Refer to WHY a change has been initiated,

NOT how to transition to the future state,

3 key point on Business rules

. Business rule changes can be implemented quickly if they

are managed by a single enterprise-wide engine.
b. Business rules shape day-to-day business behavior.
c. Business rules guide operational business decision-
making.

Which of the following best represent forms of

documentation?

Audio recording, virtual whiteboard

These are both forms of documentation that may be

held onto until they are transferred to another medium
for elicitation purposes. BABOK 4.4.4
They find it difficult to validate the design
against the requirements. What would be the
problem?

A requirement might be missing or incorrectly

specified or the design may not be right.

3 reasons why an activity diagram may be

utilized?.

1. An activity diagram can elaborate on a single use case.

2. An activity diagram is effective at showing how to handle a large number

of scenarios and parallel branches.

3. An activity diagram utilizes business process model and notation

(BPMN) so it can distinguish the activities of different participants in a
process with either pools or swim lanes.

You have been hired as the business analyst and

assigned to a project that has many stakeholders.
You want to quickly build rapport with the key
stakeholders. Which technique would help you
achieve your goal?
Interviews.

Interviews can help establish relationships and build trust. BABOK 10.25.1

The team has decided that they will use index

cards to document their user stories, and will attach
post-it notes to them to record data requirements
and acceptance criteria. What has the team
defined?

Information Management Approach

"...the defined approach for how business analysis

information will be stored, accessed, and utilized during the
change and after the change is complete." BABOK 3.4.8

Business analysts use a requirements

architecture to understand which models are
appropriate for the domain, solution scope,
and audience.

TRUE

COTS package - purchase price:$1,250,000, installation:$150,000, annual support costs (first

year is free):$50,000, training: included with purchase price, customization:$200,000

Custom Solution - development:$1,800,000, annual maintenance costs:$25,000, training:

$25,000.

Which solution has the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) over five years?

COTS solution Correct The COTS solution has a TCO of $1,800,000: $1,250,000 + 150,000 + (4*
50,000) + $200,000. BABOK 7.6.4.2, 7.6.6, and 10.20.3.2

Custom solution Incorrect The custom solution has a higher TCO of $1,925,000: $1,800,000 +
(5*25,000). BABOK 7.6.4.2, 7.6.6, and 10.20.3.2

Custom solution. Given how close the two solutions' TCO is, the customized solution offers the
greater possibility of fewer adjustments to current processes. Correct This answer is reasonable
since the TCO of both solutions is roughly equal. A customized solution will in most cases

Kathy is a new BA who asked you to review a business case she developed
before she submits it for review and approval. The business case outlines a
compelling change strategy and contains rigorous financial feasibility analysis for
the recommended strategy.
For the above Scenario, please answer question 1 of 2 below:
You provide Kathy feedback that while her recommendation is compelling,
something critical is missing. What is it?

Financial analyses of other change strategies.

Factors considered when evaluating whether

or not a solution should be retired or replaced

Sunk cost, opportunity cost, and ect.

Given the directive to add a new product line

to the initiative, what should the BA do?
Recommend assessing the change to the scope.

Correct Given there is no extension of the deadline and no additional resources available, the
request represents "scope creep" and the best response is to recommend assessing the change.
"The Assess Requirements Changes task is performed as new needs or possible solutions are
identified. Assessment must be performed to determine whether a proposed change will increase
the value of the solution, and if so, what action should be taken." BABOK 5.4.2

**Wha'ts overlooked? Defining how decisions will be made about requirements reviews, approvals,
and pri

Your company has just purchased a COTS package. You

were selected as the business analyst for the project
because of your existing expertise and the need to
implement within an aggressive timeline. This is an example
of what underlying competency?

Solution Knowledge.

Successful interviewing depends on all of the following general factors:

Understanding programming technology is not required by the BA.

BABOK 10.25.2
c. BA's level of understanding the business, BA's interviewing skill,
interviewee's readiness to provide information, interviewee's clarity
regarding the goal of the interview, BA and interviewee rapport.
Correct These are the factors the BABOK lists for interviewing
success. BABOK 10.25.2
Which of the following best describes what is
needed in order to specify and model
requirements?

Any elicitation results

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

Recommend a course of action and let the sponsor decide.

A hired consultant for a division in a retail

organization began a SWOT analysis with the
identification of opportunities and threats. What do
you think the next steps would be to complete the
initial analysis?

Having set the context, the next step is to identify strengths

and weaknesses.

Correct Beginning a SWOT analysis with opportunities and

threats sets the context to identify relevant internal strengths
and weaknesses. BABOK 10.46.3

It is essential that stakeholders actively collaborate

in the business analysis process so as not to
negatively impact the effort. What is the BA's role in
ensuring positive collaboration with stakeholders?

Establish strong, positive, and trust-based relationships with

stakeholders involved in business analysis tasks.

By developing positive relationships, detrimental effects on

business analysis tasks can be modified

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

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

Sallie the BA was in the process of conducting training and

noticed that members of the class were having difficulty
retaining the information. She is currently using PowerPoint
slides supported by written material. What might you
suggest she try?

Add a kinesthetic component.

Kevin wants to model the 'why' of a change.

Which technique would he use to accomplish
this task?

Scope modeling.

Techniques used in Activity Flow modeling

category which represents actions and events.
Process modeling. & User Story

Senior BA & your team of 3 BAs has been asked to plan and facilitate an event to finalize an
estimate of the potential value for each potential design option for a solution. Your goal is to
establish which option is most appropriate to meet the enterprise's requirements. You see the
value of the preferred option is $100,000, one of the BAs on your team thinks the value is
$150,000, and a third one projects the value to be $80,000.

Given what you know, what should the team set as the value for their preferred option?

$105,000 Correct The value for a PERT-type

estimate is (Optimistic + Pessimistic + (4 times
Most Likely))/6. $105,000 = (150000 +80000 +
(4*100000)) / 6. See the Estimation technique.
BABOK 10.19.3.1

Role of acceptance criteria related to a user

story?

Acceptance criteria support the development

of user stories to help determine what the
solution needs in order to provide value.

What are the 3 solution approaches?

Solution components creation
Solution components purchase
Combination of both creation and purchase

Deepak is a BA on a project that is already over budget and

time constrained. In light of this, he decides to collect
information from a group of people using the survey
technique. The following are some of the reasons he would
choose this technique. Which are the strengths of the
reasons?

1. Survey technique is good for both quantitative and

qualitative analysis
2. Quick and relatively inexpensive to administer.
3. Does not typically require significant time from the
respondents.
4. Easier to collect information from a larger audience than
other techniques such as interviews.
You are a BA assessing both the solution and enterprise
limitations that are prohibiting the end-users from
experiencing the full value of the solution. You are lacking a
description of the current state. What sort of assessment are
you able to perform?

Solution limitations. NOT enterprise limitations

Which of the following guidelines/tools
provides results of previous valuation that
should be reviewed and incorporated into all
planning approaches?

Business analysis performance assessment

These assessments provide the results of previous
assessments that should be reviewed and
incorporated in the current initiative's approach.
BABOK

Customer satisfaction scores have fallen each quarter for the past
year and two high revenue customers were threatening to go to a
competitor when their contracts were up in three months. Brian was
assigned as the BA to investigate root cause and recommend a cost-
effective solution. What is the first thing Brian should do? Time is of
the essence!

Collaborate with key stakeholders to gain consensus on the definition of the problem and resulting
impacts. Correct Collaboration is key and getting buy-in to the definition of the problem and
identifying the business need is always a first step. BABOK 6.1.2 and 9.5.1.1

How was the business need in this scenario identified? --> From external drivers.

External drivers are defined as customer demand or business competition in the marketplace.
Requirements traceability identifies and
documents the lineage of each requirement.
What are the ways in which this lineage can be
identified and documented?

Backwards, forwards, and the relationships

between requirements

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

Term?

User Story Conversation

"The sponsor wants the website fully functional when we go live. .We're going to have to watch costs
carefully to hire contract developers & to purchase automated testing software.

You are a business analyst & Scrum is new to =organization, several team members have voiced
their concerns about who has the authority and responsibility to propose changes to features and
who ideally should be involved in the change discussions. Also of concern is who will analyze and
approve any changes to priorities during the project. Given the organization's past reliance on
requirements documents, you also have an interest in how requirements and changes to them will
be handled.

Q1: What is one of the first thing(s) you need to do to ensure a successful outcome?

Q2: What is your best choice to address the concerns expressed in the case study about
responsibilities and authority for handling changes?

Work to establish effective working relationships with the stakeholders involved.

The case study mentions the business need is understood. The business analysis approach is
assumed to be adaptive given the selection of Scrum as the overall approach. With those in place,
the next logical task is to Plan Stakeholder Engagement, which the answer essentially describes.
BABOK 3.2.1 and 3.2.3

Q2: = Identify the appropriate decision makers and process needed for decisions to be made.
Correct This is a partial description of the task Plan Business Analysis Governance, which uses the
BA Approach and Stakeholder Engagement Approach as inputs. It would specifically address the
concerns about how changes will be handled. If Scrum is followed, the Product Owner would be the
appropriate decision maker. If the team is self-organizing, it would be responsible for the process.

A working session where invited participants

review and discuss a set of requirements.

Requirements Review Process

Which of the following techniques may be

helpful in identifying business analysis
performance improvements?

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

requirements and the interrelationships among

them, as well as any contextual information
that is recorded.
Requirements architecture

Item tracking is a technique used within all

tasks of the business analysis planning and
monitoring knowledge area EXCEPT

Plan stakeholder engagement

A short description of the solution capability

that provides value to the stakeholder. It's
high-level and informal

User Story

Given the various stakeholder points of view, what

activity or outcome would you use to help assess
alternative potential approaches to the changes
needed for the company?

Root cause analysis.

"the path, method, or approach an enterprise
or organization will take to achieve its desired
future state

organizational strategy

he CIO lists the various features and benefits

of the software package he recommends.
What is the next thing the BA should
determine in response to the CIO?

Business requirements

To help understand each stakeholder's

perspective better, which technique or activity
would be the most helpful to use?

Perform problem analysis

specific, testable directive that serves as a criterion
for guiding behavior, shaping judgments, or making
decisions.

Business Rule

A capability or condition needed on a particular

project to solve a problem or achieve an
objective.

Requirement

Which techniques besides document analysis

would you use to help you understand the
context and need for the enhancement?

Data Mining, Root-Cause Analysis, Benchmarking

Grant has just completed defining a governance process when a

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

The decision-making process when used in the plan

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

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

How could this situation have been mitigated or avoided altogether?

How could this situation have been mitigated

or avoided altogether?

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

What most likely happened?

The transition requirement around training was missed or poorly

executed.
One person's designs may be another person's
requirements.One person's designs may be
another person's requirements.

True!!!

What 6 capabilities are analyzed in Gap

Analysis?

1. Knowledge & skills

2. Functions & Processes
3. Facilities, Organizational Structure
4. Lines of burins
5. Staffing competencies
6. Training

What are some of the factors a business analyst

would consider to establish the level of
decomposition and the level of detail to be
specified while conducting information
decomposition. ?

 Knowledge and understanding of the stakeholders.

2. Contractual or regulatory obligations.
3. Organizational standard
4. Potential for misunderstanding or
miscommunication.

describes a value assessment?

The organization will be better positioned to absorb future

changes.

This is a qualitative or "value" estimate, meaning it is

important to consider and will add significant value to the
organization. But, is difficult to quantify. BABOK 6.2.4.11

Which of the following represents why testers

would require maintained requirements?

Testers use maintained requirements to aid in

test plan and test case creation.

WHO utilize maintained requirements when

developing regression tests and conducting
impact analysis for an enhancement.
IMPLEMENTATION SME

WHO likely to reference maintained

requirements to confirm the current state.?

OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

WHO reference maintained requirements on a

regular basis to ensure they are accurately
reflecting stated needs.

DOMAIN SME

What state or status should the requirements

be in to serve as an input to the Define
Requirements Architecture task?

They can be in any state or status

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

Conducted a usability test on the survey before it was distributed

could've uncovered areas of ambiguity.

Piloting the survey with a small group of representative personnel

might have allowed for ambiguous questions to be corrected before
distribution BABOK 10.45.3.1

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

What might Gene do to bolster the return rate of the survey?

Perform root cause analysis to address the underlying reason(s) the

survey isn't being returned.

This would be optimal and it doesn't have to take a long period of

time. This is key to understanding solution limitations, either inherent
in the solution or enterprise. BABOK 8.3 and 8.4
She has received estimates from all the
involved stakeholders. She combines them all
to get a total for all the activities and tasks.
What method has she used for estimation?

Bottom-up estimation

It's time to administer the annual employee satisfaction

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

The employees do not see the value in

completing the survey.

Which Estimation Methods?

panel of experts are asked for estimates anonymously. The

facilitator of this technique then shares the estimates with
the panel who revise their estimates; the process continues
until consensus is reached.
Delphi Technique

Which Estimation Methods?

Repeated estimates throughout an initiative or project,

provide detailed estimates for near-term activities and
extrapolates for the remainder of the initiative.

Rolling wave.

A relationship-oriented organization with several physical sites installed a

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

What happened?

The transition requirement around training was missed or poorly executed.

Why is it important to review lessons learned?

To compile and document successes,

opportunities for improvement, failures, and
recommendations for improving the
performance of future projects.

pecifically, what would user stories help the

team thoroughly define and understand?

Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria.

User stories serve to identify specific acceptance and

evaluation criteria related to specific roles so that the
optimal change strategy can be identified.

Which technique would help Gary categorize

his stakeholders by the systems that support
their business processes?

Process modeling

Process models help identify what stakeholder

groups engage in the process. BABOK 3.2.6
and 10.35
As a BA assigned to improve an enterprise
process to realize efficiency gains, which of
the following analytic techniques would provide
the most value?

Activity diagrams
Activity diagrams are a type of process model/notation that
reflects process steps, roles, parallel processing, and
multiple exit decision points so, of the options listed, would
deliver the most value. BABOK 6.1.6 and 10.35.3.1

Benchmarking and market analysis is a stated

technique for which of the following tasks in
the requirements analysis and design
definition knowledge area

Define design options

The results of stakeholder analysis should be consulted and

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

Plan business analysis approach

** If they ask for input, it would needs

You are in the process of assessing source documents that

would be helpful in gathering background information, in order
to understand the context of a business need

Which 3 factors are consideration for this technique?

Document Analysis:

1. Whether or not the source's content is relevant, current, genuine, and credible.

2. Whether or not the content is understandable and can be easily conveyed to stakeholders as
needed.

3. The definition of both the data to be mined and the data clusters that provide items grouped by
logical relationships.
Techniques would be the most helpful to
understand the limitations with the current
production and shipping processes?

Benchmarking and Market Analysis

Which of these statements expresses the most

effective way for the BA to resolve conflict
among the stakeholders about how to meet
the business need?

Facilitate several meetings to discuss the differences among the stakeholders, ensure that they
have an opportunity to express their feelings and needs, ensure an outcome that satisfies the
needs of the stakeholder and aligns with the business need. The intent is to strengthen the
relationships among the affected stakeholders.

A ratio of the benefits of a solution to be realized

compared with the cost to obtain them. It provides
a relative value of a change and can be compared
with other potential investments.

The return on investment (ROI) of a planned

change is expressed as a percentage
measuring the net benefits divided by the cost
of the change." BABOK 10.20.3.5

It is an assumed rate used in present value

calculations. It projects a rate the organization
could earn compared to what it could earn on
other investments.

Discount rate

A ratio of the present value of the benefits minus

the original cost of the investment. It represents
whether the project would yield a higher return
than investments elsewhere

NPV

The rate which an investment breaks even. It

tells whether the proposed solution is worth
investing in.
IRR

Time period projection for the time needed to

generate enough benefits to recover the cost of
the change

Payback Period

Minimum threshold that an organization

expects to earn from its investments

Hurdle Rate

Which of the two choices should Josh

recommend based on the Return on
Investment (ROI) potential of the two
alternatives?

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

modeling requirements in order to identify and

validate inputs and outputs of the solution she
is modeling.

Process Modeling

Technique used "to define features of value to a

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

User Story

Given the information provided about

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

Identifying what would make the future state

acceptable and then assessing the potential
value offered by vendors in relationship to that
criteria.
This is another way of saying "acceptance and
evaluation criteria" and "vendor assessment";
both of which would've been valuable
techniques

Which type of models can be used to define

and document the business analysis
approach?

She needs an expert to provide input about the

constraints and cost implications of each
option. Who would be the BEST person to
provide guidance?

Implementation subject matter expert

Implementation SMEs use their expertise to

provide input about the constraints and costs of a
solution. BABOK 7.5.7

purpose of assessing requirements changes.

To evaluate the implications of proposed

changes to requirements and designs.

BA recommended using a matrix for their

requirements modeling format. What is the
purpose of this type of format?
To convey a set of requirements that have a
complex but uniform structure that can be
broken down

3 challenges that may hinder project teams

carrying out the lessons learned process.

1. Honest discussion may not occur if participants try to assign blame

during these sessions.

2. Participants may be reluctant to document and discuss problems.

3. Proactive facilitation may be required to ensure that the

discussions remain focused on solutions and improvement
opportunities.

This technique describes how an enterprise creates,

delivers, and captures value for and from its customers. It
can be used as both a diagnostic and a planning tool, both
of which are needed. It includes such things as customer
relationships, revenue streams, value proposition,
resources, activities, etc.,

Business Model Canvas

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

A CRUD Matrix would not be suitable because those

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

Method of assessing the preferred outcome

where multiple sources of uncertainty may
exist."

A decision tree

This technique generally contain one or more

condition columns that map to specific data
elements, as well as one or more action or
outcome columns."
Decision tables

Identifies requirements associated with the

processes that may be available for reuse

Process Modeling

Identifies a solution component that may be

available for reuse

Use Cases & Scenario

Technique that would help Leah understand the customer experience?

Use cases and scenarios. Correct Creating

use cases and scenarios would help her
understand the expectations the user had
about their interaction with the website.
The project team has identified several design options. They
need to evaluate and compare these options to one another
to recommend one option for the solution. The team is using
criteria to score each option. Which method is the team
employing?

Decision matrices

What stakeholder is responsible for

determining how to verify that the solution
meets the requirements?

Tester

What is an effectiveness measure of verbal

communication skills?

Can communicate the criticality or urgency of a situation in a

calm, rational manner.
Appropriate choice of words. is an
effectiveness measure for which
communication competency?

This is a measure of written communication

skills.

What is typically used to display tasks that are

in the pipeline, in progress, or completed
within an iteration/sprint?

A Kanban board

For parametric estimation to be valid, what

must be available to the estimator?

Accurate history
Agreed-upon description of the elements to
estimated are often in the form of a ________

WBS

Given the number of hours needed for the last

upgrade, approximately how many hours of
business analysis activities do you estimate
the latest upgrade will take?

2,500

Correct 1) If the last upgrade took 10,000 hours and involved 11

modules, then a relevant parameter can be assumed to be
approximately 900 hours per module. 2) With 14 modules in the new
upgrade, then 14 900 = 12,600. 3) 12,600 hours 20% for BA activities
= 2500 hours. BABOK 10.19.3.1

Mary is preparing to allocate requirements to

solution components and releases to best
achieve the objectives and maximize value.
What should Mary do?
Ensure her requirements are validated and prioritized.

A technique that describes the rationale for

requirements.

business model canvas

Which tool used to support assessing enterprise

limitations is defined as follows: "Boundaries of the
proposed new, removed, or modified components of
the enterprise, as well as the potential value expected
from the future state"?

