CBAP Practice EXAM KEY POINTS

Which factors would you consider when determining the optimal approach for conducting business analysis activities?

Asking for Elements of this task

How can a BA meaningfully determine the value of a solution?

By gaining a thorough understanding of the potential value that stakeholders hope to achieve with the solution. **Defining performance measures would not be correct because Performance measures in and of themselves will not determine the value of a solution.

Domain Subject Matter Expert, Implementation Subject Matter Expert, Operational Support, Project Manager, and Supplier may assist in defining and confirming the design options. TASK?

Define design options

T/F: The business analyst must record approval decisions and to communicate the status of the requirements. "There may be value in maintaining an audit history of changes to requirements: what was changed, who made the change, the reason for the change, and when it was made."

TRUE

T/F: When a requirement is prioritized, it is given greater or lesser priority.

TRUE

When does the BA Identify improvement opportunities?

This is done when proposing design options.

The sponsor believes that cultural assessments are of little value. What would be a compelling way to state the case for their need?

A cultural assessment will determine if the existing organization is capable of accepting a solution. If cultural changes are needed, it will judge the organization's ability and willingness to adapt to those changes.

Which of the following is the best definition of a "sink" in a data flow diagram?

A person, organization, automated system, or any device capable of producing or receiving data. "Sink" is another name for external agent (aka externals, entity, source).

They find it difficult to validate the design against the requirements. What would be the problem?

A requirement might be missing or incorrectly specified or the design may not be right.

business analyst requested that all requirements be self-contained and capable of being understood independently of other requirements or designs. Which characteristic of requirements and designs is the senior business analyst requesting?

Atomic

It turns out that the primary reason that the survey isn't being returned is that the questions are ambiguous; personnel report not understanding what is really being asked. How could this misunderstanding have been largely prevented in the first place?

Conducted a usability test on the survey before it was distributed could've uncovered areas of ambiguity. Piloting the survey with a small group of representative personnel might have allowed for ambiguous questions to be corrected before distribution BABOK 10.45.3.1

Guideline that may define priorities for requirements

Business Constraints

Although the project is completed, how can BA continue to deliver value to the enterprise?

Business analysis may be performed within the boundaries of a project or throughout enterprise evolution and continuous improvement BA needs to support the project throughout enterprise evolution and continuous improvement. Trick ANSWER: BA can create test plans to confirm adoption of the changes by personnel. Why? business analysis plan would've contained information as to how adoption of the solution would be confirmed;

As a BA you are called upon to participate in a strategic workshop to identify change strategies. What will be your most likely role in the discussion?

Facilitator

T/F: The proposed requirements need to be baselined.

False Requirements do not have to be baselined to be made re-usable, but they do have to validated.

T/F: Requirements at low levels of abstraction may be written with limited reference to specific solutions and therefore are more reusable.

False Requirements written at high levels of abstraction are more reusable

T/F: Value attributes represent the value proposition of a solution at the solution level.

False Value attributes decompose the value proposition into its constituent part which are described as qualities of the solution vs. the solution as a whole. BABOK 10.1.3.1

T/F: Techniques vary depending upon the perspective from which business analysis is being performed.

False The core definition of a technique is static though its application may be modified based upon the situation. BABOK 1.4.5

T/F: Evaluation criteria provides guidance for ongoing decision making throughout the initiative

False This better describes a business case. Correctly stated: Business case provides guidance for ongoing decision making throughout the initiative

T/F: Evaluation criteria may express contractual obligations and as such may be difficult to change for legal or political reasons.

False This describes acceptance criteria Correctly stated: Acceptance Criteria may express contractual obligations and as such may be difficult to change for legal or political reasons.

techniques is the most useful to understand the current state of the enterprise?

Functional decomposition

Tool to identify and document which requirements could be reused

Functional decomposition Don't confuse with: ** Requirement Management Tools/Repository helps BA to sort and access requirements by priority (for prioritization) ***Requirements Architecture= helps understand relationships between Req.

Subsequent to investigating reasons for a solution's poor performance, you come to the conclusion that the solution is actually delivering an acceptable amount of value to stakeholders. What the BA's recommendation as the next step to increase solution value?

Identify and define more appropriate measures so solution value is accurately reflected.

Traceability helps manage requirements and assists in risk, time, change, and scope management. What else can it do?

Identify missing functionality

Evaluation criteria will better help the organization define its priorities.

Strength of Evaluation Criteria

Factors considered when evaluating whether or not a solution should be retired or replaced

Sunk cost, opportunity cost, and ect.

T/F: Solution Scope also describes how the proposed solution enables the future state's goals

TRUE

T/F: Techniques provide additional information on ways that a task can be performed.

TRUE

Strength of Document analysis

Used to validate the results of other requirements elicitation techniques.

captures the needs of a specific stakeholder and enable teams to define features of value to a stakeholder.

User Stories

Given the information provided about Customers, Accounts, Locations, and Statements in the case study, which deliverable would be the best way to specify it?

A "concept model starts with a glossary, which typically focuses on the core noun concepts of a domain." The case study offers more than definitions, including several rules. "It is especially important where high precision and subtle distinctions need to be made. Concept models can be effective where:... the initiative needs to capture large numbers of business rules..."

Difference between data models and concept models?

A concept model differs from a data model in that a concept model focuses upon organizing business rules and vocabulary while a data model can be used to elicit business rules.

Method of assessing the preferred outcome where multiple sources of uncertainty may exist."

A decision tree

Jerry is working on a new product idea for his department. He needs to find out what his coworkers think about the potential new product. What technique should Jerry use to gather his coworkers' opinions?

A focus group is a means to elicit ideas and opinions about a specific product, service, or opportunity in an interactive group environment. ** Surveys not effective

How is a glossary different than a data dictionary?

A glossary defines key terms relevant to the business domain while a data dictionary standardizes a definition of a data element.

Primary limitation of a glossary

A glossary requires an owner to perform timely maintenance, otherwise it becomes outdated and may be ignored

Which of the following would dictate to a business analyst which stakeholders to involve in reviewing and approving requirements?

A stakeholder list with roles and responsibilities

What are the 9 building blocks contained within a business model canvas would be considered when working to provide strategic insight to a new client?

"3 Keys Cost 2 Customers Revenue & Channels" 1. Key Partnership, Key Activities, Key Resources 2. Value Proposition 3. Customer Segments 4. Customer Relationships 5. Cost Structure 6. Channels 7. Revenue Streams

Business analysts manage how proposed changes to requirements and designs are evaluated during an initiative.

"Change" core concept for the knowledge area RLCM

What are 6 techniques for the Define Requirements Architecture task?

"FW- DOSI" 1. Financial Analysis 2. Workshops 3. Data modeling 4. Organizational Modeling 5. Scope Modeling 6. Interviews

Business analysts work closely with key stakeholders to maintain understanding, agreement, and approval of requirements and designs.

"Stakeholder" core concept for the knowledge area of RLCM

Process model

"how value might be realized by the solution once built"

You have completed requirements elicitation and documentation, and are in the process of reviewing the requirements in order to obtain sign-off. John, one of the approving stakeholders, just joined the company and requests a way to accurately assess alignment and completeness of requirements. Which of the following items would you provide to Joh

"process of reviewing the requirements in order to obtain sign-off." = Task Approve Requirements

Business analysts trace requirements and designs to solution components to ensure that the solution satisfies the need.

"solution" core concept for the knowledge area RLCM

T/F: The solution scope defines the boundaries of the solution, and is described in enough detail to enable stakeholders to understand which new capabilities the change will deliver.

. TRUE

Why an activity diagram may be utilized?

1. An activity diagram can elaborate on a single use case. 2. An activity diagram is effective at showing how to handle a large number of scenarios and parallel branches. 3. An activity diagram facilitates the identification of potential improvements by highlighting "pain points" in the process structure.

Which are 4 parts of establishing a monitoring and evaluation system structure for metrics?

1. Data collection 2. Baselining of Data 3. Data Analysis 4. Reporting Procedure

3 Stakeholders who might have input to the enterprise readiness asseessment

1. End Users 2. Customers 3. Regulators

3 ways of Using Mind Mapping

1. Generate ideas for complex problems (Like Brainstorming) 2. Create CONSOLIDATED view of concepts/problems 3. To articulate associations

3 challenges that may hinder project teams carrying out the lessons learned process.

1. Honest discussion may not occur if participants try to assign blame during these sessions. 2. Participants may be reluctant to document and discuss problems. 3. Proactive facilitation may be required to ensure that the discussions remain focused on solutions and improvement opportunities.

3 elements of Item Tracking

1. Item Identifier 2. metric 3. Item Record.Item Record.

The following are some of the factors a business analyst would consider to establish the level of decomposition and the level of detail to be specified while conducting information decomposition. What are the 4 factors the influence the level of decomposition?

1. Knowledge & Understanding of stakeholders 2. Potential for misunderstanding or miscommunication 3. Organizational standards 4. Contractual or Regulatory Obligations

Which is considered a strength of creating a glossary? (2)

1. Promotes common understanding of the business domain and better communication among all stakeholders. 2. Provides a single reference that can provides common understanding among all stakeholder groups. (Consistency)

3 types of models for the capability model category

1. Prototyping 2. Business Capability Analysis 3. Functional Decomposition

Who may use the requirements architecture to ASSESS the completeness of requirements? Task?

ANY STAKEHOLDER Define Design Options

process model/notation that reflects process steps, roles, parallel processing, and multiple exit decision points

Activity Diagram

In what task are requirements allocated to a solution component or a release?

Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution.

Indicates how entities in a data model relate to other entities and how.

Associations

The greatest amount of information about a speaker's attitude and feelings is conveyed during a conversation through which of the following means:

Body language.

Clark is identifying potential benefits of the requirements in a collaborative manner. What is he doing?

Brainstorming

Which techniques might you use during the assess risks task?

Brainstorming, financial analysis, lessons learned

Which underlying competency refers to an understanding of fundamental business principles and best practices.?

Business Acumen.

Who will determine the formality of the assessment process based on the information available, the apparent importance of the change, and the governance process.?

Business Analyst

Guidelines and tools included in the plan stakeholder engagement task include which of the following?

Business analysis performance assessment, change strategy, current state description

Initially, prioritization is done at a higher level of abstraction. As the requirements are further refined, prioritization is done at a more granular level and will incorporate additional bases for prioritization as they become appropriate. Term?

Challenge of Prioritization.

Which guideline and tools are leveraged to support assessing solution limitations?

Change strategy, risk analysis results, and solution scope

Analyzing the context to support tracing and prioritization of initiatives. Which Core Conecept?

Core Concept "CONTEXT" & RLCM

When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on a solution, the outputs are referred to as ________

DESIGNS

Knowledge of the business domain needed to assess proposed requirement changes

DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

WHO reference maintained requirements on a regular basis to ensure they are accurately reflecting stated needs.

DOMAIN SME

shows how repeated decisions are made.

Decision modeling

Determine whether to "make" or "buy." Task?

Define Design Options Make or Buy = part of the Element Define solution Approaches

Allocating requirements across solution components, Task?

Define Design Options"

What is the name for a rule that prescribes how information may be derived, inferred, or calculated.?

Definitional Rule

Type fo requirements relationship that links the requirements on different levels of abstraction

Derive

What is business model canvas?

Describes Rationale for Requirements

State or condition that should result if the business need is fulfilled. Term

Desired Outcomes ** Not the same as SMART Goals because they are not measurable. ** Measurable Outcomes = Objectives

To create a visual representation of the set of requirements. Term

Diagram

What type of requirements are specified and modeled at the same time?

Different types of requirements might be specified and modeled at the same time. Elicitation results contain information of different types, so it is natural to expect that different types of requirements might be specified at the same time. BABOK 7.1.4.3

It is an assumed rate used in present value calculations. It projects a rate the organization could earn compared to what it could earn on other investments.

Discount rate **In general, this is similar to the interest rate that the organization would expect to earn if it invested its money elsewhere."

Technique used as a point of reference to determine what is current and what has changed.

Document analysis

Type of requirements relationship exists when a requirement is easier to implement if a related requirement is also implemented

Effort

Purpose of tracing requirements

Ensuring that requirements and designs at different levels are aligned to one another, and to manage the effects of change to one level on related requirements."

What technique does Business Case use to to understand the forecasted costs and benefits of the proposed solution during elicitation?

Estimation

T/F: Requirement Life cycle begins with the collection of solution requirements and ends when the solution is retired.

FALSE: The requirements life cycle begins before requirements are elicited. Beware the use of the word "collected" since the BABOK prefers the term "elicited." BABOK 5.0, introductory paragraphs

Technique that focuses on the viability of a solution given the current environment

Feasibility study

Technique that allows executive decision makers to objectively compare very different investments from different perspectives.

Financial Analysis

Matt is starting to recruit participants for a focus group. You are looking for a very diverse group of people. The participants he is looking for would be categorized as what?

Heterogeneous groups are groups that include stakeholders with a wide variety of characteristics related to the topic of interest. Though not specifically defined in version 3 of the BABOK, the BABOK does say that the demographics of the discussion participants must be identified. BABOK 10.21.3.2

Information Management Approach. Requirements (any state). Solution Scope "IRS"

Input to Define Requirements Architecture Task

Information management approach, requirements (any state), solution scope

Inputs to the define requirements architecture task

Change strategy is a guideline/ tool in which 2 tasks in the RLCM?

It is listed as a Guideline/Tool for both Prioritize Requirements and Assess Requirements Changes

T/F: The business analyst role will continue to be performed within agile projects, though the scope of the work and tasks within the current framework will likely change.

It is true that the BA role will continue to be performed within agile projects but tasks will not change; rather, they are approached and performed somewhat differently in agile projects. BABOK 1.2

You are asked to trace a particular requirement by a business stakeholder. What is the stakeholder asking you to do?

It means to have clearly defined relationships from one requirement to other requirements and other components, such that coverage and the effects of change are clearly identifiable.

Technique is used to track issues raised by stakeholders during prioritization.

Item tracking

Technique used to track any issues raised during planning activities with stakeholders.

Item tracking

Which Job titles perform business analysis?

Job titles aren't important; anyone can be considered a business analyst regardless of their job title if they perform business analysis tasks. A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in the BABOK, regardless of their job title.

This tool describes legislative rules or regulations that must be followed that may impact the requirements and designs approval process;

Legal/regulatory information

It represents the future or essential state regardless of current physical limitations.

Logical Data Flow Diagrams

These represent the future state regardless of the current physical limitations.

Logical data flow diagram.

This involves researching customers in order to determine what they need or want.

Market Analysis

XYZ is an new organization that uses agile methodology. The organization is looking for the best solution for project team collaboration and artifacts storage. He is tasked with carrying out an analysis between using a Confluence site vs. a SharePoint site.

Matrix documentation A matrix is used when the business analyst is modeling a requirement or set of requirements that have complex but uniform structure, which can be broken down into elements that apply to every entry in the table. BABOK 7.1.4

describes what the entities represent, when and why they were created or changed, how they should be used, how often they are used, when, and by whom.

Metadata

Data about data can best be described as what?

Metadata describes what the entities represent, when and why they were created or changed, how they should be used, how often they are used, when, and by whom. In essence meta data is the information (data) about the data. BABOK 10.15.3.5 and BABOK Glossary

Prioritization is an assessment of RELATIVE value as each stakeholder may have different values.

NOT ABSOLUTE VALUE

A ratio of the present value of the benefits minus the original cost of the investment. It represents whether the project would yield a higher return than investments elsewhere.

NPV

Microsoft stopped supporting the operating system and employee productivity has suffered as repairs are delayed, if they happen at all. A BA recommends that the operating system be retired and replaced with the latest and greatest. Which of the following financial factors carried the most weight in the recommendation?

Necessity The solution component is obsolete and next to impossible to maintain.

Solution components have limited lifespan due to obsolesce, changing market conditions, and other causes --> results in retirement of the solution Term

Necessity.

When preparing for requirements elicitation, what are the inputs required to develop an elicitation activity plan?

Needs, stakeholder engagement approach

BACCM & order of importance for the six core concepts. Relationship?

No single concept holds greater importance or significance over any other concept. Each core concept within the BACCM is defined by the other five; as such, no single concept holds greater importance over any other concept.

Type of requirements that describe the conditions under which a solution must remain effective or a quality that a solution must have.

Non-functional Req.

requirements describe the conditions under which a solution must remain effective or a quality that a solution must have.

Non-functional requirement

"The system shall be available 99.3% of the time during the service hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. seven days a week" is an example of what type of requirement?

Non-functional requirements Describe the conditions under which a solution must remain effective or a quality that a solution must have.

Kyle is a BA negotiating a service level agreement (SLA) with a customer associated with a new product currently in development. What type of requirement is Kyle negotiating?

Non-functional requirements define how well the functional requirements must perform. BABOK 10.30.3

Which of the two choices should Josh recommend based on the Return on Investment (ROI) potential of the two alternatives?

Option B has a .19 ROI compared with option A's .18. The BABOK formula to calculate ROI is: Return on Investment = ((Total Benefits - Cost of the Investment) / Cost of the Investment). Net benefits are in the "Cumulative net" rows, A = $225,000, B = $175,000. Cost of investment is considered to include Total Cost of Ownership and A = $1,275,000 and B = $900,000. Dividing the net benefits by the total investment cost yields ROI of .18 for A and .19 for B. BABOK 10.20.3.5

Time period projection for the time needed to generate enough benefits to recover the cost of the change Term?

Payback Period

4 factors that must be considered when analyzing performance measures

Performance Variances, Risks, Trends, & Accuracy

A proposal for doing or achieving something

Plan

Estimation is a technique listed for which of the following tasks?

Plan business analysis approach

Item tracking is a technique used within all tasks of the business analysis planning and monitoring knowledge area EXCEPT:

Plan stakeholder engagement

Technique that provides documentation for compliance purposes

Process Modeling

Technique used to categorize stakeholder by the systems that they support their business processes

Process Modeling

modeling requirements in order to identify and validate inputs and outputs of the solution she is modeling.

Process Modeling

model describes the flow of activities in a process.

Process model

Technique Identifies requirements associated with the processes that may be available for reuse;

Process modeling

Which technique would help Gary categorize his stakeholders by the systems that support their business processes?

Process modeling Process models help identify what stakeholder groups engage in the process. BABOK 3.2.6 and 10.35

Techniques used in Activity Flow modeling category which represents actions and events.

Process modeling. & User Story

He is in charge of identifying and managing risks associated with solution design, development, delivery, implementation, operation and sustainment. What type of stakeholder is Stefan?

Project Manager Clue: "identifying and managing risks associated with solution design, development, delivery, implementation, operation and sustainment."

Who ensures that traceability supports project change and scope management. ?

Project manage

What is the purpose of analyzing performance measures?

Provide insights into the performance of a solution in relation to the value it brings.

One of the complaints from stakeholders is that decisions take too long to make. You discover that approvals involve review from three decision-making bodies that meet monthly before obtaining final approval from the sponsor and portfolio manager. You submit a recommendation to simplify this process by eliminating some of the back and forth. How would this recommendation be categorized?

Reducing complexity of interfaces.

Business requirements

Refer to WHY a change has been initiated, NOT how to transition to the future state,

one of the considerations business analysts use to assess the impact of a proposed change but refers to the impact to the existing delivery commitments if the change is approved.

Schedule

Technique validates the logic for interactions between the objects in the scenario.

Sequence Diagram

Deima is a BA assigned to the evaluation of a solution that isn't delivering value to the level forecasted during the project. She has gone into the project archives and is reviewing all available project documentation. Why is she doing that?

She is working to understand the potential value of the solution. Potential Value is listed as an input to Analyze Performance Measures, which is what the question is asking. Potential Value is "...a benchmark against which solution performance can be evaluated." BABOK 8.2.3 b.

Actors in a use case diagram are shown through:

Stick Figures

Ben isn't sure that the data generated by the performance measures is accurate so he is hesitant to take further action. What could Ben do to understand if he can rely on the data generated by performance measures?

Test the results to see if they can be repeated and reproduced. The accuracy of performance measures is essential to the validity of their analysis. Business analysts test and analyze the data collected to ensure their accuracy and reliability. The results of performance measures should be reproducible and repeatable. BABOK 8.2.4.4 Wha's the definition of Accuracy?

A core competency to using tools and technology effectively is??

The ability to select the most appropriate tool that will meet need needs of the audience.

Which document should you reference to understand the forecasted costs and benefits of the proposed solution as part of the preparation for elicitation?

The business case assesses the costs and benefits of a proposed solution, which is what the question is looking for. The BABOK lists Estimation as a technique in Prepare for Elicitation to estimate costs and benefits; the business case provides those estimates

Ralph , a BA highly skilled in data mining, He utilizes statistical measures, mathematical models, algorithms, and equations when presenting to the governance team, he encounters a high level of distrust with his conclusions. Ralph assures his executive stakeholders that the data is reliable, as he has replicated the results using data not initially used. What is the best explanation for the governance team's seeming resistance?

The governance team members may not understand the mathematical models. Not understanding the math can result in a perceived lack of transparency and distrust of the results.

As transactions increased over a six-month period, the application slowed to a level deemed unacceptable by the end-users. You have been asked to evaluate this performance. In order to get to the bottom of this, what do you need to have access to?

The implemented solution and the results of the solution performance analysis. ***You are performing the Assess Solution Limitations task. This answer lists the prescribed inputs.

A senior BA told Ed that he should use a requirements management tool to trace the requirements for this effort. To make using the complexity of a requirements management tool worthwhile, what can be implied from the senior business analyst's suggestion?

The number of requirements are quite extensive.

describes a value assessment?

The organization will be better positioned to absorb future changes. This is a qualitative or "value" estimate, meaning it is important to consider and will add significant value to the organization. But, is difficult to quantify. BABOK 6.2.4.11

ROI takes into consideration the cost of the investment and the forecasted benefits of the change. Cameron is meeting with stakeholders to understand what the training costs will be for the recommended solution. What is Cameron trying to understand?

The total cost of ownership for the solution TCO includes the cost of using and supporting the solution throughout its life cycle. Training would be included in that. BABOK 10.20.3.2

What state or status should the requirements be in to serve as an input to the Define Requirements Architecture task?

They can be in any state or status

What would be best justification for taking the time to make requirements reusable?

They can be reused in the future for the current or similar initiatives.

It will allow the BA to identify which processes and tools within the enterprise will support the solution.

This describes more of an Operational Assessment which isn't correlated to attitudes or beliefs (which is what "grumbling" is typically aligned to)

The cost to acquire a solution, the cost of using the solution, and the cost of supporting the solution.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

What term best describes the examination of the relationships that may be affected by the change in requirement?

Traceability ***Although Interface Analysis can be used in assessing changes to requirements, its focus is on identifying the interfaces that are impacted by the change, not the relationships between all the requirements, so traceability is a better answer.

If the solution team thinks that the requirements are not represented by the solution, which of the following would help them address their concerns?

Traceability is used to ensure that the solution confirms to requirements by linking each requirement back to the business value.

