Planning

Question 1

1. X-Technologies is undergoing a major organizational restructure and you have been hired to help the organization develop a new business architecture. You have setup a stakeholder register and now are looking to identify key stakeholders. Which of the following techniques can help you quickly identify some key stakeholders?

Reviewing the organizational chart
Developing to-be process flow models
Brainstorming with business unit heads
Interviewing senior managers

Answer 1

Reviewing the organizational chart

While all given techniques are valid approaches to stakeholder identification, reviewing the organization chart will help you quickly identify stakeholder groups or individuals who have been impacted by the restructure. The rest of the options will require more time to produce the similar information. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 113]

Question 2

2. Your team is currently developing an organizational information system. In order to put the system into operation, you would need a few new roles in the IT department who will manage this system. Which of the following techniques will help you identify the role requirements and competencies required to perform effectively in each role?

System testing
Future-state definition
Job analysis
Gap analysis

Answer 2

Job analysis

Job analysis is a technique that can be used to identify the job requirements and competencies required to perform effectively in a specific job or role. On the other hand, gap analysis is conducted to understand the gaps between the current-state and the future-state processes. The other two choices are irrelevant. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 117]

Question 3

3. You are leading a complex system automation project. The project has a huge number of stakeholders with varying interest and support level. You want to group these stakeholders into manageable categories. Which of the following is a technique that can be used to group stakeholders by fictional categories so that their needs, requirements, and behaviors can be analyzed as a group?

Stakeholder engagement assessment
Stakeholder register
Priority matrix
Persona analysis

Answer 3

Persona analysis

Persona analysis is a technique that can be used to analyze a class of users or process workers, to understand their needs or product design and behavior requirements. Note that the outcome of this analysis can be documented in the stakeholder register by assigning each stakeholder to their relevant class. Stakeholder register is a project artifact and not a technique. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 118]

Question 4

4. You are currently working with a group of stakeholders to define future state of a strategy formulation process. The group has identified all the major process steps and sequenced them to complete the process flow. In order to complete the process model, you want to identify, “who does what” at each process step. Which of the following techniques can help you identify this?

SWOT
PERT
WBS
RACI

Answer 4

RACI

RACI model is a common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform designations to define the involvement of stakeholder in activities. This would provide you with a great framework to complete your process model. All of the other choices are irrelevant to this objective. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 118]

Question 5

5. You are a lead business analyst in a team that is developing a new technological system. The team has just completed the first sprint of the project and preparing to start the second. You think that it is the right time for the team to reflect and review current stakeholder engagement and communication approach. What should you do next?

Interview the project sponsor.
Call a retrospective meeting.
Assign this task to the project manager.
Update the stakeholder register.

Answer 5

Call a retrospective meeting.

Retrospectives and lessons learned use past experience to plan for future work. An optimal stakeholder engagement and communication approach may consider recommendations provided from past projects or prior iterations. You need to call a retrospective meeting so that the team can review the current stakeholder engagement and communication approach. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 126]

Question 6

6. A product development team is currently reviewing all the user stories in the product backlog. The team wants to categorize each story based on its development time requirement. All the stories need to be classified as small, medium or large stories. This technique is known as:

Delphi
Affinity diagram
Poka-yoke
Affinity estimating

Answer 6

Affinity estimating

Affinity estimating is a form of relative estimation in which team members organize product backlog items into groups where each product backlog item is about the same size. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 132]

Question 7

7. A project team needs to estimate the size of each user story in a product backlog. The team has recommended that they use a card-based estimation technique, where they use numbered cards to estimate user stories. Which of the following techniques has been recommended by the team?

Estimation poker
Affinity estimating
Analogous estimating
Bottom-up estimating

Answer 7

Estimation poker

Estimation poker is a collaborative relative estimation technique in which there is an agreed-upon scale used for the relative estimates. Each person participating in estimating poker is given a series of cards with the agreed-upon scale. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 133]

Question 8

8. Your team has been recently awarded a project to develop an accounting system for a construction company. In order to fulfil the contractual requirements, the team has to follow a predictive lifecycle on this project. Which of the following scope analysis techniques can be utilized?

Story mapping
Burndown chart
Work breakdown structure
Retrospective

Answer 8

Work breakdown structure

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a planning technique for projects using a predictive lifecycle. WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work. Story mapping is a technique used for adaptive projects. The other two choices are not scope analysis techniques. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 134]

Question 9

9. You are the lead business analyst on a major organization transformation project. Managing key project stakeholders is critical to the success of the project. You want to analyze the stakeholders based on their power, influence, impact, and interest. Which of the following tools can help you analyze this?

Story mapping
Stakeholder maps
Tornado diagram
Delphi analysis

Answer 9

Stakeholder maps

Stakeholder maps help with the analysis of stakeholder characteristics such as the power, influence, impact, and interest of stakeholder groups. The other given choices are not applicable as these are not stakeholder analysis techniques. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 126]

Question 10

10. You have recently been hired by a pharmaceuticals company. You are leading the first Agile project in the organization. Historically all projects have followed strict predictive lifecycles. In Agile projects, which of the following makes up the high-level project scope?

Stakeholder maps
Scope Statement
Work Breakdown Structure
Product backlog

Answer 10

Product backlog

The product backlog is the list of all product backlog items, typically user stories, requirements, or features, that need to be delivered for a solution. On Agile projects, the product backlog makes up the overall project scope. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 133]

Question 11

11. You are leading the business analysis activities for a team developing an accounting and cost control system for a major client. The client and your organization have agreed to use an Agile delivery lifecycle for this project. Halfway during the project, you find out that the indirect cost allocation module is no longer required by the customer. What should you do next?