Future state descriptions Correct BABOK 8.4.5

process of assigning requirements to solution

components and releases to best achieve the
objectives and is a consideration in Define
Design Options. B
Requirements allocation

most common model for helping build

relational databases

A logical or physical entity-relationship

diagram

independent of any solution or technology and

are primarily used to establish a consistent
vocabulary describing business information.

conceptual entity-relationship diagram

describes what an enterprise, in whole or in

part, is able to do

Business Capability Analysis

method to capture how an enterprise creates,
delivers, and captures value for and from its
customers.

Business Model Canvas

In a short, 3-month project to implement a COTS

system, the BA determined that a requirements
specification document was not necessary and planned
instead to develop use cases to document functional
requirements. What is this an example of?

Determining appropriate requirements analysis and

documentation activities

***Use cases articulate the functional behavior of the

system. BABOK 10.47.4.1

Elements that comprise a sequence diagram?

Lifeline, activation box, message

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

Perform root cause analysis to understand the

primary reason for the discrepancy so action
can be taken. BABOK 8.2.4.5

There are several roles involved in a

successful workshop. Which of the following
roles is NOT a mandatory participant?

Sponsor

A solution architect has a paper prototype of the system for

which you are the BA. She asks you to evaluate the solution
to ensure it meets the defined measurements before she
passes it on to the developers as she is going on vacation
and won't be available for rework. How do you respond?
You suggest she build a prototype for evaluation
purposes before development.

***The solution must be in use in some form in order to

be evaluated. BABOK 8.3.3

The performance report for an in-house developed solution has shown for the past year that the
application is outperforming its targets in every category. The defined KPIs set the performance bar
pretty high.

What's the likely cause for "over" performance?

The developers exceeded the performance expectations defined in

the requirements and acceptance criteria.

This is also known as "gold plating." Although not BABOK-specific; it

reflects more general knowledge but is a scenario a BA may face
when assessing a solution.

Your organization has just determined a new system is needed to

meet a new market opportunity and you have been asked to
evaluate and investigate the underlying rationale. You have been
charged with ensuring that the widest possible range of
alternative solutions are considered. What is the output of your
work?

Business requirements

The question focuses on "evaluating and investigating

underlying rationale;" the output of that focus is the
business requirements. BABOK 6.1.8.

Matt is starting to recruit participants for a focus

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

Heterogeneous groups are groups that include stakeholders with a

wide variety of characteristics related to the topic of interest.

Though not specifically defined in version 3 of the BABOK, the

BABOK does say that the demographics of the discussion participants
must be identified. BABOK 10.21.3.2

The business analysis process is compared

against the set of defined measures.

This is true. The analysis may be performed

on the business analysis process, resources
involved, and the deliverables. BABOK 3.5.4.3
Jan and Lisa's manager has asked them to identify and document which requirements could be
reused for future mergers and acquisitions. Lisa has scheduled a meeting with colleagues to
brainstorm ideas about which requirements could be reused. Which technique/tool may be best
suited for this task?

Functional decomposition is the best tool to

identify reusable requirements. BABOK 5.2.5
and 5.2.6

Performance may be determined from the point of

view of the stakeholders who are the recipients of
the business analysis work.

TRUE

The business analysis deliverables are

compared against the set of defined
measures.

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

State Modeling to help understand the various states an Order goes

through.

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

Survey or questionnaire's biggest benefit?

It would provide a quantitative baseline from

which to measure improvement.

The greatest amount of information about a

speaker's attitude and feelings is conveyed
during a conversation through which of the
following means:
Body language.

Which techniques can be used to attain

approvals of the requirements?

Acceptance and evaluation criteria, decision

analysis, item tracking, and workshops

Ralph , a BA highly skilled in data mining, He utilizes statistical measures,

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

The governance team members may not understand

the mathematical models.

Not understanding the math can result in a perceived

lack of transparency and distrust of the results.

If potential problems or opportunities for improvement are

identified,
WHO must be consulted before changes are implemented
to assess whether those changes will have an impact on the
project.?

Project manager

Given the entrepreneurial nature of the

company, which of the following should you
consider for measuring the business analysis
work effort?

Ask key stakeholders which performance measures they think are appropriate.

*The case study describes an environment that sounds informal so asking key stakeholders for
their input would be appropriate. "The business analyst may also elicit assessment measures
from stakeholders." BABOK 3.5.4.2

*** standard business analysis performance measures not approapriate for startups

Which key area has a set of tasks that helps

ensure that the right people are involved in
developing, understanding, and approving the
project requirements?
Requirements life cycle management

The probability of the risk occurring with Feature A is 50%,

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

Accept

The risk levels of the two features are relatively low, so

accepting them is the most reasonable answer of the choices
given. Ultimately, the affected stakeholders would decide if the
risks are acceptable. BABOK 10.38.3.4

To arrive at the risk levels involved, which of

the following would be most appropriate to
use?

Expert judgment and historical analysis

Risks are discovered and identified through a combination

of expert judgment, stakeholder input, experimentation, past
experiences, and historical analysis of similar initiatives and
situations." BABOK 10.38.3.1
As a senior business analyst you have been
approached by a junior business analyst to provide
advice on when to use a capability model category.
Which of the following is the correct response?

When representing features or functions of an enterprise or a solution

technique for defining the current state

Business Capability Analysis

Which of the following stakeholders will help to

understand value assessments for the process
improvements and identify ways to improve
solution performance and increase value
realization?

Domain Subject Matter Expert

The Domain Subject Matter Expert stakeholder is involved with task.

"Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value."
***Besides the Sponsor, the Domain SME participates in each of the
tasks in Solution Evaluation. BABOK 8.5.7

technique is listed as one of the ways to

assess solution and enterprise limitations.

Benchmarking and Market Analysis

Technique to help maintain requirements?

Data Modeling is "used to identify data

structures that may be similar across the
enterprise in order to facilitate reuse.

Georgio wants to interact with the groups of

stakeholders to gain more information about
them. What would you advise him to do?

Hold workshops

Workshops are interactive and would allow Greg

to gain more information about stakeholder
groups.

What factor can be assessed through key

performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with
enterprise measures, goals, and objectives for a
project, process performance targets, or tests for a
software application?

Performance

4 factors that must be considered when analyzing performance measures

Performance Variances, Risks, Trends, &

Accuracy

Bi-directional definition of traceability. I

1. Traceability detects missing functionality or to identify if there is implemented

functionality.

2. Traceability assists in managing changes to the requirements that will occur after
the requirements are baselined.
 "Traceability is used to help ensure that the solution conforms to requirements and to
assist in scope, change, risk, time, cost, and communication management

1Technique described as analyzing "the

factors that influence their decisions to
purchase, and the competitors that exist in the
market"

Competitive Analysis

Technique assist stakeholders in visualizing

the appearance and capabilities of a planned
solution.

Prototyping

Francisco is working closely with his project

manager to evaluate the implication of proposed
requirements and design changes to the project.
Which task is being accomplished by Francisco?

Assess requirements changes

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

Specify and model requirements

Estimation technique that uses a combination

of expert judgment and history.

Delphi Method

You have interviewed key stakeholders to uncover

their business needs. You become aware of many
factors that the stakeholders think are true, but which
have not been verified. You decide to document
which of the following:

Assumptions
Assumptions are factors that are believed to be
true but has not been confirmed to be accurate, or
that could be true now but may not be in the future.

Darryl is working with a team of stakeholders

to assess the feasibility of several
brainstormed solutions. What is Darryl and his
team most like doing?

Developing a business case.

A business case includes a feasibility analysis

for identified alternatives. BABOK 10.7.3.1

You know that having the business stakeholder Daniel

Chardonne available to represent stakeholders on the
project is key to its success. You have talked to Daniel and
he said that the project is not as important to him as getting
his daily work done. How might you get his buy-in?

Facilitate a meeting with Daniel and the sponsor to understand the issues of priorities and
the impact of Daniel's unavailability on the project timeline. Correct

This is an example of using Negotiation and Conflict (BABOK 9.4) and Interaction Skills
(BABOK 9.5). Negotiation is needed to reach a common understanding, in this case about
which has higher priority, the project or operational work. In addition, this kind of a meeting
facilitates stakeholder communication and promotes stakeholder support of the proposed
changes (BABOK 9.5 introduction).

estimation uses a statistical relationship

between historical data and other variables.

Parametric Estimation

"diamond with one line entering and multiple

lines leaving;" in UML standard notation

Decision Branch

A component of a UML standard activity

diagrams that is "Diamonds with multiple exit
decision points.'

Decision Point
What are the 4 general components of
decision analysis?

lternative, decision to be made, decision

maker, decision criteria.

To evaluate the BA approach, each of the four sections needs to be reviewed. If

done separately, each section would require two hours of review time. Russ, the
project sponsor, is advocating for one rigorous review prior to the product's
release as everyone is busy and unable to find common times for multiple
reviews. He maintains the review could be done in six hours if it was all done at
one time.

If Russ is correct, what percentage of time would be saved?

25%

Eight hours (2 * 4) if reviewed separately minus six

hours if reviewed together = 2 hours saved. Two
hours saved out of the eight: 2/8 = .25

two-dimensional matrix showing states and the

transitions between them. It can be used during
elicitation and analysis either as an alternative, a
precursor, or a complement to a state diagram
State Table

Technique used to resolve issues and gain

agreement in the task "Approve
Requirements"

Decision Analysis

Which technique would you recommend to

help Anna facilitate obtaining approval for her
completed artifacts IN THE RLCM knowledge
area?

Workshops

** Not reviews; Reviews are used to evaluate requirements in the RLCM

Which of the following is the first output that

you would create in BAPM?
Business analysis approach

Which technique can the BA use that will best

help the stakeholders understanding what they
need to do once the new software is
implemented?

Process modeling

Process models, both business and technical, describe the flow of activities,
or what people do.

Process models will be useful to help stakeholders understand the gap

between what they do today and what will change with the implementation of
the software.

Mahmoud was decomposing the requirements and was having difficulty

classifying the following requirement: "The system must be able to support
growth of 10,000 subscribers over the next year."

The system today has 20,000 subscribers, which is at 25% percent of the
server's capacity. Assuming a 50% growth rate each year, in which year will
the system outgrow its capacity?

Capacity is 80,000 subscribers given that 20,000 = 25% of capacity. (20,000 * 4

= 80,000). Year 1: 20,000 + 10,000 (50%) growth = 30,000. Year 2: 30,000 +
15,000 = 45,000. Year 3: 45,000 + 22,500 = 67,500. Year 4: 67,500 + 33,750 =
101,250. (Note: you can also multiply each year's subscriber total times 1.5 to
calculate 50% growth.) The subscriber total exceeds the 80,000 capacity
sometime in year 4, making this the correct answer. Capacity is part of
"Scalability," an element of Non-Functional Requirements.

Technique that allows executive decision

makers to objectively compare very different
investments from different perspectives.

Financial Analysis

What is the role of the scribe in workshops?

To document the decisions in the format

determined prior to the workshop and keep
track of any items or issues that are deferred
during the session.

Subsequent to investigating reasons for a solution's

poor performance, you come to the conclusion that
the solution is actually delivering an acceptable
amount of value to stakeholders. How could that
happen?
The initial solution measures don't accurately
reflect delivered value.

Subsequent to investigating reasons for a solution's poor

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

Identify and define more appropriate measures

so solution value is accurately reflected.

What is traceability considered an enabler of?

Enhanced relationship management

Which of the following are included as primitive

data elements in a data dictionary?

Relationships, alias, description, Name

Requirements and designs use the same
techniques to specify and model.

TRUE

How is the technique of stakeholder list, map,

or persona used in the prepare for elicitation
technique?

1. Determines who should be consulted while preparing for elicitation.

2. Determines the appropriate roles for each stakeholder.

How is the technique of stakeholder list, map,

or persona used in the manage stakeholder
collaboration task?

Shows the informal relationships between stakeholders.

This information is critical for successful collaboration and is just a

portion of the information the tool would provide. Also included is
knowing who is available to participate in BA work, and help in
understanding which stakeholders should be consulted about different
kinds of business analysis information. BABOK 4.5.6
You are conducting a lessons learned session for the previous phase
of a project so that the next phase can be even better. Brent is a
developer who begins raising his voice and pointing fingers at the end
users who "change their minds all of the time and don't have a clue as
to what they need!" What would be the best way to handle this
situation?

Acknowledge Brent's frustration and assure him that the team would like to hear more details.

In addition, either refer back to the meeting ground rules that speak to "no finger pointing" or if
ground rules were not developed, take the opportunity to do so with the meeting participants.
Although the BABOK doesn't address this directly, it is general meeting facilitation best practice.
The BABOK does say that if participants try to assign blame that honest discussion may not
occur. BABOK 10.27.4.2

visual models used to capture the attributes of

and relationships to other "entities" within a
particular domain and are only indirectly tied to
interface requirements.

Entity relationship diagrams

Yuki, the business analyst, had organized her

requirements into a matrix but feels that the list doesn't
truly give stakeholders an understanding of how value
might be realized by the solution once built. What
would be a logical next step?
Develop a design to demonstrate the solution's value

A design is a usable representation of a solution.

Design focuses on understanding how value might be realized by a solution if it is built. Since we
don't know what the requirements include, it's impossible to know which type of design would be
helpful to demonstrate value.

***Must know the requirements to create process models, screen-mockups, or prototypes.

Which of the following techniques would best

help in visually uncovering interface
requirements quickly and early in the analysis
process?

Prototyping

Which of the following is NOT a technique that

is used to analyze performance measures?

Prototyping

The organization is undergoing restructuring and introducing

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

1. Each proposed change aligns with the overall strategy.

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

"exploring changes to existing concepts and

ideas and exploring concepts and ideas that
are new." is a measure of effectiveness of
which competency?

Creative thinking

What is a measure of the effectiveness of the BA's decision-making abilities?

Decisions are made by considering the interest

of every stakeholder.

Primary limitation of a glossary

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

a model to validate the design of a system without modeling

the appearance, materials used in the creation of work, or
processes/workflows ultimately used by the stakeholders

Proof of concept.

requirements describe the conditions under

which a solution must remain effective or a
quality that a solution must have.

Non-functional requirement

the objective to be reached within a specified

period.
Target metrics

Which of the following is the best definition of a

"sink" in a data flow diagram?

A person, organization, automated system, or any

device capable of producing or receiving data.

"Sink" is another name for external agent (aka

externals, entity, source).

James is exploring various strategies to transform

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

One business case per change strategy.

The focus of this guideline in the assessments
requirements changes task is to fully
understand the impact of the proposed change
on the solution vs. the business. B

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

Requirements architecture

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

The ability to select the most appropriate tool

that will meet need needs of the audience.

"the ability to reduce the time or cost to implement

a requirements change."
is a core competency of which type of
Knowledge?

Core competency listed under Solution

Knowledge

How can BA ensure that all participants have a

common understanding during workshops?

Begin by providing the purpose and desired

outcomes.
Ground rules during workshops are effective
method for what?

Ground rules will establish a productive

environment for collaboration but will not
ensure that all participants have a common
understanding.

Ice-breakers during workshops are effective

method for what?

Good way to get participants comfortable

working together

Rose is facilitating a workshop to elicit

requirements for a process improvement project.
She wants to ensure that all participants have a
common understanding. How should Rose
proceed?
Begin by providing the purpose and desired
outcomes.

You are interviewing a manager about some of

the business issues she is faced with. It is near
the end of the interview. What might you do?

Ask if there are any overlooked items

process model/notation that reflects process

steps, roles, parallel processing, and multiple
exit decision points

Activity Diagram

A key performance indicator (KPI) measures

progress toward which of the following?
Strategic Goal

Technique used to evaluate the content of a

work product.

Reviews

Troy is designing a web form for his online registration

project. In order to allow stakeholders to provide input
and feedback early, he decides to provide them with a
prototype. Which 3 factors would be a consideration
for him?

1. Prototyping approach
((e.g., throw-away or evolutionary).

2. He needs to determine which form of prototype would best serve

the situation
(e.g., proof of concept, visual, functional, etc.)

3. Prototyping methods. (e.g., storyboarding, paper, simulation, etc.).

Trevor has confirmed requirements for a report. He

would like key stakeholders to review the work on
the report thus far to ensure development is on the
right track. What technique will Justin use?
Reviews are used to evaluate the content of a
work product.

Technique used to categorize stakeholder by

the systems that they support their business
processes

Process Modeling

Amber is modeling use cases and has

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

Primary actor

These represent the future state regardless of

the current physical limitations.
Logical data flow diagram.

A business analyst wants to model all of the data

stores, printers, forms, devices; in other words,
everywhere data is displayed or shown. Which of
the following data flow diagrams would accomplish
that goal?

Physical data flow diagram.

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

Prioritization

Why is it important for a BA to identify and

understand stakeholders' attitudes towards the
project?

To understand stakeholder needs and specifically plan how to

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

In order to understand the characteristics of the

change such as time-sensitivity, value of the
change, assumptions, and risk and constraints,
which technique would be helpful?

Business cases

"everything relevant to the change that is

within the environment."

Context

During the requirements elicitation phase of a project, the

BA is hearing different requirements for various employee
designations such as job candidates, new hires, employee,
and retirees. Which technique can the analyst utilize to
provide clarity and understanding?

State modeling
State modeling describes and analyzes the various possible states of an entity within a system,
including ow that entity changes from one state to another and what can happen to the entity when it
is in each state. BABOK 10.44.1

A business analyst has been assigned to a new initiative

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

Gain a thorough comprehension of the current state of the

organization to determine what activities need to be completed to
move to a desired future state.

Business analysis can be used to understand the current state, to

define the future state, and to determine the activities required to
move from the current to the future state. BABOK 1.2

Kathy is analyzing the current state and working

with her team and stakeholders to identify and
define why a requested change is needed. What is
the output of the task Kathy is working on?

Business requirements are defined from

analyzing the current state. BABOK 6.1.8 and
2.3
As business analyst for an initiative, you are
evaluating the implications of proposed changes to
requirements and designs. Which technique would
you use to determine the level of risk associated
with the changes?

Risk analysis and management

Risk analysis and management identifies and

analyzes risks associated with changes. BABOK
5.4.6

What are all the inputs to the define

requirements architecture task?

Information management approach,

requirements (any state), solution scope

5 Forces Analysis, PEST, STEEP, and

CATWOE frameworks may be useful when
utilizing which of the following techniques?
Benchmarking and market analysis

Which of the following describes a limitation of

interface analysis?

Interface analysis does not provide insight into

other aspects of the solution since the analysis
does not assess the internal components.

It will allow the BA to identify which processes

and tools within the enterprise will support the
solution.

This describes more of an Operational

Assessment which isn't correlated to attitudes
or beliefs (which is what "grumbling" is
typically aligned to)

3 Key point on Collaboration

 1. Collaboration involves regular, frequent, and bi-
directional communication.
2. Collaboration promotes a shared effort to
resolve problems.
3. Collaboration encourages the free flow of
information and ideas.
Planning stakeholder engagement, in normal
circumstances, is a task carried out by the
business analyst. This task may be shared
with which other project team member?

Project manager Correct The PM and BA most

likely share identification and management of
stakeholders and so is the likely collaborator for
this task. BABOK 3.2.7

You have completed requirements elicitation along with the

associated documentation, and you are now in the process
of reviewing the requirements in order to obtain sign-off.
Which of the following techniques would you recommend to
define approval criteria?
Acceptance and evaluation criteria

What would be required for a business analyst

to align the designed and delivered solutions
to the needs to the stakeholders?

Understanding enterprise problems and goals,

analyzing needs and solutions, devising
strategies, driving change, and facilitating
stakeholder collaboration

Heidi is hearing a fair amount of grumbling from end-users

about the solution. Heidi recommends delaying the deployment
of the system until she can perform an enterprise culture
assessment. The sponsor initially rejects that recommendation.
What rationale might convince the sponsor to delay
deployment?

