Business analysis is a research discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to

business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also consist of
process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy development. The person
who carries out this task is called a business analyst or BA.

Business Analysis
Glossary 2014 v2.docx

The following questions cover the most common knowledge, experience and abilities required for a
business analyst role. 

General

1. If you could take 2 training courses this year, what would they be? 

I would like to go for IIBA certification and PMP certification courses and get certified.

2. What do you expect of this role?

This role will require me to sharpen/enhance my skills and prepare me for more challenging
positions later in this company

3. What are project constraints? How are they different from requirements?

Constraints are limitations imposed on the project, such as the limitation of cost, schedule, or
resources, and you have to work within the boundaries restricted by these constraints. All
projects have constraints, which are defined at the beginning of the project.

The PMBOK Guide recognizes six project constraints: scope, quality, schedule, budget,
resource and risk. Out of these six, scope, schedule, and budget are collectively known as the
triple constraints.

A constraint can be of two types:

 Business Constraints: Business constraints depend on the state of your organization; for
example, time, budget, resource, etc.
 Technical Constraints: Technical constraints limit your design choice. For example, let’s
say you’re constructing a pipeline, and according to the design your pipeline should be
able to withstand a certain amount of pressure. This pressure limit is your technical
constraint.

 Requirements describe what we want to happen

 Constraints describe real-world limits or boundaries around what we want to happen
 4. What's the worst project you've been assigned? What was the root cause of the project's
problems?

SmartPM – It’s a project management tool developed in-house and implemented in-house.

By the time I have been assigned as a BA to the second phase of the project, the project was
already in use by all the business verticals of the company.

The first big problem which I faced with the project is identification of appropriate stake
holders within the organization as nobody was willing to take the responsibility.

And all of a sudden I was getting enhancements and change requests from various PM’s,
Delivery Head’s, and HR Department.

To manage those requests was the second biggest problem, as there was nobody to guide me
to filter the requirements and prioritize them according to the need of the organization.

5. Who do you most admire? Why?

I admire people who have positive thinking because being positive makes people to think
positive

6. What do you most enjoy about your current (or previous) role? What would you like to
change? 

I love interacting with the different stakeholders, analyzing the needs, identify the problem
and propose suitable solution. I love working on flow diagrams.

Change is the basic instinct of any human being. I go along with the situation and the time
demands.

There is always room for improvement and I look forward to getting trained and updated
with the recent and modern softwares/technologies, which would enhance my skills of
(Whatever the profession)
Strategic planning

7. What is the point of strategic planning? 

Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities,

focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other
stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended
outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a
changing environment

Strategic planning is the process of outlining a long-term vision for a company. This vision can
encompass many priorities and is generally intended to draw a map for future company
operations
 Strategic planning is a process undertaken by an organization to develop a plan for
achievement of its overall long-term organizational goals.

8. What is a organizational vision statement? 

A vision statement for a company or organization focuses on the potential inherent in the

company's future, or what they intend to be. While a vision statement might contain
references to how the company intends to make that future into a reality, the “how” is really
part of a "mission" statement, while the vision statement is simply a description of the
“what,” meaning, what the company intends to become.

9. What is the purpose of a organizational value statement? 

Every organization has a set of values, whether or not they are written down. The values
guide values can help an organization define its culture and beliefs. When members of the
organization subscribe to a common set of values, the organization appears united when it
deals with various issues.

10. What process do you use to plan a business strategy?

Mission and Objectives

The mission statement describes the company's business vision, including the unchanging
values and purpose of the firm and forward-looking visionary goals that guide the pursuit of
future opportunities.

Guided by the business vision, the firm's leaders can define measurable financial and
strategic objectives. Financial objectives involve measures such as sales targets and earnings
growth. Strategic objectives are related to the firm's business position, and may include
measures such as market share and reputation.

Environmental Scan

The environmental scan includes the following components:

 Internal analysis of the firm
 Analysis of the firm's industry (task environment)
 External macroenvironment (PEST analysis)

The internal analysis can identify the firm's strengths and weaknesses and the external
analysis reveals opportunities and threats. A profile of the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats is generated by means of a SWOT analysis

An industry analysis can be performed using a framework developed by Michael Porter

known as Porter's five forces. This framework evaluates entry barriers, suppliers, customers,
substitute products, and industry rivalry.
 Strategy Formulation

Given the information from the environmental scan, the firm should match its strengths to
the opportunities that it has identified, while addressing its weaknesses and external threats.
To attain superior profitability, the firm seeks to develop a competitive advantageover its
rivals. A competitive advantage can be based on cost or differentiation. Michael Porter
identified three industry-independent generic strategies from which the firm can choose.

Strategy Implementation

The selected strategy is implemented by means of programs, budgets, and procedures.

Implementation involves organization of the firm's resources and motivation of the staff to
achieve objectives.

The way in which the strategy is implemented can have a significant impact on whether it will
be successful. In a large company, those who implement the strategy likely will be different
people from those who formulated it. For this reason, care must be taken to communicate
the strategy and the reasoning behind it. Otherwise, the implementation might not succeed if
the strategy is misunderstood or if lower-level managers resist its implementation because
they do not understand why the particular strategy was selected.

Evaluation & Control

The implementation of the strategy must be monitored and adjustments made as needed.
Evaluation and control consists of the following steps:
 Define parameters to be measured
 Define target values for those parameters
 Perform measurements
 Compare measured results to the pre-defined standard
 Make necessary changes

11. Are you familiar with SWOT analysis? What is its purpose?

Specifically, SWOT is part often of the situation analysis, where the company determines
where it stands on four key strategic areas to better determine what changes to make.

The point of a SWOT analysis is to help you develop a strong business strategy by making
sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the
opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace.

12. What is your approach to strategic planning?

Same as 10
13. Why are balanced scorecards useful?

The Balanced Scorecard enables organizations to bridge the gap between strategy and
actions, engage a broader range of users in organizational planning, reflect the most
important aspects of the business, and respond immediately to progress, feedback and
changing business conditions.

The Balanced Scorecard can be a great help used as a strategic tool, a management

methodology or / and a measurement system.

It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in
order to continuously improve strategic performance and results.

The Balanced Scorecard provides organizations with the ability to clarify vision and strategy
and translate them into action. By focusing on future potential success it becomes a dynamic
management system that is able to reinforce, implement and drive corporate strategy
forward.

The concept of the Balanced Scorecard has achieved increasing popularity in the business
world. Many businesses had previously built their objectives around financial targets and
goals of little relevance to a long-term strategic vision, thus typically leaving a gap between
strategy development and implementation.

14. How do business environment factors feed into strategic planning?

For any business to grow and prosper, managers of the business must be able to anticipate,
recognize and deal with change in the internal and external environment. Change is a
certainty, and for this reason business managers must actively engage in a process that
identifies change and modifies business activity to take best advantage of change. That
process is strategic planning.
15. If you were asked to form a business strategy what factors would you consider?

MOST Analysis
SWOT Analysis

16. How do you translate strategy into action?

Phase 1: What is the current strategic plan?

 What is the strategic business plan

o MOST Analysis
o SWOT Analysis
 What are the functional goals
 What are the quantifiable objectives

Building Balanced Scorecard (Goals and Objectives)

 Vision – where are you going…not how you get there!

 Strategy - How are you going to get there
 A goal is a Qualitative Statement (Our marketing goal is to be number one or two in
our chosen market
 Each goal can be translated to an objective that can be measured. Objectives are
important because they are things we can measure. (To be number one or two, you
will need to have revenues of 5M by 2005)

Phase 2: Identify the critical success factors

 Critical success factors are the things that must happen for the objective to be
achieved
 CSF should be determined for each business objective
 Each business objective needs to have at least one CSF and may contain several

To achieve 5M in revenues the CSF’s would be

 To achieve 10 new customers per month

 To retail 99% of existing customers
 To increase average sales per customer to 750 pounds

The CSF’s then almost becomes objectives in themselves

Phase 3: Establish key performance indicators for each CSF

 KPI’s are measurements of how well CSF’s are being achieved

 KPI’s needs to be measurable
 Calculate the minimum performance for each KPI – to measure progress against the
target required for CSF to be achieved
  What is measured can be managed, and what is managed can be improved. 

Phase 4: Develop a management reporting system

 A management reporting system needs to be created to ensure proper monitoring

and review of KPI’s
 A review process needs to be established to ensure proper attention to the metrics
as well as proper escalation when necessary
 Without a management reporting system, CSF’s and KPI’s are useless
17. How does an organization build competitive advantage? 

Same as 16
Business Case Development

18. What is a business case? What information does it contain?

A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in
a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short
verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that,
whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a
specific business need. 

 Preface
 Table of Contents
 Executive Briefing
o Recommendation
o Summary of Results
o Decision to be Taken
 Introduction
o Business Drivers
o Scope
o Financial Metrics
 Analysis
o Assumptions
o Cash Flow Statement (NPV)
o Costs
o Benefits
o Risk
o Strategic Options
o Opportunity Costs
 Conclusion, Recommendation, and Next Steps
 Appendix
 19. Why is it important for a business case to document project alternatives?

20. What is the most effective way to document business benefits?

21. What financial forecasts are typically found in a business case?

 A typical financial plan includes:

o Sales Forecast
o Personnel Plan
o Profit & Loss Statement
o Cash Flow Statement
o Balance Sheet

22. Are you familiar with net present value? What is it?

The difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash
outflows. NPV is used in capital budgeting to analyze the profitability of an investment or
project. 

23. What is a payback period? 

Payback period in capital budgeting refers to the period of time required to recoup the funds
expended in an investment, or to reach the break-even point. For example, a $1000
investment which returned $500 per year would have a two-year payback period. The time
value of money is not taken into account.

Business Model Analysis

24. How do you identify business goals and objectives?

Organizations usually have a set of business goals and business objectives that they are trying
to achieve. Some of them are found in the statements of mission, vision and values outlining
what the organization wants to achieve and how they see themselves doing it.

 Vision describes the future identity

 Mission describes why that future identity will be achieved
 Values provide boundaries for how an organization defines its mission in order to
achieve its vision

25. How do you identify the current capabilities of a business?

Business analysts can access current capabilities by

 Reviewing existing documentation that defines the organizational capabilities

 Engaging with stakeholders to identify and define undocumented or under-
documented capabilities
 Once the current capabilities are reviewed, the business analyst can identify and describe the
missing capabilities the organization needs in order to meet the change.

26. Have you conducted a capability gap analysis? What is it?

The purpose of Assess Capability Gaps is: “To identify new capabilities required by the
enterprise to meet the business need.”

This task involves analyzing current capabilities, creating an assessment of new capability
requirements (aka business requirements) and documenting assumptions about how these
new requirements will help us achieve the business need.

For instance a dental clinic wants to switch from paper based record system to electronic
health records. They hire you as a lead business analyst for the project. Let’s take a look at
the inputs that go into the capability gap analysis. You should analyze the current capabilities,
assess the new capability requirements, and document if any assumptions are made on the
way. While current capability analysis ask the right questions such as does the company has
the resources and technological background to meet the new identified needs of the
business? Then narrow down the enterprise analysis to match the part of the enterprise
capabilities match up to the business need. Once that is done consider assessing the new
capability requirement. One of the most important steps amongst this is to carefully
document the assumptions that you make along the way.

We will first identify the business need that is the upgrade to entering the patient record in
the system from a paper based system. So assessing the business need is basis for analyzing
the capability gaps.

This will be followed up by the enterprise analysis which will give you a sense of what the
existing capabilities are. This will include technology people & work involved in the
organization. In our case we see that the record system is paper based, there are two
receptionist involved in the process, two dental surgeons and one assistant dental hygienist.

Then we will move on to the solution performance assessment. This is interesting; you not
only have to assess the performance of your new implanted solution but also the current
process in place. It gives you an idea about what the old process is doing and what the new
process will be capable of. It’s a great way to compare the productivity of current and future
state. In our example we have a process in place where the receptionist takes in the
information to set up the appointment of the patient and enter his insurance details. This
leads to errors or missed out fields. With the electronic records the new process is expected
to have a flow that will eliminate or minimize the chance of errors by raising the red flags for
fields entered incorrectly So there are multiple techniques that can be used for Gap analysis.
This one is detailed and particularly my favorites. But I warn you against any biases and see
what suits you best for your needs.
27. What is a business model?

A plan for successful operation of a business, identifying sources of revenue, the intended
customer base, products, and details of financing

It describes the rationale of how organization creates, delivers, and captures value

28. What's the difference between a business process and a business model?

Business Model

Business model ascertains how your business makes money. It identifies the services that
your customers value and shows the reciprocation of funds for the services your small
business renders to your customers. Of course, your small business may have more than one
method of generating income. Still, the business model simplifies the money process by
focusing on the largest income generator. For instance, a grocery store sells many items. It
may also provide additional services, such as lottery and check cashing. The business model
only recognizes the majority income generator, which is the sale of grocery inventory.
Therefore, the business model will reflect the sale of groceries to the customer, which
generates income at the time of the customer purchase. The customer benefits from the
wide selection of inventory and your small business enjoys the profits of the wide inventory
selection.
 Business Plan

The business plan provides the details of your business. It takes the focus of the business
model and builds upon it. It explains the equipment and staff needed to meet the details of
the business model. It also explains the marketing strategy of your small business, or how
your business will attract and retain customers, and deal with the competition. Furthermore,
the business plan explains the financial stability of your small business at a particular point in
time, as well as in the forecasted future. Overall, the business plan supports the business
model and explains the steps needed to achieve the goals of that model.

29. What company has the best business model (in your opinion)? Can you tell me what you
know about their business model?

30. What do you know about our business model?

31. What is business risk? How is it managed?

The term business risk refers to the possibility of inadequate profits or even losses due to
uncertainties e.g., changes in tastes, preferences of consumers, strikes, increased
competition, change in government policy, obsolescence etc .Every business organization
contains various risk elements while doing the business. Business risks implies uncertainty in
profits or danger of loss and the events that could pose a risk due to some unforeseen events
in future, which causes business to fail.

Once risks are understood and prioritized for action the team needs to determine what sort
of action is appropriate? Typical responses to risks are avoidance, transference, mitigation,
and acceptance. Each of these responses has certain characteristics and is appropriate to
certain types of risks.

Avoid
Avoid the risk by removing the potential risk through taking precautionary measures, which
at extremes can mean cancelling the project.

Transfer
Usually this means insuring against a risk occurring, but can also include getting the business
owner/sponsor to take accountability for the risk outside the scope of the project.

Mitigate
This means minimize the damage a risk can cause or reduce its likelihood of occurring (or
both) through taking precautionary actions.

Accept
In cases where the risk is considered unworthy of effort to manage it can be accepted. This
may occur in instances where the risk is so unlikely to occur as to not warrant attention, or
where the impact is insignificant in the content of the business and project’s environment.

32. How is risk measured? Can you give me an example of a time you measured risk? 
Main types of risk a business can face:
 strategic risk
 compliance risk
 operational risk
 financial risk
 reputational risk

The first step in measuring risk in your business is to get a much clearer idea of what your
risks are.

(Look at Everything You Do)

Strategic risk
 What would happen if a powerful competitor entered the market and started a price
war?
 Is there a chance that what we provide will simply go out of fashion, and do we have
a plan to adapt?
Compliance Risk
 Are we expanding to any new markets that may expose us to new regulatory
requirements?
 How sure are we that we’ve been complying with every single rule and regulation
that applies to our business?
Operational Risk
 What would happen if we lost power for more than 24 hours?
 What natural disasters are possible in our location?
Financial Risk
 What if our biggest client went bust and couldn’t pay its latest bill?
 Do we have a high debt load? How much of it is at variable rates?
 What if the interest rate on our loans increased dramatically? Could we still pay?

Reputational Risk
 What would happen if we got a negative review from a very influential magazine or
website?
 How would our business be affected by a mass of bad reviews or negative comments
on social media?

(Put It Together)
Asking these questions and more should help you identify some specific risks that your
business is subject to. List those risks in simple point form for now. We’ll add more detail
later. For example, your list might include:

 Key client XYZ Corp is late paying its invoice.

 Loss of power for more than 24 hours.
 Our Chief Operating Officer, Janet, leaves the company.
 A new competitor undercuts the price of our main product.
 Scathing product review from an influential magazine/website.

