Business Analyst AgentRequirements that are ready, testable, and traceable.
The Business Analyst Agent checks work-item quality, prepares and validates acceptance criteria, decomposes epics, asks for what's missing, catches duplicates, and keeps the links downstream teams depend on. It runs inside your Azure DevOps project, and everything it writes follows your review policy.
No card required. Your data stays in your Azure DevOps tenant.
- trigger story 4821 → Ready
- check Definition of Ready · 2 findings
- checkpoint awaiting BA review
A Definition of Ready that enforces itself.
The best first workflow for this agent. The trigger is clear, the conditions are yours, the owner is named, and the result is easy to verify.
- 01Runs when a story moves to Ready, on the state change your team picked.
- 02Checks required fields, testable criteria, dependencies, links, and any industry controls you configure.
- 03Writes the readiness result and its findings on the item, and asks the owner for anything missing.
- 04Rule-shaped checks can run as an Execution Agent: deterministic code, no model call, a flat 4 credits a run.
DEFINITION OF READY · STORY 4821
- ✓ Required fields set
- ! Acceptance criteria testable
- ✓ Dependencies linked
- ✓ Parent and related links
- ! Industry controls
Ships with
- Generate Acceptance Criteria
- Validate Acceptance Criteria
- Detect Duplicates
- Request Missing Info
- Link Related Items
- Decompose Epic
- Summarize Discussion Thread
- Author Formal Requirement Specification
- Review UX Acceptance Criteria
Six jobs your BA can hand over.
Each one runs the same controlled sequence and leaves its output on the artifact the team already uses, ready for the responsible person to review.
- JOB 01
Write and validate acceptance criteria.
Generate criteria for a new story, or validate the ones it has against business intent, edge cases, non-functional needs, accessibility, security, privacy, and your domain rules. The draft sits on the item while the BA approves, edits, or rejects it.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boardsrun started · STORY 4821 → Ready
reading item, 6 links, discussion history
drafting criteria · 4 scenarios, 1 edge case
Given a guest user with items in the cart…
checkpoint · draft on item, awaiting BA approval
- JOB 02
Decompose epics.
Break an epic into review-ready features and stories, each with its boundaries, assumptions, dependencies, and open questions, so refinement starts from a structure instead of a blank board. The breakdown is proposed for review before any child item is created.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boards · Epicsrun started · manual run on EPIC 310
reading epic, linked items, discussion history
proposing 3 features · 9 stories
assumptions, dependencies, open questions noted
checkpoint · breakdown awaiting review
- JOB 03
Ask for what's missing.
Spot ambiguity or missing context that would materially affect planning, estimation, implementation, testing, or compliance, and put the question to the right owner on the item, before the gap becomes rework.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boardsrun started · STORY 4907 updated
checking description against criteria
ambiguity: "fast" has no measurable target
question posted to owner · @product
record · finding attached to item
- JOB 04
Catch duplicate and related work.
Detect items that overlap, then propose links, consolidation, or a scope clarification, so two teams don't build the same thing under different titles.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boards · Backlogrun started · schedule: weekly backlog review
comparing new items across area: checkout
STORY 4911 overlaps STORY 4821
proposed: link as related · clarify scope
checkpoint · awaiting BA decision
- JOB 05
Trace the impact of a change.
When a requirement changes, trace it to the designs, code, tests, risks, documents, releases, and owners downstream, and post the impact summary where the change is being decided.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boards · REQ-207run started · REQ-207 materially updated
tracing: 2 designs · 3 PRs · 7 tests · 1 risk
owners identified · release 2.4 affected
impact summary drafted on REQ-207
checkpoint · awaiting change review
- JOB 06
Summarize the decision.
Turn a long work-item discussion into what was decided, what is still open, who owns it, and what happens next, so the thread stops being the only record.
dev.azure.com/contoso · Boards · FEATURE 512run started · manual: summarize discussion
reading 41 comments · 3 linked items
decisions: 3 · open questions: 2 · owners: 2
next actions drafted on the item
record · full run history retained
run started · STORY 4821 → Ready
reading item, 6 links, discussion history
drafting criteria · 4 scenarios, 1 edge case
Given a guest user with items in the cart…
checkpoint · draft on item, awaiting BA approval
ILLUSTRATIVE RUNS · EVERY RUN LANDS IN YOUR JOB LOG
It runs when your project says so.
Manual, event-based, or scheduled. Every run starts from a trigger a person on your team set. The agent cannot add its own, and a disabled agent does not run at all.
- EVENT
A work item is created, updated, or moves to a gate.
Add conditions so it runs only on the items that matter, for example when State changes to Ready on a User Story. No run, no credits, on everything else.
- SCHEDULE
The backlog review comes round.
Schedule the agent once, daily, on weekdays, weekly, monthly, or yearly. It still runs on demand at any time.
- MANUAL
Someone selects it.
Run it on an epic, a story, or a discussion thread from the agent, or call it from Copilot4DevOps Chat.
Detected
- scanning…
Story 4821, from Ready to recorded.
The seven stages every run follows, shown on one acceptance-criteria run. Click a stage or let it play.
01 Trigger
Story 4821 moves to Ready on the payments board. The agent's condition matches: State changes to Ready, on a User Story. Nothing else starts it.
What it reads. What it writes.
