Is the BA part of the Scrum Team?

Hi @Andros, yes, the BA absolutely can be a part of the Scrum Team as Developers if those skills are needed to deliver the product and this has not changed from previous versions of the Scrum Guide as this has always been the case.  

The specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad and will vary with the domain of work. However, the Developers are always accountable for:

• Creating a plan for the Sprint, the Sprint Backlog;

• Instilling quality by adhering to a Definition of Done;

• Adapting their plan each day toward the Sprint Goal; and,

• Holding each other accountable as professionals.

Good day. Scrum guide defines who SHOULD be part of the Scrum team, not all the roles which can be there..

Any professional, not only BA, but photographer, designer, electrician or even janitor can be a member of Scrum team if developers find it necessary to include him or her for driving value.

One risk of including BA in the team is that creating the structure of Scrum master, Product owner and Business analyst within a team often creates unofficial(and in some worst cases) official hierarchy within a team, which is step back from proper practices of Scrum.

Truly depends on the work the Business Analyst delivers. 

Scrum works best if the team becomes as cross functional as possible. So you could make the BA part of your team, he could teach his BA skills to the other developers and learning skills from them to become cross functional as a team. Together they then can deliver value to the product. 

 

If his only tasks are doing the analysis and nobody else can take over any of their tasks. Than I would actually say that the BA becomes one of the main stakeholders of the product. Make sure they are invited to the refinement sessions to answer questions, but not make them part of any other event except for Sprint Review. 

I have worked with teams where the person with a job title of Business Analyst is considered part of the Product Owner role.  They work to help gather and refine the requirements ahead of the work by the Developers.  Have also worked with teams where the Business Analyst is considered a stakeholder.  

There are a lot of ways that different job titles can be part of a the 3 roles/responsibilities of a Scrum Team.

Sure. BA Analyst is normally considered as part of Product Owner role. This is a important role to support Scrum team achieving goal.

In Scrum you're either accountable or you're not. Hence it may not be helpful to position a BA as being partly accountable for maximizing product value.

It is of course entirely possible for a PO to delegate their work to others, such as a BA. My advice is not to think of this as the hiving off of "part" of their role, since the accountability of the PO remains clear.