(Estimate the Likelihood)

 For each risk you've identified, ask yourself how likely it is to happen.
 very unlikely
 quite unlikely
 medium likelihood
 quite likely
 very likely
The idea is simply to give you a way of ranking each risk by the likelihood of it happening. For
example, if one of your key clients has been late paying invoices before, then you could score
that risk as a “4” or “5”.

(Estimate the Impact)

Now that you’ve decided how likely each event is, the next step is to estimate its impact. If
this thing happened, how would it affect your business? Would it be an inconvenience, or a
major threat to your survival?
As before, you can use a simple five-point scale:
 minimal impact
 low impact
 medium impact
 high impact
 devastating impact

(Create a Risk Scorecard)

By this stage, you should have a list of specific risks that could affect your company, and two
scores next to each of them: one for likelihood, and one for impact.

Now we’ll create a risk scorecard that summarizes these risks and their relative
importance. It’s actually very simple to do this. Just multiply the two numbers together, to
give an overall risk score. 

Here’s an example of how it could look:

Risk Likelihood Impact Risk Score
Key client XYZ Corp is late paying its invoice. 5 2 10
Loss of power for more than 24 hours. 1 3 3
Our COO Janet leaves the company. 4 4 16
A new competitor undercuts the price of our
2 5 10
main product.
Scathing product review from an influential
3 2 6
magazine/website.

Interpersonal & Communication Skills

33. Have you worked with a project manager who was too demanding or unreasonable? If so,
how did you handle the situation?

Yes. I would like to describe a situation where my PM was to demanding.

In DIPL I was working for a project called KNA (Kenya National Assembly). It’s a huge and
prestigious project which has around 20 modules of HIRS to be developed.

The time frame given for the requirement gathering process was 2 months. As it was a
prestigious project pressure started building up from the day one.

It was decided that onsite BA will interact with the client for requirement gathering and share
the requirements to offshore BA. Offshore BA will document the requirements and send it
back to onsite BA. Offshore BA will handle the delivery part.

Due to this model, time was running away and we are much way beyond the deadline for
milestone 1 requirement gathering which involved 3 modules.

During this phase due to time crunch there was immense pressure from the top management
as they don’t want any delays in the project.

So in the weekly status meeting I raised my concerns regarding clarity in requirements from
the onsite BA which is causing rework and delays in the schedule.

34. Can you tell me about the most difficult stakeholder you've work with? How did you handle
the situation?

I would like to explain about the stakeholder which I have worked with for JETKING project.
The difficulty I faced was in proper explanation and high clarified requirements. He always
insists do develop the application as per my understanding and later comes back with
changes. Due to which I faced severe problem as he came up with major change request.
After that I started documenting the requirement and started sending it for approval.

To handle difficult situations, we first have to be good listeners and acknowledge. Then talk
out our thoughts/points.

35. How do you resolve conflicts between stakeholders?

There was a conflicting requirement from two different stakeholders on the same
functionality.

 One stakeholder says approval of travel request sent by the PM should be first
approved by Operations Head and then Business Head
 Second stakeholder says approval of operations head is only required

I called both the stakeholders for a meeting to discuss on the same and asked them the
existing process they are following now and what are the challenges they are facing with the
existing process. I documented the As-is-process and To-be-process and showed them. I
 convinced the first stakeholder saying that two levels of approvals will delay the request and
delay in request might result in higher fares.

36. What was the best presentation you ever gave? Why was it effective?

37. What was the worst presentation you ever gave? What would you change?

38. What stresses you out (at work)?

Repetitive works due to lack of proper planning

39. Are you candid with people? Why is this important / not important?

40. What is the most assertive thing you've done (in a business situation)? 

Process Definition and Design

41. Can you tell me about a business process you designed? What value did it add?

I would like to brief about a business process which I designed when I was working with DIPL.
DIPL is an MNC having offices across the globe. Business demands frequent travelling of
employees to client locations geographically spread across the globe. There was a need for
efficient and effective travel management system to provide transparency for the
management on various travelling costs and per diems paid to employee’s onsite.

With that being said, management was looking for an online travel management system. So I
studied the existing business process (As is) and proposed a new business process (To be),
which was approved and implemented.

Travel Management System was designed with the below mentioned modules.

 Travel Request Management

 Travel Arrangements Management
 Travel Allowances Management
 Travel Settle Management

The tool not only improved the process but also yielded amazing insights to the
management.
42. What is process improvement?

Business process improvement (BPI) is a systematic approach to help an organization

optimize its underlying processes to achieve more efficient results.

Process improvement is an aspect of organizational development (OD) in which a series of

actions are taken by a process owner to identify, analyze and improve existing business
processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives, such as increasing profits
and performance, reducing costs and accelerating schedules.

43. What process improvement methodologies are you familiar with?

The tools and techniques most commonly used in process improvement include:

 DRIVE: It is an approach that can be used as part of process improvement.

o Define the scope of the process, the criteria to measure success by, and agree
the deliverables.
o Review the current process, identify and collect data.
o Identify improvements to the process and necessary changes to sustain the
improvements
o Verify that the improvements will achieve the goals that were defined, then
prioritize and plan the improvements
o Execute the plan and implement the changes, gather feedback and review
 Process mapping: This is a technique of creating a diagram to represent your process.
Examples include BPMN models, Value Stream Mapping, and flowcharting. This is
very useful to understand how a process works and where it can be improved, but by
importing these diagrams into a simulation and adding the real life data they
suddenly become a visual and interactive way to accurately test out changes on your
process.
 DMAIC: It is a process improvement cycle developed as part of the Lean Six Sigma
methodologies.
o Define: Define what is currently known about the process.
o Measure: Collect the data; decide what to measure and how to measure it.
o Analyze: Analyze the data collected to determine the cause of problems
(defects) in the process.
o Improve: Identify and implement solutions to address these defects.
o Control: Monitor the improvements to ensure sustained success
 Statistical Process Control (SPC)
o SPC is a strategy for reducing the variability in processes which are the cause of
most quality problems.
o Decisions and actions are all based on the analysis of data, so establishing a
thorough data recording system is the crux of this methodology.
o You can use SPC to monitor and control a process to ensure it is optimized. Its
most common application is quality control in manufacturing.
o An important tool for SPC is the Control Chart; used to monitor processes using
means and ranges.
  Simulation
o A simulation is a computer model that mimics the operation of a real or
proposed system, such as the day-to-day operation of a bank, the running of an
assembly line in a factory, or the staff assignment of a hospital or call center.
o The simulation is time based, and takes into account all the resources and
constraints involved, as well as the way these things interact with each other as
time passes. Simulation also builds in the randomness you would see in real life.
o For example, it doesn't always take exactly 5 minutes for a customer to be
served and a customer doesn't always arrive every 15 minutes. This means that
the simulation really can match reality, so when you make changes to the
simulation it will demonstrate exactly how the system would behave in real life.
o With simulation software you can quickly try out your ideas at a fraction of the
cost of trying them in the real organization. And, because you can try ideas
quickly, you can have many more ideas, and gain many insights, into how to run
the organization more effectively.

44. What is your approach to process design?

45. What is your approach to business process reengineering?

Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflows within and
between enterprises in order to optimize end-to-end processes and automate non-value-
added tasks.

Davenport prescribes a 5 step approach to Reengineering Business Process

o Develop the business Vision and Process objectives: The BPR method is driven
by a business vision which implies specific business objectives such as cost
reduction, time reduction, output quality improvement
o Identify the business processes to be redesigned: Most firms use the “high
impact” approach which focuses on the most important processes or those that
conflict most with the business vision. Lesser number of firms uses the
“Exhaustive approach” that attempts to identify all the processes within an
organization and then prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
o Understand and measure the existing processes: for avoiding the repeating of
old mistakes and for providing a baseline for future improvements
o Identify IT levers: Awareness of IT capabilities can and should influence BPR
o Design and build a prototype of the new process: the actual design should not
be viewed as the end of BPR process, Rather it should be viewed as a prototype,
with successive iterations. The metaphor of prototype aligns the business
process reengineering approach with quick delivery of results, and the
involvement and satisfaction of customers

46. How is business processes measured?

 A Business Metric is a quantifiable measure that is used to track and assess the status of a
specific business process. It's important to note that business metrics should be employed to
address key audiences surrounding a business, such as investors, customers and different
types of employees, such as executives. Every area of business has specific metrics that
should be monitored – marketers track campaign and program statistics, sales teams monitor
new opportunities and leads, and executives look at big picture financial metrics.

47. Can you give me an example of a business metric?

 Call Abandonment: Measures the number of callers that hang up before they can be
connected to an agent

48. Have you developed reporting requirements for a business process? What metrics or KPIs did
you include? 
 SmartOps
o Department wise travel expenditure for month/year
o Department wise Per-Diem paid for month/year
o No. of Travels requested vs approved
o Department wise No. of Travels for month/year
o Other Travel Costs (Hotels/Visa Fees)
o No. of Travel Settlements requested vs approved vs paid

IT Analysis

49. About Requirements?

50. Can you give me an example of a security requirement for an IT system?
All account modification events shall be logged. The event log shall contain date, time, user,
action, object, prior value, new value

51. How do you ensure that both technology and business understand requirements?

52. What is the purpose of a prototype?

In software development, a prototype is a rudimentary working model of a product or

information system, usually built for demonstration purposes or as part of the development
process.

53. What are architectural requirements?

54. What is the role of a solution architect in an IT project?

55. What are performance requirements?

A performance requirement specifies the speed or operational effectiveness of a capability

that must be delivered by the system architecture as seen by the technical layers within that
system architecture.
 Basic examples:
 Valid logon transaction response shall occur within 999 milliseconds of the request
when the system architecture is under nominal and peak transaction loads as
itemized by the transaction profile.
 Invalid logon transaction response shall occur within 999 milliseconds of the request
when the system architecture is under nominal and peak transaction loads as
itemized by the transaction profile.

Functional requirements address the needs and behaviors required by the user community
while performance requirements address the speed and effectiveness of the overall
architecture.

56. Have you noticed that technical personnel and business stakeholders use different
vocabularies? Can you give me an example? How do you ensure that everyone understands
your communications and deliverables?

57. How do you validate the technical feasibility of requirements?

58. What are non-functional requirements? Can you give me an example?

Basically, functional requirements describe the features, functioning, and usage of a

product/system/software from the perspective of the product and its user. Although referred
to as "requirements," they really are a form of design, albeit high-level. Functional
requirements also often are called "functional specifications," and "specification" is a
synonym for design.

Non-functional requirements are not non-functional at all. Rather, they describe various
quality factors, or attributes, which affect the functionality's effectiveness. They do not exist
in the abstract but only with respect to relevant functionality. They are often called "ilities,"
because many end in "ility," such as, usability, reliability, and maintainability.

59. In your experience, approximately what percentage of IT projects fail? As a business analyst,
what can you do to reduce the risk of a project failing?

60. What is data integration? Can you give me an example?

61. Have you developed integration requirements? What information did you include? 

Data integration involves combining data from several disparate sources, which are stored
using various technologies and provide a unified view of the data. Data integration becomes
increasingly important in cases of merging systems of two companies or consolidating
applications within one company to provide a unified view of the company's data assets.

Requirements (General)

62. Have you developed requirements in your current role? What challenges did you face?
63. What information goes into a requirements document?

 Purpose of the document

 Brief description of the project/product
 Scope from both a technical and business perspective
 Desired Outcome
 Stakeholder identification
 Market assessment and target demographics
 Product overview and use cases
 Requirements, including
o functional requirements (e.g. what a product should do)
o usability requirements
o technical requirements (e.g. security, network, platform, integration, client)
o environmental requirements
o support requirements
o interaction requirements (e.g. how the product should work with other
systems)
 Assumptions
 Constraints
 High level workflow plans, timelines and milestones (more detail is defined through a
project plan)
 Evaluation plan and performance metrics

64. What's the difference between a good requirements document and a great requirements
document?

65. What are some common problems with requirements?

 Ambiguous – They have several different meanings or interpretations

 Not cohesive – They do not capture the needed functionality from the business, user,
and data perspectives
 Incomplete – Simply, they don’t cover everything that needs to be addressed with
the product or system solution
 Inconsistent – Parts of the requirements negate information in other requirements
 Incorrect – They relate to the operator or to other external factors and not to the
product or system itself
 Out of date – They haven’t been updated since new needs have been identified or
new functionality has been included
 Too technical – Requirements are not in the language of the end users or
stakeholders, thus errors and misunderstandings occur
 Infeasible – They mandate functionality that cannot be implemented
 Not prioritized – Nice-to-have functionality is mixed in with must-have functionality
 Irrelevant – They provide for features that are not needed in the final solution
 Untraced – They are disorganized, making it difficult to determine how requirements
are related to each other
  Not built with the stakeholder in mind – Requirements are written for use by the
developer or engineer, without clear understanding of what the end user needs
 Unverifiable and not validated – They do not include verification approaches to
determine whether the requirement is properly implemented in the solution

66. How do you ensure that requirements don't contradict each other?

Consistent requirements do not contradict or conflict with one another. If they do, they
should be revised or removed. Consistency should also be applied to the Validate
requirements level of detail in your requirements document structure. All requirements at a
specific numbering level in your document should be written at the same level of detail.
Checking for consistency often requires a manual review and analysis of the complete set of
requirements.

67. How do you manage the situation in which different project stakeholders request
requirements that contradict?

68. Can you give me an example of a requirement for a car?

69. Can you give me an example of a bad or unclear requirement?

70. How do you ensure that requirements are traceable (it's possible to validate that
stakeholders actually requested it)?

71. How do you validate that requirements are feasible?

During the validation phase the requirements are evaluated against a question “Do the
requirement specify the right product?”. We check with the stakeholders whether the
requirements specify the product/service/change they really want. After the stakeholders
approve the requirements and commit that these requirements are what need to be
delivered, they are base lined and form a kind of contract for the rest of the project.

72. How do you ensure that requirements are clear and unambiguous?

73. How do you rank the importance of requirements?

 Complexity
 Business Value
 Risks
 Amount of work
 Dependencies

74. How are requirements verified? 

 Cohesive
 Complete
 Consistent
  Correct
 Feasible
 Modifiable
 Unambiguous
 Testable

75. Are some requirements easier to verify than others?

Yes

76. How do you ensure that requirements are verifiable?

• Cohesive
• Complete
• Consistent
• Correct
• Feasible
• Modifiable
• Unambiguous
• Testable

77. What is the potential project impact of low quality requirements?

78. How do you ensure that requirements are validated?

Validation assesses whether a product actually satisfies the customer needs (doing the right
thing). In contrast, verification determines whether the product of a development activity
meets the requirements established for it (doing the thing right). Both activities are vital to
successful product development, but we will focus on validation here. Requirements
validation attempt to ensure that:
o The SRS correctly describes the intended system capabilities and characteristics that will
satisfy the various stakeholders’ needs.
o The software requirements were correctly derived from the system requirements,
business rules, or other sources.
o The requirements are complete and of high quality.
o All requirements representations are consistent with each other.
o The requirements provide an adequate basis to proceed with design and construction.

79. Can requirements be too specific? If so, can you give me an example?

80. How do you manage changes to requirements?

81. How do you manage versioning of requirements?

82. In your current role (or previous role) how did you manage changes to requirements (change
control)?

83. What does it mean to baseline requirements? 

 A requirements baseline is a snapshot in time that represents the agreed-upon, reviewed and
approved set of requirements committed to a specific product release. That “release” could
be a complete delivered product or any interim development increment of the product.
When stakeholders “sign off” on requirements, what they’re really doing is agreeing and
committing to a specific requirements baseline (whether they think of it in those terms or
not).

Requirements Elicitation

84. What techniques have you used to elicit requirements from stakeholders?

85. How do you elicit requirements from stakeholders who don't seem to have any ideas?

86. Have you used any brainstorming or facilitation techniques to elicit requirements?

87. How do you manage key stakeholders who show little interest in providing requirements?

88. How do you manage stakeholders who change their requirements frequently to the point
that you have low confidence in their requirements?

89. How do you work with stakeholders who don't seem to understand the project?

90. Can you give me an example of a time that a stakeholder gave you a requirement that didn't
make any sense in the context of the project? How did you handle the situation?