To have clearly defined relationships from one requirement to other requirements and other components, such that coverage and the effects of change are clearly identifiable Term?.

Tracing Requirements

Mary has just completed a review workshop with the accountable individuals and they have approved the requirements and design. What is her next logical step?

Track and communicate the approvals.

The sponsor of a new project wants to contact a vendor the company has worked with frequently in the past to procure new software along with consulting help configuring and integrating it into the current environment. You are the BA assigned to the project and are trying to convince the sponsor to take the time for a vendor assessment. What would be your primary argument?

While procuring the software and consulting from a prior vendor would be faster, completing a vendor assessment would increase the likelihood of long-term satisfaction with the decision. "trying to convince the sponsor to take the time for a vendor assessment."

What are the three typical components of a user story?

Who? What? Why? This comes form the element "Statement of value" Another common format: = "Given, When, Then" Note: that there is no mandatory structure for User Stories. This structure ("role, goal, motivation") is the most popular.

3 key point on Business rules

a. Business rule changes can be implemented quickly if they are managed by a single enterprise-wide engine. b. Business rules shape day-to-day business behavior. c. Business rules guide operational business decision-making.

Requirements are oftentimes limited to a prioritized list. Which Approach?

adaptive approach

Useful When describing the entities, classes, or data objects that are relevant to a domain.

data flow diagram.

Rules representing operational knowledge of the organization.

definitional rules

Type of requirements relationship used when a requirement depends on another requirement.

depends

"Which dimension of the balanced scorecard would contain measures pertaining to top line revenue growth and overall profitability for the current fiscal year?" What should the students answer?

financial

Technique ensures concerns around stakeholder requirements are captured, tracked, and resolved to the stakeholder's satisfaction

item tracking

Business analysts use a requirements architecture to understand which models are appropriate for the domain, solution scope, and audience.

true

A business analyst has been assigned to a new initiative that is very complex and requires a detailed solution that drives a significant change from how the organization currently conducts business. How can the business analyst go about understanding the nature of this initiative?

Gain a thorough comprehension of the current state of the organization to determine what activities need to be completed to move to a desired future state. Business analysis can be used to understand the current state, to define the future state, and to determine the activities required to move from the current to the future state. BABOK 1.2

Her organization had formal and informal standards in place regarding how business analysis should be performed. But after leaving her last job, she just landed a Sr. Business Analyst job with ABC company and to her surprise there are no defined standards in place. Gayle determines that she needs to define a requirements management life cycle approach for the initiative she has been assigned to. Which requirements lifecycle processes should Gayle define?

Gayle should define processes for tracing, prioritizing, assessing changes to, maintaining, and approving requirements. Clue: " formal and informal standards in place regarding how business analysis should be performed" "needs to define a requirements management life cycle approach for the initiative"

A business analyst must be effective in generating alternative solutions that solve the business need or problem. Which of the following underlying competencies would be helpful in that endeavor?

Generating and productively considering new ideas" is a stated effectiveness measure of creative thinking. BABOK 9.1.1.3

Sanjay just met with one of his stakeholders who wants to add two new requirements to a solution after it had been signed off the previous week. In addition, the new requirements did not match the overall scope of the solution. However, Sanjay was convinced that the developers could easily handle the two new requirements so he passed them on to the development team. What should Sanjay have done?

Get approval to change the scope of the solution from whomever has the authority to approve changes and add the new requirements. Clue: "stakeholders who wants to add two new requirements to a solution after it had been signed off " "new requirements did not match the overall scope of the solution. " Any new requirements must be resolved by either officially amending the scope and changing all documentation or removing the requirements to maintain the current scope. This done through the Assess Requirements Changes and Approve Requirements tasks within Requirements Lifecycle Management. BABOK 5.4.2, 5.5.4, and 3.3.2

Longer term, ongoing, QUALITATIVE statement of a state or condition that organization is seeking to establish or maintain Term?

Goals

Ground rules during workshops are effective method for what?

Ground rules will establish a productive environment for collaboration but will not ensure that all participants have a common understanding.

A type of behavioral rule for which there is no active enforcement.

Guideline

What is the name for a behavioral (business) rule for which there is no active enforcement?

Guideline. Guidelines "suggest" preferred or optimal business behavior.

A hired consultant for a division in a retail organization began a SWOT analysis with the identification of opportunities and threats. What do you think the next steps would be to complete the initial analysis?

Having set the context, the next step is to identify strengths and weaknesses. Correct Beginning a SWOT analysis with opportunities and threats sets the context to identify relevant internal strengths and weaknesses. BABOK 10.46.3

Bottled water sales declining by 5% yearly. . Alan needs to assess the solution to understand the reason for declining sales. Alan brainstormed potential solutions and completed a financial analysis to understand the cost/benefit of manufacturing jugs that held 2.5 vs. 5 gallons. His recommendation was to go ahead with the manufacture of the new jugs along with a "win-back" campaign for lost customers. What might he be missing in his recommendation?

He needs to complete a risk analysis. Alan is assuming that people will be able to lift a 2.5 gallon jug. Assumptions are risks. BABOK 8.5.6 BABOK: Recommendation " may also consider long-term effects and contributions of the solution to stakeholders" Clue: 1. "assess the solution" = Solution Limitations 2. Technique= Financial Analysis

What is the impact of the agile perspective on the planning and execution of elicitation and collaboration tasks?

High level requirements are elicited at the beginning of the project; requirements are detailed right to the appropriate level right before their development begins.

Georgio wants to interact with the groups of stakeholders to gain more information about them. What would you advise him to do?

Hold workshops Workshops are interactive and would allow Greg to gain more information about stakeholder groups.

The corrections department in a large metropolitan county installed a new phone system that integrated with employee's computers. This new system would significantly change current processes but would enable overworked personnel to be more efficient. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, many corrections workers actively resisted the new system and created workarounds to get back to their "usual" way of doing things. How could this situation have been mitigated or avoided altogether?

How could this situation have been mitigated or avoided altogether?

Compares a certain calculation of one solution or solution approach to a minimum threshold that the organization expects to earn from its investments, called the

Hurdle rate.

Carla and her team have identified and defined the potential value for three design options. What is their logical next step?

Identified and defined the potential value for three design options

How should solution options that offer potential capabilities above and beyond those identified in the original business case be handled?

Identified even when not deemed immediately useful, if the organization anticipates using them in the future.

Definition of traceability.

Identifies and documents the lineage of each requirement, including its backward traceability, its forward traceability, and its relationship to other requirements.

If a new business analyst wanted to use this technique Business capability analysis, how would they start?

Identify personnel who will participate in its creation Why? All of the limitations of this model have to do with lack of collaboration, shared understanding, and unaligned goals. Therefore, identifying the "right" personnel to be included in the project is the critical success factor and the right place to start.

Nick has just finished a report that showed some issues in the business analysis work for his current project. Specifically, there were several variances from what he expected, and he needs to address the issues. What should Nick do to address the variances?

Identify the root cause of variances from the expected performance and apply proposed approaches to address the issues.

Benefit of key dependencies being identified and recorded? (2)

Identifying and documenting dependencies 1. Assists the business analyst in sequencing project work activities to design and deploy the capabilities found in the requirements. 2. Assists the business analyst in correctly allocating requirements to solution components

Carl trying decide if the tasks in Strategy Analysis or Solution Evaluation knowledge area should be used for his current assignment. What can the coach say to help him?

If an actual solution exists, Solution Evaluation is probably more pertinent.

Roles & Permission Matrix limitation that will need to be addressed when developing this artifact

If the Matrix contains too much detail it can be time-consuming and not provide value; too little detail can exclude necessary roles or responsibilities.

There are limitations relating to the use of a roles and permission matrix that need to be addressed. Which of the following is a limitation that will need to be addressed when developing this artifact?

If the Matrix contains too much detail it can be time-consuming and not provide value; too little detail can exclude necessary roles or responsibilities.

one of the considerations business analysts use to assess the impact of a proposed change but refers to the number of customers or business processes affected if the change is accepted.

Impact

Analysis performed to assess or evaluate the effect of a change.

Impact Analysis.

Business analysts review identified problems in order to assess the effect they may have on the operation of the organization or the ability of the solution to deliver its potential value

Impact Assessment is the goal of identifying problem.

How all impacts and resolutions resulting from the change analysis are documented and communicated to all stakeholders Term?

Impact Resolution.

What is performed to assess or evaluate the effect of a change?

Impact analysis is performed to assess and evaluate the effect of a change. ***Manage approvals occur after the change has been evaluated, rather than in evaluating the impact of the change

Negotiates to have prioritization changed based on technical constraints

Implementation SME

Who provides input relating to technical dependencies

Implementation SME

Which of the following roles would be most interested in maintained requirements and why?

Implementation SMEs because they will use them to develop regression tests and conduct impact analyses.

The lead business analyst and the project team have come up with three design options that would potentially achieve the desired future state. She needs an expert to provide input about the constraints and cost implications of each option. Who would be the BEST person to provide guidance?

Implementation subject matter expert Clue: "expert to provide input about the constraints and cost implications of each option. " Don't Confuse with Operational Support = Operational support can help evaluate the difficult and cost of integrating proposed solutions with existing processes and systems.

She needs an expert to provide input about the constraints and cost implications of each option. Who would be the BEST person to provide guidance?

Implementation subject matter expert Implementation SMEs use their expertise to provide input about the constraints and costs of a solution. BABOK 7.5.7

Which subset is correct for all stakeholders in the define design options task?

Implementation subject matter expert, operational support, project manager, domain subject matter expert, supplier ***END USER & SPONSOR ARE NOT STAKEHOLDERS FOR THIS TASK

Marie is using organizational charts as her primary tool for beginning organizational modeling to understand roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures that exist in her organization. Which of the following information would be MOST difficult to find using this tool?

Influencers **Informal lines of authority, influence, and communication not reflected in formal organizational charts

What are all the inputs to the define requirements architecture task?

Information management approach, requirements (any state), solution scope

Which of the following describes a limitation of interface analysis?

Interface analysis does not provide insight into other aspects of the solution since the analysis does not assess the internal components.

Financial resources, patents, reputation, and brand names are all examples of which of the following elements?

Internal Assets

You have been hired as the business analyst and assigned to a project that has many stakeholders. You want to quickly build rapport with the key stakeholders. Which technique would help you achieve your goal?

Interviews. Interviews can help establish relationships and build trust. BABOK 10.25.1

A business analyst must manage and maintain requirements and design information throughout the requirements life cycle. When does the requirements life cycle begin and end?

It begins with the representation of the business need and ends when the solution is retired. The requirements life cycle begins with the representation of a business need, continues through the development of a solution, and ends when a solution and the requirements that represent it are retired

Why is the stakeholder list important to prioritizing requirements?

It indicates levels of power to determine which stakeholders are needed for prioritization.

Survey or questionnaire's biggest benefit?

It would provide a quantitative baseline from which to measure improvement.

Benefit, cost, schedule and urgency

Key areas to assess regarding the impact of the change.

Main topic, topics, sub-topics, branches, keywords, color, images.

Key elements of a mind map

Assess Solution's Potential Value: The measures collected in the task Measure Solution Performance (p. 166) often require interpretation and synthesis to derive meaning and to be actionable. Performance measures themselves rarely trigger a decision about the value of a solution. In order to meaningfully analyze performance measures, business analysts require a thorough understanding of the potential value that stakeholders hope to achieve with the solution. To assist in the analysis, variables such as the goals and objectives of the enterprise, key performance indicators (KPIs), the level of risk of the solution, the risk tolerance of both stakeholders and the enterprise, and other stated targets are considered.

Know this paragraph well!!

Benefit to analyzing stakeholder attitudes as part of the perform stakeholder analysis element?

Knowing how a stakeholder perceives the initiative enables the business analyst to plan for collaboration and engagement with that stakeholder.

Represent areas of specific business analysis expertise that encompass several tasks. Term

Knowledge Areas * Not a methodology *do NOT specifically represent or correlate to a project phase.

An agile team had estimated to complete 15 story points in a previous iteration, but the team only manages to complete 10 story points in that iteration. They estimate the next iteration by adjusting to 10 story points worth of work. What technique has the team employed to estimate the next iteration?

Lessons learned The purpose of lessons learned is to bring together any insights gained during a project that can be usefully applied on future projects. In this case is the next iteration. BABOK 10.27.3

Which of the following techniques may be helpful in identifying business analysis performance improvements?

Lessons learned, risk analysis and management, workshops, item tracking

Diagrams used to show the internal partitioning of the work and the data that flows between the partitions, as well as the stored data used by each of the partitions

Level 1 Data Flow diagrams

It illustrates the processes related to the system with the respective input data, output transformed data, and data stores.

Level 1 Data Flow diagrams

3 Elements of tracing requirements.

Level of formality Relationships Traceability repository "Consideration for task Trace Requirements"

What does the elicitation activity plan include?

Logistics, scope of the elicitation activity, selected techniques, supporting materials

Lucas is a BA who is assessing a seemingly under-performing solution. What sorts of things can Lucas do to gain a thorough understanding of the potential value associated with the solution?

Lucas can assess the solution within the context of the enterprise's goals and objectives along with other key performance indicators. **Synthesis of performance measures is very telling to understanding potential value " The measures collected in the task Measure Solution Performance often require interpretation and synthesis to derive meaning and to be actionable. Performance measures themselves rarely trigger a decision about the value of a solution. In order to meaningfully analyze performance measures, business analysts require a thorough understanding of the potential value that stakeholders hope to achieve with the solution. To assist in the analysis, variables such as the goals and objectives of the enterprise, key performance indicators (KPIs), the level of risk of the solution, the risk tolerance of both stakeholders and the enterprise, and other stated targets are considered."

A means to retain requirement accuracy and consistency throughout and beyond the change during the entire requirements life cycle, and to support reuse of requirements in other solutions.

Maintaining Requirements

Performance measures are defined in which task?

Measure Performance

Decisions about which measures are used to evaluate solution performance occurs in which task?

Measure Solution Performance

Determining if the measures are qualitative or quantitative occurs in which task?

Measure Solution Performance

Determining if the solution aligns with the goals and objectives occurs in which task?

Measure Solution Performance

Technique used to identify how to evaluate the quality of the requirements

Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

techniques would be best suited to identify how to evaluate the quality of the requirements?

Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Which of the following techniques would be best suited to identify how to evaluate the quality of the requirements?

Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) Acceptance and evaluation criteria not used to identify how to evaluate but rather ensures that the requirements are stated clearly. B

Technique that is "a form of note-taking that captures thoughts, ideas, and information in non-linear diagrams"

Mind Mapping

Graphical tool that incorporate words, images, and colors to make it more memorable and enjoyable to create and review, instead of the traditional note-taking style.

Mind mapping Best for an initiative with complex requirements. ***Prototyping doesn't work well for highly complex process or system-- Trick Answer

While analyzing elicitation results and creating representations of those results, which set of activities will a business analyst typically be engaged in?

Modeling requirements, analyzing requirements, representing requirements and attributes, implementing the appropriate levels of abstraction. specify and model requirements task. Business analysts transform elicitation results in requirements and designs by engaging in these activities which are elements in the specify and model requirements task.

What happens to requirement tracing efforts when the number of requirements or level of formality increases?

More requirements and increased formality will require greater tracing effort from Marisa and it will not stay the same.

You are the business analyst for your organization and you've identified the stakeholders in your organization. As part of this identification, you've identified the stakeholder engagement approach, business analysis information and business analysis performance assessment. What other input is needed to prepare for the elicitation and collaboration tasks?

Need defines the problem or opportunity being faced by the business. This information is used to determine the information to be elicited when developing business requirements early in the project life cycle.

During a conversation with business stakeholders, the business analyst had reached an impasse on the prioritization of the requirements. Which element of prioritization would be best utilized in order to resolve the impasse?

Negotiation by establishing consensus "business analyst had reached an impasse on the prioritization of the requirements. " The negotiation approach involves establishing a consensus among stakeholders as to which requirements will be prioritized

"A strategy may be captured in a strategic plan, product vision, business case, product roadmap, or other artifacts." BABOK 6.0 overview

Not Project Charter!!

" Understanding the current state of the enterprise prior to the change is necessary to identify what will need to change to achieve a desired future state and how the effect of the change will be assessed. "

Note this point (Repeated theme)

The assessment of existing and needed resources is considered when performing a feasibility analysis on possible solution approaches for the change strategy

Note this point. **Not all business problems would warrant feasibility analysis.

WHO likely to reference maintained requirements to confirm the current state.?

OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

Bill is unfamiliar with the software and the work products of the architects. Which of the following techniques would be best for Bill to use to become familiar with the current system as quickly as possible?

Observation Process modeling = good second step to help confirm elicitation results from observation and would establish a basis for process analysis. B

Torii conducted a workshop with domain subject matter experts to understand and subsequently document an in-scope business process. Although the SMEs approved the process flow, Torii feels there is a gap or two between confirmed process steps. Which elicitation method will be most effective in discovering and closing the gaps or confirming the process steps?

Observing is an appropriate technique to uncover missing requirements or confirm information. "gap or two between confirmed process steps."

Hutchinson Flooring set a goal to become ISO certified within two years. Todd is a BA tasked with assessing the performance of a set of IT processes to determine if this goal is "doable." The scope is defined. What should Todd do next?

Obtain the imposed measurements from ISO for the targeted processes.

Which tools provide a means of documenting business analysis information and are easy to share with stakeholders?

Office productivity tools and technology can be used to document and track information and artifacts. BABOK 9.6.1. ** Not configuration management & Requirements management tools = Both are not easy to share with others

When does the task of manage stakeholder collaboration begin?

Once stakeholders have been identified and analyzed. ** BA cannot begin collaborating with stakeholders until they've been identified and analyzed to understand their preferences for effective collaboration.

James is exploring various strategies to transform the enterprise from the current to their desired future state. How many business cases might James develop in support of his final recommendation?

One business case per change strategy. The BABOK states that a business case may be developed for each potential change strategy. BABOK 6.4.4.4

What type of question elicits dialogue during elicitation activities?

Open-ended questions invite the interviewee to engage in dialogue.

Who should be consulted to see if a change to requirements will cause the system to operate effectively or not?

Operational support

She is responsible for ensuring that requirements and designs are supportable within the constraints imposed by technology standards and organizational capability plans. She may also have a role in reviewing and approving requirements. What type of stakeholder?

Operational support Buzz Word: " Supportable within the constraints imposed by technology standards and organizational capability plans" ** Sponsors are responsible to review and approve the business case, solution or product scope, and all requirements and designs. ** Customers, Operational Support all can approve requirements

Potential value that could be realized by pursuing alternative course of action TERM?

Opportunity Cost

Which underlying competency provides an understanding of a specific department's business architecture?

Organization Knowledge.

Larry the BA is responsible for developing the business case for a project that his firm is recommending in the insurance industry. Which of the following business knowledge competencies would Larry use?

Organization knowledge, methodology knowledge, industry knowledge

As a business analyst, the types of activities that you will perform are documented in the business analysis approach. The prescribed activities may be influenced by which one of the following?

Organization's methodologies The BABOK states that the organization's adopted methodologies frequently influence the business analysis activities that are selected

Primary tool for beginning organizational modeling?

Organizational Charts.

What must be consulted when identifying expectations for business analysis work?

Organizational Performance Standards (Only guideline for this task)

Techniques is used to ensure the identification of any required changes to the organizational structure that may have to be addressed due to a solution that's not providing the expected value?

Organizational modeling Different from Process Modeling-->Process models do not involve organizational structure R/O Document Analysis ---> shows the organization's current culture, operations and structure.

Relationship between organizations and initiatives as described in the BABOK.

Organizations often have a clearly defined boundary and operate on a continuous basis, as opposed to an initiative or project team, which may be disbanded once its objectives are achieved.

You have been asked to facilitate a workshop to help clarify the scope of a solution. Your objective is to:

Organize requirements based on the solution components they are related to. Scope models are used to describe the scope of analysis or the scope of a solution.

Use cases in a use case diagram are shown through:

Ovals

estimation uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables.

Parametric Estimation

The lead business analyst asks you to prioritize requirements in order to meet the regulatory demands imposed on the organization over other stakeholder interests. What factor is influencing this prioritization?

Penalty Prioritization factor that speaks to the consequences from not implementing a given requirement

To help understand each stakeholder's perspective better, which technique or activity would be the most helpful to use?

Perform problem analysis This would be appropriate to identify the source of the problem. A variety of techniques including root cause analysis or SIPOCs might help. BABOK see 8.3.4.2

It's time to administer the annual employee satisfaction survey. Last year less than 12% of the co-located employees returned the online survey. Gene recommended discontinuing the survey given the low response rate but the governance team elected to give it another try. What might Gene do to bolster the return rate of the survey?

Perform root cause analysis to address the underlying reason(s) the survey isn't being returned. This would be optimal and it doesn't have to take a long period of time. This is key to understanding solution limitations, either inherent in the solution or enterprise. BABOK 8.3 and 8.4

What is the BA's course of action regarding the discrepancy between expected and actual performance?

Perform root cause analysis to understand the primary reason for the discrepancy so action can be taken. BABOK 8.2.4.5

What factor can be assessed through key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with enterprise measures, goals, and objectives for a project, process performance targets, or tests for a software appli

Performance

What factor can be assessed through key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with enterprise measures, goals, and objectives for a project, process performance targets, or tests for a software application?

Performance

"value attribute" for acceptance criteria

Performance.

Sierra discovered that an internal audit team performed audits the last calendar week of each month. The organization operates at a frenetic pace the last week of the month to meet production goals. What might Sierra further investigate as a concern?

Perhaps the timing of the audits may have a negative impact on the outcome. The timing of the audits appears to be the most problematic given the information in the scenario When collecting performance measures, business analysts consider: Frequency/Timing, Sample Size, & Currency of data

A business analyst wants to model all of the data stores, printers, forms, devices; in other words, everywhere data is displayed or shown. Which of the following data flow diagrams would accomplish that goal?

Physical data flow diagram.

Which of the following data models is typically used by implementation subject matter experts to describe how a database is physically organized?

Physical data model

The results of stakeholder analysis should be consulted and updated on a regular basis as stakeholders may change or new stakeholders may be identified throughout the project. However, one task should be complete before embarking on this task. Which task should be completed first?

Plan business analysis approach ** If they ask for input, it would needs

Elements included in the plan business analysis approach task include which of the following?

Planning approach, formality and level of detail of deliverables, business analysis activities, timing of business analysis work, complexity and risk, acceptance.

Which input describes the value that may be realized by implementing the proposed future state? It can be used as a benchmark against which solution performance can be evaluated.

Potential Value

Net benefit of the solution after operating costs are accounted for

Potential Value of Future State

The lead business analyst planned an event to analyze the potential value for each design option and recommend a solution. What inputs will be needed to accomplish this task?

Potential value, design options

You have scheduled a focus group to determine customer preferences regarding the new label design for an "old" product. Your participants should be which of the following?