The assessment will help the sponsor understand

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

Which of the following stakeholders are

typically involved in reviewing and approving
requirements:

Domain SME, Customer, Sponsor

Which of the following is a common risk a

business analyst must continually monitor in
relationship to the elicitation and collaboration
knowledge area?

Stakeholders may be diverted from the project

to other work

Temporary or permanent repositories that are

illustrated in the data flow diagram is called
what?
Terminators / Data Flow Diagrams

Data Defined in Data flow diagrams should be

described where?

Data Dictionary

It shows where data comes from, which

activities process the data, and if the output
results are stored or utilized by another activity
or external entity.

This is the definition of a data flow diagram; thus, it

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

It represents the future or essential state

regardless of current physical limitations.
Logical Data Flow Diagrams

A Type of Data flow diagram that consists of multiple layers of abstraction

Context Diagram

Diagrams used to show the internal

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

Level 1 Data Flow diagrams

It illustrates the processes related to the

system with the respective input data, output
transformed data, and data stores.

Level 1 Data Flow diagrams

What type of question elicits dialogue during
elicitation activities?

Open-ended questions invite the interviewee

to engage in dialogue.

To have clearly defined relationships from one requirement

to other requirements and other components, such that
coverage and the effects of change are clearly identifiable

Tracing Requirements

A means to retain requirement accuracy and

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

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

Office productivity tools and technology can be used to

document and track information and artifacts

Simplest Facilitation tool to use when

problems have human interaction component

Five whys.

She wants to know why the service level

agreement (SLA) is not being met. Since the
problem includes a great amount of human
interaction, which facilitation tool would be most
suitable?

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

Change strategy, risk analysis results, and

solution scope

What is needed to perform gap analysis?

Both Current State & Future state should be

defined

Compares a certain calculation of one solution

or solution approach to a minimum threshold
that the organization expects to earn from its
investments, called the

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

Generating and productively considering new

ideas" is a stated effectiveness measure of
creative thinking. BABOK 9.1.1.3

Hae Lin is ensuring that the requirements and

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

Verify requirements.

Clark is identifying potential benefits of the

requirements in a collaborative manner. What
is he doing?

Brainstorming
In a business capability analysis, a business
analyst will work with a team to identify the
business' capabilities along with assessing them for
performance and risks. How is this information
used by the business?

As inputs into prioritization of investments

By understanding capabilities' performance and "gaps",

the business can strategically determine where to
invest to improve capabilities. BABOK 10.6.2

3 functions of Business Need

1. Defines the need.

2. Determines the desired outcomes.
3. Assesses constraints, assumptions, and risks
Gwen is planning for a workshop to assess design options and recommend a solution. She has
scheduled the session and sent out the invitations. Unfortunately, she has gotten several meeting
declines. Which of the following limitations is she likely to encounter should she decide to continue
with the workshop?
Decisions that don't represent the needs of the
majority of the stakeholders. Correct BABOK
10.50.4.2

Jackson is conducting a workshop with domain subject matter experts

to elicit solution requirements. He is having trouble getting participants
to contribute to the discussion; they seem reluctant to talk. He tried
moving to written brainstorming but is still getting limited participation.
What would be Jackson's logical next step?

Adjourn the session and schedule individual interviews with

the stakeholders.

There appears to be some sort of dynamic in this scenario

where participants don't feel that it is a "safe" environment;
stating it is so won't change their regard.

Gil has been identified as a key stakeholder in a project. His

absence when determining the appropriate method to
conduct business analysis activities could be considered a
source of risk. The approach taken may also depend on his
availability. What type of stakeholder is Gil?

Domain subject matter expert

Domain SMEs are considered experts in the area

undergoing analysis so their involvement in BA
planning activities is key

Jerry is working on a new product idea for his

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

A focus group is a means to elicit ideas and

opinions about a specific product, service, or
opportunity in an interactive group environment.

** Surveys not effective

The business analyst must record approval decisions and to

communicate the status of the requirements. "There may be value in
maintaining an audit history of changes to requirements: what was
changed, who made the change, the reason for the change, and when
it was made."

TRUE

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

Identifying and documenting dependencies

1. Assists the business analyst in sequencing project work activities to

design and deploy the capabilities found in the requirements.

2. Assists the business analyst in correctly allocating requirements to

solution components

This technique can be used to analyze existing

documentation about an enterprise that can
serve as the basis for maintaining and reusing
requirements.

Document analysis

Technique used to identify a solution

component that may be used in multiple
solutions.

Use cases and scenarios

Technique used to identify requirements

related to the stories that can be reused,
User stories

3 Techniques to identify and document which requirements could be reused

Document analysis, user stories, and use

cases and scenarios.

Purpose of assessing requirements changes.

To evaluate the implications of proposed

changes to requirements and designs.

Nick has just finished a report that showed some issues in

the business analysis work for his current project.
Specifically, there were several variances from what he
expected, and he needs to address the issues. What should
Nick do to address the variances?
Identify the root cause of variances from the
expected performance and apply proposed
approaches to address the issues.

techniques is the most useful to understand

the current state of the enterprise?

Functional decomposition

key difference between a state transition and

state diagram?

A state transition describes how the entity

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

There are limitations relating to the use of a roles

and permission matrix that need to be addressed.
Which of the following is a limitation that will need
to be addressed when developing this artifact?
If the Matrix contains too much detail it can be
time-consuming and not provide value; too
little detail can exclude necessary roles or
responsibilities.

Christine received a number of inquiries from the call center about

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

Track the identified problem to be sure it is resolved. Correct

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

In what task are requirements allocated to a

solution component or a release?
Analyze Potential Value and Recommend
Solution

Changes in key stakeholders have resulted in

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

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

Key concepts that are needed to understand

how to effectively perform the plan business
analysis governance task?

Decision making, change control process, plan

prioritization approach, plan for approvals.
These are stated elements of the plan business
analysis governance task.

Pete is a BA who is planning an upcoming requirements workshop that

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

Since Pete could be considered a subject matter expert, the current company
could benefit from his knowledge. He should recuse himself from the team
and recruit another BA for the project since he can't serve as a neutral
facilitator.

**BABOK says is best: "The workshop is ideally facilitated by an experienced,

neutral facilitator" and Pete is not neutral given his experience.

You would like to capture the current business process

flows for a business unit within the company before a
software automation project is undertaken. But, the
sponsor says there is not enough time. How would you
present your reasons?

Documenting current processes will help uncover the steps in the

current process that need to change before the software can deliver
forecasted value.

Process modeling is a technique utilized throughout strategy analysis.

This answer not only answers what process modeling would do but
why it is important at a level a sponsor would find compelling.

Which is NOT listed as a "guideline and tool"

in requirement life cycle management?

Business analysis approach

when would a business analyst model requirements in a change initiative?

After requirements elicitation.

Requirements elicitation precedes analysis and is stated as an input into

specify and model requirements task.

***Although the BABOK states elicitation and modelling may occur

sequentially, iteratively, or concurrently, you must start with some amount of
elicited information before you can model that elicited information.

Which document explains how the enterprise

will create or acquire new capabilities?

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

Bill is unfamiliar with the software and the work

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

Observation

Process modeling = good second step to help

confirm elicitation results from observation and
would establish a basis for process analysis. B

The technique of interface analysis is best

suited for?

Reaching agreements with stakeholders on how they will

directly interact with the solution.

This describes a user interface in which human users directly

interact with the solution within the organization; therefore,
interface analysis is best suited to this situation. BABOK
10.24.2.2

document describes the rationale for and the

benefits of the solution from the business point
of view.

Business case

Sam is using paraphrasing as a means of

confirming elicitation results. How can
paraphrasing can be achieved?

Through active listening Correct Active listening incudes

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

The project manager has asked Raja for a list of all of

his business analysis-related deliverables along with
the associated activities and tasks as inputs into the
project plan and schedule. What technique will serve
Raja best?

Functional decomposition

Your organization has purchased a new requirements management

tool. Some of the BAs and other team members find it difficult to learn.
You have used a different tool in a previous organization, but you find
that you can easily track changes to the requirements with this tool as
well and share your expertise with everyone. You are demonstrating
which underlying competency?

Business Analysis Tools and Techniques

Difference between data models and concept

models?

A concept model differs from a data model in that a

concept model focuses upon organizing business
rules and vocabulary while a data model can be
used to elicit business rules.
What techniques support effective
organization?

Action plans, short and long-term goals,

prioritization of tasks

captures the needs of a specific stakeholder

and enable teams to define features of value
to a stakeholder.

User Stories

assessment of the expected financial viability,

stability, and benefit realization of an
investment option.

Financial Analysis

shows how repeated decisions are made.

Decision modeling

Sherry is doing analysis activities to identify potential problem areas

for preventive action. She has described the issue to be addressed,
collected data, and investigated the specific actions that contribute to
the problem. She is now defining the corrective action that will prevent
or minimize recurrence. What technique is Sherry applying?

Root cause analysis

The question describes the main activities in root cause analysis

What tool or system can provide significant

benefits when there is a need to trace a large
number of requirements and that may be too
unwieldy with a manual approach?

A requirements management tool can provide

a system for managing a large number of
requirements. It can also act as a repository
for all requirements. BABOK 5.1.4.3
Relationship between organizations and
initiatives as described in the BABOK

Organizations often have a clearly defined

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

Business needs, business requirements,

stakeholder requirements, solution
requirements

represents software requirements traceability.

Value chain, business process, sub-process,

activity, task

process traceability
Which of the following guidelines/tools is used for
improved assessment of stakeholder impact and
the development of more effective stakeholder
engagement strategies?

Change strategy

when should performance analysis occur?

Throughout the life cycle of an initiative

Changes in key stakeholders have resulted in

numerous change requests for baselined requirements.
You are assessing the effect the proposed changes
would have on solution components. Which guideline
are you employing?
Of the six knowledge areas of the BABOK,
which of the following support the delivery of
business value before, during, and after the life
cycle of a project?

Strategy analysis, Requirements Analysis and

Design Definition (RADD) and Solution
Evaluation).

A bank currently has a policy that a customer is limited to

three ATM withdrawals a day with a cash limit of $600 total.
This policy was identified as one of the root causes for
customer dissatisfaction. How did the BA most likely identify
this root cause?

Data mining and business rules analysis

Data mining identifies the frequency of complaints ;

source could be identified through analysis of
business rules.

Proves that a solution is a cohesive whole that will

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

This is describing requirements architecture.

Value attributes represent the value

proposition of a solution at the solution level.

FALSE

Business analysts may design tools and

instructions for performing the assessment as well
as for recording and processing its results

TRUE

Business analysts ensure that the definition of

all value attributes are agreed upon by all
stakeholders.
TRUE

Basing acceptance and evaluation criteria on value

attributes ensures that they are valid and relevant to
stakeholder needs and should be considered when
accepting and evaluating the solution.

TRUE

Who uses the prioritization as input into the

project plan and into the allocation of
requirements to releases

Project Manager

Which stakeholder will reference maintained

requirements the most to ensure they are
accurately reflecting stated needs?
Domain Subject Matter Experts reference
"maintained requirements on a regular basis to
ensure they are accurately reflecting stated
needs."

Requirements prioritization determines the

requirements relative importance to the
stakeholder,

TRUE

Assess requirements change focus?

Assessing requirements changes focuses on

whether the proposed change will increase the
value of the solution,

If the solution team thinks that the

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

Traceability is used to ensure that the solution

confirms to requirements by linking each
requirement back to the business value.

Technique used to visually show the future

state process, as well as tracing requirements
to the future state process.
Process modelling

Technique used to visually depict scope, as

well as trace requirements to the area of scope
the requirement supports.

Scope modeling

Brett has completed a review workshop meeting

with the accountable individuals and they have
indicated their agreement with the requirements.
Where would Brett record this agreement?
Requirement management tools

Which statements best describes a potential

difficulty in prioritizing requirements?

Stakeholders may have difficulty in making any

of their requirements a "nice to have."

Which of the following roles would be most

interested in maintained requirements and
why?

Implementation SMEs because they will use

them to develop regression tests and conduct
impact analyses.

Impact analysis is performed to assess or

evaluate the effect of a change. Task?
During the assess requirements changes task

Which of the following is not ESSENTIAL in

order to maximize the benefits of maintaining
and reusing requirements?

Prioritizing requirements is not necessary and does not maximize the

benefits of reuse.

Approved requirements mean there has been

agreement and acceptance of the
requirements.

A requirement must be ________ to ensure

that it remains valid over time

Requirements must be maintained to ensure

they remain correct and current.
Guideline involving understanding regulatory
statutes, contractual obligations, and business
policies that may define priorities

Business constraints

This guideline in the prioritize requirements

task provides information on costs, timelines,
and value realization which are used to
determine priority of requirements.

Change strategy

When requirements require a change, what

are the key areas of impact that must be
considered during the analysis of the
requested change?

Benefit, cost, impact, schedule, and urgency

Requirements are prioritized and agreed upon
by relevant stakeholders as defined in the
business analysis planning and monitoring
knowledge area.
Definition for Basis for Prioritization.

The chance that the requirement cannot deliver the potential value, or
cannot be met at all. This may include many factors such as the
difficulty of implementing a requirement, or the chance that
stakeholders will not accept a solution component.

Definition for Basis for Prioritization.

Requirements at low levels of abstraction may be

written with limited reference to specific solutions
and therefore are more reusable.

FALSE

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

As requirements are expressed in more detail, they

become more tightly associated with a specific
solution or solution option.

TRUE

Which of the following would dictate to a

business analyst which stakeholders to involve
in reviewing and approving requirements?

A stakeholder list with roles and

responsibilities

Gibson is accountable for the solution scope

and can provide insight to be utilized when
assessing the changes. What type of
stakeholder is Gibson?
Sponsor

Which of the following guidelines provides

information on costs, timelines, and value
realization which are used to determine the
priority of requirements?

Change strategy

Why would Rod complete requirements

prioritization?

To determine which requirements should be

completed first.
Approvals can also be verbal and don't have to
be in writing.

TRUE

Percy and his team have identified and documented

the lineage of each requirement, including its
backward traceability, its forward traceability, and its
relationship to other requirements. What is their next
logical step?

Define design options

Requirements that are identified, clearly

named, defined, and stored for long term use
by the organization are considered to be:

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

Business Analyst

When are reused requirements first identified?

Current state

Requirements change assessment is an

output of which of the following tasks?

Assess requirements changes

Traceability helps manage requirements and

assists in risk, time, change, and scope
management. What else can it do?
Identify missing functionality

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

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

Who's involved in the change management

process?

Project Manager

Who should be consulted to see if a change to

requirements will cause the system to operate
effectively or not?
Operational support

Whom should the business analyst consult

with to determine the impact of the change on
stakeholder work activities?

Customer

When can a requirement be prioritized?

At any time in its life cycle

Mary has just completed a review workshop

with the accountable individuals and they have
approved the requirements and design. What
is her next logical step?

Track and communicate the approvals.

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

They can be reused in the future for the

current or similar initiatives.

What is the purpose of assessing requirement

changes?

To evaluate the implication of proposed

changes to requirements and designs

Technique used to compare requirements to

be prioritized. The backlog can be the location
where that prioritization is maintained.

Backlog management
8 Factors that serve as basis for the
prioritization?

BPCRDTSR

3 considerations in the trace requirements

task?

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

Primary reason why key dependencies should

be identified and recorded?

To help achieve efficiency by implementing

related requirements at the same time.

Which of the following is needed to assess a

change to requirements?
Proposed change

The proposed requirements need to be baselined

FALSE

The Business analyst works closely with authorized

stakeholders to maintain an understanding,
agreement, and approval of requirements and
designs.

TRUE

Approvals can also be verbal and don't have to be in writing.

Business analysts are responsible for ensuring that only stakeholders

with approval authority understand and accept the requirements.

TRUE

Although culture can hinder finding or articulating business

need, the business need can still be found with or without a
formal business analysis approach. BABOK 6.1.4.1
TRUE

What is the purpose of considering

organizational culture while performing
strategy analysis tasks? (3)

1. To identify if cultural changes are required to achieve future goals.

2. To identify whether stakeholders understand the rationale for the

current state of the enterprise and the value delivered by it,

3. To ascertain whether the stakeholders view the current state as

satisfactory or if change is needed.

State or condition that should result if the

business need is fulfilled.

Desired Outcomes

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

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

Reducing complexity of interfaces

Assess Solution's Potential Value:

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

How can a BA gain understanding of the

potential value associated with the solution?

1. Synthesize & interpret solution performance measures to derive meaning and to be

actionable.

2. Performance measures themselves rarely trigger a decision about the value of a solution.
3. Gain thorough understanding of the stakeholder's desired potential value for the solution.

4. To assist in the analysis, variables such as the goals and objectives of the enterprise, key
performance indicators (KPIs), the level of risk of the solution, the risk tolerance of both
stakeholders and the enterprise, and other stated targets are considered."
Lucas is a BA who is assessing a seemingly under-
performing solution. What sorts of things can Lucas
do to gain a thorough understanding of the
potential value associated with the solution?

Lucas can assess the solution within the context of the enterprise's goals and objectives along with
other key performance indicators.

**Synthesis of performance measures is very telling to understanding potential value

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

What output has a business analyst developed

when they can provide a description of the current
limitations of the enterprise, including how the
solution performance is impacting the enterprise?

Enterprise limitation

A bank offered customers the ability to take a

picture of checks to deposit via smart pone
uploads. Despite ads, less than 1% of the target
market used the feature. What did the bank neglect
to consider?

The risk tolerance of stakeholders.

Business analysts review identified problems in

order to assess the effect they may have on the
operation of the organization or the ability of the
solution to deliver its potential value

Impact Assessment is the goal of identifying

problem.

Susan has just completed reviewing identified

problems in a solution component. In
completing her review, what goal is Susan
looking to achieve?

Assess the impact that the problems may have on the operation of the
organization or the ability of the solution to deliver its potential value.
What is the purpose of analyzing performance
measures?

Provide insights into the performance of a

solution in relation to the value it brings.

The CIO golfs with another project management vendor

and has learned of a new system that sounds
awesome! David has been assigned as the BA to
assess the new solution based on stakeholder needs.
What might be his recommendation?

To review and compare the two systems to objectively make a decision regarding replacement
based upon stakeholders' perception of value of the various features and functions of each system.

current internal environment of the solution

including the environmental, cultural, and internal
factors influencing the solution limitations.

Solution Limitation

The COO believes that manufacturing lines downtime can

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

1st step = Kate should first determine what existing

performance measures exist and if they're accurate.

2nd Step= Kate might want to elicit additional ideas for

performance measures from stakeholders.

Which technique is used to gain an

understanding of the basis for prioritization by
various stakeholders in a group setting?

Workshops

Sunken Cost & Making future decisions

As this investment cannot be recovered, it is

effectively irrelevant when considering future
action. Decisions should be based on the future
investment required and the future benefits that
can be gained
As transactions increased over a six-month period, the
application slowed to a level deemed unacceptable by the
end-users. You have been asked to evaluate this
performance. In order to get to the bottom of this, what do
you need to have access to?

The implemented solution and the results of the

solution performance analysis.

Team members are clamoring to buy new

equipment but the boss said, "I've already put
$50,000 into this thing, what's $20,000 more at this
point?" As the team's BA, how do you contribute to
the conversation?

The $50,000 is "water under the bridge" and though tempting, it

shouldn't be used when considering future action.

The $50,000 is sunk cost. Sunk costs cannot be recovered so

are effectively irrelevant when considering future action.
BABOK 8.5.4.2

How should solution options that offer potential

capabilities above and beyond those identified
in the original business case be handled?
Identified even when not deemed immediately
useful, if the organization anticipates using
them in the future.