91. How do you typically interview stakeholders?

 Ask your questions ahead of time (Send a list of questions ahead of time and ask for
answers a day before the scheduled to meet)
 Structure your interview as a walkthrough (Doing a walkthrough of the current
website or product helps add context to the answers you collected ahead of time.
Reviewing every web page or product feature with someone who understands it
inside and out can be very revealing. You will learn what areas they are passionate
about, what they hate, and motivations for past design choices. This is also a good
method for keeping the conversation on track and avoiding side-tangents or solution-
based discussions)
 Stop taking notes and record your session
 Summarize your findings and share them with your stakeholders

92. Have you organized requirements workshops?

Same as 94

93. Are you familiar with reverse engineering of existing systems? Is it difficult? Why / why not? 
 94. What techniques do you use to plan and conduct requirements elicitation workshops, use an
example if you can?

“Well, just last week I ran a requirements elicitation workshop for a new project to upgrade how
we recognize impairments at our company. The first thing I did was to prepare participants for
the discussion by distributing supporting materials prior to the meeting. This included draft
documents, straw model diagrams and a pre made list of questions designed to stimulate
thoughts and ideas.

With so many stakeholders coming from diverse areas of the company, this strategy allowed
everyone to be on the same page when we actually met in person.

During the meeting, I communicated the agenda, the timeline and high level objectives of what
we were trying to achieve. I then reminded everyone that if the discussion strays away from our
objectives, I will cut the conversation short and move the discussion back to the topic at hand.

Finally, I documented the decisions and action items that arose from the meeting and published
the workshop discussion on SharePoint. This helped ensure that everyone had a consistent
understanding of the requirements discussed, and the notes would be a valuable resource in
resolving any subsequent churn or debate.

In the end, I had two senior executives seek me out after the meeting and say that this was the
most productive requirements gathering workshop they had ever been in.”

User Interface Requirements

95. What's the best user interface you've ever used? What makes it good?

96. What information goes into user interface requirements?

97. How do you help stakeholders who aren't familiar with user interface design to define
requirements? 

UML

98. What is your favorite modeling language?

UML

99. What is UML?

100. What is a use case? Can you draw me a use case for a car?
101. Include and Extends in Use Case?

Extend is used when a use case adds steps to another first-class use case.

For example, imagine "Withdraw Cash" is a use case of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
"Assess Fee" would extend Withdraw Cash and describe the conditional "extension point"
that is instantiated when the ATM user doesn't bank at the ATM's owning institution. Notice
that the basic "Withdraw Cash" use case stands on its own, without the extension.

Include is used to extract use case fragments that are duplicated in multiple use cases. The
included use case cannot stand alone and the original use case is not complete without the
included one. This should be used sparingly and only in cases where the duplication is
significant and exists by design (rather than by coincidence).

For example, the flow of events that occurs at the beginning of every ATM use case (when
the user puts in their ATM card, enters their PIN, and is shown the main menu) would be a
good candidate for an include.

102. What information does a use case capture?

 Updated By
 Updated Date
 Use Case ID
 Use Case Description
 Actors
 Trigger
  Pre-Conditions
 Basic Workflow
 Alternate Workflow
 Post-Conditions
 Risks
 Business Rules

103. What are the different types of use cases?

There are three types of use cases: Essential, Concrete and Abstract. They are defined as
follows:
 Essential Use Cases ... are expressed in an ideal form that remains relatively free of
technology and implementation details; design decisions are deferred and
abstracted, especially those related to the user interface.
 Concrete or Real Use Case concretely describes the process in terms of its real
current design, committed to specific input and output technologies and so on. When
a user interface is involved, they often show screen shots and discuss interaction
with the widgets.
 Abstract Use Case is not complete and has no actor that initiates it but is used by
another use cases.

104. Have you used activity diagrams? What do they depict? 

Activity diagram is basically a flow chart to represent the flow form one activity to another
activity. The activity can be described as an operation of the system.

The basic purposes of activity diagrams are similar to other four diagrams. It captures the
dynamic behavior of the system. Other four diagrams are used to show the message flow
from one object to another but activity diagram is used to show message flow from one
activity to another.

The activity diagram is suitable for modeling the activity flow of the system. An application
can have multiple systems. Activity diagram also captures these systems and describes flow
from one system to another. This specific usage is not available in other diagrams. These
systems can be database, external queues or any other system.
Others

105. What is a flowchart and why it is important?

Flowchart shows complete flow of system through symbols and diagrams. It is important,
because it makes the system easy to understand for developers and all concerned people.
106. Define Use Case Model?
Use case model shows sequence of events and stream of actions regarding any process
performed by an actor.
107. What does UML stand for?
It stands for Unified Modeling Language.
108. Do you think Activity Diagram is important and how?
As the name implies, activity diagram is all about system activities. Main purpose of activity
diagram is to show various activities taking place in an organization in different departments.
109. Can you name the two types of diagrams heavily used in your field?
The two diagrams are Use Case Diagram and Collaboration Diagram
110. Do you know what is meant by an alternate flow in a use case?
It is the alternative solution or activity in a use case that should be followed in case of any failure
in the system.
111. What are exceptions?
These are the unexpected situations or results in an application.
112. What are extends?
Extends are actions that must take place in a use case.
113. Name the two documents related to a use case?
The two documents are FRD (Functional Requirement Document) and SDD (System Design
Document).
114. What is the difference between Business Analyst and Business Analysis?
Business Analysis is the process performed by the Business Analyst.
115. As a business analyst, what tools, you think are more helpful?
There are many but I mostly use, Rational Tools, MS Visio, MS Word, MS Excel, Power Point, MS
Project.
116. In your previous experience, what kind of documents you have created?
I have worked on, Functional Specification Documents, Technical Specification Documents,
Business Requirements Documents, Use Case Diagram etc., User stories
117. What INVEST stands for?
INVEST means Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized Appropriately, Testable. It
can assist project managers and technical team to deliver quality products/services.
118. Define SaaS?
 SaaS means Software as a Service. It is related to cloud computing. It is different from other
software as you don’t need this type of software to be installed on your machine. All you need is
an Internet connection and a Web Browser to use it.
119. What steps are required to develop a product from an idea?
You have to perform, Market Analysis, Competitor Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Personas, Strategic
Vision and Feature Set, Prioritize Features, Use Cases, SDLC, Storyboards, Test Cases,
Monitoring, Scalability.
120. What do you think is better, the Waterfall Model or Spiral Model?
It all depends on the type and scope of the project. Also a life cycle model is selected on the
basis of organizational culture and various other scenarios to develop the system.
121. How can you explain the user centered design methodology?
It all depends on the end users. In such scenario, we develop the system with a user’s point of
view. Who are the end users, what they require etc. Personas are basically social roles,
performed by any actor or character. It is derived from a Latin word meaning character. In
marketing terminology, it represents group of customers/end users.
122. How do you define Personas?
Personas are used instead of real users that assist developers and technical team to judge the
user behavior in different scenarios, more clearly. Personas are basically social roles, performed
by any actor or character. It is derived from a Latin word meaning character. In marketing
terminology, it represents group of customers/end users.
123. Define Application Usability?
Application usability is actually the quality of the system that makes the system useful for its end
users. System’s usability is good if it is capable of achieving users’ goals. Personas are basically
social roles, performed by any actor or character. It is derived from a Latin word meaning
character. In marketing terminology, it represents group of customers/end users.
124. Explain in your words, what is database transaction?
When we perform any activity in a database, such as addition, deletion, modification, searching
etc. is said to be a database transaction.
125. Define OLTP Systems?
OLPT stands for On-Line Transaction Processing; such systems are capable to perform database
transactions and are meant to provide good speed for database transactions. These systems are
mainly used for data entry and retrieving data from the database.
126. Do you have any idea about Pugh Matrix?
Pugh Matrix is used to decide about the most optimal and alternate solutions. This technique is
now a standard part of Six Sigma technique. It is also known as problem or design matrix.
127. What FMEA stands for?
 It means Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It is a failure analysis, that is used mainly in product
development, system engineering and operations management. This analysis is performed to
figure out various failure modes and their severity in any system.
128. What is a 100-point method?
This method is used to assign priority to different steps in a process. Each group member is
supposed to assign points to different steps. In the end all the points for each step are
calculated. The step having the highest points has the highest priority.
129. Do you know what 8-omega is?
It is a business framework that is mainly being adopted by firms and organizations for the
betterment of their business. Its key factors are  Strategy, People, Process, Technology.
130. Can you define mis-use case?
It is a term derived from use-case. Unlike use case, a mis-use case is something that shows -what
kind of malicious activities can be performed by an actor that may result in system failure.
131. What is SQUARE stands for?
SQUARE stands for Security Quality Requirements Engineering. It is one of the software
engineering steps that mainly focus on documenting the security requirements of the system.
132. What is Pareto Analysis?
It is a decision making technique, also known as 80/20 rule.  It is used for quality control and
defect resolution. It explains few factors that can be responsible for big problems. It is named as
80/20 rule, because as per this rule, 80 % effects in the system, arises from 20 % causes.
133. Do you have any idea about Agile Manifesto?
Agile Manifesto is a guide for software developers about the development principles to ensure
iterative solutions.
134. What BPMN stands for?
It is Business Process Model and Notation. It is a graphical representation of business processes.
135. Define BPMN Gateway?
BPMN Gateway is a processing modeling component that is used to control flow of interaction,
sequence of processes.
136. Name the five basic elements’ categories in BPMN?
They are Flow Objects, Data, Connecting Objects, Swimlanes and Artifacts.
137. Have you ever used Kano Analysis in your previous jobs and how do you define it?
Yes, I have used Kano Analysis in one of my previous jobs. Kano Analysis is used to analyze a
system in terms of its requirements to identify its impact on customers’ satisfaction.
138. How many key areas are there in a Kano Analysis?
They are three in number, namely as Unexpected Delighters, Performance Attributes and Must
Have Attributes.
139. Define Pair-Choice Technique?
 The pair-Choice Technique is used to give priority to various items in a process. It is mainly used
when distinctive stakeholders are involved in the project. This technique asks from the group to
compare each item with the other and select the one having highest priority.
140. Do you have suggestions to make an effective use-case model?
Yes, I would suggest making two separate diagrams. One serves as a use-case and the other
serves as an actor diagram. So that we can highlight all the possible activities in a use case & in
actor diagram and then we can merge both the diagrams to get an effective use-case diagram.
141. How many types of actor can be there in a Use-Case?
There are primary and secondary actors. Primary actors start the process and secondary actors
assist them. Moreover, actors can be of four types such as Human, System, Hardware and
Timer.
142. Define BCG Matrix?
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix is developed to analyze several of business processes
and new product offerings from companies. It is a useful tool that can be used in portfolio
analysis, strategic management, product management, and brand marketing.
143. How can you differentiate between pool and swimlane?
A swimlane is related to group activities on an activity diagram while a pool is dedicated activity
to a single person.
144. Differentiate between Fish Model and V Model?
Fish model is comparatively very costly and time consuming, while, V model requires less time
and cost. Moreover, Fish model is used when there were no ambiguities in the customers’
requirements. Otherwise, other model is preferred.
145. How do you manage frequently changing customers’ requirements while developing any
system?
As a business analyst, I would develop a document stating clearly that no change will be
accepted after a certain period of time and get it signed by the user.
146. Define Use Case points?
Use Case points are used to evaluate the cost of work done to develop the system.
147. What does PEST stand for?
It means Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. It is used to analyze business
environment, in which it has to be operated.
148. Name the four key phases of business development?
They are Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.
149. Define Benchmarking?
Benchmarking is about measuring performance of an organization to compete in the industry. In
this process a company may measure its policies, performance, rules and other measures.
150. What do we mean by SWEBOK?
 It means Software Engineering Body of Knowledge.
151. What do you know about GAP Analysis?
It is a process of comparing and determining the difference between two things or processes.
152. Define Agile?
Agile is basically a technique that uses several light-weight methodologies such as Rapid
Application Development (RAD), Extreme Programming (XP) and SCRUM. All these
methodologies focus on the development of iterative solutions.
153. Define Scrum Method?
It is one of the agile methods, used to develop iterative information systems. In this method a
small team works on the assigned tasks for a time period of 30 days usually.
154. What does JAD stand for?
It means Joint Application Development.

155. What is Stakeholder Analysis and how does it benefit the business analyst?
Stakeholder Analysis is the process of identifying project stakeholders, how their needs may
impact the project, and the contributions that the stakeholders will make to the requirements elicitation
process.  Projects typically have a large number of stakeholders from many different areas of the
organization.  Based on each stakeholder’s position and responsibilities, the level of their involvement
and their importance to the project will vary.

Stakeholder Analysis is sometimes called a Stakeholder Involvement Plan or a Stakeholder Elicitation

Plan.  Regardless of the name used, Stakeholder Analysis goes beyond identifying project stakeholders. 
After all project stakeholders have been identified, it should be determined how involved each
stakeholder should be in the requirements elicitation process.  The business analyst should document a
number of factors for each stakeholder including:

 Importance – How important is the stakeholder in the requirements elicitation process?  Are
they required in order to document all of the critical project requirements, or are they nice to have
adding clarity to processes that may further refine requirements?  Answering these questions will
help ensure that the project will meet its goals and objectives, and that critical requirements aren’t
missed.
 Influence – How influential is the stakeholder to the project?  Even if they aren’t needed for the
requirements elicitation, are they in a position of authority?  Does the stakeholder have the ability to
dramatically alter the course of the project if they hear about and are unhappy with the current
direction of the project?  Answers to these questions will ensure that the most influential
stakeholders are updated on a regular basis with the project status.
 Level of Involvement – What level of involvement and how much time will be expected of each
stakeholder?  Do they need to be fully allocated to the project?  Do they need to be in every
requirements elicitation session?  Can they be involved in only key requirements elicitation sessions?
Do they only need to attend a final requirements review session?  These questions help ensure that
the necessary people are made available to the project for the right amount of time.
 Frequency of Involvement – How often will each stakeholder need to be involved; daily, every
other day, once per week?  This information will help the business analyst plan and schedule the
necessary meetings accordingly.
 Method of Involvement – What method will be used to involve each stakeholder?  Will they
receive email-based status reports? Will they be involved in requirements gathering sessions?  Will
they be asked to sit in one-on-one requirements interviews?  This information will aid in
development of a communication plan and the appropriate selection of communication techniques.
1) Question: What is the importance of a flow chart?

Answer: When answering this question you need to make it clear that you understand what this
tool is used for. A flow chart is a tool that provides a graphical representation of a process. This
chart will make a system easy to understand for everyone that is involved with the project that is
underway.

2) Question: What is a use case model?

Answer: A use case model is a tool that is used to describe the business environment. The goal of
the tool is to show the actions and events that take place during a given process that is performed
by an actor.

3) Question: What is UML modeling?

Answer: UML stands for Unified Modeling Language. It is the standard in the industry for
visualizing, documenting and constructing various components of a system.

The interviewer will likely want to know that you understand how each of these tools is used in the
daily life of a business analyst professional. It is crucial that you can describe the methods and
techniques used for each tool in a manner that shows you know what you are talking about. Check
out the following course to better understand financial modeling and be informed when you
answer questions at your interview.

4) Question: What is an activity diagram and why is it significant?

Answer: The purpose of an activity diagram is to provide an outline of work flow in the business,
including the action and activities that are completed. For example, with a company there is likely
to be more than one department, with various access levels to the system. If there are
departments including HR, Medical and Accounting, they only have access to the screens that
relate to their work. An activity diagram will be used to highlight the differences in the
departments, which is extremely helpful for developers when they are coding and designing.

5) Question: What is the role and responsibility of a business analyst?

Answer: If you are interviewing for the position of a business analyst, you should be able to answer
this question without much thought. Some of the jobs of a business analyst will include comparing
facts and figures, listening to managers and shareholders to provide effective solutions for
problems and the negotiation of issues between departments. Check out the course on business
analysis to learn more about your role in this position.

6) Question: How well do you understand Risk and Issue?

 Answer: As a business analyst this is something that you will face on a daily basis. Fully
understanding these terms is crucial for securing this job. Risk refers to something that can be
forecasted and handled by creating mitigation plans. Risk that happened is called Issue. There will
be issue management or contingency management to solve issue. As a business analyst you will
not be solving the issue, but rather trying to make Damage control and use the knowledge gained
as a learning experience for projects in the future.

7) What analysis and modeling techniques and methodologies have you found to be the most
effective, and why?

8) What are some of the most important points a business analyst must take care of when preparing
a business plan?

