull the most critical from the product backlog. We then perform the other tasks in the Requirements Analysis KA to ensure that we have the user stories or other models properly defined, that the development team has enough information, and that the selected requirements provide business value (see Validate Requirements). There’s also ongoing Elicitation and Requirements Management and Communication to ensure that key stakeholders are providing information to the team and to ensure that everyone has a shared understanding of what’s going to be delivered. This is informal rather than formal, but it’s still there.

We also continuously Manage the Solution and Requirements Scope by adding and validating requirements to the product backlog.

Release
Once the product approaches a state where we can consider releasing it into production, SA&V enters the picture. We have to Assess Proposed Solution and Determine Organizational Readiness in order to ensure that the business is ready to use the solution. We may need to Validate the Solution both to ensure that it meets acceptance criteria and to identify operational defects that may result in new requirements.

Production and Retirement
For business analysts, most of this work falls under Evaluate Solution. We monitor the solution to see if there are opportunities for enhancement (which themselves may trigger a new project) or if the solution needs to be retired.

I haven’t hit on every task in the BABOK. After all, this is a blog post, not a formal mapping. Business analysis, and the tasks described in the BABOK, don’t stop being relevant in an agile project. Yes, they’re done differently. But as you can see, most if not all of them make an appearance, even in a stripped down or (if you prefer) more Agile form. And as you can see, it wasn’t especially hard for me to show how they relate to one another.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, body of Knowledge