Issue a change request.
Update the project’s issue register.
Reject the customer’s request.
Update the product backlog.

Answer 11

Update the product backlog.

Since this is an Agile project, you don’t need a formal change request to incorporate the change. There has been a change in scope, so the product backlog must be updated and reprioritized. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 133]

Question 12

12. You have recently made the first release of your product. The customer is not happy with the release as some of the lower priority features were included in the release while the more important ones were missed out. What could be the potential root cause of this issue?

User stories were not defined properly.
User stories were not estimated properly.
The product backlog was not established.
Story mapping was not done correctly.

Answer 12

Story mapping was not done correctly.

Story mapping is used to sequence user stories, based upon their value and the order their user typically performs them. Improper story mapping usually results in customer complaints similar to the one given in the scenario. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 134]

Question 13

13. You are the lead business analyst on a software development project. The project team has decided to deliver this product using Agile development methods. Which of the following statements is true regarding projects using adaptive lifecycles?

The project’s Kanban board is replaced with an Elicitation results board.
Elicitation stories are added to the product backlog.
All elicitation and analysis work must be completed prior to system analysis and design phase.
Each project iteration has its own elicitation and analysis.

Answer 13

Each project iteration has its own elicitation and analysis.

Projects using adaptive life cycles go through the elicitation and analysis processes within each project iteration. The rest of the choices are all inaccurate; user stories are added to the backlog and not the elicitation stories; Agile projects do not follow a strict analysis and design sequence; there is no Agile tool known as Elicitation results board. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 155]

Question 14

14. Which of the following is the process of thinking through how elicitation activities will be conducted, which stakeholders will be involved, which techniques may be used, and the order in which the elicitation activities are best performed?

Determine Elicitation Approach
Prepare for Elicitation
Conduct Elicitation
Confirm Elicitation Results

Answer 14

Determine Elicitation Approach

Determine Elicitation Approach is the process of thinking through how elicitation activities will be conducted, which stakeholders will be involved, which techniques may be used, and the order in which the elicitation activities are best performed. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 156]

Question 15

15. You are auditing an organization and are surprised to know that this organization doesn’t spend sufficient time planning the elicitation approach on any project and is unaware of the benefits involved in doing this properly. There are many benefits of properly performing the Determine Elicitation Approach process EXCEPT:

An organized approach to elicitation.
Effective stakeholder collaboration.
Stakeholders’ interests in the project is influenced.
Efficient use of stakeholder time.

Answer 15

Stakeholders’ interests in the project is influenced.

Stakeholders may have positive or negative interests associated with the project which cannot be influenced by performing the Determine Elicitation Approach process. The rest of the statements are valid benefits that can be realized. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 156]

Question 16

16. You have been appointed as the business analyst on a complex greenfield ERP implementation project. Due to the complexity of the project, you have decided to properly plan your elicitation approach. During the Determine Elicitation Approach process, you need to answer a number of questions EXCEPT:

What information to elicit and where to find this information?
How to confirm elicitation results?
How to find the required information?
When to conduct the elicitation activities?

Answer 16

How to confirm elicitation results?

Elicitation results are not confirmed during the Determine Elicitation Approach process, instead these are confirmed during the Confirm Elicitation Results process. All the other options are valid questions you need to address during the Determine Elicitation Approach process. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 154]

Question 17

17. A business analyst has scheduled a number of face-to-face interviews with subject matter experts (SMEs) to obtain stakeholder preferences for the Elicitation process and to learn about stakeholders’ experience and comfort level with one or more of the elicitation techniques being considered by the business analyst. Which Elicitation process is the business analyst currently performing?

Determine Elicitation Approach
Conduct Elicitation
Confirm Elicitation Results
Prepare for Elicitation

Answer 17

Determine Elicitation Approach

The analyst is currently gathering information regarding stakeholder preferences for the Elicitation process and techniques; the analyst has not actually started the Elicitation yet. This is the Determine Elicitation Approach process. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 158]

Question 18

18. Elicitation results can be confirmed in many ways. At times, elicitation and confirming elicitation results are performed concurrently. Which of the following project lifecycle considers this a common practice?

Adaptive lifecycles
Predictive lifecycles
Linear lifecycles
Waterfall lifecycles

Answer 18

Adaptive lifecycles

Concurrent elicitation and confirmation are considered a common practice in adaptive life cycles. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 171]

Question 19

19. You are the lead business analyst on a development of a Curriculum Management System for a university. You want a diagram to show all in-scope systems and all the inputs and outputs, including the systems or actors providing or receiving them. Which of the following diagrams should you develop?

Context diagram
Data model
Sequence diagram
Entity Relationship Diagram

Answer 19

Context diagram

A context diagram is a scope model that shows all the direct system and human interfaces to systems within a solution. A context diagram clearly depicts the in-scope systems and any inputs or output, including the system or actors providing or receiving them. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 186]

Question 20

You are analyzing a curriculum development and approval workflow for a university. This is a complex workflow and the “course curriculum” data object undergoes a number of changes whenever it transitions between one workflow stage to another. Which of the following tools would help you graphically depict this behavior?

Context diagram
Entity relationship diagram
Report table
State diagram

Answer 20

State diagram

The state table and state diagram are data models that show the valid states of an object and any allowed transitions between those states. Objects can be business data items or any piece of information of interest when analyzing a solution. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 203]