9) What diagrams and/or other materials do you use to capture and describe customer needs and
convey technical information?

10) How many business case engagements have you worked on? What was your involvement?

11) Tell me about a time when you created long-range plans at a previous employer.

12) How do you determine which Business Intelligence (BI) tools to use?

13) If two companies are merging, explain what tasks you would implement to make the merge
successful, and how you would implement those tasks.

14) Explain the steps you must take to create use cases when working with specific document
requirements.

15) Describe three of the different types of diagrams that business analysts most often use.

16) Define and describe the difference between basic flow, exception flow, and alternate flow in use
cases.

17) Question: You have joined a new project as a BA. What do you think you should do to acclimatize
to the project and set yourself in the BA role?

Response:
In an ideal project the BA lead or the project manager should:
 Have an induction plan and a well-defined process to bring you up to speed on the project.
 Introduce you to the project team or at least the team members working on the module you
need to work on.
 Assignments and deliverable expectations ready for you to work on.
The fact is that this kind of induction plan never exists. At the maximum you may get your
computer and get introduced to couple of team members. Many times you are left in the cold to
learn the hard way.

Nevertheless, a BA should have his own induction plan. The new BA should take an appointment
with the BA lead or ask to assign a person to go over the induction plan. The induction plan can
include:
     
Assignments –
 A brief Introduction about the project
 The assignment you need to work on and how the assignment fits into the big picture. The
assignment could be a change request or a brand new module. You may also want to know
the background and the importance of the module.
 Request to include you in the related status and requirement meetings

Document repository – Where does the team store the requirement artifacts? Where does the
project management plans and schedule are kept? These could be at a SharePoint location or a
shared folder.

Resources: Ask about:
 The software you need to get the work done for example to read the XSD or XML files, to
create diagrams, client databases, etc. 
 The access rights to different SharePoint locations and folders.
 Formalities to put request for the above two things.

Environmental factors - Ask your lead to explain:

 The typical process for requirement gathering for example how the requirements are
received, who is the main stakeholders, what are the general requirement gathering
techniques followed, etc?
 Templates and Document approval – where are the template and sample artifacts kept,
what is the life cycle of a typical artifact for example initial draft, peer review, QMO review
etc.
 Life cycle of a release – How does a release start, how the modules are allocated, what are
the release start and end activities, what are the approximate time lines, and so on. 

Organizational factors – 
 Who could help you with the current assignments and if you can be introduced to them.
 How the team is organized internally – For Example – Interface BA, Requirement BA,
development, testing, management team, and so on. Ask where the organization chart is
located.
 The important external stakeholders for example – client, vendors involved, and so on. The
client may split the project among many vendors.

You may not know the above details in one session and may have to reach out to different people
formally or informally. Learning the finer details could be a gradual process. It could also vary from
person to person depending upon the background knowledge and grasping capabilities.

Usually most of the interviews start with questions like:

-          Introduce yourself. 
-          Can you tell us about your IT back ground? 
-          Can you tell us about your Business Analysis back ground? 
-          How do you think you are best suited to this position? 
-          What were your roles in the past few projects?

Depending upon the answer the interviewer will ask next set of questions. Some of the basic
requirement related questions could be:
 -         What are requirements? 
-          How do you go about collecting requirements? 
-          What are JAD sessions? 
-          What is the role of a BA in SDLC? 
-          What are use cases? 
-          How do you ensure traceability?

If the requirement is technical and employs certain methodology then there could be questions like: 
-          How do you apply Business Process Modeling (BPM) for requirements? 
-          How do you use Unified Modeling Diagram (UML)? 
-          What is the difference between Agile and Waterfall techniques? Which one is better?

If the project uses requirement tools and databases then you could be asked: 
-          What requirement management tools you have used? 
-          Describe SQL joins. 
-          What modeling tools you have used?
Q01) Tell me about yourself. ?
A) I think you have already well prepared to answer this question. Still I must say make your Introduction
a brief one. Don't describe everything that you have mentioned in your resume again. Try to speak
different and unique answer.
Q02) What are your strengths and weaknesses ?
A) You can tell your strengths what you have exactly that you feel from your heart. for ex: You are
having a very good Organizing and Managing skill, You are a very good learner etc.

Try to avoid explaining your weaknesses to the Interviewer. You can tell like this. For Ex:- I am trying to
rebuild all my negativities inside me to positive ones always. And I like this attitude in me.  
Q03) Why you have selected this Job Profile for the position Business Analyst?
A) I have selected this Job profile, because I like to meet and deal with new peoples, I love to make new
friends from different corners of the world. Also I like to deal with challenging situations which generally
Business Analysts face each and every day. And all these things attract me towards this Job Profile.
Q04) What you think what are the roles and responsibilities of a Business Analyst?
A)  I have described the Roles and Responsibilities of Business Analyst in one of my previous post. You
can check it out over here.
Q05) What do you think about the challenges faced by a Business Analyst?
A) Change management is the biggest challenge in each and every industry. After requirements stage
when development is started client will come-up with some new changes or enhancements.  

Cross departmental or cross team management – like conflict management between teams. Also
individuals. This requires soft skills and smartness. 

Communication problems – In real time this can happen. You might be good in speaking and
understanding the English language. BUT sometimes it happens like Different people across the globe
speak different style of English. In USA itself Mexico people speak English differently. Romans speak
different English. So at initial level to understand the accent can be a challenge but after some time you
will become perfect. 
Q06) Have you ever managed any Project or any Team? If yes then what was your roles there?
A) If you have ever managed a Project or a team then don't hesitate to mention in the Interview. In this
type of questions you can mention your previous experience briefly and impress the jury.  

Ex- Yes, I have managed some projects in my previous Organization. Even I have involved in so many
steps of Software Development Life Cycle like Client Consulting & follow up, Client requirement study,
Preparation of different related documents, Preparation of Architecture diagram etc.
Q07) How do you handle changes to requirements?
A) I will definitely prioritize the changes to requirements, scope of changes and the impact analysis to
the project. I will perform impact analysis to the project cost, timeline and resources. I will evaluate if
the scope change is introducing new gaps to the technical or functional designs or development and
testing !
Q08) What do you think is the most important responsibility of a business analyst?
A)  Requirements gathering, functional design and business process, change management etc are very
critical tasks for a business analyst.
Q09) What is SDLC?
A) The Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework defining tasks performed at each step in
the software development process. SDLC is a structure followed  by a development team within the
Software Organization. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain and replace
specific software. The life cycle defines a methodology for improving the quality of software and the
overall development process.
Q10) What are the tasks of a Business Analyst in Software Development Life Cycle?
A) Generally a business analyst covers several stages in Software Development Life Cycle.
Like:  Client Consulting, Client Requirement Study, Planning for business needs, Business Requirement
Documenting, Work on functional requirement, Prepare test data with inputs from end users, Document
use case scenarios, Help Testing team with test plan and testing, Help end users with user acceptance
testing UAT, Go live and post production support tasks.
Q11) Explain what is the process of documenting business, functional and technical requirements?
A) The Process usually involves becoming an expert in the workflow of the end users through interview,
observation and analysis of the existing system. The BA will document the business requirements but
must always be sure that they have the end users concurrence that they have correctly defined the
needs to be implement in the system.
      Functional requirement is where the BA working with the end users and the developers begins to
actually design the system that will satisfy the Business Requirement. This functional requirement will
layout the various screens and features that will allow the end users to satisfy the Business
Requirements i.e. How the system will satisfy the end users.
       The Technical Requirement will layout the databases tables and processes that will be used to run
the system. 
Q12) What qualities do you feel a successful Business Analyst should have?
A) First of all a successful Business Analyst should have the leadership quality. Most essential skills
supposed to be are: Good Communication skills and Good Documenting Skills. 
Q13) What are skills required for a Business Analyst?
A) You can follow the same answer as in Question no. 12.
Q14) How do you define a traceability matrix?
A) Traceability matrix is a cross matrix for recording the requirements through each stage of the
requirements gathering process. This matrix should also take into account any changes in the scope
during the life of the project. 
     At the end of the project this matrix should show each function built into a system, its source and the
reason that any stated requirements may not have been delivered. 
Q15) What is Business Process re engineering and what is its use in different organizations?
A) Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a management practice that aims to improve the efficiency
of the business process.
The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate" perspective
and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they conduct business.
Reengineering is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve
dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed, and service.
BPR combines a strategy of promoting business innovation with a strategy of making major
improvements to business processes so that a company can become a much stronger and more
successful competitor in the marketplace.
Q16) How would you rate your writing skills?
A) As per my previous experience i have experience in writing different types of technical documents like
proposal, SRS and all other relevant documents. And i believe I can give my best in writing all types of
Technical Documents.
Q17) Tell me how you Organize, plan and prioritize your work?
A) All the above things are depends upon the punctuality. I will always keep in queue the more
prioritized works first. And will Always try to complete one task followed by the next.

Q18) How will you define Risk and Issue?

A) If I google for this question i will get several answers. But According to me if I will say it in simple
        An Issue is a risk which already happened,
       But Risk is an event which may or may not happen in future.

Q19) What is CMM ? tell me in details and its different phases.

A) CMM in full "Capability maturity Model" is developed by the SEI in full "Software Engineering
Institute". Its a model of five level of organizational maturity that determine effectiveness in delivering
quality software. It is geared to a large organization. Organizations can receive CMM ratings by
undergoing assessments by qualified auditors. In CMMi models with a staged representation, there are
five maturity levels designated by the number 1 through number 5. 

1. Initial
2. Managed
3. Defined
4. Quantitatively managed
5. Optimizing
Maturity levels consist of a predefined set of process areas. The maturity levels are measured by the
achievement of the specific and generic goals that apply to each predefined set of process areas. The
following sections describe the characteristics of each maturity level in detail.

Maturity level 1 – Initial

At this level, there is no proven processes and has no stable environment in the organization. This type
of organization frequently exceeds the budget and schedule.

Maturity level 2 – Repeatable

These organizations have basic processes that are established to track cost and schedule. They have
guidelines to repeat the same in the next similar project.

Maturity level 3 – Defined

In this category, processes are well characterized and understood and are described in standards.
Maturity level 4 – Managed

These organizations are much more matured than level 3 where processes are only qualitively
predictable whereas in level 4 companies, processes are accessed using statistical and other quantitive
technique.

Maturity level 5 – optimizing

These organizations persistently try to improve performance through innovative technological

improvement.

Q20) Explain the use case models briefly.

A) A use-case model is a model of how different types of users interact with the system to solve a
problem.  As such, it describes the goals of the users, the interactions between the users and the
system, and the required behavior of the system in satisfying these goals.
A use-case model consists of a number of model elements.  The most important model elements are:
use cases, actors and the relationships between them.

A use-case diagram is used to graphically depict a subset of the model to simplify communications.
There will typically be several use-case diagrams associated with a given model, each showing a subset
of the model elements relevant for a particular purpose.  The same model element may be shown on
several use-case diagrams, but each instance must be consistent.  If tools are used to maintain the use-
case model, this consistency constraint is automated so that any changes to the model element
(changing the name for example) will be automatically reflected on every use-case diagram that shows
that element.

The use-case model may contain packages that are used to structure the model to simplify analysis,
communications, navigation, development, maintenance and planning.

Much of the use-case model is in fact textual, with the text captured in the use-case specifications that
are associated with each use-case model element. These specifications describe the flow of events of
the use case.

The use-case model serves as a unifying thread throughout system development. It is used as the
primary specification of the functional requirements for the system, as the basis for analysis and design,
as an input to iteration planning, as the basis of defining test cases and as the basis for user
documentation.  

Q21) What are different types of diagrams you have used in your previous job?
A) Yes I have used different types of diagrams in my previous job in various projects; like Use Case
Diagram, Process Flow Diagram, Context Diagram (Different level), Flow Diagram, Activity Diagram etc.
Q22) What is Request for Information?

A) A Request for Information (RFI) is used when you think you know what you want but need more
information from the vendors. It will typically be followed by an RFQ or RFP.
RFI is broad, and does not necessarily require financial conversations to take place.

Q23) What is Request for Quotation?

A) A Request for Quote (RFQ) is commonly used when you know what you want but need information
on how vendors would meet your requirements and/or how much it will cost.  

Q24) What is Request for Proposal?

A) A Request for Proposal (RFP) is used when you know you have a problem but don’t know how
you want to solve it. This is the most formal of the “Request for” processes and has strict
procurement rules for content, timeline and vendor responses. The appendices in the Guide to
Successful Software Acquisition provide templates for this approach.

RFP is just as much about price, as all other aspects.

RFP requires more effort for both you and the prospective contractor.
RFP slides easily into contract negotiation and project outlining.

Q25) What is Data Flow Diagram and What are its Benefits?

A) Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is graphical representation of flow of data/info. It is used to show how data
is moved between different processes.

There are 4 basic notation elements:

● Circle: Operation
● Box: Sink of information, (input/output)
● Parrallel Bar: Data store / File / Database
● Arc: Flow of info/data

DFS's are in problem domain rather than in solution domain. They are basicly top level model of how
something operates based on flow of information. Also there is no support for concurrency
representation in DFD.

Q26) What is a Activity Diagram?

A) Activity diagram is basically a flow chart to represent the flow form one activity to another activity.
The activity can be described as an operation of the system.

The basic purposes of activity diagrams are similar to other four diagrams. It captures the dynamic
behaviour of the system. Other four diagrams are used to show the message flow from one object to
another but activity diagram is used to show message flow from one activity to another.
Activity is a particular operation of the system. Activity diagrams are not only used for visualizing
dynamic nature of a system but they are also used to construct the executable system by using forward
and reverse engineering techniques. The only missing thing in activity diagram is the message part.

It does not show any message flow from one activity to another. Activity diagram is some time
considered as the flow chart. Although the diagrams looks like a flow chart but it is not. It shows
different flow like parallel, branched, concurrent and single.

So the purposes can be described as:

 Draw the activity flow of a system.
 Describe the sequence from one activity to another.
 Describe the parallel, branched and concurrent flow of the system.

Q27) Why Flow Chart is important?

A) A Flow Chart is having a very Important role in SDLC, because it defines the clear picture of the
different Processes of the system which helps both technical and non technical members to understand
the concept easily. 

Q28) What is UML diagram and describe its different types?

A) Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standardized general-purpose modeling language in the field of

software engineering. Unified Modeling Language includes a set of graphic notation techniques to create
visual models of object-oriented software-intensive systems.
There are two broad categories of diagrams and they are again divided into sub-categories:

● Structural Diagrams
● Behavioral Diagrams
1. Structural Diagram
The structural diagrams represent the static aspect of the system. These static aspects represent
those parts of a diagram which forms the main structure and therefore stable.
These static parts are represents by classes, interfaces, objects, components and nodes. The
four structural diagrams are:
 Class diagram
 Object diagram
 Component diagram
 Deployment diagram

2. Behavioral Diagrams:
Any system can have two aspects, static and dynamic. So a model is considered as
complete when both the aspects are covered fully.
Behavioral diagrams basically capture the dynamic aspect of a system. Dynamic aspect
can be further described as the changing/moving parts of a system.
UML has the following five types of behavioral diagrams:
                  -Use case diagram
                   -Sequence diagram
                  -Collaboration diagram
                  -Statechart diagram
                  -Activity diagram

Q29) What is a Use Case Diagram?

A) A Use case Diagram is a graphic depiction of the interactions among the elements of a system. A Use
Case is a methodology used in System Analysis to identify, clarify and organize system requirements.
Use Case Diagrams are usually referred to as behaviour diagram used to describe a set of actions (Use
Cases) that some system or systems (subject) should or can perform in collaboration with one or more
external users of the system (actors). Each Use Case should provide some observable and valuable result
to the actors or other stake holders of the system.

Q30) What is an exception flow in use case?

A) Exception flow are the activities in case of the exception thrown. They are the flow of events which
will happen in case of the error.

Q31) What documents are used for use Cases?

A) Generally the User Requirement Study Document is needed to draw the use case Diagrams.

Q32) Tell me some of the common tools that a business analyst uses?