Carl trying decide if the tasks in Strategy

Analysis or Solution Evaluation knowledge area
should be used for his current assignment.
What can the coach say to help him?

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

Sierra discovered that an internal audit team performed

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

Perhaps the timing of the audits may have a negative impact on the outcome.

The timing of the audits appears to be the most problematic given the
information in the scenario

When collecting performance measures, business analysts consider:

Frequency/Timing, Sample Size, & Currency of data
If the performance measures defined to evaluate
the effectiveness of a solution are not sufficient to
help stakeholders determine solution value, what
actions should a business analyst take to address
the situation?

Collect more measurements or treat the lack of measures as a solution risk.

How can a BA meaningfully determine the

value of a solution?

By gaining a thorough understanding of the potential value that

stakeholders hope to achieve with the solution.

**Defining performance measures would not be correct because

Performance measures in and of themselves will not determine the
value of a solution.

Deima is a BA assigned to the evaluation of a solution

that isn't delivering value to the level forecasted
during the project. She has gone into the project
archives and is reviewing all available project
documentation. Why is she doing that?
She is working to understand the potential value of the solution.

Potential Value is listed as an input to Analyze Performance Measures, which is

what the question is asking.

Potential Value is "...a benchmark against which solution performance can be

evaluated." BABOK 8.2.3
b.

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

Understanding how the original stakeholders defined the expected

characteristics of the solution.

This is the definition for the non-functional requirements analysis

technique. The availability, capacity, maintainability, speed, etc. of the
solution. BABOK 8.1.6

Which stakeholders are identified for

assessing enterprise limitations of an existing
solution.?

Customer, sponsor, domain subject matter

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

Potential Value

Harold has documented how factors external

to the solution are restricting value realization.
What task is he performing?

Assess enterprise limitations

To complete the assessment, you gather

information related to the current state
description. To be all inclusive, what types of
factors will you need to have?

Environmental, cultural, and internal factors influencing the solution

limitations. Correct BABOK 8.4.3

**Current state description in Task Enterprise Limitations=

• Current State Description: the current internal environment of the solution
including the environmental, cultural, and internal factors influencing the
solution limitations.

You are a BA assessing both the solution and enterprise

limitations that are prohibiting the end-users from experiencing
the full value of the solution. You are lacking a description of the
current state.

What sort of assessment are you able to perform?

Solution Limitation

Which assessments requirement Current State

description?

The current state description is needed to assess

value from the enterprise perspective. BABOK
8.4.3

**Current State description is the guideline

What makes performance measures accurate?

 1. The accuracy of performance measures is essential to the validity of
their analysis.

2. Business analysts test and analyze the data collected by the

performance measures to ensure their accuracy.

3. To be considered accurate and reliable, the results of performance

measures should be reproducible and repeatable.

Ben isn't sure that the data generated by the

performance measures is accurate so he is hesitant
to take further action. What could Ben do to
understand if he can rely on the data generated by
performance measures?

Test the results to see if they can be repeated and reproduced.

The accuracy of performance measures is essential to the validity of their analysis. Business
analysts test and analyze the data collected to ensure their accuracy and reliability. The results
of performance measures should be reproducible and repeatable. BABOK 8.2.4.4

Wha's the definition of Accuracy?

Larry the BA is responsible for developing the

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

Organization knowledge, methodology knowledge, industry knowledge

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

Schedule a workshop with relevant stakeholders to construct a

data flow diagram.

Since the information conveyed was complex in nature, it

requires additional elicitation activities to thoroughly understand
Sam's information. BABOK 4.0

The sponsor believes that cultural

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

A cultural assessment will determine if the existing

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

What are the three major considerations that a

business analyst must consider when
conducting stakeholder impact analysis on a
solution?

Functions, locations, and concerns

Performance measures are defined in which

task?

Measure Performance

Peter and his team have defined desired

performance measures to assess the performance
of a solution. Many of these measures are new to
the organization. What is Peter's next step?

Ensure that the enterprise has methods in place to capture the measurements. BABOK 8.1.4.1

"When measuring solution performance, business analysts determine if current measures exist,
or if methods for capturing them are in place" = mentioned in the Element " Define Performance
measures"

"defined desired performance measures "= Measure Solution Performance

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

A trend

Raul has conducted the analysis required to

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

Solution limitation

Phil is a BA on a project and is planning activities to

evaluate the solution. The project is planned to have a total
of four releases approximately four to six months apart.
Each release builds upon the functionality in the prior
release. When should Phil plan the assessments?

When it would add value but minimally after each release.

Evaluations may be needed prior to deployment especially from an enterprise perspective

Clue:
1. "planning activities to evaluate the solution." = Solution Evaluation (KA)

2. Element= Release Planning

Maurice is defining performance measures for a new

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

Validated

Requirements that have been analyzed and appraised to deliver business value
and support the goals and objectives

Clue:
1. "They are reviewing the change strategy, future state description, solution
scope, and requirements." = Guidelines for the task Measure Solution
Performance

The CIO has asked Amy (BA) to assess both the in-place
and new software and give a recommendation. Amy finds
that the functionality that would lend immediate value to the
organization is basically the same. What might Amy do as a
next step in her assessment?

Explore how the additional capabilities in the new software could add future value.

Benefits of a solution that could be used in the future are part of a value assessment of the
solution.
BABOK 8.5.4.2: " Solution options may offer capabilities to the organization above and beyond
those identified in the requirements. Capabilities are not of immediate value to the organization
but have the potential to provide future value, "

Decisions about which measures are used to

evaluate solution performance occurs in which
task?

Measure Solution Performance

Determining if the measures are qualitative or

quantitative occurs in which task?

Measure Solution Performance

Determining if the solution aligns with the

goals and objectives occurs in which task?

Measure Solution Performance

3 key tasks in the Assessing Solution
performance measures

1. Create key performance indicators.

2. Determine if the measures are qualitative
or quantitative.
3. Determine if the solution aligns with the
goals and objectives.
Cheryl completed her analysis of a solution's
performance measures that determine the
value the solution provides to the enterprise.
What will she do next?

Answer= Assess the solution limitations and identify the causes for the
limitations.

"analysis of a solution's performance measures that determine the value the

solution" = Task " Analyze Solution Performance measures.

Question asking what's the next task---> Assess Solution Limitations is the
next task

A business analyst is conducting analysis to understand the

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

Recommended actions to increase solution value

The "recommend actions to increase solution value" task focuses

on understanding the factors that create the difference between
potential value and actual value, and to recommend a course of
action to align them. BABOK 8.5.1

How are workshops and surveys used in

Assessing solution or enterprise limitations?

Both are listed as Workshops could be used to identify organizational

gaps and stakeholder concerns.

Workshop address specific customer concerns and identify how to best

address them.

Surveys= used to get insight when you are not very sure what the
concern is .

Bottled water sales declining by 5% yearly. . Alan needs to assess the

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

Alan is assuming that people will be able to lift a 2.5 gallon jug. Assumptions are risks. BABOK 8.5.6

BABOK: Recommendation " may also consider long-term effects and contributions of the solution to
stakeholders"

Clue:
1. "assess the solution" = Solution Limitations
2. Technique= Financial Analysis

What factor can be assessed through key

performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with
enterprise measures, goals, and objectives for a
project, process performance targets, or tests for a
software appli

Performance

A solution architect has a paper prototype of the system for

which you are the BA. She asks you to evaluate the solution
to ensure it meets the defined measurements before she
passes it on to the developers as she is going on vacation
and won't be available for rework. How do you respond?

You suggest she build a prototype for evaluation

purposes before development.
The solution must be in use in some form in order
to be evaluated.

He has determined that that the solution is

consistently or repeatedly producing ineffective
outputs. What should Lucas do in order to
address the source of the problem?

Problem analysis

When it is determined that the solution is consistently

or repeatedly producing ineffective outputs,
PROBLEM ANALYSIS is performed to find the source

TRUE

After solution performance measures are

defined, who is responsible to decide which
measures are used to evaluating the solution
performance?
Any stakeholder with decision-making authority.

** BA = Recommendor for which measures to sue

** Sponsor is responsible for this task but is not most encompassing answer to question.

A vital application has begun to experience several unplanned

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

Problem Analysis

Clues:

1. "The 99.7% availability target hasn't been met in three months and is steadily worsening." =
Evidence that the solution has not consistently or repeatedly producing ineffective solutions

2. Robbie is investigating solution problems = element of task Assess solution limitation.

After reviewing the project and the actual performance

statistics, he saw that actual performance was better than
the metrics that had been defined. However, his final
recommendation was that the system be eliminated. Which
of the following might have prompted the recommendation?

Although the performance was actually better than the

defined performance metrics for the solution, the
solution did not address the business need for which
the project was undertaken and was REDUNDANT.
Brenda has completed her assessment of the
solution limitations and the enterprise limitations
following analysis of performance measures. What
Guidelines and Tools will she use in her next task?

Business objectives, current state description, solution

scope

These are the guidelines & tools for the Recommend

Actions to Increase Solution Value task which Brenda will be
performing next.

Leah the BA on project had been incredibly thorough in requirements

elicitation, prioritization, and design definition. Three months after
deployment, all performance measures reflect perfection. Still, online
shoppers aren't happy.

What would help Leah understand the customer experience?

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

*** Focus groups & Survey not helpful because they would just reveal the
same information as the complaints and it wouldn't be a "quick" process.. Use
Case would reveal the functional aspect of the system that the end user
desired.
When customers are unhappy but
performance scores are perfect --->What can
BA do to prevent this from happening?

Even though requirements appeared to reflect

users' wants, piloting the site using a prototype with
users representing various customer segments
may have uncovered areas of discontent before full
deployment.

When analyzing performance data, business

analysts consider the time period when the
data was collected to guard against what?

Anomalies and skewed trends

Extent to which data clearly and directly

measures the performance the organization
intends to measure.
Validity

Extent to which the data collection approach is

stable and consistent across time and space.
Validity is the

Reliability

Fit of the frequency and latency of data to the

management's need.

Timeliness

Why is it important for a business analyst to

understand roles and responsibilities of the
stakeholders within the organization?

To understand how the stakeholders will contribute to the

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

He determines that the existing metrics can't be

considered quality indicators and recommends
modifications. He adds in his report that he does,
however, consider them valid. What could lead Jake
to his conclusion?

Existing indicators can't be considered reliable because they aren't

collected frequently enough.

Validity = Stakeholder expectations have have been met

While valid, quality metrics must also be reliable and timely.

Inputs for the Measure Solution Performance

task?

Business objectives, implemented solution

Deeply rooted beliefs, values, and norms
shared by members of an enterprise.
Term?

Enterprise Culture

**Actions and thoughts are not part of the definition of enterprise culture.

If the measures are not sufficient to help stakeholder

determine solution value, business analysts either collect
more measurement or treat the lack of measures as solution
risk

TRUE

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

The solution might be high performing, but contributes lower value than expected.

The BRMs have all gained certification so presumably are high performing, but all customer
satisfaction scores have stayed essentially the same. An assumption may be made in that the
problem is that the software is not delivering value, not the BRMs efforts.

Clues:
1. Best practice was referenced to hint the actual potential value expected and that the test was
legitimately structured.
2. No change in score.

Potential value that could be realized by

pursuing alternative course of action

Opportunity Cost

Solution components have limited lifespan due to

obsolesce, changing market conditions, and other
causes --> results in retirement of the solution

Necessity.

Money and effort already committed to a

initiative. Term?

Sunk Cost

Microsoft stopped supporting the operating system and employee

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

Necessity

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

Guidelines and tools included in the plan

stakeholder engagement task include which of
the following?

Business analysis performance assessment,

change strategy, current state description

Requirements that are potential candidates for long-term

use are those an organization must meet on an ongoing
basis

TRUE

Elements included in the plan business

analysis approach task include which of the
following?
Planning approach, formality and level of detail
of deliverables, business analysis activities,
timing of business analysis work, complexity
and risk, acceptance.

She may be needed to provide approval for aspects of the

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

Regulator

***When the BA process is audited, a regulator may need to

provide approval for the aspects of the BA approach that are
tailored. They may also require that certain stakeholders be
involved in BA activities.

What must be consulted when identifying

expectations for business analysis work?
Organizational Performance Standards

(Only guideline for this task)

What would the BA typically do first while

conducting the identify business analysis
performance improvements task?

Define what constitutes effective business analysis work.

(from element Performance Analysis)

This is the first element within the task.

** Determine assessment measures. Incorrect = 2nd second step

***Consult organizational performance standards if available to understand expectations for BA

work the organization may have already defined. BABOK 3.5.4.1 and 3.5.5

Which factors would you consider when

determining the optimal approach for
conducting business analysis activities?

Asking for Elements of this task

As a business analyst, the types of activities that

you will perform are documented in the business
analysis approach. The prescribed activities may
be influenced by which one of the following?

Organization's methodologies

The BABOK states that the organization's adopted

methodologies frequently influence the business
analysis activities that are selected

The performance of all business analysis

activities are directed by which of the following
documents?

Business analysis approach

BA Performance Assessment contains 4

items?

1. Variances
2. Root Causes
 4. Approaches
4. Planned Vs. Actual
In which artifact would the proposed
approaches to address issues be found?

Business analysis performance assessment

The BA performance assessment not only includes results,

variances, and root causes, it also documents proposed
approaches to effectively address performance issues.
BABOK 3.5.8

Business analysis performance assessments help

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

Throughout the initiative

Who may require reports on business analysis

performance to address problems as they are
identified?
Sponsor

Who would be informed in order to elicit their feedback

regarding possible improvements, but they are not
consulted to assess impact on the project?

Business analysis performance

Domain SME

Before any business analysis performance

changes are implemented, who should be
consulted to assess how they might impact the
initiative?

Project Manager

What allows teams to to be able to make trade-offs

between requirements, identify stakeholders
affected by potential changes, and understand the
effect of a proposed change?

Requirements attributes

A business analyst wants to make trade-offs between

requirements, identify stakeholders affected by potential
changes, and understand the effect of a proposed change.
Where would you advise the intern to look for this
information?

Requirements attributes

** don't confuse with Traceability

Traceability = tool for performing impact analysis on

changing requirements, but not the impact on the change
itself.

The tool that is chosen to manage requirements

and designs may need to store other
information as well
TRUE

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

adaptive approach

When conducting a thorough stakeholder

analysis, what resources may be required to
be successful?

1. BA Performance Assessment
2. Change Strategy
3. Current state description
This approach tends to be preferred when
requirements can be effectively defined prior to
implementation.

Which Approach?

predictive approach
Collaboration involves regular, frequent, and bi-directional communication.

TRUE

Collaboration promotes a shared effort to

resolve problems.

TRUE

Collaboration encourages the free flow of information and ideas.

TRUE

The knowledge areas support the delivery of

business value before, during, and after the life
cycle of a project.

TRUE

When is the best time for a business analyst to

specify and model requirements during the
elicitation and collaboration knowledge area?
Whenever it would add value to elicitation and
collaboration tasks.

Monique is analyzing historical data to identify

information relevant to her current project.
Which type of elicitation is Monique utilizing?

Research

Key: "TYPE OF ELICITATION"

TRICK ANSWER = document analysis is a technique vs. an

elicitation type (experiments, collaborative, or research). The
scenario is describing research.

You have completed the elicitation activity plan.

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

Record the results from the workshop so that they

can be confirmed The BABOK actually uses the
phrase "capture the elicitation outcomes." This is
an element of conduct elicitation.

When does the task of manage stakeholder

collaboration begin?

Once stakeholders have been identified and analyzed.

** BA cannot begin collaborating with stakeholders until

they've been identified and analyzed to understand their
preferences for effective collaboration.

What is the prerequisite for conducting

elicitation?
Ensure that all needed resources are organized & scheduled for conducting the elicitation

1. Defining the desired outcomes

2. Considering stakeholders & goals
3. Determining work products to produce
4. Selecting techniques
5. Establishing the elicitation logistics,
6. identifying any supporting materials needed, and understanding circumstances to foster
collaboration during an elicitation activity.

What are the 3 common risks a business

analyst must continually monitor in relationship
to the elicitation and collaboration knowledge
area?

1. Stakeholders may be diverted from the project to other work.

2. Delayed Approvals

3. Elicitation activities not providing the quality of BA information required

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

Need defines the problem or opportunity being faced by the

business.

This information is used to determine the information to be

elicited when developing business requirements early in the
project life cycle.

Which stakeholders participate in the conduct

elicitation task?

Depending on the activity, any stakeholder with relevant

knowledge or experience.
This is the "catch all" participant. Others noted include the
customer, domain and implementation subject matter
experts, end users, and sponsor. BABOK 4.2.7

Which techniques would work best to confirm

your elicitation results?

Document analysis, interviews, reviews, workshops

** Only 4 techniques in this task and they all confirm elicitation results

The solution scope defines the boundaries of the

solution, and is described in enough detail to enable
stakeholders to understand which new capabilities the
change will deliver.

TRUE

Why should scope be included in the business

case?

The scope should be included in the business

case, which is the correct answer as it would
contain the forecasted costs and benefits of
the proposed solution.

Solution Scope also describes how the

proposed solution enables the future state's
goals
TRUE

3 Examples of financial measures use in

balanced scorecard

1. Profitability
2. Revenue growth
3. Added economic value
What technique does Business Case use to to
understand the forecasted costs and benefits
of the proposed solution during elicitation?

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

The business case assesses the costs and benefits of a proposed

solution, which is what the question is looking for.

The BABOK lists Estimation as a technique in Prepare for Elicitation to

estimate costs and benefits; the business case provides those
estimates

When preparing for requirements elicitation,

what are the inputs required to develop an
elicitation activity plan?

Needs, stakeholder engagement approach

You have been asked to confirm your results

after a requirements workshop. Why is that
important?
To ensure the requirements are accurate and
consistent with other information.

What is a valid criterion to utilize when

selecting techniques for an elicitation activity?
(4 FACTORS)
BAs should select techniques based upon:

1. Desired outcomes,
2. cost and time constraints, the 3. culture of the organization,
4. access to sources of business analysis information, not their
preferences even though it might be more comfortable.

Which of the following tasks provides

stakeholders with the information they need, at
the time they need it?

Communicate business analysis information

provides stakeholders with the information they
need, at the time they need it. The information is
presented in a useful form, using the right termi
The purpose of this collaborative game is to
help identify related or similar features or
themes

Affinity Map

What is the impact of the agile perspective on

the planning and execution of elicitation and
collaboration tasks?

High level requirements are elicited at the

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

The purpose of this collaborative game is to

identify hidden assumptions or perspectives
Fish Bowl
What does a business analyst deliver when
communicating business analysis information?
Business analysis information (communicated)

*** Business analysis information (planned)= FAKE ANSWER

The purpose of this collaborative game is to

help identify features of the product being
described
Product Box

What does the elicitation activity plan include?

Logistics, scope of the elicitation activity,

selected techniques, supporting materials

During a workshop, participants are constructing a container

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

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

This scenario is an example of customer complaints triggering a business need.

** Since this is a new product, Sangreeta is going to need to quantify benefits for a business
case. To do this, she'll need to do market analysis to comprehensively and realistically
understand the market opportunity. BABOK 10.4.3.2

Consider a scenario in which a sponsor has initiated

an effort to purchase and install a COTS (commercial
off-the-shelf) package. You discover that no other
analysis work has been performed. What is the first
thing you do?
Define the business need that the COTS package is intended to address.

When confronted with a change to a system, the first task is to define why the
change is warranted by defining the business need.

***Determine if and how the COTS package meets the business need.= part
of defining the change strategy
"Which dimension of the balanced scorecard would
contain measures pertaining to top line revenue
growth and overall profitability for the current fiscal
year?" What should the students answer?
Financial

Which dimension of the balanced scorecard would

contain measures pertaining to whether or not
delivery of products and services met customer
expectations over the last quarter?"