Pre-qualified A focus group is composed of pre-qualified participants whose objective is to discuss and comment on a topic within a certain context. The participants share their perspectives and attitudes about a topic and discuss them in a group setting. BABOK 10.21.2

You have been asked to facilitate a brainstorming session to identify stakeholders' concerns. Which of the following is NOT one of the elements of brainstorming

Preparation, Session, Wrap-Up

Amber is modeling use cases and has identified an actor in a use case that participates but has not initiated the use case. What is this actor known as?

Primary actor

A data dictionary contains two types of data elements. What are they?

Primitive & Composite

What is Continual Prioritization?

Priorities may shift throughout the project life cycle and so this is a consideration of prioritizing requirements. This is a consideration of prioritizing requirements

Which technique provides a framework for business analysts to facilitate stakeholder decisions and to understand the relative importance of business analysis information?

Prioritization

assessment of relative value as each stakeholder may have different values.

Prioritization

technique provides a framework for business analysts to facilitate stakeholder decisions and to understand the relative importance of business analysis information?

Prioritization

Which of the following is not ESSENTIAL in order to maximize the benefits of maintaining and reusing requirements?

Prioritizing requirements is not necessary and does not maximize the benefits of reuse. WHY? ***The requirements can be reused within the current initiative or other initiatives wherein the stakeholders are different and therefore the priorities would be different

A vital application has begun to experience several unplanned outages. The 99.7% availability target hasn't been met in three months and is steadily worsening. Robbie is the BA assigned to assess the situation. He finds that the application, hardware, and operating system are solid. However, the circuit supporting the system has become unreliable.

Problem Analysis Clues: 1. "The 99.7% availability target hasn't been met in three months and is steadily worsening." = Evidence that the solution has not consistently or repeatedly producing ineffective solutions 2. Robbie is investigating solution problems = element of task Assess solution limitation.

He has determined that that the solution is consistently or repeatedly producing ineffective outputs. What should Lucas do in order to address the source of the problem?

Problem analysis

Identifies requirements associated with the processes that may be available for reuse

Process Modeling

Which technique can the BA use that will best help the stakeholders understanding what they need to do once the new software is implemented?

Process modeling Process models, both business and technical, describe the flow of activities, or what people do. Process models will be useful to help stakeholders understand the gap between what they do today and what will change with the implementation of the software. (BABOK 10.35).

Technique used to visually show the future state process, as well as tracing requirements to the future state process.

Process modelling

The purpose of this collaborative game is to help identify features of the product being described

Product Box

Functional decomposition can be used by a BA to analyze which type of scope?

Product scope. A BA would use functional decomposition to help break down the product or solution scope. BABOK 6.4.6 and 10.22

Before any business analysis performance changes are implemented, who should be consulted to assess how they might impact the initiative?

Project Manager

Who uses the prioritization as input into the project plan and into the allocation of requirements to releases.

Project Manager

Who's involved in the change management process?

Project Manager

Concerned with reviewing requirements change assessments to determine if additional project work is required. What type of stakeholder is this?

Project Manager (Assess Req. Changes)

Which stakeholder needs access to those approved requirements from a risk perspective?

Project Manager *** Trick Answer= BA --> The Business Analyst is not specifically mentioned in the Stakeholder List for Approve Requirements.

"responsible for identifying and managing risks associated with solution design, development, delivery, implementation, operation and sustainment,"

Project Manager so they may need to have continued access to the approved requirements.

Uses prioritization a input for allocation of requirements to releases

Project Manger

If potential problems or opportunities for improvement are identified, WHO must be consulted before changes are implemented to assess whether those changes will have an impact on the project.?

Project manager

Planning stakeholder engagement, in normal circumstances, is a task carried out by the business analyst. This task may be shared with which other project team member?

Project manager Correct The PM and BA most likely share identification and management of stakeholders and so is the likely collaborator for this task. BABOK 3.2.7

a model to validate the design of a system without modeling the appearance, materials used in the creation of work, or processes/workflows ultimately used by the stakeholders Term

Proof of concept.

Which of the following is needed to assess a change to requirements?

Proposed change The proposed change is an input of Assess Requirements Changes.

Technique used to ensure stakeholders understand the requirements and provide input and feedback early in the design process,

Prototyping

Which of the following is NOT a technique that is used to analyze performance measures?

Prototyping

Which of the following techniques would best help in visually uncovering interface requirements quickly and early in the analysis process?

Prototyping

Technique assist stakeholders in visualizing the appearance and capabilities of a planned solution.

Prototyping This will help the stakeholders understand the complex requirements and provide feedback.

Thomas is the lead business analyst on a project that has complex requirements. To ensure stakeholders understand the requirements and provide input and feedback early in the design process, Thomas recommends to use which of the following techniques?

Prototyping. "To ensure stakeholders understand the requirements and provide input and feedback early in the design process, " = Strength of prototyping Prototypes assist stakeholders in visualizing the appearance and capabilities of a planned solution. This will help the stakeholders understand the complex requirements and provide feedback.

Technique used to ELICIT & VALIDATE stakeholder needs via iterative process that creates a model or design of requirements

Prototyping. ***Unlike Mindmapping, it 's not good for complex processes/ systems

How would a SWOT analysis be beneficial to the business case?

Provides side-by-side comparison of the various change strategies. It could be used to support a decision regarding a change strategy. BABOK 6.4.6 and 10.46

To ensure the accuracy and consistency of requirements throughout the requirements life cycle and to support the reuse of requirements. Task

Purpose of the Maintain Requirements task

To build a repository of requirements that will ensure requirements are aligned to one another and to manage the effects of change on them. Task?

Purpose of the Trace Requirements task. *The word repository is also a distracter meant to sound official.

Atomic, testable, consistent, feasible, complete, understandable What are these?

Quality Characteristics

Reduced defects as a result of using use cases on the project.

Quantitative and qualitative benefits apply to organizational vs. project benefits.

When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on understanding the need, the outputs are referred to as _________

REQUIREMENTS

The technique of interface analysis is best suited for?

Reaching agreements with stakeholders on how they will directly interact with the solution. This describes a user interface in which human users directly interact with the solution within the organization; therefore, interface analysis is best suited to this situation. BABOK 10.24.2.2

Eric is working on a major project with a looming deadline. The project will greatly benefit the bank he works for, especially if the team can finish it on time. In fact, Eric's whole team will receive a bonus if they can deliver before their deadline. Eric just discovered an important new feature that would significantly improve the solution, but would interfere with the projected deadline if the team included it now. What should Eric do?

Recommend a course of action and let the sponsor decide. Raising the issue and making a recommendation are good behavioral traits for a BA. And, making recommendations is a central tenet of business analysis. BABOK 9.2.1.1 and 9.2.1.2

Given the directive to add a new product line to the initiative, what should the BA do?

Recommend assessing the change to the scope. Correct Given there is no extension of the deadline and no additional resources available, the request represents "scope creep" and the best response is to recommend assessing the change. "The Assess Requirements Changes task is performed as new needs or possible solutions are identified. Assessment must be performed to determine whether a proposed change will increase the value of the solution, and if so, what action should be taken." BABOK 5.4.2 **Wha'ts overlooked? Defining how decisions will be made about requirements reviews, approvals, and prioritization.

A business analyst is conducting analysis to understand the factors that create differences between potential value and actual value of a solution, and to recommend a course of action to align them. What would the result of her efforts generate?

Recommended actions to increase solution value The "recommend actions to increase solution value" task focuses on understanding the factors that create the difference between potential value and actual value, and to recommend a course of action to align them. BABOK 8.5.1

You have completed the elicitation activity plan. You have prepared for and conducted a workshop to gather requirements. What is the typical next step that you would follow?

Record the results from the workshop so that they can be confirmed The BABOK actually uses the phrase "capture the elicitation outcomes." This is an element of conduct elicitation.

Which of the following are quantitative benefits that might be included in a business case?

Reduced inventory from having more accurate counts and through auto-replenishment. *This benefit can be measured financially, so is considered a quantitative benefit.

Provides opinions on the relationship between stated requirements and specific requirements. Which Stakeholder?

Regulator

Rocco is responsible for providing opinion on the relationship between stated requirements and specific laws, either formally in an audit, or informally as inputs to requirements life cycle management tasks. What type of stakeholder is Rocco?

Regulator

You are the business analyst on an effort and one of your stakeholders references the proposed changes to confirm compliance to standards. What type of stakeholder is this?

Regulator

She may be needed to provide approval for aspects of the business analysis approach, especially in organizations where the business analysis process is audited. She may also require that specific stakeholder representatives or groups be involved in the business analysis activities. What type of stakeholder is Paige?

Regulator ***When the BA process is audited, a regulator may need to provide approval for the aspects of the BA approach that are tailored. They may also require that certain stakeholders be involved in BA activities.

Verifies that the prioritization is consistent with legal and regulatory constraints.

Regulator,

Which of the following are included as primitive data elements in a data dictionary?

Relationships, alias, description, Name

Extent to which the data collection approach is stable and consistent across time and space. Validity is the

Reliability

A capability or condition needed on a particular project to solve a problem or achieve an objective. Term?

Requirement

Brett has completed a review workshop meeting with the accountable individuals and they have indicated their agreement with the requirements. Where would Brett record this agreement?

Requirement management tools

This tool records requirements approvals and will not help John assess alignment and completeness of requirements

Requirement management tools/repository

What are the outputs that you are looking to achieve by prioritizing requirements?

Requirements (Prioritized), Design (Prioritized)

Which of the following items should a BA have defined in order to prioritize requirements or assess changes to requirements?

Requirements (along with designs) are needed inputs to all of the tasks in the Requirements Life Cycle Management knowledge area. BABOK 5.3.3 and 5.4.3

Rebecca is structuring the requirements to ensure all requirements form a single whole that supports overall business objectives and produce meaningful outcome for the stakeholders. What are the 4 considerations for Rebecca?

Requirements Architecture = "structuring the requirements to ensure all requirements form a single whole"--> Which Task? Define Req. Architecture. Considerations= Elements 1. Requirements Viewpoints & Views 2. Template Architecture 3. Completeness 4. Relate & Verify Requirements Relationships.

A working session where invited participants review and discuss a set of requirements.

Requirements Review Process

process of assigning requirements to solution components and releases to best achieve the objectives and is a consideration in Define Design Options. B

Requirements allocation

Define design options is a task in which of the following knowledge areas?

Requirements analysis and design definition

He is starting to evaluate a requested change to a requirement for the initiative he is working on. What are the outputs of this process?

Requirements and designs change assessments outputs of Assess Requirements Changes.

Laura, a junior business analyst, has finished detailing a set of requirements using analytical techniques. She now wants to elicit, model, and analyze the design, but she is wondering what techniques she would use for this activity. What would you advise her?

Requirements and designs use the same techniques to specify and model. Clue: "set of requirements using analytical techniques. She now wants to elicit, model, and analyze the design, " The same techniques are used to elicit, model, and analyze both. "When the focus of the specifying and modelling activity is on understanding the need, the outputs are referred to as requirements. When the focus of the specifying and modelling activity is on a solution, the outputs are referred to as designs." Task 7.5, "Define Design Options," does not describe analyzing and modeling as does task 7.1, and will have different techniques. BABOK 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 c.

The focus of this guideline in the assess requirements changes task is the impact a proposed change will have on other requirements.

Requirements architecture

This guideline analyzes which requirements (vs. solution components) would be impacted by a requested change.

Requirements architecture **** Business Analyst ANALYZES requirements relationships to determine WHICH requirements will be IMPACTED

You now want to understand the requirements relationship with other requirements and work products for purposes of prioritization. Which guideline or tool would you utilize?

Requirements architecture For purposes of prioritization, requirements architecture will facilitate understanding of the relationship between requirements and work products.

An output describes the requirements and the interrelationships among them, as well as any contextual information that is recorded.

Requirements architecture.

requirements and the interrelationships among them, as well as any contextual information that is recorded.

Requirements architecture.

A model is a descriptive and visual way to convey information to a specific audience in order to support analysis, communication, and understanding. What would a business analyst typically model?

Requirements are modeled when the focus is on understanding the need. Designs are modeled when the focus is on a solution.

When does BA Define design options?

Requirements are validated and prioritized before the define design options task.

What allows teams to to be able to make trade-offs between requirements, identify stakeholders affected by potential changes, and understand the effect of a proposed change?

Requirements attributes (Exact Definition)

A business analyst wants to make trade-offs between requirements, identify stakeholders affected by potential changes, and understand the effect of a proposed change. Where would you advise the intern to look for this information?

Requirements attributes ** don't confuse with Traceability Traceability = tool for performing impact analysis on changing requirements, but not the impact on the change itself.

Which key area has a set of tasks that helps ensure that the right people are involved in developing, understanding, and approving the project requirements?

Requirements life cycle management

A requirement must be ________ to ensure that it remains valid over time.

Requirements must be maintained to ensure they remain correct and current.

The act of relating requirements to other requirements is called?

Requirements traceability Traceability and relationships are closely related terms. 'Tracing a requirement refers to the ability to look at a requirement and the others to which it is related

Collaborative meeting by a FEW project stakeholder to develop the requirements for a project

Requirements workshop **The number of participants is limited and participants are not anonymous

Inputs required to assess requirement changes

Requirements, designs, and proposed changes are inputs into Assess Requirements Changes

Monique is analyzing historical data to identify information relevant to her current project. Which type of elicitation is Monique utilizing?

Research Key: "TYPE OF ELICITATION" TRICK ANSWER = document analysis is a technique vs. an elicitation type (experiments, collaborative, or research). The scenario is describing research.

BABOK says, "Without clearly understood business needs, it is impossible to develop a coherent strategy, and the resulting change initiative is almost certain to be driven by a mix of conflicting stakeholder demands." How would this impact the initiative?

Resolving the conflict consists of mediation among stakeholders and involves several steps. We can imply that this mediation will take time, delay the effort, and run the risk of weakening the relationships among stakeholders.

What is another name for lessons learned?

Retrospective

ROI is a key component of any form of financial analysis contained within a business case. What does it stand for?

Return on investmen

Rhonda is a BA reviewing the issues that surfaced on a similar project to the one she is currently assigned to that was closed two years ago. What would be the value in reviewing past issues from similar projects?

Reviewing past issues could help identify risks for the current project. Manifested risks are issues. Typically, using the Lessons Learned technique to proactively manage risks to prevent issues costs less and delivers more value. BABOK 6.3.6

Technique used to evaluate the content of a work product.

Reviews

As business analyst for an initiative, you are evaluating the implications of proposed changes to requirements and designs. Which technique would you use to determine the level of risk associated with the changes?

Risk analysis and management Risk analysis and management identifies and analyzes risks associated with changes. BABOK 5.4.6

Technique that provides procedural checks and balances, as well as data security by restricting individuals from certain actions

Roles & Permission Matrix

Benita is the business analyst for her organization. Sam is a data analyst who asks to sit with Benita "for a minute" in the cafeteria to give her information he believes relevant to her project. Sam continues by describing seemingly complex data flows. Which of the following is the next logical step for Benita to take?

Schedule a workshop with relevant stakeholders to construct a data flow diagram. Since the information conveyed was complex in nature, it requires additional elicitation activities to thoroughly understand Sam's information. BABOK 4.0

Technique used to visually depict scope, as well as trace requirements to the area of scope the requirement supports.

Scope modeling

Reese wants to refine the use cases she's created in order for stakeholders to validate the logic for interactions between the objects in the scenario. Which of the following could she use?

Sequence diagram *Stakeholder list, map, or personas Incorrect This technique may help Reese determine which stakeholders should validate the logic contained within the sequence diagram but would not support her goal. BABOK 10.43

What kind of diagram is used in the specify and model requirements task to show how processes or objects interact during a scenario by showing the information passed between them?

Sequence diagram Clue: "how processes or objects interact during a scenario " Don't pick Process Diagram -->A process diagram or model describes the flow of activities in a process.

Rachel was just hired as a BA from an organization where she was instrumental in the identification and deployment of a particular Customer Relationship Management system and has a strong relationship with the vendor. The new organization is facing similar challenges as her previous employer and has asked her to accept the role of a BA on an initiative to address those challenges. She respectfully declined the role. Why is that?

She is concerned that her previous experience may result in a sub-optimal recommendation. **Bias of the author of a business case is a stated limitation of the tool in the BABOK.

How is the technique of stakeholder list, map, or persona used in the manage stakeholder collaboration task?

Shows the informal relationships between stakeholders. This information is critical for successful collaboration and is just a portion of the information the tool would provide. Also included is knowing who is available to participate in BA work, and help in understanding which stakeholders should be consulted about different kinds of business analysis information. BABOK 4.5.6

Pete is a BA who is planning an upcoming requirements workshop that will use brainstorming to identify potential solutions to the recent decline in employee morale. Pete has a lot of experience since he has worked in HR on similar projects for other companies as a consultant. He has several ideas he'd like the team to consider and would like to participate in the workshop. What is Pete's best course of action?

Since Pete could be considered a subject matter expert, the current company could benefit from his knowledge. He should recuse himself from the team and recruit another BA for the project since he can't serve as a neutral facilitator. **BABOK says is best: "The workshop is ideally facilitated by an experienced, neutral facilitator" and Pete is not neutral given his experience.

Sofia is a BA who has just helped a business owner define a business need relating to a new service that her company wants to offer. The company is expecting this new service to increase revenues, increase market share, and reduce customer complaints. She, along with key stakeholders, have generated alternative change strategies related to the new service and are completing business cases to support a recommendation. Sofia realizes that she has no idea of the potential business and technical ramifications or magnitude of the effort. She realizes she needs to step back and complete which task/element/technique next?

Sofia and her team need to analyze constraints, assumptions, and dependencies associated with their recommended solution. Clue: "no idea of the potential business and technical ramifications or magnitude of the effort." "just helped a business owner define a business need " "have generated alternative change strategies related to the new service and are completing business cases to support a recommendation"

Your company has just purchased a COTS package. You were selected as the business analyst for the project because of your existing expertise and the need to implement within an aggressive timeline. This is an example of what underlying competency?

Solution Knowledge.

You are a BA assessing both the solution and enterprise limitations that are prohibiting the end-users from experiencing the full value of the solution. You are lacking a description of the current state. What sort of assessment are you able to perform?

Solution Limitation

A way of expressing the results when measuring several solutions utilizing evaluation criteria

Solution Value ranking.

Raul has conducted the analysis required to document the current limitations of the solution including constraints and defects. What outcome is he looking to achieve by executing this action?

Solution limitation

You are a BA assessing both the solution and enterprise limitations that are prohibiting the end-users from experiencing the full value of the solution. You are lacking a description of the current state. What sort of assessment are you able to perform?

Solution limitations. NOT enterprise limitations

The business analyst is working with stakeholders and the project team to evaluate and rule out options not believed viable. What is the ultimate output that the business analyst is trying to produce?

Solution scope The solution scope identifies the new capabilities the change will deliver. Solution scope is also an element of the define change strategy task. BABOK Figure 6.4.1

Changes in key stakeholders have resulted in numerous change requests for baselined requirements. You are assessing the EFFECT the proposed changes would have on solution components. Which guideline are you employing?

Solution scope When assessing requirement changes, solution scope must be considered to fully understand the IMPACT of a proposed change Key word= SOLUTION & IMPACT of changes to requirements ***Governance approach provides guidance regarding the decision-making process but will not help to assess the EFFECT of proposed changes to solution components

Which document explains how the enterprise will create or acquire new capabilities?

Solution scope The solution scope defines the boundaries of the solution, and is described in enough detail to enable stakeholders to understand which new capabilities the change will deliver. BABOK 6.4.4.1

Changes in key stakeholders have resulted in numerous change requests for baselined requirements. You are assessing the effect the proposed changes would have on solution components. Which guideline are you employing?

Solution scope When assessing requirement changes, solution scope must be considered to fully understand the impact of a proposed change.

Task includes capturing information about attributes or metadata for requirements

Specify & Model Requirements

Non-functional requirements analysis is a stated technique for which of the following tasks in the Requirements Analysis and Design Definition knowledge area?

Specify and Model Requirements

Business analysts may choose to perform this task themselves and then separately package and communicate the requirements to stakeholders for their review and approval, or they might choose to invite some or all stakeholders to participate in this task." Which Task?

Specify and model requirement

Early identification and involvement of people, groups, or organizations that may impact or be impacted by a project is critical for the project success. Business analysts may choose to perform this task themselves and then separately package and communicate the requirements to the impacted/impacting people for review. Which task is this?

Specify and model requirement "Business analysts may choose to perform this task themselves and then separately package and communicate the requirements to stakeholders for their review and approval, or they might choose to invite some or all stakeholders to participate in this task." BABOK 7.1.7

The business analyst has finished an elicitation session and has confirmed the results. What would be a logical next task for the business analyst?

Specify and model requirements

You just created stakeholder and solution requirements. What task did you just finish?

Specify and model requirements

In order to validate requirements, you must first do what?

Specify and model requirements. *** Not Verify Requirements! Requirements (Specified & Modeled) are input to Validate Requirements task.

Gibson is accountable for the solution scope and can provide insight to be utilized when assessing the changes. What type of stakeholder is Gibson?

Sponsor

Responsible for reviewing and approving the business case, solution or product scope, and all requirements and designs

Sponsor

There are several roles involved in a successful workshop. Which of the following roles is NOT a mandatory participant?

Sponsor

Verifies that the prioritized requirements will deliver value from organizational perspective

Sponsor

Who may require reports on business analysis performance to address problems as they are identified?

Sponsor

The stakeholders on this initiative are having a difficult time coming to a consensus for one of the requirements, and hence there is a high probability that this requirement will change. He decides to give it a lower priority in order to minimize unanticipated rework and wasted effort. What ranking factor is Adam employing?

Stability This factor in the prioritization process has to do with the stability of the requirement. If it is deemed unstable, it is given a lower priority.

Requirements describe the needs of stakeholders that must be met in order to achieve the business requirements

Stakeholder Req.

Declan has just completed requirements analysis and design. A stakeholder who has not been involved in the requirements elicitation process appears and presents his concerns about the proposed solution. Which technique would have prevented this scenario?

Stakeholder maps, in particular onion diagrams, depict the relationship of stakeholders to the solution and to one another. In relating the solution to the stakeholders, Declan would have realized there was a missing stakeholder. BABOK 3.2.6 and 10.43.3.2

Which of the following is a common risk a business analyst must continually monitor in relationship to the elicitation and collaboration knowledge area?

Stakeholders may be diverted from the project to other work.

Which statements best describes a potential difficulty in prioritizing requirements?

Stakeholders may have difficulty in making any of their requirements a "nice to have."

Once the implementation team has provided the cost of each requirement, requirements are baselined and prioritization is complete.

Stakeholders may reprioritize yet again as a result of learning the costs. Requirements are baselined once they're detailed and approved vs. costed.

To help understand the requirements involving Orders as they interact with the Inventory, Accounting, Picking, and Shipping systems, which technique would help the business analyst during Requirements Analysis and Design Definition the most and why?

