Business & Finance RequirementsUser StoriesBPMN

Business Analyst

Business analysis: requirements elicitation, user story mapping, process modeling (BPMN), gap analysis, feasibility studies, and stakeholder communication.

A structured business analysis skill that bridges technical teams and business stakeholders. It covers requirements elicitation techniques, user story mapping, BPMN process modeling, gap analysis, and the stakeholder communication patterns that prevent requirements from shifting mid-sprint. Opinionated on what belongs in a user story and what belongs in a design doc.

Added Mar 20, 2026

$npx skills add johnefemer/skillfish --skill business-analyst

Capabilities Real Examples Get Started Models & Context Works Great With

What This Skill Can Do

Concrete capabilities you get when you install this skill.

Elicit and document requirements through structured interviews, workshops, and observation

Create user story maps that connect business goals to sprint-ready acceptance criteria

Model as-is and to-be business processes using BPMN 2.0 notation

Conduct gap analysis between current state and desired business outcomes

Write feasibility studies covering technical, financial, and operational dimensions

Facilitate stakeholder alignment and manage conflicting requirements systematically

Real Conversations

See how the Business Analyst skill responds to actual requests. These are representative examples of what your AI agent will produce.

You

Our user stories often get rejected in sprint review because they're too vague. How do I write stories that actually get accepted?

Agent

Vague stories fail because acceptance criteria aren't testable — they describe intent rather than observable outcomes. Here's the framework:

Bad story (fails in review):

As a user, I want to see my order history so that I can track my purchases.

AC:
- User can see their orders
- Page loads quickly

Good story (passes review):

As a registered customer, I want to view my order history so I can track and reorder past purchases.

Acceptance Criteria:
Given I am logged in
When I navigate to Account > Order History
Then I see a list of my past orders sorted by date (newest first)
And each order shows: order number, date, total, status (Processing/Shipped/Delivered)
And orders from the past 12 months are shown by default
And I can click any order to view its detail page

Out of scope: Filtering, search, pagination (covered in story #124)
Edge cases:
- New account with 0 orders: show empty state with "No orders yet" message
- Order with a refund: show original total with "Refund: -$X" below

Three rules for testable ACs:

Given/When/Then — each AC is a test scenario, not a feature description
Explicit edge cases — empty states, error states, boundary conditions
Out of scope — explicitly name what's NOT in this story to prevent scope creep

If you can't write a Given/When/Then for a requirement, it's not ready for a sprint.

You

Stakeholders approve requirements, then change them halfway through the sprint. Dev team is frustrated. How do we stop this?

Agent

Requirements churn mid-sprint is almost always a sign that requirements weren't validated against the right people at the right time — not a discipline problem. Here's the diagnosis and fix:

Diagnose where churn comes from:

Are requirements changing because of new business information (market change, executive directive)? → Use a change control process
Are they changing because the stakeholder approver isn't the actual decision-maker? → Fix stakeholder mapping
Are they changing because wireframes/mockups weren't reviewed before development? → Add a design review gate

Fix 1 — RACI for requirements sign-off

R (Responsible): BA writes the story
A (Accountable): Product Owner approves before sprint — cannot change without sprint disruption process
C (Consulted): End users, tech lead
I (Informed): Dev team

The key: one person is Accountable and bears the cost of mid-sprint changes.

Fix 2 — Definition of Ready (DoR) gate A story cannot enter a sprint unless:

Acceptance criteria written in Given/When/Then format
Mockup or wireframe reviewed by end user or proxy
Edge cases documented
Dependencies identified and resolved
Signed off by the Accountable stakeholder

Fix 3 — Make change cost visible When a requirement changes mid-sprint, explicitly quantify: 'This change requires X days of rework, moves feature Y to next sprint, and removes Z story points from this sprint.' Stakeholders make better decisions when trade-offs are visible.

Which type of churn are you seeing most?

Get Started

How to install and use this skill in your preferred environment.

Skills are designed for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and IDE-based workflows where the agent can read files, run scripts, and act on your codebase.

Models & Context

Which AI models and context windows work best with this skill.

Recommended Models

Works well with Claude Sonnet or GPT-4o. Requirements analysis and stakeholder communication benefit from models with strong language and reasoning capabilities.

Context Window

SKILL.md is ~8KB. Load existing requirements documents, user story backlog, and process diagrams in context for gap analysis and refinement sessions.

Pro tips for best results

1

Be specific

Include numbers — users, budget, RPS — so the skill can size the architecture.

2

Share constraints

Compliance needs, team size, and existing stack all improve the output.

3

Iterate

Start with a high-level design, then ask follow-ups for IaC, cost analysis, or security review.

4

Combine skills

Pair with companion skills below for end-to-end coverage.

Works Great With

These skills complement Business Analyst for end-to-end coverage. Install them together for better results.

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RICE prioritization, user stories, roadmaps, and PM frameworks.

PMRICE

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Enterprise project management for software and digital transformation.

PMEnterprise

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Strategic product leadership: vision, portfolio, and market analysis.

StrategyVision

GitHub Project Manager

AI project manager for GitHub Issues & Projects v2 boards.

GitHubIssues

$ skillfish add johnefemer/skillfish --all # install all skills at once

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