The Agile Business Analyst
Agile project delivery breaks a project down into a series of 'sprints' where each sprint delivers working functionality and business value. The Agile Business Analyst works with the Agile Team to keep them supplied with User Stories, Test Scripts and possibly Test Results.
At the heart of the Agile Team is the Product Owner. They are the representative of the Business and need to be able to make fast authoritative decisions on the business requirements throughout each sprint.
Where the principle tools of the Traditional Business Analyst were Word, Excel and weekly meetings, the Agile Business Analyst uses an Agile Project Application and constant collaboration, An Agile Project Application keeps everyone aware of what everyone else is working on and what has changed.
The Agile Business Analyst also makes sure that the continuous decisions of the Product Owner (who may be working on their first Agile project) are effectively fed into the Agile Project Application and the Team.
An Agile Business Analyst is a good choice if ....
the Product Owner is sufficiently experienced, senior and confident to quickly take decisions that affect future business operations.
the Product Owner can not only work at the functional level but also apprehend the broader process and value implications of a group of not seemingly related functional decisions.
the Product Owner has the time to engage with all affected business operations to keep them up-to date with progress and the implications of the latest project decisions.
To do all this the Product Owner needs to have one place to go to not just see the progress of the latest sprint but also view how the project is tracking in terms of the business value and how each issue and decision affects that value.
To have that view and know it is upto date at all times the Agile Business Analyst also needs to be a Visual Business Analyst.