State Modeling to help understand the various states an Order goes through. *** The case study emphasizes the interaction among the various systems and the importance of Order "status" is mentioned. State Modeling is done to "specify the different states of a part of the solution throughout a life cycle. BABOK 7.1.6.

two-dimensional matrix showing states and the transitions between them. It can be used during elicitation and analysis either as an alternative, a precursor, or a complement to a state diagram

State Table

Two-dimensional matrix showing states and the transitions between them. It can be used during elicitation and analysis either as an alternative, a precursor, or a complement to a state diagram."

State table

Method of relative estimation on agile projects

Story Points

A key performance indicator (KPI) measures progress toward which of the following?

Strategic Goal

Of the six knowledge areas of the BABOK, which of the following support the delivery of business value before, during, and after the life cycle of a project?

Strategy analysis, Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (RADD) and Solution Evaluation).

Money and effort already committed to a initiative. Term?

Sunk Cost

Best means for eliciting information from numerous people, anonymously, in a relatively short period of time

Survey or questionnaire **Reviews can be used to followup on survey participants if answers are incomplete or the survey doesn't provide the depth of data obtained from individual interviews.

Susan is a business analyst developing a screen mock-up for a key stakeholder showing fields from a data model. Which of the following is true?

Susan is defining the design of some aspect of the solution based upon elicited requirements Screen mock-ups are considered design in one example in the BABOK. Design focuses on the solution. Susan is defining the design based upon elicited requirements, which the data model fields imply.

T/F: Adaptive approaches try to minimize the impact of changes by utilizing iterative and incremental implementation techniques

TRUE

T/F: Requirements and designs use the same techniques to specify and model.

TRUE

T/F: Although culture can hinder finding or articulating business need, the business need can still be found with or without a formal business analysis approach. BABOK 6.1.4.1

TRUE

T/F: As requirements are expressed in more detail, they become more tightly associated with a specific solution or solution option.

TRUE

T/F: Basing acceptance and evaluation criteria on value attributes ensures that they are valid and relevant to stakeholder needs and should be considered when accepting and evaluating the solution.

TRUE

T/F: Business analysts may design tools and instructions for performing the assessment as well as for recording and processing its results.

TRUE

T/F: Business rule changes can be implemented quickly if they are managed by a single enterprise-wide engine.

TRUE

T/F: Collaboration encourages the free flow of information and ideas.

TRUE

T/F: Collaboration involves regular, frequent, and bi-directional communication.

TRUE

T/F: If the measures are not sufficient to help stakeholder determine solution value, business analysts either collect more measurement or treat the lack of measures as solution risk

TRUE

T/F: One person's designs may be another person's requirements.

TRUE

T/F: Requirements and designs may be either high-level or very detailed based upon what is appropriate to those consuming the information.

TRUE

T/F: The main difference between requirements and designs is in how they are used and by whom.

TRUE

T/F: KPIs, metrics, and their reporting facilitate organizational alignment and allow stakeholders to understand the extent to which a solution meets an objective.

TRUE

T/F: Requirements prioritization determines the requirements relative importance to the stakeholder,

TRUE

T/F: "change always occurs in a context of existing stakeholders, processes, technology, and policies which constitute the current state of the enterprise. Business analysts need to examine the current state to understand what may influence proposed changes, and what will be affected by them."

TRUE

The business analyst discovers, synthesizes, and analyzes information from a variety of sources within an organization.

TRUE

The financial analysis and value assessment includes an estimate of the costs to implement and operate the alternative, as well as a quantified financial benefit from implementing the alternative.

TRUE

T/F: Priority can refer to the relative value of a requirement, or to the sequence in which it will be implemented.

TRUE **Priority can be relative to the stakeholders engaging in the activity.

T/F: Adaptive approaches try to minimize the impact of changes by utilizing iterative and incremental implementation techniques.

TRUE Adaptive approaches welcome change by allowing the requirements list to be modified at will outside the boundaries of an iteration/sprint

T/F: Even when it is not possible to know all that will occur as a result of a particular change strategy, it is still possible to estimate the impact of unknown or uncertain events or conditions occurring.

TRUE!!!

T/F: The knowledge areas support the delivery of business value before, during, and after the life cycle of a project.

TRUE!!!

T/F: Many proposed changes may be withdrawn from consideration or declined before any formal approval is required.

TRUE: Stakeholders may change their mind about their change request and withdraw it from the process.

the objective to be reached within a specified period.

Target metrics.

Discrete piece of work that may be performed formally or informally as a part of business analysis.

Task

Assessing each design option based on the potential value it is expected to deliver and ensuring that it represents the most effective trade-offs. Task?

Task "Analyze PV & Recommend Solution "

Defining Solution Approach TAsk?

Task "Define Design Options"

Susan thinks she is done with her requirements analysis on a project. Her project manager sent her a terse email telling her she is not done yet. He also sent her the business objectives and potential value for the project, and asked her to complete one more important task to ensure the requirements support the business case. What activity does Susan need to complete?

Task Validate Requirements 2 clues: "ensure the requirements support the business case." = Definition for Validate Requirements "He also sent her the business objectives and potential value for the project," These are GUIDELINES to which task? Validate Requirement

Assess potential vendors. Task?

Task: DEFINE DESIGN OPTIONS This was done during the identification of the design options. BABOK 7.5.4.1

Temporary or permanent repositories that are illustrated in the data flow diagram is called what?

Terminators / Data Flow Diagrams

What stakeholder is responsible for determining how to verify that the solution meets the requirements?

Tester

Who is concerned with understanding how and where requirements are implemented when creating test plans and test cases, and may trace test cases to requirements?

Tester

Consulted to establish the impact of the proposed changes. What type of stakeholder is this?

Tester (Assess Req. Changes)

Glenn is on a project team that has finalized requirements and designs. As of late, several change requests have been received regarding the designs. Glenn is consulted for establishing impact of proposed changes. What type of stakeholder is Glenn

Tester This scenario is describing the assess requirements changes task. Testers are consulted for establishing impact of proposed changes in this task. BABOK 5.4.7

Which of the following represents why testers would require maintained requirements?

Testers use maintained requirements to aid in test plan and test case creation.

To clearly describe the requirements in an active voice. Term?

Text Model

What are the possible forms that a business analysis (information) package could include?

Text, matrices, diagrams, and presentations

T/F: It's acceptable to assign an item to a team or group during item tracking

The BABOK lists an "owner" as an attribute of the item record and describes the owner as "the stakeholder assigned to manage the item to closure." An individual stakeholder vs. a team or group should be assigned thereby ensuring clear accountability. BABOK 10.26.3.1

Heidi is hearing a fair amount of grumbling from end-users about the solution. Heidi recommends delaying the deployment of the system until she can perform an enterprise culture assessment. The sponsor initially rejects that recommendation. What rationale might convince the sponsor to delay deployment?

The assessment will help the sponsor understand how various stakeholder groups will be impacted so that needs can be proactively addressed, thus paving the way to faster acceptance of the solution. Incorrect

Which assessments requirement Current State description?

The current state description is needed to assess value from the enterprise perspective. BABOK 8.4.3 **Current State description is the guideline

Grant has just completed defining a governance process when a stakeholder who has been declining meeting invitations to define the process voiced some concerns to the sponsor regarding the team's decisions. The raised concerns have resulted in more issues and the stakeholders cannot come to a consensus. What consideration would help resolve this deadlock?

The decision-making process when used in the plan business analysis governance task defines what happens when teams cannot reach consensus by identifying escalation paths and key stakeholders who hold decision-making authority. BABOK 3.3.4.1

The performance report for an in-house developed solution has shown for the past year that the application is outperforming its targets in every category. The defined KPIs set the performance bar pretty high. What's the likely cause for "over" performance?

The developers exceeded the performance expectations defined in the requirements and acceptance criteria. This is also known as "gold plating." Although not BABOK-specific; it reflects more general knowledge but is a scenario a BA may face when assessing a solution.

It's time to administer the annual employee satisfaction survey. Last year less than 12% of the co-located employees returned the online survey. Gene recommended discontinuing the survey given the low response rate but the governance team elected to give it another try.

The employees do not see the value in completing the survey.

Subsequent to investigating reasons for a solution's poor performance, you come to the conclusion that the solution is actually delivering an acceptable amount of value to stakeholders. How could that happen?

The initial solution measures don't accurately reflect delivered value.

The new requirements were not within the original scope and may increase budget, time, and/or resources., what are the 2 solution options?

The issue must be resolved with the scope change approved or the requirements removed.

Jake is writing a business case and has quantified the financial benefits of alternative solutions as a means of assessing which solution will be presented as the overall recommendation. A stakeholder has reminded him to include a value assessment in addition to the benefits. Unfamiliar with the term, Jake asked for an example. Which of the following best describes a value assessment?

The organization will be better positioned to absorb future changes. Clue: "writing a business case and has quantified the financial benefits " ---> Potential Value of the future State = Net benefits minus operating costs This is a qualitative or "value" estimate, meaning it is important to consider and will add significant value to the organization. But, is difficult to quantify. BABOK 6.2.4.11

Jasmine has gained consensus on the business requirements for a new initiative. What did those business requirements include?

The problem, opportunity, or constraint that has been defined through analyzing the current state. **The BABOK does not list high level desired business outcomes Or Assumptions as part of business requirements.

What must happen to enable requirements re-use?

The requirements must be identified, clearly named, and defined & stored in a manner that makes them easily retrievable by other stakeholders. **Requirements have to be validated, but not verified. *** Requirements do not have to be baselined to be made re-usable

Why should scope be included in the business case?

The scope should be included in the business case, which is the correct answer as it would contain the forecasted costs and benefits of the proposed solution.

Best practice frameworks cited the BRM role as a sure- fire way to ensure customer satisfaction. Chris implemented the role by the book by sending six new BRMs through a 4-week training course and requiring them to pass a rigorous exam to obtain BRM certification. The scores are in and customer satisfaction scores are essentially the same as they were prior to the BRM role.

The solution might be high performing, but contributes lower value than expected. The BRMs have all gained certification so presumably are high performing, but all customer satisfaction scores have stayed essentially the same. An assumption may be made in that the problem is that the software is not delivering value, not the BRMs efforts. Clues: 1. Best practice was referenced to hint the actual potential value expected and that the test was legitimately structured. 2. No change in score.

What characteristic of a quality requirement is missing in this requirement: "The call center operator shall be able to view details of a protected household"?

The stated requirement is incomplete in the sense that it lacks a qualifier. A complete requirement would state "The call center operator shall be able to view details of a protected household within two seconds of issuing a query."

BABOK Techniques 10.15, Fig. 10.15.1 discusses data relationships and how to read them. The cardinality of this answer is correct.

The status of each item is updated along the way in a variety of systems, including the Order, Inventory, Accounting, Picking, and Shipping systems. When a customer inquires about the status of an order online, they have to enter the item number and then the system checks the status of each item on the order in each of the systems where it is stored. Once found, the system displays the status of the item. When the customer calls about the status of a particular item, they have to check each system individually. Not all customers know the item number, so they have to search the system's catalog to find the item number. There is a one-to-many relationship between orders and items on an order. That is, each order has to contain at least one item, but each item is contained on one and only one order.

What is the difference between the roles of a tester and the BA regarding the evaluation of solutions?

The tester is typically responsible for identifying solution problems during a change vs. assessing an existing solution outside of a change.

A relationship-oriented organization with several physical sites installed a system which includes a feature allowing users to share their screens and call each other through their computers. While assessing the solution, you notice users are still traveling to have face-to-face meetings with each other instead of utilizing the feature. You find they didn't even know about it! What happened?

The transition requirement around training was missed or poorly executed.

A relationship-oriented organization with several physical sites installed a system which includes a feature allowing users to share their screens and call each other through their computers. While assessing the solution, you notice users are still traveling to have face-to-face meetings with each other instead of utilizing the feature. You find they didn't even know about it! What most likely happened? Next Step?

The transition requirement around training was missed or poorly executed. Next Step: d. Immediately ask permission to show the user how to use the feature knowing they'll spread the word! Add training to your official recommendation.

How are value assessments validated?

The value assessment is part of a business case and "value estimates are related back to strategic goals and objectives." BABOK 10.7.3.3

Appropriate choice of words. is an effectiveness measure for which communication competency?

This is a measure of written communication skills.

Identifying what would make the future state acceptable and then assessing the potential value offered by vendors in relationship to that criteria.

This is another way of saying "acceptance and evaluation criteria" and "vendor assessment"; both of which would've been valuable techniques.

Proves that a solution is a cohesive whole that will work. Traceability proves that every requirement links back to an objective and shows how an objective was met, but does not prove the solution is a cohesive whole that will work.

This is describing requirements architecture.

The system shall read the tracking database and feed the bond prices to the web database using XML. Example of poorly written functional requirement

This is not properly written because it names technologies and constrains the solution design. 3 Examples of Good ones: Bond prices will be viewable and sort able by maturity date, length of security, yield, and rating. The system shall provide a maintenance function for correcting any missing data. The system shall display bond prices using 3 decimal places instead of fractions.

An examination and resolution of the requirement relationships to determine which requirements will be impacted by a requested requirements change Term?

This is the definition for Requirements Architecture, with a distracter of "resolution" substituting for "analysis.

It shows where data comes from, which activities process the data, and if the output results are stored or utilized by another activity or external entity.

This is the definition of a data flow diagram; thus, it is too general. Context diagrams are level 1 of the data flow diagram. In addition, context diagrams do not show where outputs are stored.

It means to retain requirement accuracy and consistency throughout and beyond the change during the entire requirements life cycle, and to support reuse of requirements in other solutions. Term?

This is the definition of maintaining requirements.

It means to document and maintain the requirement in accordance with the methods identified by the business analysis approach.

This is the definition of traceability repository.

Influencer & Decision maker responsibility of which stakeholders?

This is the executive team's responsibility.

T/F: The business analysis deliverables are compared against the set of defined measures.

This is true. The analysis may be performed on the business analysis process, resources involved, and the deliverables. BABOK 3.5.4.3

The business analysis process is compared against the set of defined measures.

This is true. The analysis may be performed on the business analysis process, resources involved, and the deliverables. BABOK 3.5.4.3

Task specifying and modeling requirements include 3 activities

This task can result in requirements or design. This task includes capturing information about metadata. This task includes capturing information about attributes.

Sam is using paraphrasing as a means of confirming elicitation results. How can paraphrasing can be achieved?

Through active listening Correct Active listening incudes summarizing and repeating what was stated in different terms in order to ensure that both the listener and speaker have a common understanding - which is the description of paraphrasing. BABOK 9.4.4.2

In many cases, stakeholders have different, conflicting needs and expectations. How would a business analyst help expose these differences and ensure their needs are met?

Through validation The validation process can expose the different, conflicting needs and expectations of stakeholders. Remember that most of the tasks in the BABOK are not sequential, but are iterative and concurrent in nature

Business analysis performance assessments help identify opportunities for future improvement. For maximum benefit, when should performance analysis occur?

Throughout the initiative

when should performance analysis occur?

Throughout the life cycle of an initiative

Why is it important to review lessons learned?

To compile and document successes, opportunities for improvement, failures, and recommendations for improving the performance of future projects.

BA recommended using a matrix for their requirements modeling format. What is the purpose of this type of format?

To convey a set of requirements that have a complex but uniform structure that can be broken down.

Ensuring all requirements work in harmony as a single whole that supports overall business objectives and produces meaningful outcome for the stakeholders. What is the purpose of this exercise?

To define requirements architecture

What is the role of the scribe in workshops?

To document the decisions in the format determined prior to the workshop and keep track of any items or issues that are deferred during the session.

You have been asked to confirm your results after a requirements workshop. Why is that important?

To ensure the requirements are accurate and consistent with other information.

What is the purpose of assessing requirement changes?

To evaluate the implication of proposed changes to requirements and designs

Purpose of assessing requirements changes.

To evaluate the implications of proposed changes to requirements and designs.

purpose of assessing requirements changes.

To evaluate the implications of proposed changes to requirements and designs.

What is the purpose of estimation in determining the potential value for each design option?

To forecast the costs and efforts of meeting the requirements.

Why is the future state described in terms of goals & objectives?

To guide the development of the change strategy and identify the potential value.

Primary reason why key dependencies should be identified and recorded?

To help achieve efficiency by implementing related requirements at the same time.

What the purpose of benchmarking and market analysis?

To improve organizational operations, increase customer satisfaction, and increase value to stakeholders.

What is the purpose of conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis?

To plan, establish, and maintain an effective working relationship with the stakeholders.

When defining a change strategy, how is a business capability analysis used?

To prioritize capability gaps in relation to value and risk. A business capability analysis is a technique used in the define change strategy task.

What is the purpose of prioritizing requirements?

To rank requirements in the order of relative importance. Prioritization is a critical exercise that seeks to ensure the maximum value is achieved. BABOK 5.3.1 and 5.3.2

The CIO golfs with another project management vendor and has learned of a new system that sounds awesome! David has been assigned as the BA to assess the new solution based on stakeholder needs. What might be his recommendation?

To review and compare the two systems to objectively make a decision regarding replacement based upon stakeholders' perception of value of the various features and functions of each system. **Given the CIO wants you to assess the new solution, as a BA, you should find out what the features and functions are in the new system and then determine if the existing system provides similar features and functions. You will also want to find out which features and functions the stakeholders' value, then make a recommendation as to the best solution to meet their needs. BABOK 8.5.4.2

What is the purpose of creating user stories when specifying requirements?

To specify requirements as a brief statement about what people do or need to do when using the solution. ****User stories can be used by business analysts for generating user acceptance test,

Why is it important for a business analyst to understand roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders within the organization?

To understand how the stakeholders will contribute to the initiative. "Understanding roles and responsibilities of stakeholders will help the BA understand how stakeholders will contribute to the initiative. "

Why is it important for a BA to identify and understand stakeholders' attitudes towards the project?

To understand stakeholder needs and specifically plan how to collaborate and engage with the stakeholders **A power/interest grid is not covered in the BABOK. **Roles and responsibilities are more helpful in knowing how stakeholders will contribute to the initiative.

What are common non-functional requirement categories?

Total 11: Reliability, compatibility, scalability, localization

Christine received a number of inquiries from the call center about issues with the automated Daily Sales by Region reports. Although no new automation accompanied the change in process, she was asked to look into the issue. Christine's analysis showed that one of the sales assistants was inputting incorrect information into the system. What should Christine do next?

Track the identified problem to be sure it is resolved. Correct Christine needs to determine why incorrect information is being entered. However, before analyzing the cause, Christine needs to track the problem (item tracking) and determine the best way to resolve it. BABOK 8.3.6 and 10.26

Which of the following best identifies the method and life cycle by which a solution may be delivered?

Transition states and release planning Transition states and release planning is an element in the define change strategy task that speaks to the method and life cycle by which the solution could be delivered. BABOK 6.4.4.5

T/F: Approvals can also be verbal and don't have to be in writing. Business analysts are responsible for ensuring that only stakeholders with approval authority understand and accept the requirements.

True

T/F: Business analysts ensure that the definition of all value attributes are agreed upon by all stakeholders.

True

T/F: The Business analyst works closely with authorized stakeholders to maintain an understanding, agreement, and approval of requirements and designs.

True

T/F: Approvals can also be verbal and don't have to be in writing.

True

T/F: Prioritization is an ongoing process, with priorities changing as the context changes.

True Prioritization is a dynamic process. BABOK 5.3.2

T/F: One person's designs may be another person's requirements.One person's designs may be another person's requirements.

True!!!

T/F: The business analyst plays a role in aligning the delivered solutions with stakeholder needs.

True@ "The business analyst is responsible for eliciting the actual needs of stakeholders—which frequently involves investigating and clarifying their expressed desires—in order to determine underlying issues and causes."

Screen mock-up

Type of Design showing specific data fields. Screen mock-ups are considered design in one example in the BABOK. Design focuses on the solution. Susan is defining the design based upon elicited requirements, which the data model fields imply.

Sangreeta has been charged with writing the business case to obtain funding for this exciting new venture. She has all the information she needs about the limitations of the current technology and the angst it causes customers who desire a longer battery life. She wants to ensure that she fully understands this opportunity. In order to do so, what might be her course of action?

Understand the size of the market, and gain competitive intelligence to hopefully understand potential price points for the battery. This scenario is an example of customer complaints triggering a business need. ** Since this is a new product, Sangreeta is going to need to quantify benefits for a business case. To do this, she'll need to do market analysis to comprehensively and realistically understand the market opportunity. BABOK 10.4.3.2

What would be required for a business analyst to align the designed and delivered solutions to the needs to the stakeholders?

Understanding enterprise problems and goals, analyzing needs and solutions, devising strategies, driving change, and facilitating stakeholder collaboration

BA wants to review of how dairy production is done in both companies because there are different regulations for different countries, where the food is distributed. Placido's boss told him not to worry about what is happening today and to prioritize integrating the software of both companies. How should Placido answer?

Understanding how both companies handle these processes before integrating the systems. will ensure compliance with regulations after the integration takes place **One of the strengths of Process Modeling is that it provides documentation for compliance purposes.

Complaints increasing from end-users. She obtained how the original stakeholders defined acceptable performance. Those criteria didn't seem to be the cause of the complaints. Among other things, stakeholders weren't happy with the overall maintainability of the solution. What else could assist Kay in her analysis?

Understanding how the original stakeholders defined the expected characteristics of the solution. This is the definition for the non-functional requirements analysis technique. The availability, capacity, maintainability, speed, etc. of the solution. BABOK 8.1.6

Successful interviewing depends on all of the following general factors:

Understanding programming technology is not required by the BA. BABOK 10.25.2 c. BA's level of understanding the business, BA's interviewing skill, interviewee's readiness to provide information, interviewee's clarity regarding the goal of the interview, BA and interviewee rapport. Correct These are the factors the BABOK lists for interviewing success. BABOK 10.25.2

one of the considerations business analysts use to assess the impact of a proposed change but refers to the level of importance including the factors which drive necessity such as regulator or safety issues.

Urgency

Business analysts trace, prioritize, and maintain requirements to ensure that the need is met.

"Need" core concept for the knowledge area of requirements life cycle management.

This technique would be useful to model the requirements for accomplishing the save-and-resume function,

Use Case Descriptions

Robert is struggling to find the best way to model requirements on his project. In particular, the business wants to allow mortgage applicants the ability to save their application and resume in the future if they cannot complete the application in one sitting. Which technique would Robert employ to define the accomplishment of this specific goal?

Use Case Descriptions would be useful to model the requirements for accomplishing the save-and-resume function, the specific goal described. Clues: "best way to model requirements" "allow mortgage applicants the ability to save their application and resume in the future" **Process models might help with the larger business process, not the particular goal of saving and resuming a mortgage

Technique that visually depicts the scope of the solution by showing the actors who interact with the solution, the use cases they interact with and any relationships between the use cases.

Use Case Diagram

Identifies a solution component that may be available for reuse

Use Cases & Scenario

used to identify a SOLUTION component that may be utilized by more than one solution.

Use Cases and Scenarios: ***UseR Stories: used to identify REQUIREMENTS associated with the story that may be available for reuse. useR =R= Requirements

Associations and extensions are terms related which technique?