Customer.

"What dimension of the scorecard would you

focus upon to ascertain how well the
enterprise is operating and if their products
meet customer needs?"
Business process

Relationship between desired outcomes &

recommended solution
As solution options are assessed, their ability
to achieve the desired outcome will help
determine the recommended solution

Key points on Desired Outcomes

1. Should include measurable outcomes to

determine the success o the business case /
Solution

2. Independent of the recommended solution

Julie is a BA working to help a business owner clarify the business need. The
business owner wants to undertake an initiative to eliminate waste throughout
her division. She says that such an initiative, which will be comprised of
multiple projects, will have the benefits of improved safety, reduced time to
deliver the organization's product, and increased customer satisfaction. The
listed benefits are another way of articulating which of the following?

Desired outcomes

** The benefits referred to in the question are examples of desired outcomes. While the BABOK
typically focuses on "goals and objectives," it does use this term in the description of how business
cases are used in the Define Future State task

Clues:
1. "Clarify the business need."
2. " Initiative to eliminate waste throughout her division" = Process improvement
Your team is writing a business case and is having trouble
agreeing on the business need. High level requirements
have been elicited and a preferred solution identified, but
the stakeholders are still conflicted about the business need.
Which statement best describes the situation?
Business needs were probably initially expressed along with a presumed solution.

Business analyst did not begin with a clear, agreed-upon, and communicated understanding of the
business need before beginning business analysis activities.

Clue:
1. "Writing business case" = Plan BA Approach because trouble with business need.
2. " High level requirements elicited" = Task "Conduct Elicitation"
3. " Preferred solution identified" = Solution Analysis

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

Even when it is not possible to know all that will occur as a

result of a particular change strategy, it is still possible to
estimate the impact of unknown or uncertain events or
conditions occurring.
TRUE

In a unknown project with much uncertainty,

what technique can a BA use to assess risks?
1. Business analysts consider other historical contexts from
similar situations to assess risks.

2. Lessons learned from past changes and expert judgment

from stakeholders assist business analysts in guiding the
 team in deciding the impact and likelihood of risks for the
current change

Specifically, what would user stories help the

team thoroughly define and understand?

User stories serve to identify specific

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

The business analyst is working with stakeholders

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

Solution scope

The solution scope identifies the new capabilities the

change will deliver. Solution scope is also an element of the
define change strategy task. BABOK Figure 6.4.1
Assessing the enterprise's capacity to make
the change and to sustain the change in the
future state. What is this element called?

Enterprise readiness assessment

Tamara, however, thought that user stories

would be helpful with which of the following
tasks?
Define Future State.

User stories will help the team understand desired

outcomes from various stakeholders' perspectives.
BABOK 10.48 & 6.2

Functional decomposition can be used by a

BA to analyze which type of scope?

Product scope.

A BA would use functional decomposition to help

break down the product or solution scope. BABOK
6.4.6 and 10.22

Farouk is a business analyst working with a business owner to define

the business requirements related to a new opportunity in his
organization. He works in a company that produces bathroom fixtures.
The company is known not only for high-end fixtures that are sold
world-wide, but for its outstanding customer service. What factors will
Farouk consider in order to document business requirements?

Farouk needs a thorough understanding of the opportunity and possible benefits given
organizational constraints.

**This is simply asking what are the components of a business requirement

Cluie: "He works in a company that produces bathroom fixtures. The company is known not only for
high-end fixtures that are sold world-wide, but for its outstanding customer service." = Business
Need

Answer should be about Business need rather than business requirements

Gap analysis is an element of the which task?

Define change strategy task

Perry proudly submitted a recommended change strategy to reach the future

state as part of a business case. The change strategy included several
phases spanning two years and was accompanied by a detailed cumulative
quantitative financial analysis. The governance team asked for more
information. Perry was perplexed as he thought it was already too detailed.
What did Perry fail to do as part of his recommendation?
Clue: "it took twice as long to implement the strategy than
forecasted because resources with the required knowledge
were not available due to conflicting priorities." ---> He didn't
check on the availability of resources which is part of the
organizational readiness assessment.

9 techniques help you understand the context

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

The assessment of existing and needed

resources is considered when performing a
feasibility analysis on possible solution
approaches for the change strategy
Note this point.

**Not all business problems would warrant feasibility analysis.

The financial analysis and value assessment

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

TRUE

BA working at a large retailer is reviewing the

documentation for an Order Processing System to
understand the current state before working on an
enhancement. Which techniques besides document
analysis would you use to help you understand the context
and need for the enhancement?

Data Mining, Root-Cause Analysis, Benchmarking

All of these techniques would help you understand the current

state and context and need for the enhancement. All are listed as
techniques to help analyze the current state. BABOK 6.1.6

How are value assessments validated?

The value assessment is part of a business
case and "value estimates are related back to
strategic goals and objectives." BABOK
10.7.3.3
Jake is writing a business case and has quantified the financial
benefits of alternative solutions as a means of assessing which
solution will be presented as the overall recommendation. A
stakeholder has reminded him to include a value assessment in
addition to the benefits. Unfamiliar with the term, Jake asked for an
example. Which of the following best describes a value assessment?

The organization will be better positioned to absorb future changes.

Clue: "writing a business case and has quantified the financial benefits " ---> Potential Value
of the future State = Net benefits minus operating costs

This is a qualitative or "value" estimate, meaning it is important to consider and will add
significant value to the organization. But, is difficult to quantify. BABOK 6.2.4.11

Net benefit of the solution after operating costs

are accounted for

Potential Value of Future State

ROI takes into consideration the cost of the investment and

the forecasted benefits of the change. Cameron is meeting
with stakeholders to understand what the training costs will
be for the recommended solution. What is Cameron trying to
understand?
The total cost of ownership for the solution

TCO includes the cost of using and supporting the solution

throughout its life cycle. Training would be included in that.
BABOK 10.20.3.2

As part of identifying and understanding an organization's

business rules, Dakota has created and plans to present a class
diagram to business stakeholders to validate her findings. She
received significant pushback from the stakeholders saying the
model was "too technical." What could Dakota create that might
be more business-friendly?
Concept model.

CLUE:

1. "identifying and understanding an organization's business rules," = Business Rules Analysis

2. "Class diagram too technical"

*A concept model can be used when stakeholders perceive class diagrams to be too technical and
the initiative needs to capture large numbers of business rules.

Rhonda is a BA reviewing the issues that surfaced

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

Reviewing past issues could help identify risks for the current
project.

Manifested risks are issues. Typically, using the Lessons

Learned technique to proactively manage risks to prevent
issues costs less and delivers more value. BABOK 6.3.6

Reduced defects as a result of using use

cases on the project.
Quantitative and qualitative benefits apply to
organizational vs. project benefits.

Which of the following are quantitative benefits

that might be included in a business case?
Reduced inventory from having more accurate counts
and through auto-replenishment.

*This benefit can be measured financially, so is

considered a quantitative benefit.

Kate is studying an enterprise's current key metrics

and performance indicators, IT systems,
organization charts, business architecture, and
policies. What sort of initiative is Kate most likely
working on?
A process improvement initiative. Correct The
listed inputs are needed for a process-centric view
of an organization which is necessary for process
improvements. BABOK 6.1.4.3

You have recently uncovered a new constraint

associated with the technical architecture that
precludes an off-the-shelf solution. What deliverable
might be most significantly impacted by your
discovery at this stage of the project?

Business case. Correct A key component in a business

case is the assessment of alternatives. A constraint that
precludes a COTS package would significantly alter
alternatives. The key to this question is that it is occurring
prior to project initiation. BABOK 10.7.3.3

he business analyst has completed the identification and definition of

why a change to a system is required. The business analyst has also
identified new capabilities that the current system cannot perform and
are required by the enterprise to achieve the business need. Risks
have been identified and assessed. What is the business analyst's
next step?

Determine the change strategy.

Clue: "identification and definition of why a change to a system is required." = Business Case
"Identified new capabilities that the current system cannot perform" = Solution limitations

"Risks Identified & Assessed" = Task Assess Risk in SA

**The current state has been analyzed, the future state has been defined, and risks have been
assessed. The next step is to perform the TASK of "Define Change Strategy." BABOK Figure 6.4.3

" Understanding the current state of the enterprise

prior to the change is necessary to identify what will
need to change to achieve a desired future state
and how the effect of the change will be assessed.
"
As a BA with some expertise in business process re-
engineering, you would like to capture the current business
process flows for a business unit within the company before a
software automation project is undertaken. But, the sponsor
says there is not enough time. How would you present your
reasons?

Documenting current processes will help uncover the steps in the current
process that need to change before the software can deliver forecasted value.

CLUE: "business process re-engineering"

"capture the current business process flows for a business unit within the
company" = Business Process Modeling
Which of the following statements best
describes the role of the Domain SME in
defining the change strategy?

Domain SMEs have in-depth knowledge or

expertise in some aspect of the change. A
financial analyst is a domain SME.

In order to confidently analyze the current

state of an enterprise, what must the BA utilize
as an input?

Confirmed elicitation results

The BA will need confidence in the information so

elicitation has to be confirmed before it can be
used as a reliable input. BABOK Figure 6.1.1

Which techniques might you use during the

assess risks task?
Brainstorming, financial analysis, lessons
learned

3 Stakeholders who might have input to the

enterprise readiness assessment
1. End Users
2. Customers
3. Regulators
This involves researching customers in order
to determine what they need or want.

Market Analysis

Technique that focuses on the viability of a

solution given the current environment

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

The problem, opportunity, or constraint that has been

defined through analyzing the current state.

**The BABOK does not list high level desired business

outcomes Or Assumptions as part of business
requirements.

You have been instructed to compare your

organizational practices against the best-in-
class practices at other companies. What do
you need to perform?

A benchmark study

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

"A strategy may be captured in a strategic

plan, product vision, business case, product
roadmap, or other artifacts." BABOK 6.0
overview

Not Project Charter!!

Why is the future state described in terms of

goals & objectives?

To guide the development of the change

strategy and identify the potential value.

Elizabeth is working on a complex government-regulated

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

Utilize lessons learned from past projects and expert judgment from pertinent stakeholders.

Clues:
1. Requirements unknown
2. Complex project with uncertainty
3. Question asks for impact to solution value. --Value Analysis

Must refer to the element "Unknowns" in the task Assess risks

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

She is concerned that her previous experience may

result in a sub-optimal recommendation.

**Bias of the author of a business case is a stated

limitation of the tool in the BABOK.

The Solution Scope is an element in Define

Change Strategy and an output from that
same task.

Longer term, ongoing, QUALITATIVE

statement of a state or condition that
organization is seeking to establish or maintain
Term?

Goals
Element "Unknowns" in Task Assess Risks
(SA)

1. When assessing a risk, there will be uncertainty in

probability & impact of the risk.

2. Risks are assessed based on current understanding,

expert judgement, and lessons learned.
The business executive overseeing the funding for this
initiative insists that analyzing the current state is a waste of
time. She says that the gains in productivity will be made by
allowing the software to drive the future state. How should
Placido respond?

The risk of conflict among stakeholders and the delay

caused by spending time resolving the conflict will be
reduced by analyzing the current state.

**Understanding the business need occurs as part of

analyzing the current state.

As a BA you are called upon to participate in a

strategic workshop to identify change
strategies. What will be your most likely role in
the discussion?
Facilitator

Two-dimensional matrix showing states and the

transitions between them. It can be used during
elicitation and analysis either as an alternative, a
precursor, or a complement to a state diagram."

State table

Thomas is the lead business analyst on a project that has

complex requirements. To ensure stakeholders understand
the requirements and provide input and feedback early in
the design process, Thomas recommends to use which of
the following techniques?

Prototyping.

"To ensure stakeholders understand the requirements and provide input and feedback early in
the design process, " = Strength of prototyping

Prototypes assist stakeholders in visualizing the appearance and capabilities of a planned

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

TRUE

Glenn is on a project team that has finalized requirements

and designs. As of late, several change requests have been
received regarding the designs. Glenn is consulted for
establishing impact of proposed changes. What type of
stakeholder is Glenn

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

Torii conducted a workshop with domain subject matter experts to

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

Observing is an appropriate technique to uncover

missing requirements or confirm information.

"gap or two between confirmed process steps."

How would a SWOT analysis be beneficial to

the business case?

Provides side-by-side comparison of the

various change strategies. It could be used to
support a decision regarding a change
strategy. BABOK 6.4.6 and 10.46

Technique helps in identifying unique

stakeholders needs,

Organizational Modeling
Declan has just completed requirements analysis and
design. A stakeholder who has not been involved in the
requirements elicitation process appears and presents his
concerns about the proposed solution. Which technique
would have prevented this scenario?
Stakeholder maps, in particular onion diagrams, depict the
relationship of stakeholders to the solution and to one
another. In relating the solution to the stakeholders, Declan
would have realized there was a missing stakeholder.
BABOK 3.2.6 and 10.43.3.2

Technique for useful for generating the

stakeholder list
Brainstorming

As a business analyst on an initiative with many

stakeholders, you want to ensure that everyone's viewpoint
is considered when coming up with key guidelines for the
project. Which technique would help achieve this objective,
when determining the business analysis approach?

Workshops help build the plan in a team

setting. Skilled facilitation ensures everyone is
heard. BABOK 3.1.6 and 10.5
Susan is a business analyst developing a
screen mock-up for a key stakeholder showing
fields from a data model. Which of the
following is true?

Susan is defining the design of some aspect of the solution based

upon elicited requirements

Screen mock-ups are considered design in one example in the

BABOK. Design focuses on the solution. Susan is defining the design
based upon elicited requirements, which the data model fields imply.

What is business model canvas?

Describes Rationale for Requirements

Financial resources, patents, reputation, and

brand names are all examples of which of the
following elements?

Internal Assets
Your developers are in India. You want to
document requirements so that everyone has the
same understanding. Which of the following will
provide the best clarity?
Creating process models.

*use case descriptions.= narrative flow of events may be

difficult for those less familiar with the English language.

*formality will not ensure clarity.

Which of the following data models is typically

used by implementation subject matter experts
to describe how a database is physically
organized?
Physical data model

Difference between synchronous and

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

What is the purpose of conducting a thorough

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

Business Analysis information is decomposed

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

Role of the BA during Transition & Release

Planning
1. BA assists in the planning and timing fo the
implementation to cause minimal disruption to
business activities.

2. Facilitates release planning decision to aid

stakeholders in reaching decisions.
Ryan is a BA working on gathering information for a business
case. He is using benchmarking studies of the competition. He
has determined that the potential risks associated with
implementation are roughly the same as the expected value.
Which of the following would Ryan most likely recommend?

Seek ways to increase solution value that will

outweigh the risks.to keep pace with the
competition.

This is the best recommendation for this scenario.

BABOK 6.3.4.5

Benefit to analyzing stakeholder attitudes as

part of the perform stakeholder analysis
element?
Knowing how a stakeholder perceives the
initiative enables the business analyst to plan
for collaboration and engagement with that
stakeholder.

Factors considered during Transition & release

Planning
 1. Overall Budget
2. Deadlines/ Time constraints
3. Training schedules
4. Ability of the business to absorb changes
Kyle is a BA negotiating a service level agreement
(SLA) with a customer associated with a new
product currently in development. What type of
requirement is Kyle negotiating?

Non-functional requirements define how well

the functional requirements must perform.
BABOK 10.30.3

How do we know that the current state is not

involved in a scenario?

We know that the current state is not involved because the inputs, the
implemented solution (external) and the business objectives (6.2), tell
us so.

*** The current state is not an input to this task (Strategy Analysis) or
to the performance measures. BABOK 8.1.1
BABOK says, "Without clearly understood business needs,
it is impossible to develop a coherent strategy, and the
resulting change initiative is almost certain to be driven by a
mix of conflicting stakeholder demands." How would this
impact the initiative?
Resolving the conflict consists of mediation among
stakeholders and involves several steps. We can
imply that this mediation will take time, delay the
effort, and run the risk of weakening the relationships
among stakeholders.

Jack was conducting interviews with stakeholders to elicit

requirements. The sessions were not going well and he
asked you for your help. Stakeholders are confused about
why the project is needed and what their role is in the
project. Which of the following would you recommend?

Advise Jack to better prepare interviewees by sending them supporting material in advance of the
interview and educating them before the actual interview as to their role in the project.

The BABOK stresses that the BA should prepare stakeholders for any elicitation event by sending
them supporting materials and requesting they review them in advance.
This could include information about the project and the needs the project will address. In addition,
educate them beforehand on their role and the relevance of the information they have to the success
of the project. BABOK 4.1.4.5 and 10.25.3.1

Evaluation criteria may express contractual

obligations and as such may be difficult to
change for legal or political reasons.
FALSE

Business analysts assist in planning the timing of the

implementation to ensure all parties understand the
impact on the organization and to ensure minimal
disruption. Which of the following factors do guide
implementation?

Ability of the organization to absorb the

change Incorrect This is a stated factor in
transition states and release planning

Gary is a lead business analyst and he and his team are

working on a project to reroute a public bike path. They
have identified, analyzed, and evaluated twenty risks on the
proposed solution. What would be the next logical step for
Gary and his team?

Determine the approach to address the risk.

" Risks identified, analyzed, and evaluated" = 3 elements of the

technique Risk Analysis & Evaluation. 4th element is to select a Risk
Approach ( mitigate, avoid, transfer, ect) This is a description of the term
"treatment", which is the next element after identification, analysis and
evaluation. BABOK 10.38.3.4
Technique that provides documentation for
compliance purposes

Process Modeling

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

Understanding how both companies handle these processes before

integrating the systems. will ensure compliance with regulations after
the integration takes place

**One of the strengths of Process Modeling is that it provides

documentation for compliance purposes

Influencer & Decision maker responsibility of

which stakeholders?

This is the executive team's responsibility.

A senior business analyst has created an artifact

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

A state table is a two-dimensional matrix showing

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

Why is it important to review lessons learned?

To compile and document successes,

opportunities for improvement, failures, and
recommendations for improving the
performance of future projects

The volume of work items to be completed

sometimes exceeds the capacity to complete them.
Which of the following techniques identifies an
approach for addressing this situation?
Backlog management

A conflict may arise among stakeholders as a result of

different interpretations of requirements or designs
and conflicting values placed on them. Which
technique would you use to resolve issues and gain
agreement?
Decision analysis examines the possible consequences of alternative
outcomes and so is a valuable tool for resolving issues and gaining
agreement.

*** NOT Item Tracking = Item tracking will track issues identified
during the agreement process but not resolve them

Which are 4 parts of establishing a monitoring

and evaluation system structure for metrics?

1. Data collection
2. Baselining of Data
3. Data Analysis
4. Reporting Procedure
A type of behavioral rule for which there is no
active enforcement.
Guideline

Type of collaborative game during which

participants write down features, put them on a
wall, and then move them closer to other sticky
notes containing features that appear similar in
some way.

Affinity mapping

3 elements of Item Tracking

1. Item Identifier
2. metric
3. Item Record.Item Record.
Rules representing operational knowledge of
the organization

definitional rules
Rules the organization chooses to enforce as
a matter of policy, often to reduce risk or
enhance productivity.

Behavioral rules (also known as an Operative

rules)

set of activities, tools, and techniques to address

change during a change initiative, primarily
addressing the needs of the people who will be
most affected by the change.

Change control process

Your organization has chosen to enforce two

new rules as a matter of policy in order to
enhance productivity. What type of rule has
your organization enforced?
Behavioral rules.

