Agile methods and approaches have become prevalent in recent years. The ideas which were identified in the realm of software product development have spread beyond software development into many other areas that are impacted by business analysis. This means that the practice of business analysis has to evolve to support the new ways of working, not just in software development but in any area of the business where change is happening rapidly. In this context, the term agile refers to a mindset or way of thinking about work. Agile is not a specific set of practices or techniques. The Agile Analysis Certification introduces a multi-level, rolling planning model to help practitioners, teams, and organizations manage business analysis work, so they can quickly leverage learning and discover what provides the most actual value. This rolling wave planning model is presented using three horizons which provide context and scope for lower levels. The three horizons are:
- Strategy Horizon,
- Initiative Horizon, and
- Delivery Horizon.
There are a wide variety of techniques, processes, and tools that can be applied to agile business analysis. There is no single approach that should be applied to every context, and part of the skill of the agile business analysis practitioner is to select the most effective techniques for the specific context; the Agile Extension does provide some advice for practitioners on the applicability of different techniques to different contexts.