A) There are several tools a Business Analyst is using for different purposes. Like:
● SOFTWARE: MS World, PURPOSE: Functional Specifications, Requirements Documents, Vision
Document, Business Case.
● SOFTWARE: MS Excel, PURPOSE: Capacity planning, Traceability, Data Analysis.
● SOFTWARE: MS Visio, PURPOSE: Process Models, Use Case Models, Domain Models (Class
Diagram), Sequence Diagrams.
● SOFTWARE: ErWin, PURPOSE: Entity Relationship Diagrams.
● SOFTWARE: MS PowerPoint, PURPOSE: Present of problem statements, Present possible
solutions, etc.
● SOFTWARE: Visual Studio Web Edition, PURPOSE: UI Mockups, Prototypes

Apart from the above tools some other tools they also use around:
Ex:
● Skype - our entire team standardized on this for chats and remote whiteboarding. This is really
helpful with teams spread out around the world. Sometimes we get the whole team in one chat from
many locations, to either amuse each other or ask real questions.
● OneNote - there are several peoples around who loves it.
● Google Desktop - great searching through emails and notes.
● FreeMind - or any free mind mapping software.
Q33) What documents should be delivered by a Business Analyst?
A) The documents delivered by a Business Analyst are very important and they include functional and
technical specifications, business requirements documents or BRD, requirements traceability, use case
diagrams etc.

Q34) What is the difference between Business Analyst and a System Analyst?

A) A business analyst deals with the more high level and functional aspects of the project and is
generally not involved in technical details related to the project. A system analyst on the other hand is
closely involved with the technical design aspects. 

Both business and system analyst will communicate with the business but the nature of conversation
between a business analyst and business user is more functional and tends to focus on higher level user
requirements. A system analyst usually communicates a more technical nature of topics and usually
interacts closely with technical architects and even developers. Both the above roles can sometimes
overlap and there have been posts such as business systems analyst.In a typical uml terminology
business analysts are expected to write use case and process flows while system analysts focus on
sequence and activity diagrams

Q35) What are JAD sessions?

A) JAD (Joint Application Development) is a methodology that involves the client or end user in the
design and development of an application, through a succession of collaborative workshops called JAD
sessions.

The JAD approach, in comparison with the more traditional practice, is thought to lead to faster
development times and greater client satisfaction, because the client is involved throughout the
development process. In comparison, in the traditional approach to systems development, the
developer investigates the system requirements and develops an application, with client input consisting
of a series of interviews.

Q36) What is the difference between Agile and Waterfall techniques?

A) More and more s/w developers are switching to Agile over waterfall.

Waterfall: You do complete requirements gathering, Design the s/w, Implement, Test, and go live.
But the biggest shortcoming is that the entire cycle takes so long that if in the meantime requirements
change then you are in big trouble because your design may not be flexible enough or because you are
in middle of a big project and just couldn't divert.
     The waterfall model is a sequential software development process, in which progress is seen as
flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis,
Design (validation), Construction, Testing and Maintenance.
Agile:  With this methodology you come up with small sprints of work and keep implementing in 2-3
week cycles. Thus giving you advantage over the other method.
     Agile Software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on
iterative development. Where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self
organizing cross functional teams.
Q37) What is a sequence diagram?
A) A Sequence diagram is a kind of Interaction diagram that shows how process operate with one
another and in what order. A Sequence diagram shows object interactions arranged in time sequence. It
depicts the objects and classes involved in the scenario and the sequence of the messages exchanged
between the objects needed to carry out the functionality of the scenario.
    Sequence diagrams are are typically associated with the use case realizations in the logical view of the
system under development. Sequence diagrams are sometimes called event diagrams. 

Q38) Do you know QA or testing Cycle?  What is Integration Testing?

A) In Integration testing the separate modules will be tested together to expose faults in the Interfaces
and in the Interaction between integrated components.  

Q39) What is User Acceptance testing?

A) User Acceptance testing is the phase of testing used to determine whether a system satisfies the
requirements specified in the requirements analysis phase. The acceptance test design is derived from
the requirements document.
- To determine whether a system satisfies its acceptance criteria or not.
- To enable the customer to determine whether to accept the system or not.
- To test the software in the "real world" by the intended audience.

Q40) How do you define the Acceptance Criteria?

A)  - Functionality requirements.
    - Performance requirements.
    - Interface quality requirements.
    - Overall software quality requirements.

Q41) How do you develop and execute the UAT plan with end users signoffs?
A) - Project Description
     - User Responsibility
     - Acceptance Criteria and Description
     - Execute the Acceptance test Plan 

Q42) What is Test Strategy?

A)  Decide how we are going to approach the testing in terms of people, tools, procedures and support.
Test Strategy is the plan for how you are going to approach testing. A test strategy is a planning
document that provides the overall direction for the software testing needs of a project. Developing a
test strategy is about setting direction and resolving high-level testing questions.
Type of testing (manual versus automated), scheduled date, participants, location, environment
required, identify data to be used for testing, backup procedures, data restore, problem identification -
procedure to be used when a tester finds a suspected defect, defect logging, defect resolution,
retesting, sign off testing activities, identify how the total testing will be signed off. This includes all
activities in the "Test Plan" and any rectification of defects, test management software, testing software,
performance testing software.

Q43) What is Test Approach?

A) The test approach describes the types of tests performed and the sequence of tests as executed in
the test lab. Test approach is included in the test plan.

Q44) What is Test Plan?

A)  A test specification is called a test plan. The developers are well aware what test plans will be
executed and this information is made available to management and the developers. The idea is to
make them more cautious when developing their code or making additional changes.

Q45) What is Process Flow for different stages of testing life Cycle?

A)  Requirements analysis: Testing should begin in the requirements phase of the software development
life cycle. During the design phase, testers work with developers in determining what aspects of a design
are testable and with what parameters those tests work.
Test planning: Test strategy, test plan, testbed creation. Since many activities will be carried out during
testing, a plan is needed.
Test development: Test procedures, test scenarios, test cases, test datasets, test scripts to use in
testing software.
Test execution: Testers execute the software based on the plans and test documents then report any
errors found to the development team.
Test reporting: Once testing is completed, testers generate metrics and make final reports on their test
effort and whether or not the software tested is ready for release.
Test result analysis: Or Defect Analysis, is done by the development team usually along with the client,
in order to decide what defects should be treated, fixed, rejected (i.e. found software working properly)
or deferred to be dealt with later.
Defect Retesting: Once a defect has been dealt with by the development team, it is retested by the
testing team. AKA Resolution testing.
Regression testing: It is common to have a small test program built of a subset of tests, for each
integration of new, modified, or fixed software, in order to ensure that the latest delivery has not ruined
anything, and that the software product as a whole is still working correctly.
Test Closure: Once the test meets the exit criteria, the activities such as capturing the key outputs,
lessons learned, results, logs, documents related to the project are archived and used as a reference for
future projects.

Q46) What is the difference between SRS, BRS and FRS ?

A)  Basically, usage of this document depends on the organization type, standards and how organization
follows processes. Well, i tell you the difference in general and as per CMMI process what is the
difference between all above.
SRS: System Requirement Specification:

It depicts entire system flow, how data is going to flow into the system and overall functionality of the
system. SRS says brief about each module's functionality and doesn't include in-depth functionality of
each page and module.

BRS: Business Requirement Specification:

Basically, all the organization doesnt maintain this document, either they include this into FRS or SRS.
This document is called as high level document includes all the requirement demanded by the client.
Ideally, this document simply includes all the requirements should be part of proposed system.

BRS says, proposed system suppose to include this requirement as a functionality.

FRS: Functional Requirement Specification:

it is a low level document.

Mindwell, there is a very minor difference between FRS and BRS.

FRS includes requirements, converted into functionality and says that how this requirement is going to
work as a part of proposed system.

● What is the purpose of the Business Analyst within an organisation?

● What do you believe are good attributes of a Business Analyst?
● What is the difference between a functional requirement and a non-functional requirement?
● What are the attributes of a good business requirement?
● What is the purpose of requirements traceability?
● When do you use a RACI or RASCI model?
● How do you ensure your business requirements are of a high quality
● What is contained within a typical Requirements Management Plan?
● Describe the phases of the SDLC. Which phases have you worked in?
● Describe the difference between a Waterfall based methodology and a Agile methodology?
● What is a user story in an Agile context and how is it used?
● What is a use case and when would you use it as a Business Analyst?
● What is the difference between a functional specification and a business requirements
document? How are they related?
● Describe an effective way to manage change to requirements within a project.
● Describe a time when you had to deal with a stakeholder that just didn’t want to participate in
one of your requirements workshops and tried to sabotage it. What did you do?
● Describe a situation when you were unable to deliver one of your requirements documents on
time. What did you do?
● Tell us about a time when you needed to gain approval for one of your business requirements
documents but a stakeholder kept on delaying or postponing meeting with you.
● As a business analyst, describe your ideal project environment.
● Describe a time when you introduced a new idea or process into a project or department and
how it improved the process or situation.
● Describe a situation where you had to mentor a colleague on any tool or concept. How did you
approach this?
● Describe a time when you had to facilitate a requirements gathering activity where your
stakeholders were not located in the same city. If you haven’t done this before, describe to us
how you will deal with this type of situation.
● Describe a situation where you used business analysis techniques to gather business
requirements from stakeholders. Which techniques did you use and why did you choose those
techniques?
● Describe a time when you were responsible to plan and facilitate a requirements workshop.
How did you go about it?
● Describe a time when you had to win a difficult stakeholder over to accept the project change
that will affect his/her department. How did you do it
● Describe a time when you were in a project where change happened constantly without any
change control to requirements. How did you deal with this situation and how did you overcome
the associated challenges?
● Describe a time when you had to deal with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation. How
was the message different?
1. What is the difference between a wire frame and page mockup?

Wireframe is a visual illustration of one Web page. A wireframe is a mockup of the page that
only addresses the layout, not aesthetics. Think of it as the skeleton of your page.

Page mockup includes visual illustration as well as aesthetics of the web page.

2. How do you handle business users who have a vision but cannot express requirements?
I will interview customers and document as-is process.

Gather business requirements and establish customer priorities.

I will document to-be process and business requirements and then get the user signoff.

I will then begin work on functional designs to identify the gaps between requirements and
technical design with inputs from developers. Then I will establish framework with business
users and developers that is acceptable for the business.

3. How do you handle changes to requirements?

I will prioritize the changes to requirements (nice to have versus must have), scope of changes,
impact analysis to the project. I will perform impact analysis to the project cost, timeline and
resources. I will evaluate if the scope change is introducing new gaps to the technical or
functional designs or development and testing?

4. How do you cope with constant change to your role/responsibilities or to project

objectives/milestones?
I will prioritize, understand and perform impact analysis to have better alignment of my roles
and responsibilities with the project deliverables. and talk to the project managers, client and
stakeholders to make sure everyone is in sync

5. Can a use case end in different states (i.e. different post-conditions? If yes, explain.
Use Case logic and execution may lead to different post conditions. For example Rule 2 - a cash
withdraw will lead to an update of the account and a transaction log leads to a post condition on
successful withdrawal - but only if Rule1 which says there must be sufficient funds tests as true.

6. What is an overdraft line of credit?

Overdraft line of credit An overdraft line of credit protects your account by advancing funds to
your checking account as needed to cover a required difference up to the limit of your line of
credit. Overdraft protection by linking accounts You can also set up overdraft protection by
linking your checking account to a savings or money market account. For a minimal transfer fee,
the arrangement uses the balance in the linked account to cover a shortfall in your checking
account up to the full balance of the linked account.

7. What is an amortized loan?

An amortized loan is a loan where payments are the same amount each month. Each payment
pays some of the interest on the loan and some of the principal, or amount borrowed. An
amortized loan can be total, meaning the payments will stay the same until the set period when
the loan is paid off. Alternately partially amortized loans mean that at the end of the set
payment period, a large additional payment, called a balloon payment is then due.
 Generally an auto loan is likely to be an amortized loan. Especially during the early months of
the loan, most of the payment will likely go toward interest. Very little of the early payments will
actually pay off the principal, due to the fact that the amortized loan charges all interest upfront.
So with any amortized loan, gradually payment to principal increases and interest payment
drops, even though the payment amount is the same.

The disadvantage of an amortized loan in its first few years is that the percentage of property
one actually owns can be very small. In an amortized loan for a vehicle, there is usually a point
where the resale value of the car is much lower than the actual amount one would owe on the
car if paid off immediately.

8. What Does Term Loan Mean?

A loan from a bank for a specific amount that has a specified repayment schedule and a floating
interest rate. Term loans almost always mature between one and 10 years.

For example many banks have term-loan programs that can offer small businesses the cash they
need to operate from month to month. Often a small business will use the cash from a term
loan to purchase fixed assets such as equipment used in its production process.

9. Why do we keep use cases free of any technological/technical jargon?

The business users who have no technical knowledge can understand the desired end state and
make sure there is no surprises.

10. How would you describe your core values?

My core values are Hardworking, analytical, problem solving, result oriented and business
acumen.

11. Have you ever been overwhelmed by the scope of a job? How did you handle it?
After performing analysis and due diligence on my project work, I made sure the results are
clearly communicated to the managers, stakeholders, business owners to extend the project
timelines by 6 more months to accomodate the new scope changes for my Project upgrade.

12. Try to remember a Use Case you’ve created for one of your projects. Explain the process in
detail steps.
Use case has the following information documented.

Use case name, owner, summary, details, stakeholders, preconditions, triggers, post conditions,
basic events, alternative paths, post conditions, business rules.

A use case should:

Describe what the system shall do for the actor to achieve a particular goal.

Include no implementation-specific language.

Be at the appropriate level of detail.

Not include detail regarding user interfaces and screens. This is done in user-interface design.

13. Explain what is the purpose of business use case scenarios?

 Use cases describe the system from the user's point of view. A business use case is described in
technology-free terminology which treats the business process as a black box and describes the
business process that is used by its business actors (people or systems external to the business)
to achieve their goals (e.g., manual payment processing, expense report approval, manage
corporate real estate).

The business use case will describe a process that provides value to the business actor, and it
describes what the process does. Business Process Mapping is another method for this level of
business description.

14. What is the purpose of system use case?

A system use case is normally described at the system functionality level (for example, create
voucher) and specifies the function or the service that the system provides for the user. A
system use case will describe what the actor achieves interacting with the system.

15. What are some Limitations of use case?

Use cases have the following limitations:

Use case flows are not well suited to easily capturing non-interaction based requirements of a
system (such as algorithm or mathematical requirements) or non-functional requirements (such
as platform, performance, timing, or safety-critical aspects). These are better specified
declaratively elsewhere.

Use case templates do not automatically ensure clarity. Clarity depends on the skill of the
writer(s).

There is a learning curve involved in interpreting use cases correctly, for both end users and
developers. As there are no fully standard definitions of use cases, each group must gradually
evolve its own interpretation.

16. What would you do if the client says that you and the other analysts cannot directly talk to the
users?
If it is show stopper, i would convince the client to rethink their decision. if not, i would request
go to person (super user) to whom we can route the questions. or have the client schedule
meeting to talk to the users. or email questions to the client manager.

17. Give me a scenario where you didn’t completely agree with your Lead/PM. How did you resolve
the conflict?
The scope of the project was under estimated. Communication is key to resolve differences with
the management. I asked their viewpoint and listened carefully. Then I made my manager
understand my viewpoint and made sure they understood we are not that far apart with our
individual viewpoints.

18. Let us say you’re in a JAD session and someone is constantly trying to divert the topic, what
would you do?
I will have a honest one on one to convey that topics not relevant for the meeting have to be
taken outside the JAD session.

19. How do you know when you have done a good job
 When my Project manager appreciates my hard work and due diligence.

20. Business process reengineering – Give me a specific example of this, what was the issue with the
as-is process and how did the to-be process fix it and what was your contribution in that effort?
Existing process is causing increased costs and inefficiency. With the new process, the costs
came down by x (20%).

21. You are on an island where there is no sun and people cannot survive without sunlight. The
president of the island wants to invest lots of money on people’s survival. The island does not
have big technologies or firms and you are assigned to come up with a solution. What do you
do?
Plants go through a process called photosynthesis. Plants can grow under lights without ever
seeing the sun. Grow plants under lights. Fluorescent, incandescent lights and mercury vapor
lights.

Because incandescent bulbs give out more heat than light, dont place the light close enough to
the plant to give it the light it needs without burning the plant with heat. However, at a
distance, they can supplement light and supplement heat for plants which thrive in warm
temperatures.

Use mercury vapor lights as a primary light source, if you plan to grow a lot of plants under
artificial light. Mercury vapor lights are more powerful than incandescent and give out less heat,
therefore making them good primary light sources for indoor plants.

