What are the key skills and tools for business analysts and product managers in agile methodologies?

Having worked in agile for the last 10 years in both large and small organisations, I agree that Analysis is needed in Discovery and Refinement. However, I disagree it needs to be done by 2 distinct roles. Is PO the only one accountable? I disagree. As the agile principle of cost of delay, why we are doing this- must be validated in discovery before effort and time are spent on refinement. When the work is done by two different roles, it adds needless layers and you lose agility. When POs lack analytical skills and the ability to think things through, they prioritise the wrong work, they fail to understand the complexity, they fail to identify risks, and they overpromise and deliver a sub-optimal product with buggy features.

I believe that we should not position product management and business analysis as separate fields. While the responsibilities of a business analyst and a product manager may differ, product management is not an independent field apart from business analysis. Just as it is impossible to create an accurate product vision and roadmap without implementing business analysis practices, it is also impossible for a business analyst to generate value-added output without understanding the product strategy. Business analysis forms the foundation of product management. For product managers to carry out activities related to business needs, context, competitors, and strategy analysis, they need to acquire business analysis proficiency.

Mientras que el análisis de negocios se enfoca en entender y comunicar las necesidades del cliente, la gestión de productos se centra en materializar esas necesidades en soluciones tangibles. Ambos roles, aunque distintos, son complementarios e indispensables, que ambos trabajen en sincronía, pues el éxito de un producto no solo radica en identificar correctamente las necesidades, sino también en cómo esas necesidades se traducen en un producto que aporte valor al mercado.

Product managers are responsible for the What, Who, and Why of development. The article presents the idea that PMs set vision, strategy, roadmap, etc. but that the BA is the responsible for interacting with the customers and stakeholders to understand their needs - I tend to think this is a flawed explanation. PMs MUST be the ones leading and interacting with their customers, doing competitive analysis, and understanding the market, if they aren’t they can’t possibly satisfy the other responsibilities of vision, strategy, and roadmapping. Where I see the biggest difference between PM and BA is that BAs tend to spend more time on the technical side of the process helping to document systems, create process maps, assisting tech leads, etc…

These roles and roles definitions are still evolving, in general Product Managers are more external facing for products that are purchased by customers, and BAs topically do very similar work for internal systems (products/solutions)that customers and internal users use, but do not pay for using. The skills are quite similar, yet Product Managers are more market facing due to the nature that they typically are working on products customer pay to use.

Lets have a look from a high-level 3D perspective. 3 Key Similarities: a) Both BA & PM involve in communication and collaboration with stakeholders. b) Both roles require strong analytical skills to analyze data, identify problems, and develop solutions for project success. c) Both BA & PM play vital roles in ensuring project success. 3 Key Differences: a) BA focuses on understanding and documenting business requirements, while PM concentrates on planning, executing project activities. b) BA identifies and defines project scope, while PM manages and ensures delivery of the planned scope. c) BA requires expertise in requirements elicitation, while PM requires skills in leadership, team management, risk management, and project planning.

While there are some similarities between agile product managers and business analysts, there are also distinct differences in their roles, responsibilities, and skills. Both roles are critical to the success of a product development effort, and they need to work closely together to ensure that the product meets the needs and expectations of customers and stakeholders.

I think the similarities and differences really depend on the Agile adoption/journey at the org you are working for. I have worked in both environments where BA's and PM's are very hands on with the Product Backlog, User stories and PMs even drafted user stories with acceptance criteria if needed. On the other hand, I have also worked in a space where BA's responsibility was solely to focus on requirement analysis, user story creation, data mappings etc while PM's focus was to manage relationship with the stakeholders, strategize and define vision of the product. Love this article though. Its great reference for anytime you want to re-visit this.

I disagree with the section herein above, it is discussing the topic in conflicting statements and circles. Both roles work strategically (high level) and in the details, both roles need to understand and/or define the vision and value proposition, and both work with users, customers, senior management, development teams, etc....