Use case diagrams.

Documenting a requirement that describes a customer's interaction with a proposed system to accomplish a goal is best associated with which of the following techniques?

Use case.

Technique Identifies a solution component that may be available for reuse;

Use cases and scenarios

Technique used to identify a solution component that may be used in multiple solutions.

Use cases and scenarios

Technique that would help Leah understand the customer experience?

Use cases and scenarios. Correct Creating use cases and scenarios would help her understand the expectations the user had about their interaction with the website.

2 Examples of models in the Data & Information Category

1. Activity Flow Diagram 2. Data Modeling

3 reasons why an activity diagram may be utilized?.

1. An activity diagram can elaborate on a single use case. 2. An activity diagram is effective at showing how to handle a large number of scenarios and parallel branches. 3. An activity diagram utilizes business process model and notation (BPMN) so it can distinguish the activities of different participants in a process with either pools or swim lanes.

Business Analysis information is decomposed into components to examine for 5 factors

1. Anything that must change to meet the business need 2. Anything that should stay same to meet business need 3. Missing components 4. Unnecessary components 5. Constraints & Assumptions that impact the components

Two methods of identifying influencers in organizational modeling?

1. Ask Stakeholders 2. Note who speaks for the group in meetings

Components of a class in a class diagram

1. Attributes 2. Relationships (Has relationships with other classes) 3. Operations (tells what can be done with the class)

Joseph is assessing each design option based on the potential value it is expected to deliver and ensuring that it represents the most effective trade-offs. What are the 7 factors to consider in this activity?

1. Available resources 2. Constraints on solution 3. Dependencies between solution 4. Relationships with proposed vendors 5. Dependencies on other initiatives 6. Corporate Culture 7. Sufficient Cash Flow Investment "CARD CDS" Task "Analyze PV & Recommend Solution "

When conducting a thorough stakeholder analysis, what resources may be required to be successful?

1. BA Performance Assessment 2. Change Strategy 3. Current state description (All elements of the task)

Role of the BA during Transition & Release Planning

1. BA assists in the planning and timing fo the implementation to cause minimal disruption to business activities. 2. Facilitates release planning decision to aid stakeholders in reaching decisions.

A viewpoint is a set of conventions that define how requirements will be represented, how these representations will be organized, and how they will be related. What are 5 examples of a viewpoint?

1. Business Process Models 2. Data Models & Information 3. User Interactions (Use cases & user experiences) 4. Audit & Security 5. Business Models

In a unknown project with much uncertainty, what technique can a BA use to assess risks?

1. Business analysts consider other historical contexts from similar situations to assess risks. 2. Lessons learned from past changes and expert judgment from stakeholders assist business analysts in guiding the team in deciding the impact and likelihood of risks for the current change.

How do business analysts use requirements architecture.? (3 ways)

1. Business analysts use requirements architecture to ensure the requirements work together to achieve the overall objectives. 2. Business analysts use requirements architecture to make trade-off decisions about requirements while considering the overall objectives. 3. Business analysts use a requirements architecture to understand which models are appropriate for the domain, solution scope, and audience.

3 Key point on Collaboration

1. Collaboration involves regular, frequent, and bi-directional communication. 2. Collaboration promotes a shared effort to resolve problems. 3. Collaboration encourages the free flow of information and ideas.

3 key tasks in the Assessing Solution performance measures

1. Create key performance indicators. 2. Determine if the measures are qualitative or quantitative. 3. Determine if the solution aligns with the goals and objectives.

Requirements may be related to each other in several ways when defining the requirements architecture. BAs examine each of these relationships to ensure they satisfy quality criteria. What are the 5 QUALITY CRITERIA?

1. DEFINED 2. NECESSARY 3. CORRECT 4. UNAMBIGUOUS 5. CONSISTENT

9 techniques help you understand the context and need for the enhancement?

1. Data-mining 2. Root Cause 3. Benchmarking 4. Business Model Canvass 5. SWOT 6. Workshops 7. Scope Modeling 8. Item Tracking 9. Risk Analysis

3 functions of Business Need

1. Defines the need. 2. Determines the desired outcomes. 3. Assesses constraints, assumptions, and risks.

How is the technique of stakeholder list, map, or persona used in the prepare for elicitation technique? (2 ways)

1. Determines who should be consulted while preparing for elicitation. 2. Determines the appropriate roles for each stakeholder.

The organization is undergoing restructuring and introducing changes to the business analysis approach. As part of the structural changes, Brad has been asked to assess each proposed change. In this activity, which of the following is 3 likely to be a consideration?

1. Each proposed change aligns with the overall strategy. 2. Each proposed change affects value delivered to the business or stakeholder groups. 3. Each proposed change impacts the time to deliver or the resources required to deliver the value.

She wants to create an external stakeholder list. What would be a good starting point?

1. Existing contracts in place 2. Anticipated Vendors 3. Regulatory & Governing Body

Element in Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution task?

1. Expected benefits 2. Expected Costs 3. Determine Value 4. Assess Design Options & Recommend Solution

You have been assigned to specify requirements as a brief statement about what people do or need to do when using the solution. What are criteria for your activity?

1. High-level information that is informal. 2. Typically a sentence or two that describes who has the need and the goal they are trying to achieve. 3. A short description of the solution capability that provides value to the stakeholder.

What 6 capabilities are analyzed in Gap Analysis?

1. Knowledge & skills 2. Functions & Processes 3. Facilities, Organizational Structure 4. Lines of burins 5. Staffing competencies 6. Training ***Business rules are a part of the solution scope, but the BABOK does not list them as a capability category within a gap analysis.

What are some of the factors a business analyst would consider to establish the level of decomposition and the level of detail to be specified while conducting information decomposition. ?

1. Knowledge and understanding of the stakeholders. 2. Contractual or regulatory obligations. 3. Organizational standard 4. Potential for misunderstanding or miscommunication.

Which are the 3 guideline and tool for traceability?

1. Level of Formality 2. Relationships 3. Traceability Repository

3 considerations in the trace requirements task?

1. Level of Formality 2. Traceability Repository 3. Relationships

A variety of decision analysis approaches are available. What are the 4 determinants of the appropriate approach to apply?

1. Level of Uncertainty 2. Quality of Information 3. Available Evaluation Criteria 4. Risk

Which are the component of the risk analysis and management technique?

1. Likelihood of occurrence 2. Impact of risk 3. Risk response plan

Factors considered during Transition & release Planning

1. Overall Budget 2. Deadlines/ Time constraints 3. Training schedules 4. Ability of the business to absorb changes

3 Examples of financial measures use in balanced scorecard

1. Profitability 2. Revenue growth 3. Added economic value

Troy is designing a web form for his online registration project. In order to allow stakeholders to provide input and feedback early, he decides to provide them with a prototype. Which 3 factors would be a consideration for him?

1. Prototyping approach ((e.g., throw-away or evolutionary). 2. He needs to determine which form of prototype would best serve the situation (e.g., proof of concept, visual, functional, etc.) 3. Prototyping methods. (e.g., storyboarding, paper, simulation, etc.).

What the listed strengths of developing a Roles and Permission Matrix?

1. Provides procedural checks and balances, as well as data security, by restricting individuals from performing certain actions. 2.

Your organization has announced an initiative to streamline accounts payable processes in all its divisions. You are a business analyst assigned to analyze current business processes and recommend one process for all divisions. Which of the samples of what you should likely to do?

1. Recommend a new process to increase consistency of behavior. (Id additional capabilities) 2. Improve access to information. 3. Map the current processes in all the divisions and eliminate redundancy. "assigned to analyze current business processes and recommend one process for all divisions." This describes the element "ID Improvement Opportunities" in task " Define Design Options"

Three types of information that's easy to find using organizational modeling?

1. Roles & people 2. Accountability and control between units (Lines of Reporting) 3. People, teams, departments, or divisions (organizational units)

Key points on Desired Outcomes

1. Should include measurable outcomes to determine the success o the business case / Solution 2. Independent of the recommended solution.

What are the 3 common risks a business analyst must continually monitor in relationship to the elicitation and collaboration knowledge area?

1. Stakeholders may be diverted from the project to other work. 2. Delayed Approvals 3. Elicitation activities not providing the quality of BA information required

Deepak is a BA on a project that is already over budget and time constrained. In light of this, he decides to collect information from a group of people using the survey technique. The following are some of the reasons he would choose this technique. Which are the strengths of the reasons?

1. Survey technique is good for both quantitative and qualitative analysis 2. Quick and relatively inexpensive to administer. 3. Does not typically require significant time from the respondents. 4. Easier to collect information from a larger audience than other techniques such as interviews.

How can a BA gain understanding of the potential value associated with the solution?

1. Synthesize & interpret solution performance measures to derive meaning and to be actionable. 2. Performance measures themselves rarely trigger a decision about the value of a solution. 3. Gain thorough understanding of the stakeholder's desired potential value for the solution. 4. To assist in the analysis, variables such as the goals and objectives of the enterprise, key performance indicators (KPIs), the level of risk of the solution, the risk tolerance of both stakeholders and the enterprise, and other stated targets are considered."

3 key Facts about Tasks

1. Task DOES NOT changes according to the initiative type. 2. The performance of a task should create value. 3. The definition of a given task is universally applicable to business analysis efforts, independent of the initiative type.

What makes performance measures accurate?

1. The accuracy of performance measures is essential to the validity of their analysis. 2. Business analysts test and analyze the data collected by the performance measures to ensure their accuracy. 3. To be considered accurate and reliable, the results of performance measures should be reproducible and repeatable.

What is the purpose of considering organizational culture while performing strategy analysis tasks? (3)

1. To identify if cultural changes are required to achieve future goals. 2. To identify whether stakeholders understand the rationale for the current state of the enterprise and the value delivered by it, 3. To ascertain whether the stakeholders view the current state as satisfactory or if change is needed.

Bi-directional definition of traceability. I

1. Traceability detects missing functionality or to identify if there is implemented functionality. 2. Traceability assists in managing changes to the requirements that will occur after the requirements are baselined. "Traceability is used to help ensure that the solution conforms to requirements and to assist in scope, change, risk, time, cost, and communication management

BA Performance Assessment contains 4 items?

1. Variances 2. Root Causes 4. Approaches 4. Planned Vs. Actual

5 Functions of Stakeholders in Prioritizing Requirements

1. Verify that the prioritized requirements will deliver value; 2. Facilitates negotiations to have the prioritization changed based on relative value; provides input relating to technical dependencies; 3. Verifies that the prioritization is consistent with legal constraints 4. Negotiate to have prioritization changed based on technical constraints 5. Uses prioritization a input for allocation of requirements to releases or input for project plan

Element "Unknowns" in Task Assess Risks (SA)

1. When assessing a risk, there will be uncertainty in probability & impact of the risk. 2. Risks are assessed based on current understanding, expert judgement, and lessons learned.

The COO believes that manufacturing lines downtime can be decreased by 50% per year, the organization could produce $7M more product annually. Kate needs to assess the current processes related to downtime. Where should Kate first focus her efforts?

1st step = Kate should first determine what existing performance measures exist and if they're accurate. 2nd Step= Kate might want to elicit additional ideas for performance measures from stakeholders.

Given the number of hours needed for the last upgrade, approximately how many hours of business analysis activities do you estimate the latest upgrade will take?

2,500 Correct 1) If the last upgrade took 10,000 hours and involved 11 modules, then a relevant parameter can be assumed to be approximately 900 hours per module. 2) With 14 modules in the new upgrade, then 14 * 900 = 12,600. 3) 12,600 hours * 20% for BA activities = 2500 hours. BABOK 10.19.3.1

To evaluate the BA approach, each of the four sections needs to be reviewed. If done separately, each section would require two hours of review time. Russ, the project sponsor, is advocating for one rigorous review prior to the product's release as everyone is busy and unable to find common times for multiple reviews. He maintains the review could be done in six hours if it was all done at one time. If Russ is correct, what percentage of time would be saved?

25% Eight hours (2 * 4) if reviewed separately minus six hours if reviewed together = 2 hours saved. Two hours saved out of the eight: 2/8 = .25

During a workshop, participants are constructing a container for the product as if it was being sold in a retail store. They are being asked to identify what future users of the product would find beneficial. n the above scenario, what is the purpose of the game?

Used to help identify features of the product being described Product Box = "constructing a container for the product as if it was being sold in a retail store. They are being asked to identify what future users of the product would find beneficial."

A short description of the solution capability that provides value to the stakeholder. It's high-level and informal

User Story

Technique show "which user roles have permission to access specific information entities" and "...can be used to show which processes, instead of users, have the create, read, update and delete rights."

A CRUD Matrix would not be suitable because those matrices show "which user roles have permission to access specific information entities" and "...can be used to show which processes, instead of users, have the create, read, update and delete rights."

What is typically used to display tasks that are in the pipeline, in progress, or completed within an iteration/sprint?

A Kanban board

You have been instructed to compare your organizational practices against the best-in-class practices at other companies. What do you need to perform?

A benchmark study Clue: compare your organizational practices against the best-in-class

Technique that documents features and stakeholder objectives at a high, narrative level.

User Story

Technique used "to define features of value to a stakeholder using short, simple documentation. They can serve as a basis for identifying needs and allow for the prioritizing, estimating, and planning of solutions."

User Story

Which technique is likely to have the LEAST amount of detail regarding requirements?

User Story User stories contain a short, concise statement of functionality. This brevity helps promote additional conversations between stakeholders to ensure understanding of the needed functionality. BABOK 10.48.2

The BABOK defines User Story Conversation as "The story itself doesn't capture everything there is to know about the stakeholder need and the information in the story is supplemented by further modelling as the story is delivered." Term?

User Story Conversation

most common model for helping build relational databases

A logical or physical entity-relationship diagram

Technique used to identify requirements related to the stories that can be reused,

User stories

Kate is studying an enterprise's current key metrics and performance indicators, IT systems, organization charts, business architecture, and policies. What sort of initiative is Kate most likely working on?

A process improvement initiative. Correct The listed inputs are needed for a process-centric view of an organization which is necessary for process improvements. BABOK 6.1.4.3

Genevieve and her team of business analysts are in the process of ensuring that all requirements align to the business need and that the design satisfies the requirements. They find it difficult to validate the design against the requirements. What would be the problem?

A requirement might be missing or incorrectly specified or the design may not be right. If a design cannot be validated to support a requirement, there might be a missing or misunderstood requirement, or the design must change. BABOK 7.3.4.3.

What tool or system can provide significant benefits when there is a need to trace a large number of requirements and that may be too unwieldy with a manual approach?

A requirements management tool can provide a system for managing a large number of requirements. It can also act as a repository for all requirements. BABOK 5.1.4.3

small, implementable, and testable slices of functionality and help facilitate rapid delivery and frequent customer feedback

User stories

used to identify REQUIREMENTS associated with the story that may be available for reuse.

User stories

the preferred way to capture requirements for agile (adaptive) projects.

User stories ***Predictive (waterfall) approaches rarely utilize user stories; rather, stakeholder requirements are elicited.

Which technique would a business analyst use to identify requirements associated with a story that may be available for reuse?

User stories *The scenario is most likely describing an agile project that expresses requirements in user stories. BABOK 5.2.6

A senior business analyst has created an artifact that is considered an alternative, a precursor, or a complement to a state diagram. What artifact is the analyst developing for the project?

A state table is a two-dimensional matrix showing states and the transitions between them. It can be used during elicitation and analysis either as an alternative, a precursor, or a complement to a state diagram."

key difference between a state transition and state diagram?

A state transition describes how the entity changes from one state to another; a state diagram shows the life cycle of one entity.

Difference between synchronous and asynchronous call message types in a sequence diagram?

A synchronous call transfers control to the receiving object; the sender cannot act until a return message is received. An asynchronous call allows the sending object to continue with its own processing while waiting for an answer. **Signal" is another name for an asynchronous call.

Val discovers after analyzing three months worth of recent data that the software's transacting ability deteriorates noticeably around lunch time and significantly every Thursday about 4 pm. What has Val discovered?

A trend NOT Pattern!! (Not what BABOK Says) BABOK 8.2.4.3

Specifically, what would user stories help the team thoroughly define and understand?

User stories serve to identify specific acceptance and evaluation criteria related to specific roles so that the optimal change strategy can be identified.

Elizabeth is working on a complex government-regulated project where a great deal of uncertainty exists because of unknown requirements that do not show up in the government file specification. How might Elizabeth and other stakeholders identify potential negative impacts to value?

Utilize lessons learned from past projects and expert judgment from pertinent stakeholders. Clues: 1. Requirements unknown 2. Complex project with uncertainty 3. Question asks for impact to solution value. --Value Analysis Must refer to the element "Unknowns" in the task Assess risks

making sure the requirements align to business requirements and support the delivery of needed value.

Validate requirements.

Maurice is defining performance measures for a new solution with his team. They are reviewing the change strategy, future state description, solution scope, and requirements. What state do the requirements have to be in for the team to consider them viable inputs to the process?

Validated Requirements that have been analyzed and appraised to deliver business value and support the goals and objectives Clue: 1. "They are reviewing the change strategy, future state description, solution scope, and requirements." = Guidelines for the task Measure Solution Performance

Anna has assembled a team to define design options. What inputs will they need to accomplish this task?

Validated and prioritized requirements, change strategy, requirements architecture These are the inputs for the define design options task. BABOK Figure 7.5.1

Extent to which data clearly and directly measures the performance the organization intends to measure.

Validity

Potential value of the solution options are analyzed and quantified.

Value core concept in the Business Analysis Core Concept Model

In the requirements life cycle management knowledge area, which is the core concept that maintains requirements for reuse to extend value beyond the current initiative?

Value is about maintaining requirements for reuse.

3 process improvement methods?

Value stream mapping Statistical analysis and control Six sigma

What are the inputs for approve requirements?

Verified requirements and designs

Requirements that don't meet quality standards have likely been evaluated in which task?

Verify requirements

Hae Lin is ensuring that the requirements and designs have been defined correctly and provide the necessary information for further work that will be performed. What task is Hae Lin doing?

Verify requirements.

ensuring that the requirements and designs have been defined correctly and provide the necessary information for further work that will be performed. What task is this?

Verify requirements.

Business analysts assist in planning the timing of the implementation to ensure all parties understand the impact on the organization and to ensure minimal disruption. Which of the following factors do guide implementation?

Ability of the organization to absorb the change Incorrect This is a stated factor in transition states and release planning

The probability of the risk occurring with Feature A is 50%, the impact of the risk is a 4 on a 1-5 scale and the residual risk level is a 2 on the same scale. The probability of the risk occurring with Feature B is 35%, the impact is 5, and the residual risk level is 2.

Accept The risk levels of the two features are relatively low, so accepting them is the most reasonable answer of the choices given. Ultimately, the affected stakeholders would decide if the risks are acceptable. BABOK 10.38.3.4

pecifically, what would user stories help the team thoroughly define and understand?

Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria. User stories serve to identify specific acceptance and evaluation criteria related to specific roles so that the optimal change strategy can be identified.

Chase has been busy defining the future state for review and approval by the sponsor and the steering team. The sponsor sent him an email asking him to include a recommendation of conditions or criteria to score future state change strategies for purposes of prioritization. Which of the following techniques will Chase use to complete this request?

Acceptance and evaluation criteria Clue: "defining the future state for review and approval by the sponsor and the steering team" "recommendation of conditions or criteria to score future state change strategies for purposes of prioritization. "

You have completed requirements elicitation along with the associated documentation, and you are now in the process of reviewing the requirements in order to obtain sign-off. Which of the following techniques would you recommend to define approval criteria?

Acceptance and evaluation criteria Acceptance criteria define the requirements, outcomes, or conditions that must be met in order for a solution to be approved. BABOK 5.5.6 and 10.1

Which techniques can be used to attain approvals of the requirements?

Acceptance and evaluation criteria, decision analysis, item tracking, and workshops

Role of acceptance criteria related to a user story?

Acceptance criteria support the development of user stories to help determine what the solution needs in order to provide value.

You are conducting a lessons learned session for the previous phase of a project so that the next phase can be even better. Brent is a developer who begins raising his voice and pointing fingers at the end users who "change their minds all of the time and don't have a clue as to what they need!" What would be the best way to handle this situation?

Acknowledge Brent's frustration and assure him that the team would like to hear more details. In addition, either refer back to the meeting ground rules that speak to "no finger pointing" or if ground rules were not developed, take the opportunity to do so with the meeting participants. Although the BABOK doesn't address this directly, it is general meeting facilitation best practice. The BABOK does say that if participants try to assign blame that honest discussion may not occur. BABOK 10.27.4.2

What techniques support effective organization?

Action plans, short and long-term goals, prioritization of tasks.

Model that employs swim lanes to show responsibilities, synchronization bars to show parallel processing and multiple exit decision points

Activity diagram

As a BA assigned to improve an enterprise process to realize efficiency gains, which of the following analytic techniques would provide the most value?

Activity diagrams Activity diagrams are a type of process model/notation that reflects process steps, roles, parallel processing, and multiple exit decision points so, of the options listed, would deliver the most value. BABOK 6.1.6 and 10.35.3.1

Does the predictive or adaptive planning approach place more emphasis on requirements prioritization?

Adaptive When utilizing the adaptive approach, a prioritized requirements list may be the only requirements document. The scope is not fixed in a project using an adaptive approach. BABOK 3.1.4.2

Sallie the BA was in the process of conducting training and noticed that members of the class were having difficulty retaining the information. She is currently using PowerPoint slides supported by written material. What might you suggest she try?

Add a kinesthetic component. BABOK 9.1.3.2 Kinesthetic (learning by doing) is the only learning technique Sallie doesn't appear to be using at this time. Combining techniques helps people learn faster and retain information longer.

Jackson is conducting a workshop with domain subject matter experts to elicit solution requirements. He is having trouble getting participants to contribute to the discussion; they seem reluctant to talk. He tried moving to written brainstorming but is still getting limited participation. What would be Jackson's logical next step?

Adjourn the session and schedule individual interviews with the stakeholders. There appears to be some sort of dynamic in this scenario where participants don't feel that it is a "safe" environment; stating it is so won't change their regard.

Jack was conducting interviews with stakeholders to elicit requirements. The sessions were not going well and he asked you for your help. Stakeholders are confused about why the project is needed and what their role is in the project. Which of the following would you recommend?

Advise Jack to better prepare interviewees by sending them supporting material in advance of the interview and educating them before the actual interview as to their role in the project. The BABOK stresses that the BA should prepare stakeholders for any elicitation event by sending them supporting materials and requesting they review them in advance. This could include information about the project and the needs the project will address. In addition, educate them beforehand on their role and the relevance of the information they have to the success of the project. BABOK 4.1.4.5 and 10.25.3.1

The purpose of this collaborative game is to help identify related or similar features or themes

Affinity Map

Type of collaborative game during which participants write down features, put them on a wall, and then move them closer to other sticky notes containing features that appear similar in some way.

Affinity mapping

Generally, when would a business analyst model requirements in a change initiative?