You want to use a requirements elicitation technique to produce a

broad set of options for an identified problem. You want the
stakeholders to help you identify options, factors that affect the
solution and possible solution issues, along with risks and
dependencies. Which of the following requirement elicitation activities
would the best approach to satisfy these requirements?
 The scenario is describing brainstorming - the results of
which could be organized in a mind map or an affinity map.
BABOK 4.2.6

Clue: "broad set of options for an identified problem."

'The five whys" is a question-asking process to

explore the nature and cause of a problem.
Why is the technique called "the five whys?"

Because it often takes five times of asking "why?" to reach the root cause.

What term best describes the examination of

the relationships that may be affected by the
change in requirement?
Traceability

***Although Interface Analysis can be used in assessing changes

to requirements, its focus is on identifying the interfaces that are
impacted by the change, not the relationships between all the
requirements, so traceability is a better answer.

small, implementable, and testable slices of

functionality and help facilitate rapid delivery
and frequent customer feedback

User stories

the preferred way to capture requirements for

agile (adaptive) projects.

User stories

***Predictive (waterfall) approaches rarely utilize

user stories; rather, stakeholder requirements are
elicited.
What the purpose of benchmarking and
market analysis?

To improve organizational operations, increase

customer satisfaction, and increase value to
stakeholders.

A balanced scorecard can be used at multiple levels within an organization.

TRUE

Evaluation criteria refers more to expected return-

on-investment, which would support the
recommendation.

TRUE

Evaluation criteria will better help the organization define its priorities.

Strength of Evaluation Criteria

Joni is preparing a document that justifies why the

organization should invest in a proposed solution. In
her documentation she includes the evaluation criteria
for the solution. What is the benefit of including the
evaluation criteria?

Evaluation criteria refers more to expected

return-on-investment, which would support the
recommendation.

This technique would be useful to model the

requirements for accomplishing the save-and-
resume function,

Use Case Descriptions

Robert is struggling to find the best way to model requirements on his

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

Use Case Descriptions would be useful to model the requirements for accomplishing the save-and-
resume function, the specific goal described.

Clues: "best way to model requirements"

"allow mortgage applicants the ability to save their application and resume in the future"
**Process models might help with the larger business process, not the particular goal of saving and
resuming a mortgage

Evaluation criteria provides guidance for

ongoing decision making throughout the
initiative
FALSE

series of steps performed by actor and the

solution that enable an actor to achieve a goal.
Term

Flow of Events

Use Case Description

You have just completed your requirements

workshop. Who should be involved with
capturing the elicitation outcomes from the
workshop?
Business analyst

Per the BABOK, no other resource than the BA is

specified for capturing elicitation outcomes.
BABOK 4.2.4.2

Risk originates from the uncertainty present in a solution.

TRUE

Technique that visually depicts the scope of the

solution by showing the actors who interact with the
solution, the use cases they interact with and any
relationships between the use cases.

Use Case Diagram

Organizations are not likely to perceive risk as a threat to project success

False

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

Use cases and scenarios

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

Process modeling

Method of relative estimation on agile projects

Story Points

Which technique would a business analyst use

to identify requirements associated with a story
that may be available for reuse?

User stories

*The scenario is most likely describing an agile

project that expresses requirements in user stories.
BABOK 5.2.6
Primary tool for beginning organizational
modeling?

Organizational Charts

Why is it important to identify influencers when

conducting organizational modelling?
Determining all influencers is important in
planning communication & making provisions
for user acceptance.

Marie is using organizational charts as her primary tool for

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

Influencers

**Informal lines of authority, influence, and

communication not reflected in formal
organizational charts

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

Different types of requirements might be specified and

modeled at the same time.

Elicitation results contain information of different types, so it

is natural to expect that different types of requirements
might be specified at the same time. BABOK 7.1.4.3

Three types of information that's easy to find

using organizational modeling?

1. Roles & people

2. Accountability and control between units (Lines of

Reporting)

3. People, teams, departments, or divisions

(organizational units)
Anna, a junior business analyst, is seeking your
advice on how many models she should use to
best meet stakeholders needs in a given context.
What would you advise her?

Each modeling technique has strengths and weaknesses and

provides unique insights into the business domain and so using
several of them would complement one another.

Business analysts should use any combination of models that best

meet stakeholder needs. BABOK 7.1.4.1

What are the three typical components of a

user story?

Who? What? Why?

This comes form the element "Statement of value"

Another common format: = "Given, When, Then"

Note: that there is no mandatory structure for User Stories. This structure
("role, goal, motivation") is the most popular.

Two methods of identifying influencers in

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

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

Get approval to change the scope of the solution from whomever has the authority to approve
changes and add the new requirements.

Clue: "stakeholders who wants to add two new requirements to a solution after it had been signed off
"

"new requirements did not match the overall scope of the solution. "

Any new requirements must be resolved by either officially amending the scope and changing all
documentation or removing the requirements to maintain the current scope. This done through the
Assess Requirements Changes and Approve Requirements tasks within Requirements Lifecycle
Management. BABOK 5.4.2, 5.5.4, and 3.3.2

Requirement Life cycle begins with the collection of

solution requirements and ends when the solution
is retired.

FALSE
Requirement Life cycle begins with the business
need and ends when the requirements have been
implemented.

FALSE

Requirement Life cycle begins with project

initiation and ends when the project is closed
out.

FALSE

A business analyst must manage and maintain

requirements and design information throughout
the requirements life cycle. When does the
requirements life cycle begin and end?

It begins with the representation of the business need and ends when
the solution is retired.

The requirements life cycle begins with the representation of a

business need, continues through the development of a solution, and
ends when a solution and the requirements that represent it are retired
What is Continual Prioritization?

Priorities may shift throughout the project life

cycle and so this is a consideration of
prioritizing requirements. This is a consideration
of prioritizing requirements

What is the Basis for prioritization?

Factors that can be used as basis for

prioritization include benefit, penalty, cost, risk,
dependencies, time sensitivity, stability,
regulatory or policy compliance.

What are the Challenges of prioritization

Each stakeholder may value something

different and so this is a consideration of
prioritizing requirements.
Which stakeholder needs access to those
approved requirements from a risk
perspective?
Project Manager

*** Trick Answer= BA --> The Business Analyst is

not specifically mentioned in the Stakeholder List
for Approve Requirements.

responsible for identifying and managing risks

associated with solution design, development,
delivery, implementation, operation and
sustainment,"

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

Who is concerned with understanding how and

where requirements are implemented when
creating test plans and test cases, and may trace
test cases to requirements?
Tester

Who ensures that traceability supports project

change and scope management. ?

Project manager

As business analyst on an initiative, you are documenting

relationships that exist between requirements. While
traceability is valuable, you balance the number of
relationship types with the benefit gained by representing
them. Which stakeholder would be required to approve
these relationships?

he sponsor is required to approve the various

relationships in the trace requirements task.

Change strategy is a guideline/ tool in which 2

tasks in the RLCM?
It is listed as a Guideline/Tool for both
Prioritize Requirements and Assess
Requirements Changes

Proposed changes are inputs to which task?

Assess Requirements

Which of the following items should a BA have

defined in order to prioritize requirements or
assess changes to requirements?

Requirements (along with designs) are needed

inputs to all of the tasks in the Requirements
Life Cycle Management knowledge area.
BABOK 5.3.3 and 5.4.3

The new requirements were not within the

original scope and may increase budget, time,
and/or resources., what are the 2 solution
options?

The issue must be resolved with the scope

change approved or the requirements
removed.

John, one of the approving stakeholders, just joined

the company and requests a way to accurately
assess alignment and completeness of requirements.
Which of the following items would you provide to
John?

Solution scope

This tool describes legislative rules or

regulations that must be followed that may
impact the requirements and designs approval
process;

Legal/regulatory information
This tool records requirements approvals and
will not help John assess alignment and
completeness of requirements
Requirement management tools/repository

Adaptive approaches try to minimize the

impact of changes by utilizing iterative and
incremental implementation techniques
TRUE

The project manager will determine the formality of the

assessment process based on the information available, the
apparent importance of the change, and the governance
process.
FALSE

Solution scope is not considered when prioritizing requirements.

FALSE

Prioritization is an ongoing process, with

priorities changing as the context changes
TRUE

Priority can refer to the relative value of a

requirement, or to the sequence in which it will
be implemented.

TRUE

When a requirement is prioritized, it is given

greater or lesser priority

TRUE

Task includes capturing information about

attributes or metadata for requirements

Specify & Model Requirements

J who is working on defining design options, identifies that
bank managers from various branches have some common
needs that can better be met via a single solution, thereby
reducing costs. What kind of improvement opportunity is she
looking at?

Eliminating redundancy

What is the purpose of estimation in

determining the potential value for each design
option?

To forecast the costs and efforts of meeting

the requirements.

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

Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

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

Gayle should define processes for tracing, prioritizing, assessing changes to,
maintaining, and approving requirements.

Clue: " formal and informal standards in place regarding how business
analysis should be performed"

"needs to define a requirements management life cycle approach for the

initiative"

used to identify a SOLUTION component that

may be utilized by more than one solution.

Use Cases and Scenarios

used to identify REQUIREMENTS associated

with the story that may be available for reuse.

User stories

Technique that can be used to analyze

existing documentation about an enterprise
that can serve as the basis for maintaining and
reusing requirements.

Document analysis

A multi-million dollar system integration project will merge a newly

purchased company's system functionality into the current company
platform. Because there are two more mergers planned for the near
future, Larry and Janyce's manager has asked them to identify and
document which requirements could be reused for future mergers and
acquisitions. What technique might Janyce use for this task?

Document analysis, user stories, and use cases and scenarios.

Clue: "merge a newly purchased company's system functionality into

the current company platform."

"identify and document which requirements could be reused "

Rocco is responsible for providing opinion on the

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

Regulator
When are baselines created?

Baselining is completed before any requirements go through the process of

assessing the change. Baselining is rarely mentioned in the BABOK--9.6 and
Glossary only.

***configuration management and traceability standards establish product

baselines and version control practices that identify which baseline is affected
by the change. (Plan BA Governance)

What is performed to assess or evaluate the

effect of a change?

Impact analysis is performed to assess and evaluate

the effect of a change.

***Manage approvals occur after the change has

been evaluated, rather than in evaluating the impact
of the change

You have completed requirements elicitation and documentation, and

are in the process of reviewing the requirements in order to obtain
sign-off. John, one of the approving stakeholders, just joined the
company and requests a way to accurately assess alignment and
completeness of requirements. Which of the following items would you
provide to Joh
"process of reviewing the requirements in
order to obtain sign-off." = Task Approve
Requirements

Which technique would a business analyst use

dentify information flow for possible reuse.

Data Flow Diagrams

Which technique would a business analyst use

to identify business rules that may be similar
across the enterprise in order to facilitate
reuse?

Business rules analysis

Which technique would a business analyst use

to identify data structures for possible reuse
Data modeling

To ensure the accuracy and consistency of

requirements throughout the requirements life cycle
and to support the reuse of requirements.

Purpose of the Maintain Requirements task

To ensure the accuracy and consistency of

requirements throughout the requirements life cycle
and to support the reuse of requirements.

To build a repository of requirements that will ensure

requirements are aligned to one another and to
manage the effects of change on them.

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

A guideline provides instructions or descriptions on

why or how to undertake a task, while a tool is
something used to undertake a task. Which of the
following is NOT listed as a "guideline and tool" in
requirement life cycle management?

Business analysis approach

You have met with a key stakeholder to review requirements that are specific to
the functionality her team will frequently use. She refuses to approve and sign off
on the requirements, because she doesn't want to be held to only these
requirements if additional needs are discovered. She also states that "We need
to resolve these issues before the project can begin or the project will not
succeed. You need to put tasks into the Business Analysis Plan to account for
resolving them." What is your best response?

Review the change management process and provide assurance that

any unforeseen requirements will be fairly considered in the change
control process.

Analysis performed to assess or evaluate the

effect of a change.

Impact Analysis.

How all impacts and resolutions resulting from the

change analysis are documented and
communicated to all stakeholders
Term?

Impact Resolution.

An examination and resolution of the requirement

relationships to determine which requirements will
be impacted by a requested requirements change
Term?

This is the definition for Requirements

Architecture, with a distracter of "resolution"
substituting for "analysis.

Concerned with reviewing requirements

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

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

Tester

You are the business analyst on an effort and

one of your stakeholders references the
proposed changes to confirm compliance to
standards. What type of stakeholder is this?

Regulator

The purpose of prioritizing requirements is to rank

requirements in the order of relative importance.
Which of the following can be the location where
the prioritization is maintained?

Backlog management is used to compare requirements to be

prioritized. The backlog can be the location where that prioritization is
maintained. BABOK 5.3.6
Don't pick Repository- Partially true. Repository is a very general term.
(Req. Repository is for sorting requirements)

Many proposed changes may be withdrawn from

consideration or declined before any formal
approval is required.
TRUE

Adaptive approaches try to minimize the

impact of changes by utilizing iterative and
incremental implementation techniques.
TRUE

technique in the assess requirements changes

task and is used to justify a proposed change.

Business Case

The project manager will determine the formality of

the assessment process based on the information
available, the apparent importance of the change, and
the governance process.
FALSE

Narrative description of the services or tasks

that are required to be performed.

Statement of work (SOW)

You are working on a major new inventory management system

and are responding to a request for better reporting from it. You
need a tool or method to describe the purpose and direction for
the request, establish the context for it, and identify the critical
components of the request. What do you choose to help guide
you?

Change Strategy

Clue: You need a tool or method to describe the purpose and direction for the
request, establish the context for it, and identify the critical components of the
request

This answer describes the definition of this guideline/tool in the Assess

Requirements Changes task. BABOK 5.4.5
Which of the following techniques would be
best suited to identify how to evaluate the
quality of the requirements?
Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Outcome of prioritizing requirements?

To determine which requirements should be

completed first.

The project team is in the process of confirming compliance with

organizational business analysis performance standards, correct use
of modeling notation and completeness within each model, and that
items determined to be important are included in the final
requirements deliverables.
What tool would help in carrying out these activities?

Checklist

Clue: "items determined to be important are included in the final requirements deliverables."=
Purpose of Check List

" Process of confirming compliance with organizational business analysis performance standards,
correct use of modeling notation and completeness within each model," = Verification Activities

Don't Confuse with Item-Tracking = technique used in the validate requirements task to ensure any
problems or issues identified are managed and resolved.
What is the purpose of prioritizing
requirements?
To rank requirements in the order of relative
importance.
Prioritization is a critical exercise that seeks to
ensure the maximum value is achieved. BABOK
5.3.1 and 5.3.2
A viewpoint is a set of conventions that define how
requirements will be represented, how these
representations will be organized, and how they will
be related. What are 5 examples of a viewpoint?
1. Business Process Models
2. Data Models & Information
3. User Interactions (Use cases & user
experiences)
4. Audit & Security
5. Business Models
2 Examples of models in the Data &
Information Category

1. Activity Flow Diagram

2. Data Modeling
The lead business analyst has assigned you to create a
requirements model that represents the characteristics and
the exchange of information within an enterprise or a
solution. Which requirements model category would you
use?

Data and information

Requirements model category is what the question is asking for.

Clue: "requirements model that represents the characteristics and the

exchange of information within an enterprise or a solution."

describes what the entities represent, when

and why they were created or changed, how
they should be used, how often they are used,
when, and by whom.

Metadata

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

To specify requirements as a brief statement about what

people do or need to do when using the solution.
****User stories can be used by business analysts for
generating user acceptance test

Data about data can best be described as

what?

Metadata

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

What kind of diagram is used in the specify and

model requirements task to show how processes or
objects interact during a scenario by showing the
information passed between them?
Sequence diagram

Clue: "how processes or objects interact during a scenario "

Don't pick Process Diagram -->A process diagram or model describes

the flow of activities in a process
Requirements that don't meet quality
standards have likely been evaluated in which
task?
Verify requirements

As a business analyst, you are given the following elicitation information: "The database shall
support the generation and control of configuration objects, and the objects are themselves
groupings of other objects in the database." Why would decomposing the above information be
critical you?

Information decomposition would help identify anything that

must change or not change to meet the business need or
any missing components.

*** Analysis provides a basis for discussion to reach a

conclusion about the solution.

An output describes the requirements and the

interrelationships among them, as well as any
contextual information that is recorded.
Requirements architecture.

The system shall read the tracking database and

feed the bond prices to the web database using
XML.
Example of poorly written functional requirement

This is not properly written because it names technologies and constrains the solution design.

3 Examples of Good ones:

Bond prices will be viewable and sort able by maturity date, length of security, yield, and rating.

The system shall provide a maintenance function for correcting any missing data.

The system shall display bond prices using 3 decimal places instead of fractions.

How can backlog management be helpful

when analyzing and recommending a
solution?

It can be used to sequence the potential value

In managing backlog, the items at the top have the

highest business value and the highest priority.
BABOK 7.6.6

Your organization has announced an initiative to streamline

accounts payable processes in all its divisions. You are a
business analyst assigned to analyze current business
processes and recommend one process for all divisions.
Which of the samples of what you should likely to do?
 1. Recommend a new process to increase consistency of behavior. (Id additional
capabilities)
2. Improve access to information.
3. Map the current processes in all the divisions and eliminate redundancy.

"assigned to analyze current business processes and recommend one process for all
divisions."

This describes the element "ID Improvement Opportunities" in task " Define Design
Options"

The following are some of the factors a business analyst

would consider to establish the level of decomposition and
the level of detail to be specified while conducting
information decomposition. What are the 4 factors the
influence the level of decomposition?

1. Knowledge & Understanding of stakeholders

2. Potential for misunderstanding or
miscommunication
3. Organizational standards
4. Contractual or Regulatory Obligations
Marie is required to show how elements work in harmony
with one another to support the business requirements, and
to structure the elements in various ways to align the
viewpoints of different stakeholders. What techniques would
be useful?

Workshops, scope modeling, interviews, organizational modeling, functional

decomposition, data modeling. = "FW -DOSI"
"how elements work in harmony with one another to support the business
requirements, and to structure the elements in various ways to align the
viewpoints of different stakeholders." = Definition of Requirements
Architecture ---> Task Define Requirement Architecture

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

Implementation subject matter expert

Clue: "expert to provide input about the constraints and cost implications of
each option. "

Don't Confuse with Operational Support = Operational support can help

evaluate the difficult and cost of integrating proposed solutions with existing
processes and systems.

Susan thinks she is done with her requirements analysis on a project.

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

Task Validate Requirements

2 clues: "ensure the requirements support the business case." =
Definition for Validate Requirements

"He also sent her the business objectives and potential value for the
project," These are GUIDELINES to which task? Validate
Requirement

While analyzing elicitation results and creating

representations of those results, which set of
activities will a business analyst typically be
engaged in?
Modeling requirements, analyzing requirements, representing requirements and
attributes, implementing the appropriate levels of abstraction.

specify and model requirements task.

Business analysts transform elicitation results in requirements and designs by

engaging in these activities which are elements in the specify and model
requirements task.

Atomic, testable, consistent, feasible,

complete, understandable What are these?

Quality Characteristics
model describes the flow of activities in a
process.

Process model

She would like to model an employee's life cycle from

the time they are a recruit until they are no longer with
the company, along with the triggers that change their
status. Which of the following diagrams will best suit
her objective?
State diagram

To clearly describe the requirements in an active voice.

Term?

Text Model

To create a visual representation of the set of

requirements.

Term
Diagram

Analyze, synthesize, and refine elicitation

results into requirements and designs. is the
purpose of which task?

specify and model requirements task i

Technique used to ensure stakeholders

understand the requirements and provide input
and feedback early in the design process,
Prototyping

Benchmarking and market analysis is a stated

technique for which of the following tasks in
the requirements analysis and design
definition knowledge area?
Define design options
In many cases, stakeholders have different,
conflicting needs and expectations. How would a
business analyst help expose these differences
and ensure their needs are met?