The agent retrieves only the Azure DevOps context, and approved external context, that the workflow needs. Scope it to a project, area path, or work item type.
| Context | It reads | It writes, creates, or updates |
|---|---|---|
| The work itemstory, feature, epic | Fields, descriptions, acceptance criteria, tags, links, comments, and attachments | Structured findings, questions, proposed criteria, summaries, tags, and readiness results |
| The hierarchyand what hangs off it | Parent and child items, dependencies, related requirements, risks, tests, designs, PRs, and releases | Proposed or created child items and follow-up tasks |
| Relationshipstraceability | Links between requirements and downstream artifacts | New and maintained links among requirements and downstream artifacts |
| Your processknowledge you attach | Team process rules, Definition of Ready, templates, terminology, and organization instructions | Nothing. Knowledge changes only when your team edits it |
| Your industrywhen a pack is on | Industry classification, standards mapping, traceability model, and review-gate configuration | Review-ready specifications, matrices, and change-impact reports |
| The runevery time | — | A run record: trigger, actions, approvals, output, errors, and verification result |
Run it as shipped, or fork it.
Every agent is a versioned definition. Edit its instructions in plain English, attach your SOPs and templates as knowledge, and re-version with rollback. You never write or see code.
Grounded in your own knowledge
With Bring Your Own Data, the agent retrieves from your uploaded documents, Azure DevOps queries, and wiki pages during the run, so its output uses your standards and terminology.
Your model, per agent
Choose the model this agent runs on and see its credit rate at selection. Enterprise brings your own LLM and key.
Versioned, with library updates
Restore any earlier version in one step. When the library version improves, compare yours with the new one, then keep yours or review and update.
knowledge
- definition_of_ready"DoR v3 · 7 checks"
- criteria_format"Given / When / Then"
- terminology"payments glossary"
- naming"REQ- / HAZ- / TC-"
- use_byod"on · wiki + queries"
- approver"named, per workflow"
KNOWLEDGE UPDATED · SOP v3 attached
Rules check. The agent drafts. Your BA decides.
Deterministic rules govern required fields, states, and relationships. Planner-based analysis handles ambiguity, drafting, decomposition, and change impact. Generated content and material workflow changes follow your review policy.
Deterministic rules
- Required fields and allowed values
- Workflow states and gates such as Ready
- Required links and relationships
Drafts, then waits for review
- Acceptance criteria and specifications
- Epic breakdowns and new child items
- Change-impact reports and material workflow changes
Never does
- Adds its own triggers, or runs while disabled
- Reads outside the scope configured for it
- Trains models on your project data
Permissions
Allow and deny, per group.
Who can manage, delete, and inspect agents follows Allow and Deny per team or security group, set at project level with organization inheritance.
| Permission | Allow | Deny |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Agents | ||
| Delete Agents | ||
| Job Explorer | ||
| Manage Skills |
PROJECT LEVEL · ORGANIZATION INHERITANCE
Job log · per run
Every run, reconstructable.
- trigger
- work item 4821 updated
- checked
- criteria · links · fields
- changed
- +1 follow-up task
- approval
- awaitedgranted
- output
- draft accepted · verified
The same agent, in your industry's language.
Industry variants apply the requirement levels, classifications, lifecycle relationships, terminology, and review expectations of the domain.
- Variant 01
Software / SaaS
- Variant 02
Automotive
- Variant 03
Medical Devices
- Variant 04
Aerospace & Defence
- Variant 05
Pharma / Life Sciences
- Variant 06
Banking & Finance
- Variant 07
Telecommunications
Plus BA personas for defence, oil & gas, hardware and electronics, rail, construction, and nuclear: 13 role-based agents per industry.
All industries
Agents prepare, check, and maintain engineering artifacts. Qualified personnel keep responsibility for safety, regulatory, certification, and release decisions.
Hands off, explicitly.
Ready, testable requirements are where the rest of the team starts. Complex workflows coordinate several agents with explicit handoffs and approval boundaries.
Business Analyst Agent
TestQA Engineer Agent
Generates test cases from the criteria on new stories, links them to requirements, and finds coverage gaps.
OwnProduct Owner Agent
Builds sprint reports, release notes, and wiki pages from completed work items and their acceptance criteria.
TraceRequirements Engineer Agent
Keeps trace links current and runs suspect-link analysis when a requirement changes.
GovernCompliance Officer Agent
Generates traceability reports from requirements through design, code, tests, and deployment.
[ Trusted by Microsoft and industry leaders ]
Questions about the Business Analyst Agent.
It prepares or proposes requirements and criteria, and the workflow keeps review with the responsible BA, product owner, engineer, or regulated-domain specialist. With Required Approval on, the run pauses and opens a task until that person responds.
Yes, within its configuration. Rule-based Execution Agents can update fields or tags directly, because the rule is fixed and readable. Assisted Autonomous runs propose their output and write after approval.
A Definition of Ready control. The trigger, the required conditions, the owner, and the verification result are usually clear, so you can see value in the first week of the trial.
Yours. Attach your Definition of Ready, templates, and terminology as knowledge, or turn on Bring Your Own Data so it retrieves from your documents, queries, and wiki pages during the run.
Only if you want it to. Event-based agents take trigger conditions built from fields, operators, and values, such as State changes to Ready, so it runs only on matching items and spends no credits on the rest.
No. The agent runs inside your Azure DevOps environment on the same security and trust model as Copilot4DevOps, with no separate login. Your project data is not used to train models.
Credits are $0.01 each, pooled across your organization with no per-user fees. Drafting acceptance criteria for one work item is a light run with a low credit profile. A rule-based Definition of Ready check on an Execution Agent is a flat 4 credits. Agents pause cleanly at zero.
Industry variants exist for software, automotive, medical devices, aerospace and defence, pharma, finance, and telecommunications, with Business Analyst personas for further regulated industries in the library.
Put it on your backlog this week.
Free trial with 2,000 credits, no card. Or bring one workflow to a 30 minute demo and watch the run live.