After requirements elicitation. Requirements elicitation generally precedes analysis and is stated as an input into specify and model requirements task. Although the BABOK states elicitation and modelling may occur sequentially, iteratively, or concurrently, you must start with some amount of elicited information before you can model that elicited information. While the business analyst may model at any time during a change initiative, they generally have to have elicited some information before they can attempt to model that informatio

when would a business analyst model requirements in a change initiative?

After requirements elicitation. Requirements elicitation precedes analysis and is stated as an input into specify and model requirements task. ***Although the BABOK states elicitation and modelling may occur sequentially, iteratively, or concurrently, you must start with some amount of elicited information before you can model that elicited information.

Which of the following stakeholders are included in the task Verify Requirements?

All stakeholders.

Where is the best place to specify attributes and allowable values associated with attributes?

Allowable values of an attribute are specified through business rules and attributes in a data dictionary.

After reviewing the project and the actual performance statistics, he saw that actual performance was better than the metrics that had been defined. However, his final recommendation was that the system be eliminated. Which of the following might have prompted the recommendation?

Although the performance was actually better than the defined performance metrics for the solution, the solution did not address the business need for which the project was undertaken and was REDUNDANT.

When analyzing performance data, business analysts consider the time period when the data was collected to guard against what?

Anomalies and skewed trends

Cheryl completed her analysis of a solution's performance measures that determine the value the solution provides to the enterprise. What will she do next?

Answer= Assess the solution limitations and identify the causes for the limitations. "analysis of a solution's performance measures that determine the value the solution" = Task " Analyze Solution Performance measures. Question asking what's the next task---> Assess Solution Limitations is the next task

Which of the following best describes what is needed in order to specify and model requirements?

Any elicitation results

After solution performance measures are defined, who is responsible to decide which measures are used to evaluating the solution performance?

Any stakeholder with decision-making authority. ** BA = Recommendor for which measures to sue ** Sponsor is responsible for this task but is not most encompassing answer to question.

Tasks may vary in form, order, or importance for individual business analysts or for various initiatives."

Any tasks a business analyst may perform while evaluating the necessity for change within an enterprise *** Tasks are not required to be followed in an orderly or formal manner; the performance of tasks are typically iterative in nature.

Who is a Business Analyst?

Anyone who performs business analysis tasks can be considered a business analyst.

Requirements that are identified, clearly named, defined, and stored for long term use by the organization are considered to be:

Approved

______________ requirements mean there has been agreement and acceptance of the requirements.

Approved requirements mean there has been agreement and acceptance of the requirements.

In a business capability analysis, a business analyst will work with a team to identify the business' capabilities along with assessing them for performance and risks. How is this information used by the business?

As inputs into prioritization of investments By understanding capabilities' performance and "gaps", the business can strategically determine where to invest to improve capabilities. BABOK 10.6.2

Relationship between desired outcomes & recommended solution

As solution options are assessed, their ability to achieve the desired outcome will help determine the recommended solution.

Sunken Cost & Making future decisions

As this investment cannot be recovered, it is effectively irrelevant when considering future action. Decisions should be based on the future investment required and the future benefits that can be gained.

You are interviewing a manager about some of the business issues she is faced with. It is near the end of the interview. What might you do?

Ask if there are any overlooked items

Given the entrepreneurial nature of the company, which of the following should you consider for measuring the business analysis work effort?

Ask key stakeholders which performance measures they think are appropriate. *The case study describes an environment that sounds informal so asking key stakeholders for their input would be appropriate. "The business analyst may also elicit assessment measures from stakeholders." BABOK 3.5.4.2 *** standard business analysis performance measures not approapriate for startups

Proposed changes are inputs to which task?

Assess Requirements

Requirements and designs are inputs to which task

Assess Requirements Changes.

Harold has documented how factors external to the solution are restricting value realization. What task is he performing?

Assess enterprise limitations

Francisco is working closely with his project manager to evaluate the implication of proposed requirements and design changes to the project. Which task is being accomplished by Francisco?

Assess requirements changes

Requirements change assessment is an output of which of the following tasks?

Assess requirements changes

Susan has just completed reviewing identified problems in a solution component. In completing her review, what goal is Susan looking to achieve?

Assess the impact that the problems may have on the operation of the organization or the ability of the solution to deliver its potential value. BABOK 8.3.4.3: Business analysts review identified problems in order to assess the effect they may have on the operation of the organization or the ability of the solution to deliver its potential value

Task that determines how factors "external" to the solution are restricting value.

Assessing enterprise limitations

Assess requirements change focus?

Assessing requirements changes focuses on whether the proposed change will increase the value of the solution,

Purpose of this task is to determine factors "internal" to the solution that restrict the full realization of value

Assessing solution limitations

What is the difference between "associations" and "extensions" in a use case diagram?

Associations are between actors and use cases; extensions depict one type of dependent relationship between use cases.

You have interviewed key stakeholders to uncover their business needs. You become aware of many factors that the stakeholders think are true, but which have not been verified. You decide to document which of the following:

Assumptions Assumptions are factors that are believed to be true but has not been confirmed to be accurate, or that could be true now but may not be in the future.

When can a requirement be prioritized?

At any time in its life cycle **BABOK 5.0 (Note that 5.5.3 mentions requirements and designs can be prioritized if they "are ready to prioritize," but does not explain what that means.)

Which of the following best represent forms of documentation?

Audio recording, virtual whiteboard These are both forms of documentation that may be held onto until they are transferred to another medium for elicitation purposes. BABOK 4.4.4

Role of the BA in defining the design of a solution

BAs are responsible for the definition of design, at some level, which varies based on the perspective within which the BA is working

Requirements traceability identifies and documents the lineage of each requirement. What are the ways in which this lineage can be identified and documented?

Backwards, forwards, and the relationships between requirements

When are baselines created?

Baselining is completed before any requirements go through the process of assessing the change. Baselining is rarely mentioned in the BABOK--9.6 and Glossary only. ***configuration management and traceability standards establish product baselines and version control practices that identify which baseline is affected by the change. (Plan BA Governance)

'The five whys" is a question-asking process to explore the nature and cause of a problem. Why is the technique called "the five whys?"

Because it often takes five times of asking "why?" to reach the root cause.

How can BA ensure that all participants have a common understanding during workshops?

Begin by providing the purpose and desired outcomes.

Rose is facilitating a workshop to elicit requirements for a process improvement project. She wants to ensure that all participants have a common understanding. How should Rose proceed?

Begin by providing the purpose and desired outcomes.

Rules the organization chooses to enforce as a matter of policy, often to reduce risk or enhance productivity.

Behavioral rules (also known as an Operative rules)

Your organization has chosen to enforce two new rules as a matter of policy in order to enhance productivity. What type of rule has your organization enforced?

Behavioral rules.

technique is listed as one of the ways to assess solution and enterprise limitations.

Benchmarking and Market Analysis

Techniques would be the most helpful to understand the limitations with the current production and shipping processes?

Benchmarking and Market Analysis This technique is listed as one of the ways to assess solution and enterprise limitations. They will help to understand "if other organizations are experiencing the same solution challenges. **** Metrics and Key Performance Indicators are used to measure solution performance, but they are not cited for assessing solution or enterprise limitations

What is needed to perform gap analysis?

Both Current State & Future state should be defined

How are workshops and surveys used in Assessing solution or enterprise limitations?

Both are listed as Workshops could be used to identify organizational gaps and stakeholder concerns. Workshop address specific customer concerns and identify how to best address them. Surveys= used to get insight when you are not very sure what the concern is .

She has received estimates from all the involved stakeholders. She combines them all to get a total for all the activities and tasks. What method has she used for estimation?

Bottom-up estimation.

Technique for useful for generating the stakeholder list

Brainstorming

Technique that can be useful during a workshop to reduce tension between participants

Brainstorming

Your organization has purchased a new requirements management tool. Some of the BAs and other team members find it difficult to learn. You have used a different tool in a previous organization, but you find that you can easily track changes to the requirements with this tool as well and share your expertise with everyone. You are demonstrating which underlying competency?

Business Analysis Tools and Techniques BABOK 9.6.2 Pertinent to this question are identifying relationships (changes will require this kind of tracing), documenting, tracking and storing artifacts (change requests would fall here), communicating with stakeholders

describes what an enterprise, in whole or in part, is able to do

Business Capability Analysis

technique for defining the current state

Business Capability Analysis

Technique that captures the current state, future state, alternative change strategies and associated analysis and recommendations.

Business Case

technique in the assess requirements changes task and is used to justify a proposed change.

Business Case

A business analyst displays 'what' when they demonstrate an understanding of fundamental principles and best practices that get incorporated into and supported by solutions?

Business Knowledge.

This technique describes how an enterprise creates, delivers, and captures value for and from its customers. It can be used as both a diagnostic and a planning tool, both of which are needed. It includes such things as customer relationships, revenue streams, value proposition, resources, activities, etc.,

Business Model Canvas

method to capture how an enterprise creates, delivers, and captures value for and from its customers.

Business Model Canvas

specific, testable directive that serves as a criterion for guiding behavior, shaping judgments, or making decisions. Term

Business Rule

A guideline provides instructions or descriptions on why or how to undertake a task, while a tool is something used to undertake a task. Which of the following is NOT listed as a "guideline and tool" in requirement life cycle management?

Business analysis approach

The performance of all business analysis activities are directed by which of the following documents?

Business analysis approach

Which is NOT listed as a "guideline and tool" in requirement life cycle management?

Business analysis approach

In order to conduct elicitation, what guidelines and tools will you need?

Business analysis approach, existing business analysis Information, stakeholder engagement approach, and supporting materials

What does a business analyst deliver when communicating business analysis information?

Business analysis information (communicated) *** Business analysis information (planned)= FAKE ANSWER

What perspective can business analysis be performed?

Business analysis is performed through many varying perspectives, one of which is agile. All of the tasks described in the BABOK are relevant within the context of agile, but they may be performed somewhat differently.

In which artifact would the proposed approaches to address issues be found?

Business analysis performance assessment The BA performance assessment not only includes results, variances, and root causes, it also documents proposed approaches to effectively address performance issues. BABOK 3.5.8

Which of the following guidelines/tools provides results of previous valuation that should be reviewed and incorporated into all planning approaches?

Business analysis performance assessment These assessments provide the results of previous assessments that should be reviewed and incorporated in the current initiative's approach. BABOK 3.1.5

You have just completed your requirements workshop. Who should be involved with capturing the elicitation outcomes from the workshop?

Business analyst Per the BABOK, no other resource than the BA is specified for capturing elicitation outcomes. BABOK 4.2.4.2

Technique that provides a framework for scoping and planning by generating a shared understanding of outcomes, identifying alignment with strategy, and providing a scope and prioritization filter. I

Business capability analysis Keywords: framework for scoping and planning

document describes the rationale for and the benefits of the solution from the business point of view.

Business case

You have recently uncovered a new constraint associated with the technical architecture that precludes an off-the-shelf solution. What deliverable might be most significantly impacted by your discovery at this stage of the project?

Business case. Correct A key component in a business case is the assessment of alternatives. A constraint that precludes a COTS package would significantly alter alternatives. The key to this question is that it is occurring prior to project initiation. BABOK 10.7.3.3

In order to understand the characteristics of the change such as time-sensitivity, value of the change, assumptions, and risk and constraints, which technique would be helpful?

Business cases In addition to the things listed in the question, a business case would outline any particular uncertainties regarding elements of the possible need or solution.

Guideline involving understanding regulatory statutes, contractual obligations, and business policies that may define priorities

Business constraints

A technique that describes the rationale for requirements.

Business model canvas

Your team is writing a business case and is having trouble agreeing on the business need. High level requirements have been elicited and a preferred solution identified, but the stakeholders are still conflicted about the business need. Which statement best describes the situation?

Business needs were probably initially expressed along with a presumed solution. Business analyst did not begin with a clear, agreed-upon, and communicated understanding of the business need before beginning business analysis activities. Clue: 1. "Writing business case" = Plan BA Approach because trouble with business need. 2. " High level requirements elicited" = Task "Conduct Elicitation" 3. " Preferred solution identified" = Solution Analysis ***Although culture can hinder finding or articulating business need, the business need can still be found with or without a formal business analysis approach. BABOK 6.1.4.1

Brenda has completed her assessment of the solution limitations and the enterprise limitations following analysis of performance measures. What Guidelines and Tools will she use in her next task?

Business objectives, current state description, solution scope These are the guidelines & tools for the Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value task which Brenda will be performing next.

Inputs for the Measure Solution Performance task?

Business objectives, implemented solution

"What dimension of the scorecard would you focus upon to ascertain how well the enterprise is operating and if their products meet customer needs?"

Business process

he CIO lists the various features and benefits of the software package he recommends. What is the next thing the BA should determine in response to the CIO?

Business requirements The CIO is actually focusing on solution requirements. Business requirements contain the "goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated." The features and benefits of a solution do not describe that, so the BA needs to learn the business requirements before assessing the merits of a COTS package. BABOK 6.1.8 **If the BA has not learned the business requirements yet, it is too early to determine Metrics and Key Performance Indicators.

Your organization has just determined a new system is needed to meet a new market opportunity and you have been asked to evaluate and investigate the underlying rationale. You have been charged with ensuring that the widest possible range of alternative solutions are considered. What is the output of your work?

Business requirements The question focuses on "evaluating and investigating underlying rationale;" the output of that focus is the business requirements. BABOK 6.1.8.

Kathy is analyzing the current state and working with her team and stakeholders to identify and define why a requested change is needed. What is the output of the task Kathy is working on?

Business requirements are defined from analyzing the current state. BABOK 6.1.8 and 2.3

Shape day-to-day business behavior and guide operational business decision making. Term?

Business rules

Which technique would a business analyst use to identify business rules that may be similar across the enterprise in order to facilitate reuse?

Business rules analysis

COTS package - purchase price:$1,250,000, installation:$150,000, annual support costs (first year is free):$50,000, training: included with purchase price, customization:$200,000 Custom Solution - development:$1,800,000, annual maintenance costs:$25,000, training:$25,000. Which solution has the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) over five years?

COTS solution Correct The COTS solution has a TCO of $1,800,000: $1,250,000 + 150,000 + (4* 50,000) + $200,000. BABOK 7.6.4.2, 7.6.6, and 10.20.3.2 Custom solution Incorrect The custom solution has a higher TCO of $1,925,000: $1,800,000 + (5*25,000). BABOK 7.6.4.2, 7.6.6, and 10.20.3.2 Custom solution. Given how close the two solutions' TCO is, the customized solution offers the greater possibility of fewer adjustments to current processes. Correct This answer is reasonable since the TCO of both solutions is roughly equal. A customized solution will in most cases offer the possibility of fewer adjustments to current processes and would be easier to adopt. 7.6.4.4 and 10.20.3.2.

What is an effectiveness measure of verbal communication skills?

Can communicate the criticality or urgency of a situation in a calm, rational manner. A effectiveness measure according to the BABOK is communicating an issue's important points in a calm and rational manner. BABOK 9.4.1.3

Giewel wants to model features of an enterprise or a solution. Which requirement model category would he use?

Capability models focus on features or functions of an enterprise or solution. BABOK 7.1.4.1 Buzz words: requirement model category & Features

Mahmoud was decomposing the requirements and was having difficulty classifying the following requirement: "The system must be able to support growth of 10,000 subscribers over the next year." The system today has 20,000 subscribers, which is at 25% percent of the server's capacity. Assuming a 50% growth rate each year, in which year will the system outgrow its capacity?

Capacity is 80,000 subscribers given that 20,000 = 25% of capacity. (20,000 * 4 = 80,000). Year 1: 20,000 + 10,000 (50%) growth = 30,000. Year 2: 30,000 + 15,000 = 45,000. Year 3: 45,000 + 22,500 = 67,500. Year 4: 67,500 + 33,750 = 101,250. (Note: you can also multiply each year's subscriber total times 1.5 to calculate 50% growth.) The subscriber total exceeds the 80,000 capacity sometime in year 4, making this the correct answer. Capacity is part of "Scalability," an element of Non-Functional Requirements.

Guideline for prioritizing requirements that contains information on costs, timelines, and value realization

Change Strategy

You are working on a major new inventory management system and are responding to a request for better reporting from it. You need a tool or method to describe the purpose and direction for the request, establish the context for it, and identify the critical components of the request. What do you choose to help guide you?

Change Strategy Clue: You need a tool or method to describe the purpose and direction for the request, establish the context for it, and identify the critical components of the request This answer describes the definition of this guideline/tool in the Assess Requirements Changes task. BABOK 5.4.5

set of activities, tools, and techniques to address change during a change initiative, primarily addressing the needs of the people who will be most affected by the change.

Change control process

This guideline in the prioritize requirements task provides information on costs, timelines, and value realization which are used to determine priority of requirements.

Change strategy

Which of the following guidelines provides information on costs, timelines, and value realization which are used to determine the priority of requirements?

Change strategy

You have completed requirements elicitation and documentation. You now want information to help you understand the needs of all stakeholders to assist in managing consensus. Which of the following tools would be helpful?

Change strategy Tool provides information which would assist the business analyst in managing stakeholder consensus.

Which of the following guidelines/tools is used for improved assessment of stakeholder impact and the development of more effective stakeholder engagement strategies?

Change strategy An organizational readiness assessment includes an impact analysis which results in a change strategy. BABOK 3.2.5

The project team is in the process of confirming compliance with organizational business analysis performance standards, correct use of modeling notation and completeness within each model, and that items determined to be important are included in the final requirements deliverables. What tool would help in carrying out these activities?

Checklist Clue: "items determined to be important are included in the final requirements deliverables."= Purpose of Check List " Process of confirming compliance with organizational business analysis performance standards, correct use of modeling notation and completeness within each model," = Verification Activities Don't Confuse with Item-Tracking = technique used in the validate requirements task to ensure any problems or issues identified are managed and resolved.

Perry proudly submitted a recommended change strategy to reach the future state as part of a business case. The change strategy included several phases spanning two years and was accompanied by a detailed cumulative quantitative financial analysis. The governance team asked for more information. Perry was perplexed as he thought it was already too detailed. What did Perry fail to do as part of his recommendation?

Clue: "it took twice as long to implement the strategy than forecasted because resources with the required knowledge were not available due to conflicting priorities." ---> He didn't check on the availability of resources which is part of the organizational readiness assessment.

Customer satisfaction scores have fallen each quarter for the past year and two high revenue customers were threatening to go to a competitor when their contracts were up in three months. Brian was assigned as the BA to investigate root cause and recommend a cost-effective solution. What is the first thing Brian should do? Time is of the essence!

Collaborate with key stakeholders to gain consensus on the definition of the problem and resulting impacts. Correct Collaboration is key and getting buy-in to the definition of the problem and identifying the business need is always a first step. BABOK 6.1.2 and 9.5.1.1 How was the business need in this scenario identified? --> From external drivers. External drivers are defined as customer demand or business competition in the marketplace.

If the performance measures defined to evaluate the effectiveness of a solution are not sufficient to help stakeholders determine solution value, what actions should a business analyst take to address the situation?

Collect more measurements or treat the lack of measures as a solution risk.

Which of the following tasks provides stakeholders with the information they need, at the time they need it?

Communicate business analysis information provides stakeholders with the information they need, at the time they need it. The information is presented in a useful form, using the right termi

"everything relevant to the change that is within the environment."

Context

A Type of Data flow diagram that consists of multiple layers of abstraction

Context Diagram

The circumstances that influence and provide understanding of the change are considered when determine solution performance measures.

Context core concept in the Business Analysis Core Concept Model

Traces requirements and designs to solution components to ensure the solution satisfies the need. Core Concept?

Core Concept "Solution" & RLCM

"the ability to reduce the time or cost to implement a requirements change." is a core competency of which type of Knowledge?

Core competency listed under Solution Knowledge

Your developers are in India. You want to document requirements so that everyone has the same understanding. Which of the following will provide the best clarity?

Creating process models. *use case descriptions.= narrative flow of events may be difficult for those less familiar with the English language. *formality will not ensure clarity.

Novak is a business analyst working with the development team to determine how to shorten the solution delivery timeline. Team members keep bringing up solutions that have been tried before and didn't work. Novak suggested the team try some agile practices as agile was created to deliver value to the business sooner than later. The team initially resisted but said, "Why not? Let's try something new." What competency was Novak demonstrating?

Creative thinking Clue: "bringing up solutions that have been tried before and didn't work. "

When are reused requirements first identified?

Current state

Verifies that the prioritized requirements will deliver value from a customer or end-user perspective. The customer can also negotiate to have the prioritization changed based on relative value.

Customer

Who Verifies that the prioritized requirements will deliver value?

Customer

Whom should the business analyst consult with to determine the impact of the change on stakeholder work activities?

Customer

Which stakeholders are identified for assessing enterprise limitations of an existing solution.?

Customer, sponsor, domain subject matter expert, regulator

Which dimension of the balanced scorecard would contain measures pertaining to whether or not delivery of products and services met customer expectations over the last quarter?"

Customer.

Data Defined in Data flow diagrams should be described where?

Data Dictionary

Technique that portrays the transformation of data vs. a customer's interaction with a system

Data Flow Diagrams

Which technique would a business analyst use dentify information flow for possible reuse.

Data Flow Diagrams

Which techniques besides document analysis would you use to help you understand the context and need for the enhancement?

Data Mining, Root-Cause Analysis, Benchmarking All of these techniques would help you understand the current state and context and need for the enhancement. All are listed as techniques to help analyze the current state. BABOK 6.1.6

BA working at a large retailer is reviewing the documentation for an Order Processing System to understand the current state before working on an enhancement. Which techniques besides document analysis would you use to help you understand the context and need for the enhancement?

Data Mining, Root-Cause Analysis, Benchmarking All of these techniques would help you understand the current state and context and need for the enhancement. All are listed as techniques to help analyze the current state. BABOK 6.1.6

Technique to help maintain requirements?

Data Modeling is "used to identify data structures that may be similar across the enterprise in order to facilitate reuse.

The lead business analyst has assigned you to create a requirements model that represents the characteristics and the exchange of information within an enterprise or a solution. Which requirements model category would you use?

Data and information Requirements model category is what the question is asking for. Clue: "requirements model that represents the characteristics and the exchange of information within an enterprise or a solution."

A bank currently has a policy that a customer is limited to three ATM withdrawals a day with a cash limit of $600 total. This policy was identified as one of the root causes for customer dissatisfaction. How did the BA most likely identify this root cause?

Data mining and business rules analysis Data mining identifies the frequency of complaints ; source could be identified through analysis of business rules.

Which technique would a business analyst use to identify data structures for possible reuse

Data modeling

Technique that formally assesses a problem and models the possible consequences of different decisions

Decision Analysis

Technique used to resolve issues and gain agreement in the task "Approve Requirements"

Decision Analysis

"diamond with one line entering and multiple lines leaving;" in UML standard notation

Decision Branch

A component of a UML standard activity diagrams that is "Diamonds with multiple exit decision points.'