Through validation

Technique that documents features and

stakeholder objectives at a high, narrative
level.

User Story

Technique that portrays the transformation of

data vs. a customer's interaction with a system

Data Flow Diagrams

Documenting a requirement that describes a

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

Use case.

You have been assigned to specify

requirements as a brief statement about what
people do or need to do when using the
solution. What are criteria for your activity?
1. High-level information that is informal.
2. Typically a sentence or two that describes who
has the need and the goal they are trying to achieve.
3. A short description of the solution capability that
provides value to the stakeholder.
You have been assigned to specify
requirements as a brief statement about what
people do or need to do when using the
solution. What are criteria for your activity?

1. High-level information that is informal.

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

Information management approach,

requirements (any state), solution scope

Inputs to the define requirements architecture

task

Assessing each design option based on the potential

value it is expected to deliver and ensuring that it
represents the most effective trade-offs.

Task?
Task "Analyze PV & Recommend Solution "

Joseph is assessing each design option based on

the potential value it is expected to deliver and
ensuring that it represents the most effective trade-
offs. What are the 7 factors to consider in this
activity?
 1. Available resources
2. Constraints on solution
3. Dependencies between solution
4. Relationships with proposed vendors
5. Dependencies on other initiatives
6. Corporate Culture
7. Sufficient Cash Flow Investment

"CARD CDS"

Task "Analyze PV & Recommend Solution "

A proposal for doing or achieving something

Plan

What are 6 techniques for the Define Requirements Architecture task?

"FW- DOSI"

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

What is the name for a rule that prescribes

how information may be derived, inferred, or
calculated.?
Definitional Rule

What is the name for a behavioral (business)

rule for which there is no active enforcement?

Guideline.

Function of the BA during item tracking when verifying requirements?

Ensure that problems or issues identified

during verification are escalated to the project
manager to track resolution.

What is the purpose of item tracking when

verifying requirements?

Ensure that problems and issues identified

during verification are managed and resolved.
Giewel wants to model features of an
enterprise or a solution. Which requirement
model category would he use?

Capability models focus on features or functions of

an enterprise or solution. BABOK 7.1.4.1

Buzz words: requirement model category &

Features

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

Primitive & Composite

How is a glossary different than a data

dictionary?

A glossary defines key terms relevant to the

business domain while a data dictionary
standardizes a definition of a data element.
Will has been responding to several questions
about the solution requirements from confused
developers. What is the most likely cause of
the confusion?
The requirements were seemingly ambiguous and so most
likely weren't verified.

**Ambiguous is a quality characteristic which is the clue ---> If

the requirements were verified (ie, meet quality expectations),
they should not cause that much confusion.

You have been asked to facilitate a workshop

to help clarify the scope of a solution. Your
objective is to:
Organize requirements based on the solution components
they are related to.

Scope models are used to describe the scope of analysis or

the scope of a solution.
Components of a class in a class diagram
1. Attributes

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

Useful When describing the entities, classes,

or data objects that are relevant to a domain.
data flow diagram.

Assess potential vendors.

Task?
Task: DEFINE DESIGN OPTIONS

This was done during the identification of the design options. BABOK 7.5.4.1

Determine whether to "make" or "buy."

Task?

Define Design Options

Make or Buy = part of the Element Define solution Approaches

Carla and her team have identified and defined

the potential value for three design options.
What is their logical next step?
Identified and defined the potential value for
three design options
business analyst requested that all requirements be self-
contained and capable of being understood independently
of other requirements or designs. Which characteristic of
requirements and designs is the senior business analyst
requesting?

Atomic

Representing design options that achieve the

desired future state.

Define Design Options"

Allocating requirements across solution components,

Task?

Define Design Options"

Identifying opportunities to improve the business,

Task

Define Design Options"

Defining Solution Approach

TAsk?
Task "Define Design Options"

Susan is done with defining the solution approach, identifying

opportunities to improve the business, allocating requirements
across solution components, and representing design options
that achieve the desired future state. Which one of the following
activities is a next logical step?
Estimate the potential value of each design option

Buzz Words: All are described in the purpose of Task "Define Design Options"
1. Defining the solution approach=
2. Identifying opportunities to improve the business,
3. Allocating requirements across solution components,
4. Representing design options that achieve the desired future state.

Use cases in a use case diagram are shown

through:
Ovals
Actors in a use case diagram are shown
through:
Stick Figures

Requirements may be related to each other in

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

1. DEFINED
2. NECESSARY
3. CORRECT
4. UNAMBIGUOUS
5. CONSISTENT
Associations (interfaces) in a use case
diagram are shown through:
Lines.
When does BA Define design options?
Requirements are validated and prioritized
before the define design options task.

When does the BA Identify improvement

opportunities?
This is done when proposing design options.

Once the requirements are verified, what is the

next task a business analyst may perform,
provided that other inputs required by the task
are also available?
Validate requirements

Who may use the requirements architecture to

ASSESS the completeness of requirements?
Task?

ANY STAKEHOLDER
Business Analysis & Domain SME has primary
responsibility for determining that this task is
completed.

TASK?
Validate Requirements

Other stakeholders may discover problematic

requirements during requirements
communication TASK?
Validate Requirements

Domain Subject Matter Expert, Implementation

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

Business analysts may choose to perform this task themselves and

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

Specify and model requirement

Early identification and involvement of people, groups, or

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

Generally, when would a business analyst

model requirements in a change initiative?
After requirements elicitation.

A technique that describes the rationale for

requirements.
Business model canvas

Techniques provide step-by-step instructions

on how to accomplish a specific task.
FALSE
Techniques are prescribed by the BABOK
FALSE

Techniques vary depending upon the

perspective from which business analysis is
being performed.
FALSE

Techniques provide additional information on

ways that a task can be performed.
TRUE

An activity diagram utilizes business process model and

notation (BPMN) so it can distinguish the activities of
different participants in a process with either pools or swim
lanes.
FALSE

Model that employs swim lanes to show

responsibilities, synchronization bars to show
parallel processing and multiple exit decision
points
Activity diagram

Why an activity diagram may be utilized?

1. An activity diagram can elaborate on a single use case.

2. An activity diagram is effective at showing how to handle a large number of

scenarios and parallel branches.

3. An activity diagram facilitates the identification of potential improvements by

highlighting "pain points" in the process structure.

Which subset is correct for all stakeholders in

the define design options task?
Implementation subject matter expert, operational
support, project manager, domain subject matter
expert, supplier

***END USER & SPONSOR ARE NOT

STAKEHOLDERS FOR THIS TASK
When the focus of the specifying and modeling
activity is on a solution, the outputs are
referred to as ________
DESIGNS

When the focus of the specifying and modeling

activity is on understanding the need, the
outputs are referred to as _________

REQUIREMENTS

When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on

understanding the need, the outputs are referred to as designs.
When the focus of the specifying and modeling activity is on a
solution, the outputs are referred to as requirements.

FALSE
Requirements and designs may be either high-level
or very detailed based upon what is appropriate to
those consuming the information.
TRUE
The main difference between requirements
and designs is in how they are used and by
whom.
TRUE

One person's designs may be another

person's requirements.
TREU

In order to validate requirements, you must

first do what?
Specify and model requirements.

*** Not Verify Requirements!

Requirements (Specified & Modeled) are input to

Validate Requirements task.

Non-functional requirements analysis is a

stated technique for which of the following
tasks in the Requirements Analysis and
Design Definition knowledge area?
Specify and Model Requirements

Potential value of the solution options are

analyzed and quantified.

Value core concept in the Business Analysis

Core Concept Model
The circumstances that influence and provide
understanding of the change are considered
when determine solution performance
measures.

Context core concept in the Business Analysis

Core Concept Model

Potential solution options are defined and the

one that is most likely to address the need and
has the most value is recommended.
Solution core concept in the Business Analysis
Core Concept Model

What are common non-functional requirement

categories?

Total 11:
Reliability, compatibility, scalability, localization

Rebecca is structuring the requirements to ensure all

requirements form a single whole that supports
overall business objectives and produce meaningful
outcome for the stakeholders. What are the 4
considerations for Rebecca?
Requirements Architecture = "structuring the requirements to ensure all
requirements form a single whole"--> Which Task? Define Req. Architecture.

Considerations= Elements
1. Requirements Viewpoints & Views
2. Template Architecture
3. Completeness
4. Relate & Verify Requirements Relationships.
IDEF, BPMN, and IGOE are types of notations
utilized in which of the following models?
Process models

The lead business analyst and her team have completed an

event that ensured the requirements and designs
specifications and models meet quality standards. They now
want to ensure that the stakeholders' desired future state is
achieved. What question would the team be asking?

Were the right requirements stated?

This questions about Validation, which ensures that the stakeholders' desired
future state is achieved, which is what the team wants to do.

Were the requirements stated right? = Verification=requirements and designs

specifications and models meet quality standards

When a boundary of some sort needs to be

defined.
scope models

Useful When the logic of usage sequences

needs to be modeled.
sequence diagrams.

The business analyst should refrain from

documenting recommendations to transform the
process that are outside the scope of software
automation.
FALSE

You have been asked to create requirements models that

would help the project team understand roles,
responsibilities and reporting structures that exist within the
organization and align those structures with the
organization's goals. Which requirements model category
would you use?
People and Roles

Trick Answer= Organizational Modeling but it's not a category

Shape day-to-day business behavior and

guide operational business decision making.

Term?
Business rules
Business rule changes can be implemented quickly
if they are managed by a single enterprise-wide
engine.
TRUE

Business rules are exclusively expressed and

managed through implementation technology for a
given solution
FALSE

XYZ is an new organization that uses agile methodology.

The organization is looking for the best solution for project
team collaboration and artifacts storage. He is tasked with
carrying out an analysis between using a Confluence site
vs. a SharePoint site.
Matrix documentation

A matrix is used when the business analyst is modeling a

requirement or set of requirements that have complex but
uniform structure, which can be broken down into elements that
apply to every entry in the table. BABOK 7.1.4

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

1. Business analysts use requirements architecture to ensure the requirements work
together to achieve the overall objectives.
 2. Business analysts use requirements architecture to make trade-off decisions about
requirements while considering the overall objectives.

3. Business analysts use a requirements architecture to understand which models are

appropriate for the domain, solution scope, and audience.

Ensuring all requirements work in harmony as a single

whole that supports overall business objectives and
produces meaningful outcome for the stakeholders.

What is the purpose of this exercise?

To define requirements architecture

Information Management Approach.

Requirements (any state).
Solution Scope

"IRS"
Input to Define Requirements Architecture
Task

You just created stakeholder and solution

requirements. What task did you just finish?
Specify and model requirements
Anna has assembled a team to define design
options. What inputs will they need to
accomplish this task?
Validated and prioritized requirements, change
strategy, requirements architecture

These are the inputs for the define design options

task. BABOK Figure 7.5.1

What characteristic of a quality requirement is

missing in this requirement: "The call center
operator shall be able to view details of a
protected household"?
The stated requirement is incomplete in the sense that it
lacks a qualifier. A complete requirement would state

"The call center operator shall be able to view details of a

protected household within two seconds of issuing a query."

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

Requirements analysis and design definition

Task specifying and modeling requirements
include 3 activities
This task can result in requirements or design.
This task includes capturing information about
metadata.
This task includes capturing information about
attributes.
- Describe the capabilities that the solution must have
and the conditions the solution must meet to facilitate
transition from the current state to the future state, but
which are not needed once the change is complete.
BABOK 2.3

Transition requirements

making sure the requirements align to

business requirements and support the
delivery of needed value.
Validate requirements.

ensuring that the requirements and designs

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

The lead business analyst planned an event to

analyze the potential value for each design option
and recommend a solution. What inputs will be
needed to accomplish this task?
Potential value, design options

Indicates how entities in a data model relate to

other entities and how.
Associations

number of occurrences of one entity in a data

model that are linked to a second entity are
called what?
Cardinalities
Verifies that the prioritized requirements will
deliver value from organizational perspective
Sponsor
Genevieve and her team of business analysts are in the
process of ensuring that all requirements align to the
business need and that the design satisfies the
requirements. They find it difficult to validate the design
against the requirements. What would be the problem?
A requirement might be missing or incorrectly specified or the
design may not be right.

If a design cannot be validated to support a requirement, there

might be a missing or misunderstood requirement, or the design
must change. BABOK 7.3.4.3.

Who Verifies that the prioritized requirements

will deliver value?

Customer
Negotiates to have prioritization changed based on technical constraints

Implementation SME

Who provides input relating to technical

dependencies
Implementation SME
Why is the stakeholder list important to prioritizing requirements?

It indicates levels of power to determine which

stakeholders are needed for prioritization.
Uses prioritization a input for allocation of
requirements to releases
Project Manger

When to use data and information category

models?
When representing the characteristics and the
exchange of information within an enterprise or
a solution.
When to use people and roles category
models?
When representing organizations, groups of
people, roles, and their relationships within an
enterprise and to a solution.

When to use activity flow category models ?

When representing a sequence of actions,
events, or a course that may be taken.

When to use a capability model category?

When representing features or functions of an enterprise or a solution.

3 types of models for the capability model

category
1. Prototyping
2. Business Capability Analysis
3. Functional Decomposition
Which of the following stakeholders are
included in the task Verify Requirements?

All stakeholders.

Requirements and designs are inputs to which

task
Assess Requirements Changes.
You have completed requirements elicitation and
documentation. You now want information to help you
understand the needs of all stakeholders to assist in managing
consensus.

Which of the following tools would be helpful?

Change strategy

Tool provides information which would assist

the business analyst in managing stakeholder
consensus.

Verifies that the prioritized requirements will deliver

value from a customer or end-user perspective.
The customer can also negotiate to have the
prioritization changed based on relative value.
Customer

Verifies that the prioritization is consistent with

legal and regulatory constraints.
Regulator,
Who uses the prioritization as input into the
project plan and into the allocation of
requirements to releases.
Project Manager

When prioritizing requirements, different

stakeholders focus on different areas of the
prepared requirements package. What does
the Implementation SME focus on?
Determines the technical dependencies of the
project. They may also negotiate to have
requirement prioritizations changed based on
technical constraints.

The lead business analyst asks you to prioritize

requirements in order to meet the regulatory
demands imposed on the organization over other
stakeholder interests. What factor is influencing this
prioritization?
Penalty

Prioritization factor that speaks to the

consequences from not implementing a given
requirement
It means to document and maintain the
requirement in accordance with the methods
identified by the business analysis approach.

This is the definition of traceability repository.

It means to retain requirement accuracy and consistency

throughout and beyond the change during the entire
requirements life cycle, and to support reuse of
requirements in other solutions.

Term?
This is the definition of maintaining
requirements.
You are asked to trace a particular
requirement by a business stakeholder. What
is the stakeholder asking you to do?
It means to have clearly defined relationships from
one requirement to other requirements and other
components, such that coverage and the effects of
change are clearly identifiable.

He is starting to evaluate a requested change

to a requirement for the initiative he is working
on. What are the outputs of this process?
Requirements and designs change assessments

outputs of Assess Requirements Changes.

What happens to requirement tracing efforts

when the number of requirements or level of
formality increases?
More requirements and increased formality will
require greater tracing effort from Marisa and it
will not stay the same.
Once the implementation team has provided
the cost of each requirement, requirements are
baselined and prioritization is complete.
Stakeholders may reprioritize yet again as a
result of learning the costs. Requirements are
baselined once they're detailed and approved
vs. costed.

Priorities are unlikely to shift as the context

evolves and as more information becomes
available.
FALSE

When assessing requirements changes, which of

the following roles should the business analyst
consult with to determine the impact of the change
on stakeholder work activities?
End User uses the solution or a component of
the solution and can provide information about
the impact of the change on their work
activities.
Prioritization is an assessment of RELATIVE
value as each stakeholder may have different
values.
NOT ABSOLUTE VALUE

Purpose of tracing requirements

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

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

Tasks may vary in form, order, or importance

for individual business analysts or for various
initiatives."
Any tasks a business analyst may perform while evaluating the
necessity for change within an enterprise

*** Tasks are not required to be followed in an orderly or formal

manner; the performance of tasks are typically iterative in
nature.

5 Functions of Stakeholders in Prioritizing

Requirements
1. Verify that the prioritized requirements will deliver value;

2. Facilitates negotiations to have the prioritization changed based on relative value;

provides input relating to technical dependencies;

3. Verifies that the prioritization is consistent with legal constraints

4. Negotiate to have prioritization changed based on technical constraints

5. Uses prioritization a input for allocation of requirements to releases or input for project
plan

She is responsible for ensuring that requirements and

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

Buzz Word: " Supportable within the constraints imposed by technology standards and
organizational capability plans"

** Sponsors are responsible to review and approve the business case, solution or product
scope, and all requirements and designs.

** Customers, Operational Support all can approve requirements

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

one of the considerations business analysts use to

assess the impact of a proposed change but refers
to the impact to the existing delivery commitments
if the change is approved.
Schedule

one of the considerations business analysts use to

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

When considering changes or additions to existing

requirements, business analysts assess the impact of
the proposed change by considering several aspects,
among them being WHAT WILL BE GAINED by
accepting the change. What aspect is this?

Benefit (not Impact)

What must happen to enable requirements re-

use?
The requirements must be identified, clearly named, and defined &
stored in a manner that makes them easily retrievable by other
stakeholders.

**Requirements have to be validated, but not verified.

*** Requirements do not have to be baselined to be made re-usable

Guideline that may define priorities for

requirements

Business Constraints

Guideline for prioritizing requirements that

contains information on costs, timelines, and
value realization
Change Strategy
description of the business processes,
information technology, people, operations,
information and projects of an enterprise and
the relationships between them.
enterprise architecture

You now want to understand the requirements

relationship with other requirements and work
products for purposes of prioritization. Which
guideline or tool would you utilize?

Requirements architecture

For purposes of prioritization, requirements architecture

will facilitate understanding of the relationship between
requirements and work products.

Knowledge of the business domain needed to

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

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

Key word= SOLUTION & IMPACT of changes to requirements

***Governance approach provides guidance regarding the decision-making process but will not
help to assess the EFFECT of proposed changes to solution components

Business analysts manage how proposed

changes to requirements and designs are
evaluated during an initiative.
"Change" core concept for the knowledge area
RLCM

This guideline analyzes which requirements

(vs. solution components) would be impacted
by a requested change.
Requirements architecture

**** Business Analyst ANALYZES requirements

relationships to determine WHICH requirements will
be

Business analysts work closely with key

stakeholders to maintain understanding,
agreement, and approval of requirements and
designs.
"Stakeholder" core concept for the knowledge
area of RLCM

Business analysts trace, prioritize, and

maintain requirements to ensure that the need
is met.

Need" core concept for the knowledge area of

requirements life cycle management
Business analysts trace requirements and
designs to solution components to ensure that
the solution satisfies the need.
"solution" core concept for the knowledge area
RLCM

According to the BABOK, which types of

requirements are elicited?
Business, stakeholder, solution, transition

Who plays a role in aligning the designed solutions with stakeholder needs

business analyst
Who plays a role in aligning the delivered solutions with stakeholder needs

business analyst

Who selects the projects that best meet the

organization's strategic initiatives after
performing analysis activities.?
Executive team !
***BA may provide input and make
recommendations to the selection, but they do
not make the selection.

The business analyst discovers, synthesizes,

and analyzes information from a variety of
sources within an organization.
TRUE

The business analyst plays a role in aligning

the delivered solutions with stakeholder needs.
TRUE

The business analyst role will continue to be performed

within agile projects, though the scope of the work and
tasks within the current framework will likely change.
TRUE

What perspective can business analysis be

performed?
Business analysis is performed through many varying
perspectives, one of which is agile.