Grow indoor plants under fluorescent light to supplement or replace artificial light. Fluorescent
bulbs are the coolest burning and most energy efficient source. They also provide enough light
to be a primary light source.

22. How do you handle a situation where you just got hired as a BA and there is no documentations
what so ever? What do you do?
I will start documenting with highest priority documents being given top priority.

23. How do you deal with a difficult user (stakeholder)?

Effective stakeholder management is winning influencing and negotiation skills. Seek first to
understand. Probably the most important thing you can do is to earn the right to be heard by
them by listening to them first. Listen to their heart.

Reflect back that you understand them. Re-playing, as accurately as you can their position,
showing that you can empathise with their pain or sense of threat as well as their rational
argument. Then be understood. "Thank you for helping me understand your position. Let me
make mine clear and I think we might find we are not so far apart."

Seek 'Win-win' or 'No deal'. Find our their 'WIIFM' ('What's in it for me?'). What benefits could
there be in your programme for that stakeholder. What are the 'wins' for them. This is a deeper,
and more personal level of stakeholder analysis that is particularly warranted for the difficult
individual.

You need to be clear about what your fall-back position will be if you can't get agreement - your
BATNA ('Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement'). In a programme environment this could
 mean some radical re-scoping of the programme to exclude the need for co-operation fromhis
stakeholder or even in the most extreme cases recommending that the programme is stopped
altogether.

Make the 'Ask'. Often influencing fails because we don't summon up the courage to make the
request (the 'Ask') of the other party when we have the opportunity. Take the risk. Not enough
is discussed in business literature about the need for sheer courage.

Let the challenge of meeting with this difficult stakeholder and wrestling with them become part
of your mutual programme 'story' that can be shared with them and other at the right
moments. If you can't get agreement, be prepared to take the BATNA. This also can be
courageous, because it is honest and less desirable than the negotiated agreement.

24. Tell me about the biggest failure in your life and how did you surmount that?
I missed my project deadlines due to some critical changes to the scope requirements. I had to
work 80 hours a week so I am not in the critical path for the delivery of my project.

25. Tell me about a time where the initiative/project failed and why?
Upgrade project failed because of environment compatibility issues with the hardware. we had
to rollback the software upgrade and test out alternate options such as citrix and downgrading
windows vista to xp.

26. Estimate the length of the United States north to south and east to west?
Same as length of the US from south to north and west to east

27. If you go out with colleagues for lunch and everyone drinks (alcoholic beverages) besides one
person because of religious reasons? What do you? Do you still order the drinks? (THINK
CAREFULLY ?)
I will not drink during lunch.

28. How many trees do you need to furnish the entire Marriott hotel (Marriott hotels have standard
architecture: state your assumptions carefully)
Zero trees. I will use furnitue to furnish the hotel.

29. How do you handle a situation where you just got hired as a BA and there is no documentations
what so ever? What do you do?
I will prioritize. And start documenting for the critical business needs.

30. Tell me how many snow shovels are sold every year in Chicago?
As many people as who need snow shovel to shove snow for that year.

It also depends on whether it snowed that year in chicago. People who already own shovels
dont buy them. Hundreds of thousands of snow shovels are sold every year in the United States.
During seasons with high levels of snow fall, some shovel suppliers have sold as many as 40,000
shovels in one week.

31. What would change about yourself as a BA?

I will keep my cool.

OR
 Our little imperfections complete us. They are part of a whole. I wouldn't change mine either.

32. How do you deal with resistant people in a company (not willing to answer your questions when
you are gathering requirements)?
One of the most baffling and recalcitrant of the problems which business executives face is
employee resistance to change. Such resistance may take a number of forms—persistent
reduction in output, increase in the number of “quits” and requests for transfer, chronic
quarrels, sullen hostility, wildcat or slowdown strikes, and, of course, the expression of a lot of
pseudological reasons why the change will not work. All too often when executives encounter
resistance to change, they “explain” it by quoting the cliche that “people resist change” and
never look further. Yet changes must continually occur in industry.

A solution which has become increasingly popular for dealing with resistance to change is to get
the people involved to “participate” in making the change.

The key to the problem is to understand the true nature of resistance. Actually, what employees
resist is usually not technical change but social change—the change in their human relationships
that generally accompanies technical change.

Resistance is usually created because of certain blind spots and attitudes which staff specialists
have as a result of their preoccupation with the technical aspects of new ideas.

Management can take concrete steps to deal constructively with these staff attitudes. The steps
include emphasizing new standards of performance for staff specialists and encouraging them to
think in different ways

33. If you see weaknesses in a testing strategy where everyone is very confident about it and have
been applying it for quite some time, what do you do?
Start with understanding their perspective and then communicating mine.

34. You have 2 empty jars, one has a volume of 3 liters and one has a volume of 5 liters (the jars are
not measuring jars). You have an empty jar and a water tap running all the time. You need to fill
you empty jar (it doesn’t have measures) with exactly 4 liters of water. How do you do it?
I will pour into 3 litre jar bottle. Fill it up.

Transfer to 5 litre bottle.

3 litre jar is empty now. I will Fill up 3 litre bottle again.

Transfer 2 litre to 5 litre bottle.

1 litre remains now in 3 litre jar bottle.

Now I will Empty 5 jar bottle.

Fill up 5 jar bottle with 1 litre from 3 litre jar bottle.

Fill up 3 l jar bottle.

Transfer water to 5 litre bottle.

Now there is 4 litres filled in 5 litre jar.

35. You have 8 balls, 4 Heavy and 4 Light, they all have the same look and feel and you have a scale.
I want you to separate all the heavy balls and all the lights ball each on one side of the scale.
How many iterations you go through to find out this segregation? (PLEASE DON’T SAY I CAN FEEL
THEM IN MY HANDS
How about you align all 8 balls and drop them at the same time. The one that bounces back up
the highest is the heaviest. Use the scale to confirm.

36. 8 balls are there of which one is heavy. The remaining 7 are same weight. How do you identify
the heavier one?
1) separate 2 balls from 8

2) weigh the remaining 6 balls; 3 on each side

3) if both sides (3-3) are same, weigh the separated balls (1-1) and the one that goes down is
heavier

4) if both sides (3-3) are not same, take the heavier ones (3 in all)

5) separate 1 ball from it

6) weigh remaining 2 balls; 1 on each side

7) if both are same weight; the one separated is the heavier one; else, the one that goes down is
heavier

37. How many planes are flying in the sky at this moment in USA?
As many as required for transportation.

38. How do you like communicating most? Why?

Depending on the Project needs via phone, email, meeting or personal one on one.

39. If you are introduced to a new domain, how do you become familiar with it and start working on
it?
I will review the documents available.

Talk to expert on the new domain. Schedule a meeting with expert to clarify my questions.

Review training materials. I will Perform hands on work with a live project on development and
learn.

40. How do you ensure that you have focused on all the necessary details of a task?
41. What do you think is the most important responsibility of a business analyst?
Requirements gathering, functional design and business process , change management are very
critical tasks for Business analyst.

42. How have you dealt with conflicting project deliverables (two projects with deliverables due at
the same time)
I talk to my Project managers to identify priorities, critical tasks and due dates for conflicting
project deliverables. I will have regular weekly meetings and daily status updates via email or
phone to discuss the progress being made on the conflicting project deliverables.
43. How have you handled situations in which you were not given sufficient time to complete a
deliverable (e.g. estimate is 6 weeks, you are given 3)
I work weekends and after hours to complete my deliverables.

44. What is Requirements traceability matrix and what is its purpose?

Requirements traceability matrix - List the core functionality and send to the developers and QA.
They review to make sure there is no gaps in the requirements versus design and QA testing.
(Design, data model, unit test, SQA test case, UAT test lag)

45. What are the tasks of business analyst in a Software development life cycle?
Interview customers

Definition/Planning for business needs,

Document business requirements,

Work on functional design,

Document the requirements traceability matrix,

Prepare test data with inputs from end users

Document use case scenarios

Help testing team with test plan, testing,

Help end users with user acceptance testing UAT,

Support users with cutover tasks, implementation rollout, Go live and post production support
tasks.

46. How do you create defects in HP Quality center identified by you?

I will enter the details, design steps, test script, attachments, req coverage, linked defects

I will enter the Defect details -> severity, priority, detected date, owner, status, test phase,
assigned to, description

47. What is a Fact table and what it contains?

Fact tables contain Daily transactions, balances (snapshots)

48. What are Master tables and what it contains?

Dimension tables contain client, account, vendor information.

49. What is Surrogate key?

Surrogate key is a unique identifier of the master record. Helps to pull reports by tying with the
surrogate key.

For example, if address changes for the customer sk, customer, address, expiry date. Now
reports can pull the data based on SK key and expiry date so old reports can pull with old sk and
new reports can pull with new sk.

sk, customer, address, expiry date

 0001 1001 33 patio dr null

0002 1001 342 gontor dr null

0001 1001 33 patio dr 4/3/2010

50. What is an Functional Interface design and what sections it contains?

Interface design contains the following sections –

Purpose, scope, source system overview, target system overview, interface overview, as is, data
flow, requirements, data mapping, frequency, triggers, transform rules, error conditions and
handling, risks and assumptions.

51. What is Interface testing document and what it contains?

Interface testing document contains source system, target system, requirements, what are the
transformation rules, business logic, data integration testing.

52. Explain to me the tasks of Business analyst for an interface from source to target system (For
example Main frame to DW)
Daily transactions interface.

XML, scheduler picks the file through ETL.

Identify fields required for the target system, business owners.

Main frame to DW.

Document the Business requirements, business rules from end users.

Data matrix for the data mapping contains (source table, column, target table, column, staging,
transform rules, defaults for fields in target not in source systems)

Document use case scenarios

Document Integration test plan

53. Explain what is the process for documenting Business Requirements?

This process usually involves becoming an expert in the workflows of the end users thru
interviews observations and analysis of the systems and /or tools used. The BA will document
the business requirements but must always be sure they they have the end users concurrence
that they have correctly defined the "WHAT". The WHAT being what the workflow or problem.

54. Explain what is the process for documenting Functional Requirements?

Functional Requirement is where the BA working with the end users and the developers begins
to actually design the system that will satisfy the Business Requirement this is the "HOW". This
Function Requirement will layout the various screens and features that will allow the end users
to satisfy the Business Requirements i.e. HOW the system will satisfy the WHAT.

55. Explain what is the process for documenting Technical Requirements?

Technical Requirement. Normally the BA will assist the development team with advise but will
not write the Technical Requirements. The Technical Requirement will lay out the databases
tables and processes that will be used to run the system.
56. Tell me about yourself.
My background to date has been centered around preparing myself to become the very best
_____ I can become. Let me tell you specifically how I've prepared myself . . .

57. Why should I hire you?

Because I sincerely believe that I'm the best person for the job. I realize that there are many
other college students who have the ability to do this job. I also have that ability. But I also bring
an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job--my attitude for excellence.
Not just giving lip service to excellence, but putting every part of myself into achieving it. In
_____ and _____ I have consistently reached for becoming the very best I can become by doing
the following . . .

58. What is your long-range objective? Where do you want to be 10 or 15 years from now?
Although it's certainly difficult to predict things far into the future, I know what direction I want
to develop toward. Within five years, I would like to become the very best _____ your company
has. In fact, my personal career mission statement is to become a world-class _____ in the
_____ industry. I will work toward becoming the expert that others rely upon. And in doing so, I
feel I will be fully prepared to take on any greater responsibilities that might be presented in the
long term.

59. How has your education prepared you for your career?
As you will note on my resume, I've taken not only the required core classes in the _____ field,
I've also gone above and beyond. I've taken every class the college has to offer in the field and
also completed an independent study project specifically in this area. But it's not just taking the
classes to gain academic knowledge--I've taken each class, both inside and outside of my major,
with this profession in mind. So when we're studying _____ in _____, I've viewed it from the
perspective of _____. In addition, I've always tried to keep a practical view of how the
information would apply to my job. Not just theory, but how it would actually apply. My
capstone course project in my final semester involved developing a real-world model of _____,
which is very similar to what might be used within your company. Let me tell you more about it .
..

60. Are you a team player?

Very much so. In fact, I've had opportunities in both athletics and academics to develop my skills
as a team player. I was involved in _____ at the intramural level, including leading my team in
assists during the past year--I always try to help others achieve their best. In academics, I've
worked on several team projects, serving as both a member and team leader. I've seen the value
of working together as a team to achieve a greater goal than any one of us could have achieved
individually. As an example . . .

61. Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How was it resolved?
Yes, I have had conflicts in the past. Never major ones, but certainly there have been situations
where there was a disagreement that needed to be resolved. I've found that when conflict
occurs, it's because of a failure to see both sides of the situation. Therefore, I ask the other
person to give me their perspective and at the same time ask that they allow me to fully explain
my perspective. At that point, I would work with the person to find out if a compromise could be
reached. If not, I would submit to their decision because they are my superior. In the end, you
 have to be willing to submit yourself to the directives of your superior, whether you're in full
agreement or not. An example of this was when . . .

62. What is your greatest weakness?

I would say my greatest weakness has been my lack of proper planning in the past. I would
overcommit myself with too many variant tasks, then not be able to fully accomplish each as I
would like. However, since I've come to recognize that weakness, I've taken steps to correct it.
For example, I now carry a planning calendar in my pocket so that I can plan all of my
appointments and "to do" items. Here, let me show you how I have this week planned out . . .

63. If I were to ask your professors to describe you, what would they say?
I believe they would say I'm a very energetic person, that I put my mind to the task at hand and
see to it that it's accomplished. They would say that if they ever had something that needed to
be done, I was the person who they could always depend on to see that it was accomplished.
They would say that I always took a keen interest in the subjects I was studying and always
sought ways to apply the knowledge in real world settings. Am I just guessing that they would
say these things? No, in fact, I'm quite certain they would say those things because I have with
me several letters of recommendation from my professors, and those are their very words. Let
me show you . . .

64. What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?

The key quality should be leadership--the ability to be the visionary for the people who are
working under them. The person who can set the course and direction for subordinates. A
manager should also be a positive role model for others to follow. The highest calling of a true
leader is inspiring others to reach the highest of their abilities. I'd like to tell you about a person
who I consider to be a true leader . . .

65. If you had to live your life over again, what would you change?
That's a good question. I realize that it can be very easy to continually look back and wish that
things had been different in the past. But I also realize that things in the past cannot be changed,
that only things in the future can be changed. That's why I continually strive to improve myself
each and every day and that's why I'm working hard to continually increase my knowledge in the
_____ field. That's also the reason why I want to become the very best _____ your company has
ever had. To make positive change. And all of that is still in the future. So in answer to your
question, there isn't anything in my past that I would change. I look only to the future to make
changes in my life.

66. What are your weaknesses?

As far as weaknesses, I feel that my problen solving skills could be stronger, and I am constantly
working to improve them.

67. What are your strengths?

creative, team building, Hard working, high integrity, Result oriented, Task oriented , Problem
Solving, Expert, analytical, motivate, mentor, visionary.

68. How is R U P used to analyze a process?

The Rational Unified Process describes how to effectively deploy commercially proven
approaches to software development for software development teams. These are called best
 practices not so much because you can precisely quantify their value, but rather, because they
are observed to be commonly used in industry by successful organizations.

The Rational Unified Process provides each team member with the guidelines, templates and
tool mentors necessary for the entire team to take full advantage of among others the following
best practices:

1. Develop software iteratively

2. Manage requirements

3. Use component-based architectures

Rational Unified Process: Best Practices for Software development Teams

4. Visually model software

5. Verify software quality

6. Control changes to software.

69. What is Sharepoint and How does BA work with sharepoint?

Sharepoint is a software that allows you to manage the data / documents / contents in an
effective manner and at a single location. All documents are stored at a single location,
sharepoint. It also helps in viewing complete snapshot of project and relating it with other
collaborativeprojects.

70. How do you handle a requirement that is not feasible?

Approach towards handling requirements that are not feasible is to first categorise either as
possible with some workaround subject to client agreeing on extending timelines to meet that
requirement and the extra cost incurred or is superficial and is not at all possible.

For the second categorisation, advisable practice is to say very politily that this is not at all
possible and would impact the proposed system in any way.

For the first categorisation, just work for workaround and give client about options either to pay
for extra cost and delayed timelines or keep aside the requirement.

