How Methodology Shapes Business Analysis

A business analyst's core purpose — understanding the real need and making sure it's accurately represented — doesn't change between methodologies, but how that work gets done does. In a predictive project, a BA typically gathers and documents requirements comprehensively up front, producing detailed specifications the team then builds against with limited expected change. In an adaptive project, a BA works continuously alongside the team, refining and re-prioritizing the backlog as the team learns, rather than finishing requirements gathering as a one-time, early phase.

This isn't a "pick one" skill so much as a "recognize which mode you're in" one — a BA embedded on a Scrum team attending backlog refinement sessions every sprint is operating in the adaptive mode; a BA who delivers a 40-page requirements document before development begins and isn't expected to revisit it is operating in the predictive mode.

Study focus: a scenario describing a BA's day-to-day pattern of work (continuous involvement vs. a single upfront requirements phase) is usually asking you to infer whether the project is adaptive or predictive from that pattern — not the other way around.