All of the tasks described in the BABOK are relevant within

the context of agile, but they may be performed somewhat
differently.

Discrete piece of work that may be performed

formally or informally as a part of business
analysis.
Task

Focuses on understanding how value might be

realized by a solution if it is built.
Design

3 key Facts about Tasks

1. Task DOES NOT changes according to the initiative type.

2. The performance of a task should create value.

3. The definition of a given task is universally applicable to

business analysis efforts, independent of the initiative type.
Process model
"how value might be realized by the solution
once built"

Role of the BA in defining the design of a

solution
BAs are responsible for the definition of
design, at some level, which varies based on
the perspective within which the BA is working

Screen mock-up
Type of Design showing specific data fields.

Screen mock-ups are considered design in one example in

the BABOK. Design focuses on the solution. Susan is
defining the design based upon elicited requirements, which
the data model fields imply.
"The system shall be available 99.3% of the
time during the service hours of 6:00 a.m. and
9:00 p.m. seven days a week" is an example of
what type of requirement?
Non-functional requirements

Describe the conditions under which a solution

must remain effective or a quality that a solution
must have.
Which Job titles perform business analysis?
Job titles aren't important; anyone can be considered a business analyst regardless of their job title if
they perform business analysis tasks.

A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in the BABOK,
regardless of their job title.

3 Elements of tracing requirements.

Level of formality
Relationships
Traceability repository

"Consideration for task Trace Requirements"

Type fo requirements relationship that links the

requirements on different levels of abstraction
Derive
Type of requirements relationship used when a
requirement depends on another requirement.
Depends

Type of requirements relationship exists when

a requirement is easier to implement if a
related requirement is also implemented
Effort

Technique used to track any issues raised

during planning activities with stakeholders.
Item tracking

Benefit, cost, schedule and urgency

Key areas to assess regarding the impact of
the change.

Inputs required to assess requirement

changes
Requirements, designs, and proposed
changes are inputs into Assess Requirements
Changes
Artifact which hierarchically decomposes the work
to be executed to accomplish objectives and create
the required deliverables, not specifically the
business analysis activities.

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Technique breaks down complex business

analysis processes into more feasible
components, but may not help in the identification
of possible activities that may have been left out.
Functional decomposition

Technique ensures concerns around

stakeholder requirements are captured,
tracked, and resolved to the stakeholder's
satisfaction
item tracking
A variety of decision analysis approaches are
available. What are the 4 determinants of the
appropriate approach to apply?
1. Level of Uncertainty
2. Quality of Information
3. Available Evaluation Criteria
4. Risk
3 process improvement methods?

Value stream mapping

Statistical analysis and control
Six sigma

Technique that Allows stakeholders to rank the

importance of outstanding items.

item tracking

It's acceptable to assign an item to a team or group during item tracking

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

Technique is used to track issues raised by

stakeholders during prioritization.
Item tracking

technique is used to gain an understanding of

stakeholders' basis of prioritization or priorities
in a facilitated group setting.

Workshops

4 Key Techniques is used when prioritizing

requirements.
Workshops
Item tracking
Financial analysis
Items Tracking

Technique is used to prioritize requirements by

financial value of a set of requirements and
how the timing of delivery will affect that value.

Financial analysis

Technique that provides side-by-side

comparison of various change strategies
SWOT

BACCM & order of importance for the six core concepts.

Relationship?

No single concept holds greater importance or significance

over any other concept.

Each core concept within the BACCM is defined by the

other five; as such, no single concept holds greater
importance over any other concept.
Technique that captures the current state,
future state, alternative change strategies and
associated analysis and recommendations.
Business Case

"value attribute" for acceptance criteria

Performance.

A way of expressing the results when

measuring several solutions utilizing
evaluation criteria
Solution Value ranking.

Technique used to identify the overall state of

an organization both internally and externally
SWOT

Tool for evaluating an organization against its

competitors in support of a new initiative.
Balanced scorecard

Technique that enables business analysts to

direct stakeholder's focus to the factor that are
important to the business
SWOT

Best means for eliciting information from

numerous people, anonymously, in a relatively
short period of time
Survey or questionnaire

3 ways of Using Mind Mapping

1. Generate ideas for complex problems (Like Brainstorming)

2. Create CONSOLIDATED view of concepts/problems

3. To articulate associations

Collaborative meeting by a FEW project

stakeholder to develop the requirements for a
project
Requirements workshop

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

Internal strategic planning and management

tool used to measure an organization's
performance.
Balanced scorecard

Strength of Document analysis

Used to validate the results of other requirements elicitation techniques.

If a new business analyst wanted to use this

technique Business capability analysis, how
would they start?
Identify personnel who will participate in its creation

Why? All of the limitations of this model have to do with lack of

collaboration, shared understanding, and unaligned goals. Therefore,
identifying the "right" personnel to be included in the project is the
critical success factor and the right place to start.

Technique that provides a framework for scoping

and planning by generating a shared
understanding of outcomes, identifying alignment
with strategy, and providing a scope and
prioritization filter. I
Business capability analysis

Keywords: framework for scoping and planning

Technique used as a point of reference to

determine what is current and what has
changed.

Document analysis
2 Limitation for using document analysis
technique?
Document analysis is primarily helpful only for evaluating the current state.

Authors not available for questions

Elicitation technique is composed of pre-

qualified individuals whose purpose is to
discuss and comment on a topic under the
guidance of a trained moderator.
Focus group

Don't Confuse with Workshop

A workshop is a focused event attended by key
stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a
concentrated period of time.

Elicitation technique is composed of pre-

qualified individuals whose purpose is to
discuss and comment on a topic under the
guidance of a trained moderator.

Focus group

Don't Confuse with Workshop

A workshop is a focused event attended by key
stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a
concentrated period of time.

Tool to identify and document which

requirements could be reused
Functional decomposition

Don't confuse with:

** Requirement Management Tools/Repository helps BA to sort and access

requirements by priority (for prioritization)

***Requirements Architecture= helps understand relationships between Req.

You have been asked to facilitate a

brainstorming session to identify stakeholders'
concerns. Which of the following is NOT one of
the elements of brainstorming

Preparation, Session, Wrap-Up

Technique used to understand perspectives

and attitudes about a given topic or product.

Focus Group

The cost to acquire a solution, the cost of

using the solution, and the cost of supporting
the solution.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The expected cost of building or acquiring the
solution components and the expected costs
of transitioning the enterprise from the current
state to the future state.
cost of the change

A prediction of the expected total benefits minus the expected total costs.

cost-benefit analysis.

The planned value over a specific time period.

value realization

Main topic, topics, sub-topics, branches,

keywords, color, images
Key elements of a mind map

Technique that provides procedural checks

and balances, as well as data security by
restricting individuals from certain actions
Roles & Permission Matrix
Techniques is used to ensure the identification of
any required changes to the organizational
structure that may have to be addressed due to a
solution that's not providing the expected value?

Organizational modeling

Different from Process Modeling-->Process models do not involve

organizational structure

R/O Document Analysis ---> shows the organization's current culture,

operations and structure.

Roles & Permission Matrix limitation that will

need to be addressed when developing this
artifact

If the Matrix contains too much detail it can be

time-consuming and not provide value; too
little detail can exclude necessary roles or
responsibilities.
Technique used to ELICIT & VALIDATE
stakeholder needs via iterative process that
creates a model or design of requirements
Prototyping.

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

Technique that is "a form of note-taking that

captures thoughts, ideas, and information in
non-linear diagrams"

Mind Mapping

Technique that can be useful during a

workshop to reduce tension between
participants
Brainstorming

Graphical tool that incorporate words, images,

and colors to make it more memorable and
enjoyable to create and review, instead of the
traditional note-taking style.
Mind mapping

Best for an initiative with complex requirements.

***Prototyping doesn't work well for highly complex process

or system-- Trick Answer

Requirements describe the needs of

stakeholders that must be met in order to
achieve the business requirements
Stakeholder Req.

Type of requirements that describe the

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

Represent areas of specific business analysis

expertise that encompass several tasks.

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

Although the project is completed, how can BA

continue to deliver value to the enterprise?
Business analysis may be performed within the boundaries of a project or throughout enterprise
evolution and continuous improvement

BA needs to support the project throughout enterprise evolution and continuous improvement.

Trick ANSWER: BA can create test plans to confirm adoption of the changes by personnel. Why?
business analysis plan would've contained information as to how adoption of the solution would be
confirmed;

Analyzing the context to support tracing and prioritization of initiatives.

Which Core Conecept?

Core Concept "CONTEXT" & RLCM

Traces requirements and designs to solution

components to ensure the solution satisfies
the need.

Core Concept?
Core Concept "Solution" & RLCM

In the requirements life cycle management

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

Value is about maintaining requirements for

reuse.

Prototypes
"used to elicit and validate stakeholder needs through an iterative
process that creates a model or design of requirements."

Don't confuse with Screen Mockups---> Screen Mockups involved

defining the design based upon elicited requirements, which the data
model fields imply.

He is in charge of identifying and managing risks

associated with solution design, development,
delivery, implementation, operation and
sustainment. What type of stakeholder is Stefan?

Project Manager

Clue: "identifying and managing risks associated with

solution design, development, delivery,
implementation, operation and sustainment."
Provides opinions on the relationship between
stated requirements and specific requirements.
Which Stakeholder?
Regulator

Responsible for reviewing and approving the

business case, solution or product scope, and
all requirements and designs
Sponsor

Assessing enterprise limitations determines

what?
how factors "external" to the solution are
restricting value.

Purpose of this task is to determine factors

"internal" to the solution that restrict the full
realization of value
Assessing solution limitations
Task that determines how factors "external" to
the solution are restricting value.
Assessing enterprise limitations

Which task in the strategy analysis knowledge

area uses business requirements as its sole
input?

Define future state

Which underlying competency provides an

understanding of a specific department's
business architecture?
Organization Knowledge

Which underlying competency refers to an

understanding of fundamental business
principles and best practices.?
Business Acumen.
In order to conduct elicitation, what guidelines and tools will you need?

Business analysis approach, existing business

analysis Information, stakeholder engagement
approach, and supporting materials

What are the 9 building blocks contained

within a business model canvas would be
considered when working to provide strategic
insight to a new client?

"3 Keys Cost 2 Customers Revenue & Channels"

1. Key Partnership, Key Activities, Key Resources

2. Value Proposition
3. Customer Segments
4. Customer Relationships
5. Cost Structure
6. Channels
7. Revenue Streams

What is the difference between the roles of a

tester and the BA regarding the evaluation of
solutions?
The tester is typically responsible for
identifying solution problems during a change
vs. assessing an existing solution outside of a
change.

What is the difference between "associations"

and "extensions" in a use case diagram?

Associations are between actors and use

cases; extensions depict one type of
dependent relationship between use cases.

Associations and extensions are terms related

which technique?
Use case diagrams.

When considering changes or additions to existing requirements,

business analysts assess the impact of the proposed change. When
doing so they consider several aspects, among them the level of
importance, including the factors which drive necessity such as
regulator or safety issues. Which of the following would you pay the
most attention to when assessing requirements changes?
Urgency

"he level of importance, including the factors

which drive necessity such as regulator or
safety issues."

Hutchinson Flooring set a goal to become ISO certified

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

Obtain the imposed measurements from ISO for the targeted processes.

During a conversation with business stakeholders, the

business analyst had reached an impasse on the
prioritization of the requirements. Which element of
prioritization would be best utilized in order to resolve
the impasse?

Negotiation by establishing consensus

"business analyst had reached an impasse on the prioritization of the

requirements. "
The negotiation approach involves establishing a consensus among
stakeholders as to which requirements will be prioritized

Which technique is likely to have the LEAST

amount of detail regarding requirements?

User Story

User stories contain a short, concise statement of

functionality. This brevity helps promote additional
conversations between stakeholders to ensure
understanding of the needed functionality. BABOK 10.48.2

technique provides a framework for business

analysts to facilitate stakeholder decisions and
to understand the relative importance of
business analysis information?
Prioritization

Technique contain considerable detail

regarding the functionality of a system for any
given number of scenarios related to the use
case.
Use cases

series of steps that enable an actor to achieve

a goal
scenario

Difference between decision analysis and

decision modeling?
Decision analysis formally assesses a problem and models the possible
consequences of different decisions,

while decision modeling reflects how repeatable business decisions are made.

Both of these techniques are used in the define future state task. BABOK
6.2.6, 10.16.1, and 10.17.1

Which are the 3 guideline and tool for

traceability?
1. Level of Formality
2. Relationships
3. Traceability Repository
Which technique provides a framework for
business analysts to facilitate stakeholder
decisions and to understand the relative
importance of business analysis information?
Prioritization

Where is the best place to specify attributes

and allowable values associated with
attributes?

Allowable values of an attribute are specified

through business rules and attributes in a data
dictionary.

What are the outputs that you are looking to

achieve by prioritizing requirements?

Requirements (Prioritized), Design (Prioritized)

A model is a descriptive and visual way to convey
information to a specific audience in order to
support analysis, communication, and
understanding. What would a business analyst
typically model?
Requirements are modeled when the focus is
on understanding the need. Designs are
modeled when the focus is on a solution.

Technique that formally assesses a problem

and models the possible consequences of
different decisions

Decision Analysis

The act of relating requirements to other

requirements is called?

Requirements traceability

Traceability and relationships are closely related terms.

'Tracing a requirement refers to the ability to look at a
requirement and the others to which it is related

An agile team had estimated to complete 15 story points in

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

Lessons learned

The purpose of lessons learned is to bring together any

insights gained during a project that can be usefully applied
on future projects. In this case is the next iteration. BABOK
10.27.3

What is another name for lessons learned?

Retrospective

Which is considered a strength of creating a

glossary? (2)
1. Promotes common understanding of the business
domain and better communication among all
 stakeholders.

2. Provides a single reference that can provides

common understanding among all stakeholder
groups. (Consistency)
What are the inputs for approve requirements?

Verified requirements and designs

Estimation is a technique listed for which of the

following tasks?

Plan business analysis approach

Technique that promotes improved review of

transaction history, in that audit logs can
capture details about any assigned authorities
at the time.
Roles and Permission Matrix?
Laura, a junior business analyst, has finished detailing a set
of requirements using analytical techniques. She now wants
to elicit, model, and analyze the design, but she is
wondering what techniques she would use for this activity.
What would you advise her?

Requirements and designs use the same techniques to specify and model.

Clue: "set of requirements using analytical techniques. She now wants to elicit, model, and analyze
the design, "

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

Technique that Provides procedural checks

and balances, as well as data security, by
restricting individuals from performing certain
actions.

Roles and Permission Matrix?

What the listed strengths of developing a

Roles and Permission Matrix?
 1. Provides procedural checks and balances, as
well as data security, by restricting individuals
from performing certain actions.

You have published and distributed a hard copy of

your requirements package to your stakeholders.
Which of the following is the most important
consideration regarding this type of written
communication?

You need to adjust the style of writing to the

needs of your audience. (Listed as
effectiveness measure for written
communication)

technique is used to identify what may make

the future state acceptable and/or how options
may be evaluated.

Acceptance and evaluation criteria

Chase has been busy defining the future state for review and approval
by the sponsor and the steering team. The sponsor sent him an email
asking him to include a recommendation of conditions or criteria to
score future state change strategies for purposes of prioritization.
Which of the following techniques will Chase use to complete this
request?

Acceptance and evaluation criteria

Clue: "defining the future state for review and approval by the sponsor
and the steering team"

"recommendation of conditions or criteria to score future state change

strategies for purposes of prioritization. "

A means to elicit ideas and opinions about a

specific product, service, or opportunity in an
interactive group environment.

Focus Group

What are the possible forms that a business

analysis (information) package could include?

Text, matrices, diagrams, and presentations

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

The number of requirements are quite

extensive

Vasavi has been contracted as the lead

business analyst on a new initiative. She
wants to create an internal stakeholder list.
What would be a good starting point?

Existing business processes

Business processes and a company's

organizational chart are cited as initial sources for
identifying internal stakeholders.
Technique validates the logic for interactions
between the objects in the scenario.
Sequence Diagram

She wants to create an external stakeholder

list. What would be a good starting point?

1. Existing contracts in place

2. Anticipated Vendors
3. Regulatory & Governing Body
Derek and his team are brainstorming
alternative approaches to a defined change.
What task is Derek performing?

Define change strategy

Brenda is developing a plan to measure

solution performance. In addition to the
measures themselves, what other
considerations are part of the plan?
Volume or sample size, frequency and timing,
currency.

Does the predictive or adaptive planning

approach place more emphasis on
requirements prioritization?

Adaptive

When utilizing the adaptive approach, a prioritized

requirements list may be the only requirements document.
The scope is not fixed in a project using an adaptive
approach. BABOK 3.1.4.2
When defining a change strategy, how is a
business capability analysis used?
To prioritize capability gaps in relation to value and
risk.

A business capability analysis is a technique used

in the define change strategy task.
Element in Analyze Potential Value and
Recommend Solution task?

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

Reese wants to refine the use cases she's created

in order for stakeholders to validate the logic for
interactions between the objects in the scenario.
Which of the following could she use?

Sequence diagram

You are a business analyst in Dubai working on a project install

enterprise software to a global organization. Your business SMEs
work in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Your developers are in
India. You want to document requirements so that everyone has
the same understanding. Which of the following will provide the
best clarity?

Creating process models.

It will be important to model 'as-is' and 'to-be' business processes.
Models reduce ambiguity. BABOK 7.1.6
Using formal textual descriptions= Wrong b/c Text is more open to
interpretation and formality will not ensure clarity.

Which of the following best identifies the

method and life cycle by which a solution may
be delivered?

Transition states and release planning

Transition states and release planning is an element in the

define change strategy task that speaks to the method and
life cycle by which the solution could be delivered. BABOK
6.4.4.5

The sponsor of a new project wants to contact a vendor the company

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

While procuring the software and consulting from a prior vendor

would be faster, completing a vendor assessment would increase
the likelihood of long-term satisfaction with the decision.

"trying to convince the sponsor to take the time for a vendor

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

Pre-qualified

A focus group is composed of pre-qualified participants whose

objective is to discuss and comment on a topic within a certain
context. The participants share their perspectives and attitudes about
a topic and discuss them in a group setting. BABOK 10.21.2

A business analyst displays 'what' when they

demonstrate an understanding of fundamental
principles and best practices that get incorporated
into and supported by solutions?

Business Knowledge

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

Clue: "no idea of the potential business and technical ramifications or magnitude of the effort."

"just helped a business owner define a business need "

"have generated alternative change strategies related to the new service and are completing
business cases to support a recommendation"

aJx is a BA interviewing a client regarding business rules related to discounts for car insurance.
The customer started relating several "If, then" scenarios. For example, "If their age is 16-25, no
discount. If their age is 26-35 and they have been accident free for a minimum of 3 years, they
will receive a 5% discount. But, if they have other policies with us, they will receive an 8%
discount. If they are from 36-50 years old and...." Jax was writing furiously trying to keep up!
What would be an effective way to document this set of business rules?

Decision table Correct

Clue" The customer started relating several "If, then" scenarios. "

A decision table would be the perfect way to capture the set of

business rules. A decision tree would also be effective. BABOK Figure
10.17.3.1

Novak is a business analyst working with the development team to determine

how to shorten the solution delivery timeline. Team members keep bringing up
solutions that have been tried before and didn't work. Novak suggested the
team try some agile practices as agile was created to deliver value to the
business sooner than later. The team initially resisted but said, "Why not?
Let's try something new." What competency was Novak demonstrating?

Creative thinking

Clue: "bringing up solutions that have been tried before and didn't work. "