My company is moving from traditional Agile to the LeSS framework. I’m a Senior BA and I’m worried about where I fit in, as LeSS doesn't explicitly define a BA role. Should I be moving toward a Product Owner role, or is there still a place for deep business analysis within the feature teams? I'd love to hear from anyone who has navigated this specific organizational shift.
3 answers
In a LeSS environment, the traditional "middleman" BA role often disappears, but the skills are more valuable than ever. Most successful BAs in this transition become "A-grade" members of a Feature Team. Instead of writing massive requirement docs, you spend your time helping the team understand the "Why" behind a feature during Product Backlog Refinement. You essentially become a bridge between the customer and the developers. Some BAs do move into an Assistant PO role, but LeSS prefers that the team takes on that analysis work collectively to avoid silos.
Do you feel your technical skills are strong enough to contribute to the actual testing or documentation within the sprint, or are you strictly focused on requirements?
Look into the "Product Management Professional" path. Many BAs find that their analytical skills make them perfect candidates for strategic product roles in LeSS.
Great suggestion, Pamela. Transitioning to product management is a natural evolution for a BA who understands market trends and stakeholder needs.
Jeffrey, that’s exactly what I’m working on now. I’ve started learning basic SQL and Gherkin for behavior-driven development (BDD). I figure if I can write the acceptance criteria in a way that can be automated, I’m providing way more value to the Scrum team than just being a documenter. It's a bit of a steep learning curve for a "non-technical" BA, but it seems like the only way to stay relevant in these modern, flat Agile structures.