71. How will You determine a good Document? What is the most important item in a Document?
Concise (minimal, understandable). The requirement statement includes only one requirement
stating what must be done and only what must be done, stated simply and clearly. It is easy to
read and understand.

Implementation free. The requirement states what is required, not how the requirement should
be met. A requirement statement should not reflect a design or implementation nor should it
describe an operation. However, the treatment of interface requirements is generally an
exception.

72. What are skills required for business analyst?

Most essential skill supposed to be are: Good communication skill and Good documentation
skills.
 Most importantly, saving your company from doing the extra effort in terms of cost overrun.

73. How would you use Requirements Modeling and when?

Each changes need mention in the modeling which is already developed. Thus covering the
change, no matter what level of change it is. This will especially help in requirement tracibility
matrix documentation.

74. How did you assign task and/or hold testers accountable for their work?
Most of the times the task assignments to the Testers is done by the Project Manager in co-
ordination with the BA and also the QA Manager. There will a day-to-day co-ordination that is
expected from the BA and the technical team to lead the testers and developers in terms of
criticality of defects, due date and resolution expected from testing.

75. What type of push back have your received from the business users in relation to QA?
At many times the biggest issue with business users is their time availability. With a good Project
Manager and Leadership team, there should be collaboration between them and your business
users and their management to ensure the time is set aside to have regular meetings and status
updates.

76. When does a BA use Test Director tool and for what purpose in a project?
BA's use Test Director for Requirement Traceability. In Test Director there is a tab for
Requirements and all the functional requirements can be added in this section by business
analyst.

77. What real challenges does a BA face in different phases of the project?
Challenges faced by a BA include -

Conflicting requirements and changing requirements from the business users can be very
challenging for a BA. Sometimes, end users have difficulty explaining the requirements clearly.

Scope creep has to be limited so it does not impact project costs, timelines and resource
availability.

Gap analysis needs to be performed to determine any gaps between business requirements,
interface design and testing.

78. Which stage of the project does a BA prepare Screen Mock ups? What does he do with them?
Wireframes are usually used during the Functional Specification document it describes how the
proposed screens should look like. Again this depends on what kind of methodology is used and
template.

Screen mockups or wirescreens are only required when someone asks for them or when you
feel you need them to further elaborate on the requirements.

You can schedule mockup review sessions with the business users as you develop your
requirements and this way the users will change whatever needs to be changed before
requirements are stable, etc.

79. What role does a Business Analyst play in the End User Support? Explain in steps the process in
detail.
 Business Analyst provides support to the end user in performing user acceptance testing (UAT).

Business Analyst identifies training requirements for end users.

BA gives training to the end users after the product is moved to the production phase.

80. How do you make sure the requirements are tested and work fine?
Requirement traceability matrix can be used to make sure that each and every requirement is
tested. The RTM consists of the each requirement traced to the design artifact and the testing
artifact (i.e. the test script). Therefore by executing each test script/ test case, we would be in a
position to conclude whether the corresponding requirement was fulfilled or not.

81. What should be the approach to resolve conflicts during JAD Sessions?
When there is a conflict during a JAD session, i would try to narrow down the scope of the
conflict, usually it would be about a specific requirement or a part of the business process flow. I
would request the participants to defer the conflict.

Towards, the end of the session, may be, we would have more clarity which would help resolve
the conflict, else i would facilitate a seperate session for the open items and i would also seek
the intervention of my project manager, architect and super user in solving the open issues.

82. How do you go about working in an area with which you have not worked before?
The main qualities that the business analyst should possess is "ADAPTABILITY" and "INTUTION
TO KNOW" and "ANALYSIS".

83. Whom would you invite for JAD Session and why?
I will invite project sponsor/SMEs - to make decision and provide necessary resources for the
project.

End user - to discuss requirements and business functions.

System analyst - to give non- technical explaination.

84. What are components of UML?

UML is a standard language for specifying, vizualising, constructing and document the artifacts
of a software system. It consists of Nine diagrams - 4 types of diagrams that model the structural
aspects and 5 that model the behavioral aspects of the system.

85. How to handle end user if he is very much opposed to change in the process?
Resistance from end users is because of social changes to the organization or they are not easily
adaptable to new technology.

One of the best ways to handle end users when they are opposed to process change, is to
understand the basis of their resistance and to explain them about the advantages of the
process change.

Have the end become active participants and make them get included beginning with the
requirements phase.

86. How Business Plan Evaluation is performed by Business Analyst? List out the traditional tools
that being used.
 Include functional non fuctional requirements and treacability matrix in the Business Plan
Evaluation

1. Enterprise analysis.

1.1 Creating and maintaining business architecture.

1.2 Conducting feasibility studies.

1.3 Determining project scope.

1.4 Preparing the business case.

1.5 Conducting the initial risk assessment.

1.6 Preparing the decision package.

1.7 Selecting and prioritizing projects.

87. What are the differences between Agile and RUP?

The Rational Unified Process (R) is a Software Engineering Process. It provides disciplined
approach to assign tasks and responsibilities within any Software Development Organization. Its
goal is to ensure the production of high quality software that meets the needs of end-users,
within predictable schedule and budget. It enhances team productivity and is a process product,
developed and maintained by IBM Rational Software.

All efforts, including modeling, is organized into disciplines (formerly work flows) in Unified
Process. RUP consists three disciplines like Business Modeling, Requirements, Analyis and
Design. Agile Unified Process (AUP) is a subset of RUP and it combines all the 3 RUP disciplines
into a single modeling discipline called Agile modeling.

88. Give a specific example of a performance requirement?

Performance Requirement: How the system is tend to perfom in the means of its efficiency,
reliability. Ex: The system should be reliable and compatible with all environments(Firefox,
Netscape, IE).

89. What types of requirements should not be documented in use cases?

Any non-functional requirements [example: usuability, design, performance] that cannot be
directly realted to the usecases should not be documented in Usecases. These non-functional
requirements are documented in the interface design document.

90. How does a Business Analyst conduct interviews with Business users?
BA conduct meetings by preparing a set of questions to ask the non-technical business users to
extract user requirements out of them. Don't use any technical terms in the conversations. Also
use visual aids such as use case diagrams and prototype.

91. Tell me about your experience with the SDLC?

My Software development life cycle experience includes -

Feasibility, scope definition (business case).

Planning (business requirements, functional requirements).

 Implementation (design, data mapping, execution of activities).

Testing (use case scenarios, test cases, integration testing, user acceptance testing, smoke
testing).

User training and Post Production Golive support to end users.

92. What is the role of a Business analyst?

A Business Analyst (BA) analyzes the organization and design of businesses, government
departments, and non-profit organisations; they also assess business models and their
integration with technology.

There are at least four tiers of business analysis:

Planning Strategically - The analysis of the organisation business strategic needs

Operating/Business model analysis - the definition and analysis of the organizations policies and
market business approaches

Process definition and design - the business process modelling (often developed through
process modelling and design)

IT/Technical business analysis - the interpretation of business rules and requirements for
technical systems (generally IT)

Within the systems development life cycle domain (SDLC), the business analyst typically
performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the providers of
services to the enterprise.

93. What sections are contained in the Report specifications?

Define the purpose of a report, its justification, attributes and columns, owners and runtime
parameters.

94. How do you define traceability matrix?

Traceability matrix is a cross matrix for recording the requirements through each stage of the
requirements gathering process.

High level concepts will be matched to scope items which will map to individual requirements
which will map to corresponding functions. This matrix should also take into account any
changes in scope during the life of the project.

At the end of a project, this matrix should show each function built into a system, its source and
the reason that any stated requirements may not have been delivered.

95. What is Business Process Reengineering and its use in companies?

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a management practice that aims to improve the
efficiency of the business process.

The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a "clean slate"
perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve how they
 conduct business. Reengineering is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business
processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed, and service.

BPR combines a strategy of promoting business innovation with a strategy of making major
improvements to business processes so that a company can become a much stronger and more
successful competitor in the marketplace.

96. What are some of the drawbacks of business process reengineering?

Drawbacks of business process reengineering

Lack of management support for the initiative and thus poor acceptance in the organization.

Exaggerated expectations regarding the potential benefits from a BPR initiative and
consequently failure to achieve the expected results.

Underestimation of the resistance to change within the organization.

Implementation of generic so-called best-practice processes that do not fit specific company
needs.

Overtrust in technology solutions.

Performing BPR as a one-off project with limited strategy alignment and long-term perspective.

Poor project management.

QA

97. What is integration testing?

In integration testing the separate modules will be tested together to expose faults in the
interfaces and in the interaction between integrated components. Testing is usually black box as
the code is not directly checked for errors.

98. What is user acceptance testing?

User Acceptance testing is the phase of testing used to determine whether a system satisfies the
requirements specified in the requirements analysis phase. The acceptance test design is
derived from the requirements document.

- To determine whether a system satisfies its acceptance criteria or not.

- To enable the customer to determine whether to accept the system or not.

- To test the software in the "real world" by the intended audience.

99. How do you define the acceptance criteria:

- Functionality requirements.

- Performance requirements.

- Interface quality requirements.

- Overall software quality requirements.

100. How do you develop and execute the UAT plan with end users signoffs :
- Project description.

- User responsibilities.

- Acceptance criteria and description.

- Execute the acceptance test plan.

101. What is test strategy?

Decide how we are going to approach the testing in terms of people, tools, procedures and
support. Test Strategy is the plan for how you are going to approach testing. A test strategy is a
planning document that provides the overall direction for the software testing needs of a
project. Developing a test strategy is about setting direction and resolving high-level testing
questions.

Type of testing (manual versus automated), scheduled date, participants, location, environment
required, identify data to be used for testing, backup procedures, data restore, problem
identification - procedure to be used when a tester finds a suspected defect, defect logging,
defect resolution, retesting, sign off testing activities, identify how the total testing will be
signed off. This includes all activities in the "Test Plan" and any rectification of defects, test
management software, testing software, performance testing software.

102. What is Test Approach?

The test approach describes the types of tests performed and the sequence of tests as executed
in the test lab. Test approach is included in the test plan.

Test methodology document will contain the phases of testing and the test levels that the
testing cycle will go through.

103. What is test plan?

Test Plan is a detailed procedure to organize and execute the workflow of a software testing
project . A test plan documents the strategy that will be used to verify and ensure that a product
or system meets its design specifications and other requirements. A test plan is usually prepared
by or with significant input from Test Engineers. Test plan is the Master document which
mentions the test approach ,and test methodology in it.

The first step in developing a test plan is to develop test scenarios. The first point of call for
developing the scenarios is the business requirements. They should identify the functionality to
be tested. There will however be other things to test. Typically these include things like screen
layout, validity of information displayed, speed, correct data capture etc. specific to Unit testing,
Performance Testing, Integration Testing.

104. What is Test Strategy versus Test approach/ test plan

1 Test Plan is The set of ideas that guide or represent the intended test process

Test Strategy is The way tests will be designed and executed to support an effective quality
assessment

2 Test Plan are of different types:

 Unit, Integration, System, UAT

Test strategy should

A. focuses most effort on areas of potential technical risk, while still putting some effort into low
risk areas just in case the risk analysis is wrong.

B. address test platform configuration, how the product will be operated, how the product will
be observed, and how observations will be used to evaluate the product

C. is diversified in terms of test techniques and perspectives. Methods of evaluating test

coverage should take into account multiple dimensions of coverage, including structural,
functional, data, platform, operations, and requirements.

D. Specify how test data will be designed and generated.

3 Test Strategy is at program level

versus test plan is at the project level

105. What is process flow for different phases of testing life cycle?
Requirements analysis: Testing should begin in the requirements phase of the software
development life cycle. During the design phase, testers work with developers in determining
what aspects of a design are testable and with what parameters those tests work.

Test planning: Test strategy, test plan, testbed creation. Since many activities will be carried out
during testing, a plan is needed.

Test development: Test procedures, test scenarios, test cases, test datasets, test scripts to use in
testing software.

Test execution: Testers execute the software based on the plans and test documents then
report any errors found to the development team.

Test reporting: Once testing is completed, testers generate metrics and make final reports on
their test effort and whether or not the software tested is ready for release.

Test result analysis: Or Defect Analysis, is done by the development team usually along with the
client, in order to decide what defects should be treated, fixed, rejected (i.e. found software
working properly) or deferred to be dealt with later.

Defect Retesting: Once a defect has been dealt with by the development team, it is retested by
the testing team. AKA Resolution testing.

Regression testing: It is common to have a small test program built of a subset of tests, for each
integration of new, modified, or fixed software, in order to ensure that the latest delivery has
not ruined anything, and that the software product as a whole is still working correctly.

Test Closure: Once the test meets the exit criteria, the activities such as capturing the key
outputs, lessons learned, results, logs, documents related to the project are archived and used
as a reference for future projects.
106. What is test plan?
A test specification is called a test plan. The developers are well aware what test plans will be
executed and this information is made available to management and the developers. The idea is
to make them more cautious when developing their code or making additional changes.

107. What sections are included in test case?

A test case normally consists of a unique identifier, requirement references from a design
specification, preconditions, events, a series of steps (also known as actions) to follow, input,
output, expected result, and actual result. The optional fields are a test case ID, test step, or
order of execution number, related requirement(s), depth, test category, author, and check
boxes for whether the test is automatable and has been automated. Larger test cases may also
contain prerequisite states or steps, and descriptions. A test case should also contain a place for
the actual result. These steps can be stored in a word processor document, spreadsheet,
database, or other common repository.

108. What are included in a test script?

The test script is the combination of a test case, test procedure, and test data. Initially the term
was derived from the product of work created by automated regression test tools. Today, test
scripts can be manual, automated, or a combination of both.

109. What is included in a test data?

In most cases, multiple sets of values or data are used to test the same functionality of a
particular feature. All the test values and changeable environmental components are collected
in separate files and stored as test data. It is also useful to provide this data to the client and
with the product or a project.

110. What is Software Quality Assurance (SQA)?

Software quality assurance is an umbrella term, consisting of various planned process and
activities to monitor and control the standard of whole software development process so as to
ensure quality attribute in the final software product.

111. What is Software Quality Control (SQC)?

With the purpose similar to software quality assurance, software quality control focuses on the
software instead to its development process to achieve and maintain the quality aspect in the
software product.

112. What is Software Testing?

Software testing may be seen as a sub-category of software quality control, which is used to
remove defects and flaws present in the software, and subsequently improves and enhances the
product quality.
113. Whether, software quality assurance (sqa), software quality control (sqc) and software
testing are similar terms?

No, but the end purpose of all is same i.e. ensuring and maintaining the software quality.

114. Then, what’s the difference between SQA, SQC and Testing?

SQA is a broader term encompassing both SQC and testing in it and ensures software
development process quality and standard and subsequently in the final product also, whereas
testing which is used to identify and detect software defects is a sub-set of SQC.

115. What is software testing life cycle (STLC)?

Software testing life cycle defines and describes the multiple phases which are executed in a
sequential order to carry out the testing of a software product. The phases of STLC are
requirement, planning, analysis, design, implementation, execution, conclusion and closure.

116. How STLC is related to or different from SDLC (software development life cycle)?

Both SDLC and STLC depict the phases to be carried out in a subsequent manner, but for
different purpose. SDLC defines each and every phase of software development including
testing, whereas STLC outlines the phases to be executed during a testing process. It may be
inferred that STLC is incorporated in the SDLC phase of testing.

117. What are the phases involved in the software testing life cycle?

The phases of STLC are requirement, planning, analysis, design, implementation, execution,
conclusion and closure.

118. Why entry criteria and exit criteria is specified and defined?

Entry and exit criteria is defined and specified to initiate and terminate a particular testing
process or activity respectively, when certain conditions, factors and requirements is/are being
met or fulfilled.

119. What do you mean by the requirement study and analysis?

Requirement study and analysis is the process of studying and analysing the testable
requirements and specifications through the combined efforts of QA team, business analyst,
client and stakeholders.
120. What are the different types of requirements required in software testing?

Software/functional requirements, business requirements and user requirements.

121. Is it possible to test without requirements?

Yes, testing is an art, which may be carried out without requirements by a tester by making use
of his/her intellects possessed, acquired skills and gained experience in the relevant domain.

122. Differentiate between software requirement specifications (SRS) and business

requirement specification (BRS).

