Questions for Agile Business Analysts

In response to the post: Is a Project Manager or a Business Analyst Career, a Better Fit for You?, a reader sent in the following comments about his experience as an agile business analyst.

In both Iterative and Agile methods, the BA is (or should be) involved with requirements gathering, project communication and facilitation, translating technical and business jargon, holding development to the business needs during the execution phase through Alpha Testing, demos, walk-throughs and issues management.

• BAs often write the Test Cases and, surprise the Test Scripts when the project doesn’t have QA resources.

• In the implementation phase, the BA acts as a Level Two Support contact to triage user issues.

• Then the BA and the PM begin negotiating the features/repairs list for the next spring or iteration.

My question to you is, what has been your experience as a business analyst working on an agile or iterative project?

• Do you have all your requirements ready before you start development?

• Do you have to write test cases or test scripts?

• How do you collaborate or work with testers?

• How do you collaborate or work with project managers?

• What are your challenges or pitfalls?

• Which project or requirements management tools do you use?

• What are your best practices?