Decision Point

A conflict may arise among stakeholders as a result of different interpretations of requirements or designs and conflicting values placed on them. Which technique would you use to resolve issues and gain agreement?

Decision analysis examines the possible consequences of alternative outcomes and so is a valuable tool for resolving issues and gaining agreement. *** NOT Item Tracking = Item tracking will track issues identified during the agreement process but not resolve them

Key concepts that are needed to understand how to effectively perform the plan business analysis governance task?

Decision making, change control process, plan prioritization approach, plan for approvals. These are stated elements of the plan business analysis governance task.

The project team has identified several design options. They need to evaluate and compare these options to one another to recommend one option for the solution. The team is using criteria to score each option. Which method is the team employing?

Decision matrices Since each option is being scored, the team is most likely using a weighted decision matrix. BABOK 10.16.3.2

aJx is a BA interviewing a client regarding business rules related to discounts for car insurance. The customer started relating several "If, then" scenarios. For example, "If their age is 16-25, no discount. If their age is 26-35 and they have been accident free for a minimum of 3 years, they will receive a 5% discount. But, if they have other policies with us, they will receive an 8% discount. If they are from 36-50 years old and...." Jax was writing furiously trying to keep up! What would be an effective way to document this set of business rules?

Decision table Correct Clue" The customer started relating several "If, then" scenarios. " A decision table would be the perfect way to capture the set of business rules. A decision tree would also be effective. BABOK Figure 10.17.3.1

This technique generally contain one or more condition columns that map to specific data elements, as well as one or more action or outcome columns."

Decision tables

What is a measure of the effectiveness of the BA's decision-making abilities?

Decisions are made by considering the interest of every stakeholder.

Gwen is planning for a workshop to assess design options and recommend a solution. She has scheduled the session and sent out the invitations. Unfortunately, she has gotten several meeting declines. Which of the following limitations is she likely to encounter should she decide to continue with the workshop?

Decisions that don't represent the needs of the majority of the stakeholders. Correct BABOK 10.50.4.2

Identifying opportunities to improve the business, Task

Define Design Options"

Representing design options that achieve the desired future state.

Define Design Options"

Tamara, however, thought that user stories would be helpful with which of the following tasks?

Define Future State. User stories will help the team understand desired outcomes from various stakeholders' perspectives. BABOK 10.48 & 6.2

Derek and his team are brainstorming alternative approaches to a defined change. What task is Derek performing?

Define change strategy This is the purpose of the define change strategy task. BABOK 6.4.1

Gap analysis is an element of the which task?

Define change strategy task

Benchmarking and market analysis is a stated technique for which of the following tasks in the requirements analysis and design definition knowledge area

Define design options

Benchmarking and market analysis is a stated technique for which of the following tasks in the requirements analysis and design definition knowledge area?

Define design options

Percy and his team have identified and documented the lineage of each requirement, including its backward traceability, its forward traceability, and its relationship to other requirements. What is their next logical step?

Define design options Why? "define design options" uses traced requirements as an input.

Which task in the strategy analysis knowledge area uses business requirements as its sole input?

Define future state

Consider a scenario in which a sponsor has initiated an effort to purchase and install a COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) package. You discover that no other analysis work has been performed. What is the first thing you do?

Define the business need that the COTS package is intended to address. When confronted with a change to a system, the first task is to define why the change is warranted by defining the business need. ***Determine if and how the COTS package meets the business need.= part of defining the change strategy

What would the BA typically do first while conducting the identify business analysis performance improvements task?

Define what constitutes effective business analysis work. (from element Performance Analysis) This is the first element within the task. ** Determine assessment measures. Incorrect = 2nd second step ***Consult organizational performance standards if available to understand expectations for BA work the organization may have already defined. BABOK 3.5.4.1 and 3.5.5

Requirements are prioritized and agreed upon by relevant stakeholders as defined in the business analysis planning and monitoring knowledge area.

Definition for Basis for Prioritization.

The chance that the requirement cannot deliver the potential value, or cannot be met at all. This may include many factors such as the difficulty of implementing a requirement, or the chance that stakeholders will not accept a solution component. Term?

Definition for Basis for Prioritization.

Which Estimation Methods? panel of experts are asked for estimates anonymously. The facilitator of this technique then shares the estimates with the panel who revise their estimates; the process continues until consensus is reached.

Delphi Technique

Which stakeholders participate in the conduct elicitation task?

Depending on the activity, any stakeholder with relevant knowledge or experience. This is the "catch all" participant. Others noted include the customer, domain and implementation subject matter experts, end users, and sponsor. BABOK 4.2.7

Focuses on understanding how value might be realized by a solution if it is built.

Design

Julie is a BA working to help a business owner clarify the business need. The business owner wants to undertake an initiative to eliminate waste throughout her division. She says that such an initiative, which will be comprised of multiple projects, will have the benefits of improved safety, reduced time to deliver the organization's product, and increased customer satisfaction. The listed benefits are another way of articulating which of the following?

Desired outcomes ** The benefits referred to in the question are examples of desired outcomes. While the BABOK typically focuses on "goals and objectives," it does use this term in the description of how business cases are used in the Define Future State task Clues: 1. "Clarify the business need." 2. " Initiative to eliminate waste throughout her division" = Process improvement

Gary is a lead business analyst and he and his team are working on a project to reroute a public bike path. They have identified, analyzed, and evaluated twenty risks on the proposed solution. What would be the next logical step for Gary and his team?

Determine the approach to address the risk. " Risks identified, analyzed, and evaluated" = 3 elements of the technique Risk Analysis & Evaluation. 4th element is to select a Risk Approach ( mitigate, avoid, transfer, ect) This is a description of the term "treatment", which is the next element after identification, analysis and evaluation. BABOK 10.38.3.4

The business analyst has completed the identification and definition of why a change to a system is required. The business analyst has also identified new capabilities that the current system cannot perform and are required by the enterprise to achieve the business need. Risks have been identified and assessed. What is the business analyst's next step?

Determine the change strategy. Clue: "identification and definition of why a change to a system is required." = Business Case "Identified new capabilities that the current system cannot perform" = Solution limitations "Risks Identified & Assessed" = Task Assess Risk in SA **The current state has been analyzed, the future state has been defined, and risks have been assessed. The next step is to perform the TASK of "Define Change Strategy." BABOK Figure 6.4.3

When prioritizing requirements, different stakeholders focus on different areas of the prepared requirements package. What does the Implementation SME focus on?

Determines the technical dependencies of the project. They may also negotiate to have requirement prioritizations changed based on technical constraints.

Why is it important to identify influencers when conducting organizational modelling?

Determining all influencers is important in planning communication & making provisions for user acceptance.

In a short, 3-month project to implement a COTS system, the BA determined that a requirements specification document was not necessary and planned instead to develop use cases to document functional requirements. What is this an example of?

Determining appropriate requirements analysis and documentation activities ***Use cases articulate the functional behavior of the system. BABOK 10.47.4.1

Yuki, the business analyst, had organized her requirements into a matrix but feels that the list doesn't truly give stakeholders an understanding of how value might be realized by the solution once built. What would be a logical next step?

Develop a design to demonstrate the solution's value A design is a usable representation of a solution. Design focuses on understanding how value might be realized by a solution if it is built. Since we don't know what the requirements include, it's impossible to know which type of design would be helpful to demonstrate value. ***Must know the requirements to create process models, screen-mockups, or prototypes.

Darryl is working with a team of stakeholders to assess the feasibility of several brainstormed solutions. What is Darryl and his team most like doing?

Developing a business case. A business case includes a feasibility analysis for identified alternatives. BABOK 10.7.3.1

Technique that can be used to analyze existing documentation about an enterprise that can serve as the basis for maintaining and reusing requirements.

Document analysis

This technique can be used to analyze existing documentation about an enterprise that can serve as the basis for maintaining and reusing requirements.

Document analysis

2 Limitation for using document analysis technique?

Document analysis is primarily helpful only for evaluating the current state. Authors not available for questions

Which techniques would work best to confirm your elicitation results?

Document analysis, interviews, reviews, workshops ** Only 4 techniques in this task and they all confirm elicitation results

3 Techniques to identify and document which requirements could be reused

Document analysis, user stories, and use cases and scenarios.

A multi-million dollar system integration project will merge a newly purchased company's system functionality into the current company platform. Because there are two more mergers planned for the near future, Larry and Janyce's manager has asked them to identify and document which requirements could be reused for future mergers and acquisitions. What technique might Janyce use for this task?

Document analysis, user stories, and use cases and scenarios. Clue: "merge a newly purchased company's system functionality into the current company platform." "identify and document which requirements could be reused "

As a BA with some expertise in business process re-engineering, you would like to capture the current business process flows for a business unit within the company before a software automation project is undertaken. But, the sponsor says there is not enough time. How would you present your reasons?

Documenting current processes will help uncover the steps in the current process that need to change before the software can deliver forecasted value. CLUE: "business process re-engineering" "capture the current business process flows for a business unit within the company" = Business Process Modeling

You would like to capture the current business process flows for a business unit within the company before a software automation project is undertaken. But, the sponsor says there is not enough time. How would you present your reasons?

Documenting current processes will help uncover the steps in the current process that need to change before the software can deliver forecasted value. Process modeling is a technique utilized throughout strategy analysis. This answer not only answers what process modeling would do but why it is important at a level a sponsor would find compelling.

Who would be informed in order to elicit their feedback regarding possible improvements, but they are not consulted to assess impact on the project? Business analysis performance

Domain SME

Which of the following stakeholders are typically involved in reviewing and approving requirements:

Domain SME, Customer, Sponsor

Which of the following statements best describes the role of the Domain SME in defining the change strategy?

Domain SMEs have in-depth knowledge or expertise in some aspect of the change. A financial analyst is a domain SME.

Which of the following stakeholders will help to understand value assessments for the process improvements and identify ways to improve solution performance and increase value realization?

Domain Subject Matter Expert The Domain Subject Matter Expert stakeholder is involved with task. "Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value." ***Besides the Sponsor, the Domain SME participates in each of the tasks in Solution Evaluation. BABOK 8.5.7

Which stakeholder will reference maintained requirements the most to ensure they are accurately reflecting stated needs?

Domain Subject Matter Experts reference "maintained requirements on a regular basis to ensure they are accurately reflecting stated needs."

Gil has been identified as a key stakeholder in a project. His absence when determining the appropriate method to conduct business analysis activities could be considered a source of risk. The approach taken may also depend on his availability. What type of stakeholder is Gil?

Domain subject matter expert Domain SMEs are considered experts in the area undergoing analysis so their involvement in BA planning activities is key

Impact analysis is performed to assess or evaluate the effect of a change. Task?

During the assess requirements changes task

Anna, a junior business analyst, is seeking your advice on how many models she should use to best meet stakeholders needs in a given context. What would you advise her?

Each modeling technique has strengths and weaknesses and provides unique insights into the business domain and so using several of them would complement one another. Business analysts should use any combination of models that best meet stakeholder needs. BABOK 7.1.4.1

What are the Challenges of prioritization

Each stakeholder may value something different and so this is a consideration of prioritizing requirements.

When assessing requirements changes, which of the following roles should the business analyst consult with to determine the impact of the change on stakeholder work activities?

End User uses the solution or a component of the solution and can provide information about the impact of the change on their work activities.

Mary is preparing to allocate requirements to solution components and releases to best achieve the objectives and maximize value. What should Mary do?

Ensure her requirements are validated and prioritized. Only validated requirements are considered in design options, and knowing the requirement priorities aids in the suggestion of reasonable design options. BABOK 7.5.3

What is the prerequisite for conducting elicitation?

Ensure that all needed resources are organized & scheduled for conducting the elicitation 1. Defining the desired outcomes 2. Considering stakeholders & goals 3. Determining work products to produce 4. Selecting techniques 5. Establishing the elicitation logistics, 6. identifying any supporting materials needed, and understanding circumstances to foster collaboration during an elicitation activity.

What is the purpose of item tracking when verifying requirements?

Ensure that problems and issues identified during verification are managed and resolved.

Function of the BA during item tracking when verifying requirements?

Ensure that problems or issues identified during verification are escalated to the project manager to track resolution.

Peter and his team have defined desired performance measures to assess the performance of a solution. Many of these measures are new to the organization. What is Peter's next step?

Ensure that the enterprise has methods in place to capture the measurements. BABOK 8.1.4.1 "When measuring solution performance, business analysts determine if current measures exist, or if methods for capturing them are in place" = mentioned in the Element " Define Performance measures" "defined desired performance measures "= Measure Solution Performance

Deeply rooted beliefs, values, and norms shared by members of an enterprise. Term?

Enterprise Culture **Actions and thoughts are not part of the definition of enterprise culture.

What output has a business analyst developed when they can provide a description of the current limitations of the enterprise, including how the solution performance is impacting the enterprise?

Enterprise limitation This is the output from the Assess Enterprise Limitations task. BABOK 8.4.8

Assessing the enterprise's capacity to make the change and to sustain the change in the future state. What is this element called?

Enterprise readiness assessment

visual models used to capture the attributes of and relationships to other "entities" within a particular domain and are only indirectly tied to interface requirements.

Entity relationship diagrams

To complete the assessment, you gather information related to the current state description. To be all inclusive, what types of factors will you need to have?

Environmental, cultural, and internal factors influencing the solution limitations. Correct BABOK 8.4.3 **Current state description in Task Enterprise Limitations= • Current State Description: the current internal environment of the solution including the environmental, cultural, and internal factors influencing the solution limitations.

It is essential that stakeholders actively collaborate in the business analysis process so as not to negatively impact the effort. What is the BA's role in ensuring positive collaboration with stakeholders?

Establish strong, positive, and trust-based relationships with stakeholders involved in business analysis tasks. By developing positive relationships, detrimental effects on business analysis tasks can be modified

Susan is done with defining the solution approach, identifying opportunities to improve the business, allocating requirements across solution components, and representing design options that achieve the desired future state. Which one of the following activities is a next logical step?

Estimate the potential value of each design option Buzz Words: All are described in the purpose of Task "Define Design Options" 1. Defining the solution approach= 2. Identifying opportunities to improve the business, 3. Allocating requirements across solution components, 4. Representing design options that achieve the desired future state.

Joni is preparing a document that justifies why the organization should invest in a proposed solution. In her documentation she includes the evaluation criteria for the solution. What is the benefit of including the evaluation criteria?

Evaluation criteria refers more to expected return-on-investment, which would support the recommendation.

When customers are unhappy but performance scores are perfect --->What can BA do to prevent this from happening?

Even though requirements appeared to reflect users' wants, piloting the site using a prototype with users representing various customer segments may have uncovered areas of discontent before full deployment.

Who selects the projects that best meet the organization's strategic initiatives after performing analysis activities.?

Executive team ! ***BA may provide input and make recommendations to the selection, but they do not make the selection.

Vasavi has been contracted as the lead business analyst on a new initiative. She wants to create an internal stakeholder list. What would be a good starting point?

Existing business processes Business processes and a company's organizational chart are cited as initial sources for identifying internal stakeholders.

He determines that the existing metrics can't be considered quality indicators and recommends modifications. He adds in his report that he does, however, consider them valid. What could lead Jake to his conclusion?

Existing indicators can't be considered reliable because they aren't collected frequently enough. Validity = Stakeholder expectations have have been met While valid, quality metrics must also be reliable and timely.

To arrive at the risk levels involved, which of the following would be most appropriate to use?

Expert judgment and historical analysis Risks are discovered and identified through a combination of expert judgment, stakeholder input, experimentation, past experiences, and historical analysis of similar initiatives and situations." BABOK 10.38.3.1

The CIO has asked Amy (BA) to assess both the in-place and new software and give a recommendation. Amy finds that the functionality that would lend immediate value to the organization is basically the same. What might Amy do as a next step in her assessment?

Explore how the additional capabilities in the new software could add future value. Benefits of a solution that could be used in the future are part of a value assessment of the solution. BABOK 8.5.4.2: " Solution options may offer capabilities to the organization above and beyond those identified in the requirements. Capabilities are not of immediate value to the organization but have the potential to provide future value, "

T/F: Solution scope is not considered when prioritizing requirements.

FALSE Solution scope is considered during the prioritization process to ensure the scope is managed, making this the correct answer. BABOK 5.3.5

T/F: Requirement Life cycle begins with project initiation and ends when the project is closed out.

FALSE The requirements life cycle begins before an initiative starts, with the representation of a business need, continues through the development of a solution, and ends when a solution and the requirements that represent it are retired. Remember that IIBA shies away from the word project, so watch for answers containing that word. BABOK 5.0, introductory paragraphs

T/F: Requirement Life cycle begins with the business need and ends when the requirements have been implemented.

FALSE The requirements life cycle does not end when requirements have been implemented. Remember Solution Evaluation, which covers the post-implementation lifespan. B

T/F: When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on understanding the need, the outputs are referred to as designs. When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on a solution, the outputs are referred to as requirements.

FALSE When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on understanding the need, the outputs are referred to as REQUIREMENTS When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on a solution, the outputs are referred to as DESIGNS

T/F: The project manager will determine the formality of the assessment process based on the information available, the apparent importance of the change, and the governance process.

FALSE The business analyst determines these three components, not the project manager. BABOK 5.4.4

T/F: The project manager will determine the formality of the assessment process based on the information available, the apparent importance of the change, and the governance process.

FALSE Business Analyst

T/F: Priorities are unlikely to shift as the context evolves and as more information becomes available.

FALSE!! Priorities may shift as context evolves. BABOK 5.3.4.3

T/F: An activity diagram utilizes business process model and notation (BPMN) so it can distinguish the activities of different participants in a process with either pools or swim lanes.

FALSE: An activity diagram utilizes unified modeling language (UML). BABOK 10.35.3.1

T/F: The business analyst should refrain from documenting recommendations to transform the process that are outside the scope of software automation.

FALSE: The business analyst should consider documenting recommendations ( e.g. simplify the work people perform by re-engineering or sharing processes), even though they are outside the scope of automation.

You know that having the business stakeholder Daniel Chardonne available to represent stakeholders on the project is key to its success. You have talked to Daniel and he said that the project is not as important to him as getting his daily work done. How might you get his buy-in?

Facilitate a meeting with Daniel and the sponsor to understand the issues of priorities and the impact of Daniel's unavailability on the project timeline. Correct This is an example of using Negotiation and Conflict (BABOK 9.4) and Interaction Skills (BABOK 9.5). Negotiation is needed to reach a common understanding, in this case about which has higher priority, the project or operational work. In addition, this kind of a meeting facilitates stakeholder communication and promotes stakeholder support of the proposed changes (BABOK 9.5 introduction).

Which of these statements expresses the most effective way for the BA to resolve conflict among the stakeholders about how to meet the business need?

Facilitate several meetings to discuss the differences among the stakeholders, ensure that they have an opportunity to express their feelings and needs, ensure an outcome that satisfies the needs of the stakeholder and aligns with the business need. The intent is to strengthen the relationships among the affected stakeholders. BABOK 9.5.4.3, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Skills suggest that it will probably take multiple meetings to have all parties be heard and have their feelings and needs expressed.

What is the Basis for prioritization?

Factors that can be used as basis for prioritization include benefit, penalty, cost, risk, dependencies, time sensitivity, stability, regulatory or policy compliance.

T/F: Business rules are exclusively expressed and managed through implementation technology for a given solution

False Business rules should be expressed and managed independently of implementation technology.

T/F: Techniques are prescribed by the BABOK.

False BABOK even encourages business analysts to engineer new techniques to best suit their situation.

T/F: Organizations are not likely to perceive risk as a threat to project success.

False Unidentified risks may lead to project failure depending on their magnitude

T/F: Techniques provide step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish a specific task.

False: BABOK states that multiple techniques may be applied alternatively or in conjunction with other techniques to accomplish a task. The BABOK provides guidance vs. step-by-step instructions. BABOK 1.4.5

Farouk is a business analyst working with a business owner to define the business requirements related to a new opportunity in his organization. He works in a company that produces bathroom fixtures. The company is known not only for high-end fixtures that are sold world-wide, but for its outstanding customer service. What factors will Farouk consider in order to document business requirements?

Farouk needs a thorough understanding of the opportunity and possible benefits given organizational constraints. **This is simply asking what are the components of a business requirement Cluie: "He works in a company that produces bathroom fixtures. The company is known not only for high-end fixtures that are sold world-wide, but for its outstanding customer service." = Business Need Answer should be about Business need rather than business requirements

assessment of the expected financial viability, stability, and benefit realization of an investment option.

Financial Analysis

Kathy is a new BA who asked you to review a business case she developed before she submits it for review and approval. The business case outlines a compelling change strategy and contains rigorous financial feasibility analysis for the recommended strategy. For the above Scenario, please answer question 1 of 2 below: You provide Kathy feedback that while her recommendation is compelling, something critical is missing. What is it?

Financial analyses of other change strategies. Each change strategy should include costs and benefits in order to determine feasibility. BABOK 6.4.4.4 Why is financial analysis so critical? S takeholders need to understand options considered and rejected to support their decision-making process.

Technique is used to prioritize requirements by financial value of a set of requirements and how the timing of delivery will affect that value.

Financial analysis

The purpose of this collaborative game is to identify hidden assumptions or perspectives

Fish Bowl

Simplest Facilitation tool to use when problems have human interaction component

Five whys.

She wants to know why the service level agreement (SLA) is not being met. Since the problem includes a great amount of human interaction, which facilitation tool would be most suitable?

Five whys. he human interaction element is a key to using Five Whys which is "...one of the simplest facilitation tools to use when problems have a human interaction component." BABOK 10.40.3.2

series of steps performed by actor and the solution that enable an actor to achieve a goal. Term

Flow of Events Use Case Description

A means to elicit ideas and opinions about a specific product, service, or opportunity in an interactive group environment.

Focus Group

Technique used to understand perspectives and attitudes about a given topic or product.

Focus Group

Elicitation technique is composed of pre-qualified individuals whose purpose is to discuss and comment on a topic under the guidance of a trained moderator.

Focus group Don't Confuse with Workshop A workshop is a focused event attended by key stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a concentrated period of time.

Technique breaks down complex business analysis processes into more feasible components, but may not help in the identification of possible activities that may have been left out.

Functional decomposition

The project manager has asked Raja for a list of all of his business analysis-related deliverables along with the associated activities and tasks as inputs into the project plan and schedule. What technique will serve Raja best?

Functional decomposition

Jan and Lisa's manager has asked them to identify and document which requirements could be reused for future mergers and acquisitions. Lisa has scheduled a meeting with colleagues to brainstorm ideas about which requirements could be reused. Which technique/tool may be best suited for this task?

Functional decomposition is the best tool to identify reusable requirements. BABOK 5.2.5 and 5.2.6

What are the three major considerations that a business analyst must consider when conducting stakeholder impact analysis on a solution?

Functions, locations, and concerns

Which tool used to support assessing enterprise limitations is defined as follows: "Boundaries of the proposed new, removed, or modified components of the enterprise, as well as the potential value expected from the future state"?