SRS layouts the functional and non-functional requirements for the software to be developed
whereas BRS reflects the business requirement i.e., the business demand of a software product
as stated by the client.

123. Why there is a bug/defect in software?

A bug or a defect in software occurs due to various reasons and conditions such as
misunderstanding or requirements, time restriction, lack of experience, faulty third party tools,
dynamic or last time changes, etc.

124. What is a software testing artifact?

Software testing artifact or testing artifact are the documents or tangible products generated
throughout the testing process for the purpose of testing or correspondence amongst the team
and with the client.

125. What are test plan, test suite and test case?

Test plan defines the comprehensive approach to perform testing of the system and not for the
single testing process or activity. A test case is based on the specified requirements &
specifications define the sequence of activities to verify and validate one or more than one
functionality of the system. Test suite is a collection of similar types of test cases.

126. How to design test cases?

Broadly, there are three different approaches or techniques to design test cases. These are

 Black box design technique, based on requirements and specifications.

 White box design technique based on internal structure of the software application.

 Experience based design technique based on the experience gained by a tester.

127. What is test environment?

A test environment comprises of necessary software and hardware along with the network
configuration and settings to simulate intended environment for the execution of tests on the
software.

128. Why test environment is needed?

Dynamic testing of the software requires specific and controlled environment comprising of
hardware, software and multiple factors under which a software is intended to perform its
functioning. Thus, test environment provides the platform to test the functionalities of software
in the specified environment and conditions.

129. What is test execution?

Test execution is one of the phases of testing life cycle which concerns with the execution of test
cases or test plans on the software product to ensure its quality with respect to specified
requirements and specifications.

130. What are the different levels of testing?

Generally, there are four levels of testing viz. unit testing, integration testing, system testing and
acceptance testing.

131. What is unit testing?

Unit testing involves the testing of each smallest testable unit of the system, independently.

132. What is the role of developer in unit testing?

As developers are well versed with their lines of code, they are preferred and being assigned the
responsibility of writing and executing the unit tests.

133. What is integration testing?

Integration testing is a testing technique to ensure proper interfacing and interaction among the
integrated modules or units after the integration process.

134. What are stubs and drivers and how these are different to each other?
 Stubs and drivers are the replicas of modules which are either not available or have not been
created yet and thus they works as the substitutes in the process of integration testing with the
difference that stubs are used in top bottom approach and drivers are used in bottom up
approach.

135. What is system testing?

System testing is used to test the completely integrated system as a one system against the
specified requirements and specifications.

136. What is acceptance testing?

Acceptance testing is used to ensure the readiness of a software product with respect to
specified requirement and specification in order to get readily accepted by the targeted users.

137. Different types of acceptance testing.

Broadly, acceptance testing is of two types-alpha testing and beta testing. Further, acceptance
testing can also be classified into following forms:

 Operational acceptance testing

 Contract acceptance testing

 Regulation acceptance testing

138. Difference between alpha and beta testing.

Both alpha and beta testing are the forms of acceptance testing where former is carried out at
development site by the QA/testing team and the latter one is executed at client site by the
intended users.

139. What are the different approaches to perform software testing?

Generally, there are two approaches to perform software testing viz. Manual testing and
Automation. Manual testing involves the execution of test cases on the software manually by
the tester whereas automation process involves the usage of automation framework and tools
to automate the task of test scripts execution.

140. What is the advantage of automation over manual testing approach and vice-versa?
 In comparison to manual approach of testing, automation reduces the efforts and time required
in executing the large amount of test scripts, repetitively and continuously for a longer period of
time with accuracy and precision.

141. Is there any testing technique that does not needs any sort of requirements or
planning?

Yes, but with the help of test strategy using check lists, user scenarios and matrices.

142. Difference between ad-hoc testing and exploratory testing?

Both ad-hoc testing and exploratory testing are the informal ways of testing the system without
having proper planning & strategy. However, in ad-hoc testing, a tester is well-versed with the
software and its features and thereby carries out the testing whereas in exploratory, he/she gets
to learn and explore more about the software during the course of testing and thus tests the
system gradually along with software understanding and learning throughout the testing
process.

143. How monkey testing is different from ad-hoc testing?

Both monkey and ad-hoc testing are the informal approach of testing but in monkey testing, a
tester does not requires the pre-understanding and detailing of the software, but learns about
the product during the course of testing whereas in ad-hoc testing, tester has the knowledge
and understanding of the software.

144. Why non-functional testing is equally important to functional testing?

Functional testing tests the system’s functionalities and features as specified prior to software
development process. It only validates the intended functioning of the software against the
specified requirement and specification but the performance of the system to function in the
unexpected circumstances and conditions in real world environment at the users end and to
meet customer satisfaction is done through non-functional testing technique. Thus, non-
functional testing looks after the non-functional traits of the software.

145. Which is a better testing methodology: black-box testing or white-box testing?

Both black-box and white-box testing approach have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Black-box testing approach enables testers to externally test the system on the basis of specified
requirement and specification and does not provide the scope of testing the internal structure
of the system, whereas white-box testing methodology verify and validates the software quality
through testing of its internal structure and working.
146. If black-box and white-box, then why gray box testing?

Gray box testing is a third type of testing and a hybrid form of black-box and white-box testing
approach, which provides the scope of externally testing the system using test plans and test
cases derived from the knowledge and understanding of internal structure of the system.

147. Difference between static and dynamic testing of software.

The primary difference between static and dynamic testing approach is that the former does not
involves the execution of code to test the system whereas latter approach requires the code
execution to verify and validate the system quality.

148. Smoke and Sanity testing are used to test software builds. Are they similar??

Although, both smoke and sanity testing is used to test software builds but smoke testing is used
to test the initial build which are unstable whereas sanity tests are executed on relatively stable
builds which had undergone multiple time through regression testing.

149. When, what and why to automate?

Automation is preferred when the execution of tests needs to be carried out repetitively for a
longer period of time and within the specified deadlines. Further, an analysis of ROI on
automation is desired to analyse the cost-benefit model of the automation. Preferably
functional, regression and functional tests may be automated. Further, tests which requires
accuracy and precision, and is time-consuming may be considered for automation, including
data driven tests also.

150. What are the challenges faced in automation?

Some of the common challenges faced in the automation are

 Initial cost is very high along with the maintenance costs. Thus, requires proper analysis to
assess ROI on automation.

 Increased complexities.

 Limited time.

 Demands skilled tester, having appropriate knowledge of programming.

 Automation training cost and time.

 Selection of right and appropriate tools and frameworks.

 Less flexible.

 Keeping test plans and cases updated and maintained.

151. Difference between retesting and regression testing.

Both retesting and regression testing is done after modification in software features and
configuration to remove or correct the defect(s). However, retesting is done to validate that the
identified defects has been removed or resolved after applying patches while regression testing
is done to ensure that the modification in the software doesn’t impacts or affects the existing
functionalities and originality of the software.

152. How to categorize bugs or defects found in the software?

A bug or a defect may be categorized on the priority and severity basis, where priority defines
the need to correct or remove defect, from business perspective, whereas severity states the
need to resolve or eliminate defect from software requirement and quality perspective.

153. What is the importance of test data?

Test data is used to drive the testing process, where diverse types of test data as inputs are
provided to the system to test the response, behaviour and output of the system, which may be
desirable or unexpected.

154. Why agile testing approach is preferred over traditional way of testing?

Agile testing follows the agile model of development, which requires no or less documentation
and provides the scope of considering and implementing the dynamic and changing
requirements along with the direct involvement of client or customer to work on their regular
feedbacks and requirements to provide software in multiple and short iterative cycles.

155. What are the parameters to evaluate and assess the performance of the software?

Parameters which are used to evaluate and assess the performance of the software are active
defects, authored tests, automated tests, requirement coverage, no. of defects fixed/day, tests
passed, rejected defects, severe defects, reviewed requirements, test executed and many more.

156. How important is the localization and globalization testing of a software application?

Globalization and localization testing ensures the software product features and standards to be
globally accepted by the world wide users and to meet the need and requirements of the users
belonging to a particular culture, area, region, country or locale, respectively.

157. What is the difference between verification and validation approach of software testing?
 Verification is done throughout the development phase on the software under development
whereas validation is performed over final product produced after the development process
with respect to specified requirement and specification.

158. Does test strategy and test plan define the same purpose?

Yes, the end purpose of test strategy and test plan is same i.e. to works as a guide or manual to
carry out the software testing process, but still they both differs.

159. Which is better approach to perform regression testing: manual or automation?

Automation would provide better advantage in comparison to manual for performing regression
testing.

160. What is bug life cycle?

Bug or Defect life cycle describes the whole journey or the life of a defect through various stages
or phases, right from when it is identified and till its closure.

161. What are the different types of experience based testing techniques?

Error guessing, checklist based testing, exploratory testing, attack testing.

162. Whether a software application can be 100% tested?

No, as one of the principles of software testing states that exhaustive testing is not possible.

163. Why exploratory testing is preferred and used in the agile methodology?

As agile methodology requires the speedy execution of the processes through small iterative
cycles, thereby calls for the quick, and exploratory testing which does not depends on the
documentation work and is carried out by tester through gradual understanding of the software,
suits best for the agile environment.

164. Difference between load and stress testing.

The primary purpose of load and stress testing is to test system’s performance, behaviour and
response under different varied load. However, stress testing is an extreme or brutal form of
load testing where a system under increasing load is subjected to certain unfavourable
conditions like cut down in resources, short or limited time period for execution of task and
various such things.
165. What is data driven testing?

As the name specifies, data driven testing is a type of testing, especially used in the automation,
where testing is carried out and drive by the defined sets of inputs and their corresponding
expected output.

166. When to start and stop testing?

Basically, on the availability of software build, testing process starts. However, testing may be
started early with the development process, as soon as the requirements are gathered and
available. Moreover, testing depends upon the requirement of the software development model
like in waterfall model, testing is done in the testing phase, whereas in agile testing is carried out
in multiple and short iteration cycle.

Testing is an infinite process as it is impossible to make a software 100% bug free. But still, there
are certain conditions specified to stop testing such as:

 Deadlines

 Complete execution of the test suites and scripts.

 Meeting the specified exit criteria for a test.

 High priority and severity bugs are identified and resolved.

 Complete testing of the functionalities and features.

167. Whether exhaustive software testing is possible?

No

168. What are the merits of using the traceability matrix?

The primary advantage of using the traceability matrix is that it maps the all the specified
requirements with that to test cases, thereby ensures complete test coverage.

169. What is software testability?

Software testability comprises of various artifacts which gives the estimation about the efforts
and time required in the execution of a particular testing activity or process.

170. What is positive and negative testing?

 Positive testing is the activity to test the intended and correct functioning of the system on
being fed with valid and appropriate input data whereas negative testing evaluates the system’s
behaviour and response in the presence of invalid input data.

171. Brief out different forms of risks involved in software testing.

Different types of risks involved in software testing are budget risk, technical risk, operational
risk, scheduled risk and marketing risk.

172. Why cookie testing?

Cookie is used to store the personal data and information of a user at server location, which is
later used for making connections to web pages by the browsers, and thus it is essential to test
these cookies.

173. What constitutes a test case?

A test case consists of several components. Some of them are test suite id, test case id,
description, pre-requisites, test procedure, test data, expected results, test environment.

174. What are the roles and responsibilities of a tester or a QA engineer?

A QA engineer has multiple roles and is bounded to several responsibilities such as defining
quality parameters, describing test strategy, executing test, leading the team, reporting the
defects or test results.

175. What is rapid software testing?

Rapid software testing is a unique approach of testing which strikes out the need of any sort of
documentation work, and motivates testers to make use of their thinking ability and vision to
carry out and drive the testing process.

176. Difference between error, defect and failure.

In the software engineering, error defines the mistake done by the programmers. Defect reflects
the introduction of bugs at production site and results into deviation in results from its expected
output due to programming mistakes. Failure shows the system’s inability to execute
functionalities due to presence of defect. i.e. defect explored by the user.

177. Whether security testing and penetration testing are similar terms?
 No, but both testing types ensure the security mechanism of the software. However,
penetration testing is a form of security testing which is done with the purpose to attack the
system to ensure not only the security features but also its defensive mechanism.

178. Distinguish between priority and severity.

Priority defines the business need to fix or remove identified defect whereas severity is used to
describe the impact of a defect on the functioning of a system.

179. What is test harness?

Test harness is a term used to collectively define various inputs and resources required in
executing the tests, especially the automated tests to monitor and assess the behaviour and
output of the system under different varied conditions and factors. Thus, test harness may
include test data, software, hardware and many such things.

180. What constitutes a test report?

A test report may comprise of following elements:

 Objective/purpose

 Test summary

 Logged defects

 Exit criteria

 Conclusion

 Resources used

181. What are the test closure activities?

Test closure activities are carried out the after the successful delivery or release of the software
product. This includes collection of various data, information, testwares pertaining to software
testing phase so as to determine and assess the impact of testing on the product.

182. List out various methodologies or techniques used under static testing.

 Inspection

 Walkthroughs

 Technical reviews

 Informal reviews

183. Whether test coverage and code coverage are similar terms?

No, code coverage amounts the percentage of code covered during software execution whereas
test coverage concerns with the test cases to cover specified functionality and requirement.
184. List out different approaches and methods to design tests.

Broadly, there are different ways along with their sub techniques to design test cases, as
mentioned below

 Black Box design technique- BVA, Equivalence Partitioning, use case testing.

 White Box design technique- statement coverage, path coverage, branch coverage

 Experience based technique- error guessing, exploratory testing

185. How system testing is different to acceptance testing?

System testing is done with the perspective to test the system against the specified
requirements and specification whereas acceptance testing ensures the readiness of the system
to meet the needs and expectations of a user.

186. Distinguish between use case and test case.

Both use case and test case is used in the software testing. Use case depicts and defines the user
scenarios including various possible path taken by the system under different conditions and
circumstances to execute a particular task and functionality. On the other side, test case is a
document based on the software and business requirements and specification to verify and
validate the software functioning.

187. What is the need of content testing?

In the present era, content plays a major role in creating and maintaining the interest of the
users. Further, the quality content attracts the audience, makes them convinced or motivated
over certain things, and thus is a productive input for the marketing purpose. Thus, content
testing is a must testing to make your software content suitable for your targeted users.

188. List out different types of documentation/documents used in the software testing.

 Test plan

 Test scenario

 Test cases

 Traceability Matrix

 Test Log and Report

189. What is test deliverables?

 Test deliverables are the end products of a complete software testing process- prior, during and
after the testing, which is used to impart testing analysis, details and outcomes to the client.

190. What is fuzz testing?

Fuzz testing is used to discover coding flaws and security loopholes by subjecting system with
the large amount of random data with the intent to break the system.

191. How testing is different with respect to debugging?

Testing is done with the purpose of identifying and locating the defects by the testing team
whereas debugging is done by the developers to fix or correct the defects.

192. What is the importance of database testing?

Database is an inherited component of a software application as it works as a backend system of

the application and stores different types of data and information from multiple sources. Thus, it
is crucial to test the database to ensure integrity, validity, accuracy and security of the stored
data.

193. What are the different types of test coverage techniques?

 Statement Coverage

 Branch Coverage

 Decision Coverage

 Path Coverage

194. Why and how to prioritize test cases?

Due to abundance of test cases for the execution within the given testing deadline arises the
need to prioritize test cases. Test prioritization involves the reduction in the number of test
cases, and selecting & prioritizing only those which are based on some specific criteria.

195. How to write a test case?

Test cases should be effective enough to cover each and every feature and quality aspect of
software and able to provide complete test coverage with respect to specified requirements and
specifications.
196. How to measure the software quality?

There are certain specified parameters, namely software quality metrics which is used to assess
the software quality. These are product metrics, process metrics and project metrics.

197. What are the different types of software quality model?

 Mc Call’s Model

 Boehm Model

 FURPS Model

 IEEE Model

 SATC’s Model

 Ghezzi Model

 Capability Maturity Model

 Dromey’s quality Model

 ISO-9126-1 quality model

198. What different types of testing may be considered and used for testing the web
applications?

 Functionality testing

 Compatibility testing

 Usability testing

 Database testing

 Performance testing

 Accessibility testing

199. What is pair testing?

Pair testing is a type of ad-hoc testing where pair of testers or tester and developer or tester &
user is being formed which are responsible for carrying out the testing of the same software
product on the same machine.