As we work with Agile and SCRUM it's becoming increasingly unclear what the role of the BA is in testing. It is also unclear as to what kind of testing the BA should do, not only in an Agile or SCRUM project but in a COTS project too.

Finally, what (if any) skill should a BA hold to support their role in testing?

I welcome any thoughts on this topic.

I recently began a new position as a Quality Assurance Analyst with a firm that has no QA process in place. I am encountering a problem when no requirements/technical specifications are given yet I am asked to "test" web based products. Basically, I have realized that I have to implement a QA process at this company. But testing without any requirements is like putting the cart before the horse. Has anyone encountered a similar situation? If so, what tips can you give. I have been in the QA field for 6 years, programmer/tester and analyst, but this is my first time starting a system from scratch without any chosen methodology/process in place.

So often I see bugs recorded against non existent requirements.

The tester takes it upon themselves to register a bug for a requirement that does not exist e.g 'The system does not sort the list alphabetically' when nothing in any requirement specified any particular sort order. It may well be that the system would work better if it did what the tester believes it should do, and it may well be that this would be a worthwhile enhancement to suggest to the stakeholder. But the fact is that if it is not a requirement then it can't be a bug!