Future state descriptions Correct BABOK 8.4.5

"The sponsor wants the website fully functional when we go live. .We're going to have to watch costs carefully to hire contract developers & to purchase automated testing software. You are a business analyst & Scrum is new to =organization, several team members have voiced their concerns about who has the authority and responsibility to propose changes to features and who ideally should be involved in the change discussions. Also of concern is who will analyze and approve any changes to priorities during the project. Given the organization's past reliance on requirements documents, you also have an interest in how requirements and changes to them will be handled. Q1: What is one of the first thing(s) you need to do to ensure a successful outcome? Q2: What is your best choice to address the concerns expressed in the case study about responsibilities and authority for handling changes?

Work to establish effective working relationships with the stakeholders involved. The case study mentions the business need is understood. The business analysis approach is assumed to be adaptive given the selection of Scrum as the overall approach. With those in place, the next logical task is to Plan Stakeholder Engagement, which the answer essentially describes. BABOK 3.2.1 and 3.2.3 Q2: = Identify the appropriate decision makers and process needed for decisions to be made. Correct This is a partial description of the task Plan Business Analysis Governance, which uses the BA Approach and Stakeholder Engagement Approach as inputs. It would specifically address the concerns about how changes will be handled. If Scrum is followed, the Product Owner would be the appropriate decision maker. If the team is self-organizing, it would be responsible for the process. BABOK 3.3.2

Which technique is used to gain an understanding of the basis for prioritization by various stakeholders in a group setting?

Workshops Workshops can be used to gain an understanding of stakeholders' prioritization in a facilitated group setting.

4 Key Techniques is used when prioritizing requirements.

Workshops Item tracking Financial analysis Items Tracking

Which technique would you recommend to help Anna facilitate obtaining approval for her completed artifacts IN THE RLCM knowledge area?

Workshops ** Not reviews; Reviews are used to evaluate requirements in the RLCM

As a business analyst on an initiative with many stakeholders, you want to ensure that everyone's viewpoint is considered when coming up with key guidelines for the project. Which technique would help achieve this objective, when determining the business analysis approach?

Workshops help build the plan in a team setting. Skilled facilitation ensures everyone is heard. BABOK 3.1.6 and 10.5

You have published and distributed a hard copy of your requirements package to your stakeholders. Which of the following is the most important consideration regarding this type of written communication?

You need to adjust the style of writing to the needs of your audience. (Listed as effectiveness measure for written communication)

A solution architect has a paper prototype of the system for which you are the BA. She asks you to evaluate the solution to ensure it meets the defined measurements before she passes it on to the developers as she is going on vacation and won't be available for rework. How do you respond?

You suggest she build a prototype for evaluation purposes before development. ***The solution must be in use in some form in order to be evaluated. BABOK 8.3.3

A solution architect has a paper prototype of the system for which you are the BA. She asks you to evaluate the solution to ensure it meets the defined measurements before she passes it on to the developers as she is going on vacation and won't be available for rework. How do you respond?

You suggest she build a prototype for evaluation purposes before development. The solution must be in use in some form in order to be evaluated.

independent of any solution or technology and are primarily used to establish a consistent vocabulary describing business information.

conceptual entity-relationship diagram

The expected cost of building or acquiring the solution components and the expected costs of transitioning the enterprise from the current state to the future state.

cost of the change

A prediction of the expected total benefits minus the expected total costs.

cost-benefit analysis.

description of the business processes, information technology, people, operations, information and projects of an enterprise and the relationships between them.

enterprise architecture

As business analyst on an initiative, you are documenting relationships that exist between requirements. While traceability is valuable, you balance the number of relationship types with the benefit gained by representing them. Which stakeholder would be required to approve these relationships?

he sponsor is required to approve the various relationships in the trace requirements task.

Assessing enterprise limitations determines what?

how factors "external" to the solution are restricting value.

Technique that Allows stakeholders to rank the importance of outstanding items.

item tracking

What are the 4 general components of decision analysis?

lternative, decision to be made, decision maker, decision criteria.

"the path, method, or approach an enterprise or organization will take to achieve its desired future state Term?.

organizational strategy

This approach tends to be preferred when requirements can be effectively defined prior to implementation. Which Approach?

predictive approach

Business needs, business requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution requirements

represents software requirements traceability.

series of steps that enable an actor to achieve a goal

scenario

When a boundary of some sort needs to be defined.

scope models

Useful When the logic of usage sequences needs to be modeled.

sequence diagrams.

Analyze, synthesize, and refine elicitation results into requirements and designs. is the purpose of which task?

specify and model requirements task i

Leah the BA on project had been incredibly thorough in requirements elicitation, prioritization, and design definition. Three months after deployment, all performance measures reflect perfection. Still, online shoppers aren't happy. What would help Leah understand the customer experience?

use cases and scenarios would help her understand the expectations the user had about their interaction with the website *** Focus groups & Survey not helpful because they would just reveal the same information as the complaints and it wouldn't be a "quick" process.. Use Case would reveal the functional aspect of the system that the end user desired.

The planned value over a specific time period.

value realization

Brenda is developing a plan to measure solution performance. In addition to the measures themselves, what other considerations are part of the plan?

Volume or sample size, frequency and timing, currency.

Agreed-upon description of the elements to estimated are often in the form of a ________

WBS

How do we know that the current state is not involved in a scenario?

We know that the current state is not involved because the inputs, the implemented solution (external) and the business objectives (6.2), tell us so. *** The current state is not an input to this task (Strategy Analysis) or to the performance measures. BABOK 8.1.1

The lead business analyst and her team have completed an event that ensured the requirements and designs specifications and models meet quality standards. They now want to ensure that the stakeholders' desired future state is achieved. What question would the team be asking?

Were the right requirements stated? This questions about Validation, which ensures that the stakeholders' desired future state is achieved, which is what the team wants to do. Were the requirements stated right? = Verification=requirements and designs specifications and models meet quality standards

Phil is a BA on a project and is planning activities to evaluate the solution. The project is planned to have a total of four releases approximately four to six months apart. Each release builds upon the functionality in the prior release. When should Phil plan the assessments?

When it would add value but minimally after each release. Evaluations may be needed prior to deployment especially from an enterprise perspective Clue: 1. "planning activities to evaluate the solution." = Solution Evaluation (KA) 2. Element= Release Planning

When to use activity flow category models ?

When representing a sequence of actions, events, or a course that may be taken.

As a senior business analyst you have been approached by a junior business analyst to provide advice on when to use a capability model category. Which of the following is the correct response?

When representing features or functions of an enterprise or a solution.

When to use data and information category models?

When representing the characteristics and the exchange of information within an enterprise or a solution.

For parametric estimation to be valid, what must be available to the estimator?

Accurate history ****"It is important that the organization uses its own history to calibrate any parametric model, since the attribute values reflect the skills and abilities of both its staff and the processes used to do work."

technique is used to identify what may make the future state acceptable and/or how options may be evaluated.

Acceptance and evaluation criteria

Internal strategic planning and management tool used to measure an organization's performance.

Balanced scorecard

Tool for evaluating an organization against its competitors in support of a new initiative.

Balanced scorecard

Technique used to compare requirements to be prioritized. The backlog can be the location where that prioritization is maintained.

Backlog management

The volume of work items to be completed sometimes exceeds the capacity to complete them. Which of the following techniques identifies an approach for addressing this situation?

Backlog management

The purpose of prioritizing requirements is to rank requirements in the order of relative importance. Which of the following can be the location where the prioritization is maintained?

Backlog management is used to compare requirements to be prioritized. The backlog can be the location where that prioritization is maintained. BABOK 5.3.6 Don't pick Repository- Partially true. Repository is a very general term. (Req. Repository is for sorting requirements)

current internal environment of the solution including the environmental, cultural, and internal factors influencing the solution limitations. Term?

Solution Limitation

What are the 3 solution approaches?

Solution components creation Solution components purchase Combination of both creation and purchase

Potential solution options are defined and the one that is most likely to address the need and has the most value is recommended.

Solution core concept in the Business Analysis Core Concept Model

John, one of the approving stakeholders, just joined the company and requests a way to accurately assess alignment and completeness of requirements. Which of the following items would you provide to John?

Solution scope

The focus of this guideline in the assessments requirements changes task is to fully understand the impact of the proposed change on the solution vs. the business. B

Solution scope

Difference between decision analysis and decision modeling?

Decision analysis formally assesses a problem and models the possible consequences of different decisions, while decision modeling reflects how repeatable business decisions are made. Both of these techniques are used in the define future state task. BABOK 6.2.6, 10.16.1, and 10.17.1

WHO utilize maintained requirements when developing regression tests and conducting impact analysis for an enhancement.

IMPLEMENTATION SME

The rate which an investment breaks even. It tells whether the proposed solution is worth investing in.

IRR "the interest rate at which an investment breaks even, and is usually used to determine if the change, solution or solution approach is worth investing in." *** If IRR < Hurdle Rate, Don't Invest

Minimum threshold that an organization expects to earn from its investments Term

Hurdle Rate

The Solution Scope is an element in Define Change Strategy and an output from that same task.

Note this.

technique is used to gain an understanding of stakeholders' basis of prioritization or priorities in a facilitated group setting.

Workshops

Outcome of prioritizing requirements?

To determine which requirements should be completed first.

Why would Rod complete requirements prioritization?

To determine which requirements should be completed first.

Which of the following is the first output that you would create in BAPM?

Business analysis approach NOT BA PLAN!!

According to the BABOK, which types of requirements are elicited?

Business, stakeholder, solution, transition

number of occurrences of one entity in a data model that are linked to a second entity are called what?

Cardinalities

Ice-breakers during workshops are effective method for what?

Good way to get participants comfortable working together

Prototypes

"used to elicit and validate stakeholder needs through an iterative process that creates a model or design of requirements." Don't confuse with Screen Mockups---> Screen Mockups involved defining the design based upon elicited requirements, which the data model fields imply.

Senior BA & your team of 3 BAs has been asked to plan and facilitate an event to finalize an estimate of the potential value for each potential design option for a solution. Your goal is to establish which option is most appropriate to meet the enterprise's requirements. You see the value of the preferred option is $100,000, one of the BAs on your team thinks the value is $150,000, and a third one projects the value to be $80,000. Given what you know, what should the team set as the value for their preferred option?

$105,000 Correct The value for a PERT-type estimate is (Optimistic + Pessimistic + (4 times Most Likely))/6. $105,000 = (150000 +80000 + (4*100000)) / 6. See the Estimation technique. BABOK 10.19.3.1

Estimation technique that uses a combination of expert judgment and history.

Delphi Method

IDEF, BPMN, and IGOE are types of notations utilized in which of the following models?

Process models

Technique used to identify the overall state of an organization both internally and externally

SWOT

Business Analysis & Domain SME has primary responsibility for determining that this task is completed. TASK?

Validate Requirements

You want to use a requirements elicitation technique to produce a broad set of options for an identified problem. You want the stakeholders to help you identify options, factors that affect the solution and possible solution issues, along with risks and dependencies. Which of the following requirement elicitation activities would the best approach to satisfy these requirements?

** The scenario is describing brainstorming - the results of which could be organized in a mind map or an affinity map. BABOK 4.2.6 Clue: "broad set of options for an identified problem."

Transition requirements

- Describe the capabilities that the solution must have and the conditions the solution must meet to facilitate transition from the current state to the future state, but which are not needed once the change is complete. BABOK 2.3

What is a valid criterion to utilize when selecting techniques for an elicitation activity? (4 FACTORS)

BAs should select techniques based upon: 1. Desired outcomes, 2. cost and time constraints, the 3. culture of the organization, 4. access to sources of business analysis information, not their preferences even though it might be more comfortable.

8 Factors that serve as basis for the prioritization?

BPCRDTSR

5 Forces Analysis, PEST, STEEP, and CATWOE frameworks may be useful when utilizing which of the following techniques?

Benchmarking and market analysis

When considering changes or additions to existing requirements, business analysts assess the impact of the proposed change by considering several aspects, among them being WHAT WILL BE GAINED by accepting the change. What aspect is this?

Benefit (not Impact)

When requirements require a change, what are the key areas of impact that must be considered during the analysis of the requested change?

Benefit, cost, impact, schedule, and urgency

1Technique described as analyzing "the factors that influence their decisions to purchase, and the competitors that exist in the market"

Competitive Analysis NOTE: In the Techniques chapter Competitive Analysis is called Market Analysis,

As part of identifying and understanding an organization's business rules, Dakota has created and plans to present a class diagram to business stakeholders to validate her findings. She received significant pushback from the stakeholders saying the model was "too technical." What could Dakota create that might be more business-friendly?

Concept model. CLUE: 1. "identifying and understanding an organization's business rules," = Business Rules Analysis 2. "Class diagram too technical" *A concept model can be used when stakeholders perceive class diagrams to be too technical and the initiative needs to capture large numbers of business rules.

In order to confidently analyze the current state of an enterprise, what must the BA utilize as an input?

Confirmed elicitation results The BA will need confidence in the information so elicitation has to be confirmed before it can be used as a reliable input. BABOK Figure 6.1.1

You are a business analyst in Dubai working on a project install enterprise software to a global organization. Your business SMEs work in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Your developers are in India. You want to document requirements so that everyone has the same understanding. Which of the following will provide the best clarity?

Creating process models. It will be important to model 'as-is' and 'to-be' business processes. Models reduce ambiguity. BABOK 7.1.6 Using formal textual descriptions= Wrong b/c Text is more open to interpretation and formality will not ensure clarity.

"exploring changes to existing concepts and ideas and exploring concepts and ideas that are new." is a measure of effectiveness of which competency?

Creative thinking

You are in the process of assessing source documents that would be helpful in gathering background information, in order to understand the context of a business need Which 3 factors are consideration for this technique?

Document Analysis: 1. Whether or not the source's content is relevant, current, genuine, and credible. 2. Whether or not the content is understandable and can be easily conveyed to stakeholders as needed. 3. The definition of both the data to be mined and the data clusters that provide items grouped by logical relationships.

J who is working on defining design options, identifies that bank managers from various branches have some common needs that can better be met via a single solution, thereby reducing costs. What kind of improvement opportunity is she looking at?

Eliminating redundancy

What is traceability considered an enabler of?

Enhanced relationship management

The team has decided that they will use index cards to document their user stories, and will attach post-it notes to them to record data requirements and acceptance criteria. What has the team defined?

Information Management Approach "...the defined approach for how business analysis information will be stored, accessed, and utilized during the change and after the change is complete." BABOK 3.4.8

As a business analyst, you are given the following elicitation information: "The database shall support the generation and control of configuration objects, and the objects are themselves groupings of other objects in the database." Why would decomposing the above information be critical you?

Information decomposition would help identify anything that must change or not change to meet the business need or any missing components. *** Analysis provides a basis for discussion to reach a conclusion about the solution.

How can backlog management be helpful when analyzing and recommending a solution?

It can be used to sequence the potential value In managing backlog, the items at the top have the highest business value and the highest priority. BABOK 7.6.6 and 10.2

Elements that comprise a sequence diagram?

Lifeline, activation box, message

Associations (interfaces) in a use case diagram are shown through:

Lines.

Technique helps in identifying unique stakeholders needs,

Organizational Modeling

You have been asked to create requirements models that would help the project team understand roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that exist within the organization and align those structures with the organization's goals. Which requirements model category would you use?

People and Roles Trick Answer= Organizational Modeling but it's not a category

You have met with a key stakeholder to review requirements that are specific to the functionality her team will frequently use. She refuses to approve and sign off on the requirements, because she doesn't want to be held to only these requirements if additional needs are discovered. She also states that "We need to resolve these issues before the project can begin or the project will not succeed. You need to put tasks into the Business Analysis Plan to account for resolving them." What is your best response?

Review the change management process and provide assurance that any unforeseen requirements will be fairly considered in the change control process. ***Escalating to the project manager should be done after the Business Analyst has attempted to resolve the dispute directly with the stakeholder

Trevor has confirmed requirements for a report. He would like key stakeholders to review the work on the report thus far to ensure development is on the right track. What technique will Justin use?

Reviews are used to evaluate the content of a work product.

Technique that Provides procedural checks and balances, as well as data security, by restricting individuals from performing certain actions.

Roles and Permission Matrix?

Technique that promotes improved review of transaction history, in that audit logs can capture details about any assigned authorities at the time.

Roles and Permission Matrix?

Which Estimation Methods? Repeated estimates throughout an initiative or project, provide detailed estimates for near-term activities and extrapolates for the remainder of the initiative.

Rolling wave.

Sherry is doing analysis activities to identify potential problem areas for preventive action. She has described the issue to be addressed, collected data, and investigated the specific actions that contribute to the problem. She is now defining the corrective action that will prevent or minimize recurrence. What technique is Sherry applying?

Root cause analysis The question describes the main activities in root cause analysis

Given the various stakeholder points of view, what activity or outcome would you use to help assess alternative potential approaches to the changes needed for the company?

Root cause analysis. The business need is not yet defined, as evidenced by the 3 perspectives represented. All three stakeholders have potential solutions and root cause analysis would help determine the real business need. That is essential before devising a change strategy, which is what the question is driving at

Technique that enables business analysts to direct stakeholder's focus to the factor that are important to the business

SWOT

Technique that provides side-by-side comparison of various change strategies

SWOT

Kevin wants to model the 'why' of a change. Which technique would he use to accomplish this task?

Scope modeling. Correct This is one the techniques used in Rationale modeling category which models the "why" of a change. BABOK 7.1.4.1

Ryan is a BA working on gathering information for a business case. He is using benchmarking studies of the competition. He has determined that the potential risks associated with implementation are roughly the same as the expected value. Which of the following would Ryan most likely recommend?

Seek ways to increase solution value that will outweigh the risks.to keep pace with the competition. This is the best recommendation for this scenario. BABOK 6.3.4.5

T/F: Collaboration promotes a shared effort to resolve problems.

TRUE

She would like to model an employee's life cycle from the time they are a recruit until they are no longer with the company, along with the triggers that change their status. Which of the following diagrams will best suit her objective?

State diagram Don't confuse with sequence Diagram A sequence diagram shows the information passed between objects or processes in a scenario.

During the requirements elicitation phase of a project, the BA is hearing different requirements for various employee designations such as job candidates, new hires, employee, and retirees. Which technique can the analyst utilize to provide clarity and understanding?

State modeling State modeling describes and analyzes the various possible states of an entity within a system, including ow that entity changes from one state to another and what can happen to the entity when it is in each state. BABOK 10.44.1

Narrative description of the services or tasks that are required to be performed.

Statement of work (SOW)

T/F: Performance may be determined from the point of view of the stakeholders who are the recipients of the business analysis work.

TRUE Performance may also be assessed by a Center of Excellence or a personnel manager. BABOK 3.5.4.3

T/F: Risk originates from the uncertainty present in a solution.

TRUE Risk management's purpose is to identify areas of uncertainty that could negatively affect the value of a solution. BABOK 10.38.1

T/F: The tool that is chosen to manage requirements and designs may need to store other information as well

TRUE (Tool= Repository)

T/F: A balanced scorecard can be used at multiple levels within an organization.

TRUE Macrolevel ( Enterprise wide), Department/ Functional level Project Level (NOT EXECUTIVE LEVEL)

T/F: Evaluation criteria refers more to expected return-on-investment, which would support the recommendation.

TRUE & Correct

T/F: Requirements that are potential candidates for long-term use are those an organization must meet on an ongoing basis.

TRUE!!

T/F: When it is determined that the solution is consistently or repeatedly producing ineffective outputs, PROBLEM ANALYSIS is performed to find the source

TRUE!! ** INVESTIGATION = PROBLEM ANALYSIS

Team members are clamoring to buy new equipment but the boss said, "I've already put $50,000 into this thing, what's $20,000 more at this point?" As the team's BA, how do you contribute to the conversation?

The $50,000 is "water under the bridge" and though tempting, it shouldn't be used when considering future action. The $50,000 is sunk cost. Sunk costs cannot be recovered so are effectively irrelevant when considering future action. BABOK 8.5.4.2

Will has been responding to several questions about the solution requirements from confused developers. What is the most likely cause of the confusion?

The requirements were seemingly ambiguous and so most likely weren't verified. **Ambiguous is a quality characteristic which is the clue ---> If the requirements were verified (ie, meet quality expectations), they should not cause that much confusion.

A ratio of the benefits of a solution to be realized compared with the cost to obtain them. It provides a relative value of a change and can be compared with other potential investments.

The return on investment (ROI) of a planned change is expressed as a percentage measuring the net benefits divided by the cost of the change." BABOK 10.20.3.5

The business executive overseeing the funding for this initiative insists that analyzing the current state is a waste of time. She says that the gains in productivity will be made by allowing the software to drive the future state. How should Placido respond?

The risk of conflict among stakeholders and the delay caused by spending time resolving the conflict will be reduced by analyzing the current state. **Understanding the business need occurs as part of analyzing the current state.

A bank offered customers the ability to take a picture of checks to deposit via smart pone uploads. Despite ads, less than 1% of the target market used the feature. What did the bank neglect to consider?

The risk tolerance of stakeholders. In this case the risk analysis and management technique was apparently not done to assess the risks perceived by the customers of this process along with their tolerance level. BABOK 8.4.6 and 10.38

Fit of the frequency and latency of data to the management's need.

Timeliness

When considering changes or additions to existing requirements, business analysts assess the impact of the proposed change. When doing so they consider several aspects, among them the level of importance, including the factors which drive necessity such as regulator or safety issues. Which of the following would you pay the most attention to when assessing requirements changes?

Urgency "he level of importance, including the factors which drive necessity such as regulator or safety issues."

Technique contain considerable detail regarding the functionality of a system for any given number of scenarios related to the use case.

Use cases

Other stakeholders may discover problematic requirements during requirements communication TASK?

Validate Requirements

Once the requirements are verified, what is the next task a business analyst may perform, provided that other inputs required by the task are also available?

Validate requirements

When to use a capability model category?

When representing features or functions of an enterprise or a solution.

When to use people and roles category models?

When representing organizations, groups of people, roles, and their relationships within an enterprise and to a solution.

When is the best time for a business analyst to specify and model requirements during the elicitation and collaboration knowledge area?

Whenever it would add value to elicitation and collaboration tasks.

Artifact which hierarchically decomposes the work to be executed to accomplish objectives and create the required deliverables, not specifically the business analysis activities.

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Marie is required to show how elements work in harmony with one another to support the business requirements, and to structure the elements in various ways to align the viewpoints of different stakeholders. What techniques would be useful?

Workshops, scope modeling, interviews, organizational modeling, functional decomposition, data modeling. = "FW -DOSI" "how elements work in harmony with one another to support the business requirements, and to structure the elements in various ways to align the viewpoints of different stakeholders." = Definition of Requirements Architecture ---> Task Define Requirement Architecture

Who plays a role in aligning the delivered solutions with stakeholder needs.

business analyst

Who plays a role in aligning the designed solutions with stakeholder needs.

business analyst

A technique that describes the rationale for requirements.

business model canvas

Value chain, business process, sub-process, activity, task

process traceability