As mentioned earlier, PM is more of strategic role creating project roadmap, feature list and go to market strategy where as BA has to detail out the requirement by using multiple elicitation techniques like interview, brainstorming, questionnaires, surveys etc, documenting the requirement in form of user stories using SMART principles

Other important skills and tools for Agile BAs include: User experience (UX) design: BAs should have a basic understanding of UX design principles and techniques, such as user research, user testing, and wireframing. This knowledge will help them to ensure that the product is designed with the user in mind. Product management: Process improvement: Requirements management tools: Data analytics: Problem-solving: In summary, Agile BAs need to have a combination of business analysis, Agile, technical, and communication skills, as well as proficiency in tools and techniques such as UX design, product management, process improvement, requirements management, data analytics, and problem-solving.

BAs need skills such as: - Problem definition and problem solving - User analysis - Visual modeling - Collaboration & facilitation - Communication (many aspects) - Critical thinking - Decomposition/Elaboration and Abstraction - Relationship between Data/Process/Rules - Analysis and identification of Users/Process/Data - A bias for action to demonstrate results to name a few.... Agile methodologies are not needed, however agile values, concepts, and an agile mindset will be helpful for BAs.

BA needs interpersonal, technical, functional and business acumen to understand business problem and breakdown in easy solutions. 1. Interpersonal - they should have great communication skills with the ability to manage conflict and stakeholders 2. Technical - they should have tech understanding of architecture , information flow diagram and should be well versed in using tools like Visio, Lucidchart, figma, Jira, ADO etc 3. Functional - they should have basic domain expertise so that they can empathize with user pain problem and use design thinking in proposing the solution 4. Agile Knowledge - they should have understanding of agile framework, its ceremonies and implementation of agile in simple and complex projects

I feel user story creation is one important tool ( in agile methodology) a BA should be expert in: Imagine you're building a shopping app. Instead of just saying, "Make checkout faster," a good user story is like a mini-story: "Imagine you're a customer who wants to buy something quickly. You'd love to do it in just three clicks so that shopping is easy and fast. That's what we want to make happen!" It helps the team understand the goal better.

Skills for BA - Domain Knowledge - Critical Thinking - Communication - Documentation - Data Analysis Tools for BA - SQL - BI Tool (Power BI/Tableau) - MS Excel

Other important skills and tools for Agile Product Managers include: Strategic thinking: Customer empathy: Financial management: Project management: Design thinking: Emotional intelligence: Agile Product Managers need to have a combination of product management, Agile, leadership, and communication skills, as well as proficiency in tools and techniques such as market research, product design, business cases, Scrum, Kanban, XP, product backlog, user stories, sprint planning, delegation, negotiation, conflict resolution, product roadmap, product demo, and feedback mechanisms. Other important skills and tools include strategic thinking, customer empathy, financial management, project management, design thinking, and emotional intelligence.

Some key tools: Roadmap & Planning tools: Aha!, Productboard Project Management Tools: Jira, Asana/Trello Collaboration and Communication Tools: Slack/Microsoft Teams, Zoom Analytics and Reporting Tools: Google Analytics, Mixpanel Customer Feedback Tools: Surveys (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Typeform), Hotjar Design and Prototyping Tools: Figma/Sketch, InVision

In addition to considering their strengths, interests, and goals, Agile product managers and BAs can choose the best tools for their projects by: Understanding the project requirements: Evaluating the team's skills and experience: Considering the organization's culture and values: Seeking feedback and improvement: In summary, Agile product managers and BAs can choose the best tools for their projects by understanding the project requirements, evaluating the team's skills and experience, considering the organization's culture and values, and seeking feedback and improvement. By selecting the right tools and techniques, they can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the project and ensure its success.

Both roles will contain aspects of all of this! Focus on the position you are applying for and align your strengths, interests, and goals to the actual position, rather than the title. Titles and actual roles of both Product Managers and Business Analysts can vary dramatically! Both can be great career choices, focus on building skills and choosing a great organization, team, and boss in a position that will help you grow!

One thing which i have found helpful is that a person soon hear their inner voice and should assess their own capabilities, based on they can create a learning goal to either fit in any role. in Agile both roles are important and meaningful as they have different KPI's

One of the best ways to get started is to read. Read many books on the topic(s). Keep reading books on areas that interest you. But most of all keep in mind that what works for one team will not always work for the next team. Keep an open mind, and ask questions.

Rest of the world Business Analyst at the least will have 15 to 20 years of experience, but in India it's billing position that needs to be filled, everybody becomes a BA..