Question 1

You are currently working on creating the activity list for an initiative in your organization. What characteristic must be assigned to each task in your task list?
A) Procurement needs
B) Risk level
C) Unique number
D) Roles and responsibilities

Accepted Answer

Each task in the task list should have a unique number to identify the specific task and it should have a description of what the task is. Answer: B is incorrect. The risk level is not associated with the task list. Answer: D is incorrect. Roles and responsibilities are not included directly in the task list. Answer: A is incorrect. Procurement needs are not included in the task list.

Question 2

Billy is the business analyst for her organization and she's working with a team to select a model. Richard doesn't understand why a model is needed for the requirements. Which one of the following statements best describes the reason to use a model?
A) Models abstract and simplify reality.  
B) Models restrict the effect, risk, cost, and schedule of the solution.
C) Models define the solution in time, cost, space, and logistics.
D) Models show the complete solution in a non-functional slice of the organization.

Accepted Answer

According to 'A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge', models are ideal because they abstract and simplify reality. They help simplify reality in a way that's useful for understanding the requirements and their impact on the organization. Answer: C is incorrect. This isn't a valid statement about why it's important to use a model. Answer: D is incorrect. Models do not show the solution in a non-functional portion of the organization. Answer: B is incorrect. Models do not restrict the attributes of the solution.

Question 3

Tracy is a business analyst for her organization and she's gathered and identified the needed requirements for the solution scope. What must Tracy do before she can begin managing the requirements? Choose the best answer.
A) Tracy must decompose the requirements in WBS.  
B) Tracy must create cost-benefits analysis of each requirement to manage the benefits first.
C) Tracy must identify roles, responsibilities, and owners of the requirements to fully manage the requirements.
D) Tracy must communicate the requirements to the stakeholders for their consent and approval.

Accepted Answer

Requirements must be communicated before they are managed. Tracy must communicate the requirements to the stakeholders for their consent and approval before managing the requirements. Answer: A is incorrect. Before Tracy decomposes the requirements, she should have the approval of the stakeholders. Answer: B is incorrect. To begin managing the requirements, Tracy needs the approval and consent of the stakeholders. Answer: C is incorrect. This isn't a valid statement, as the best thing to do is to gain the approval of the stakeholders first.

Question 4

You are the business analyst for your organization and preparing to plan the business analysis approach. There are three inputs to the business analysis approach. Which one of the following is not an input to this approach?
A) Organizational process asset  
B) Expert judgment
C) Enterprise environmental factor
D) Business need

Accepted Answer

Enterprise environmental factors are the rules, policies, and procedures that the business analyst must adhere to. These are already established and therefore are not considered to be inputs to this process. The three inputs to the plan business analysis approach are business needs, expert judgment, and organizational process assets.

Question 5

You are the business analyst for a large software development project. There are several issues that must be resolved by certain dates or the problem will prevent the project from advancing. What technique can you use to track problems with the requirements?
A) Issue tracking  
B) RTM
C) Problem tracking
D) Baselining

Accepted Answer

The technique you'll use is simply problem tracking. This technique allows the business analyst to manage any issues identified within requirements by stakeholders and to ensure that those issues are resolved. Problem tracking allows the business analyst to manage any issues identified within requirements by stakeholders and to ensure that those issues are resolved. It provides an organized approach to tracking, management, and resolution of defects, issues, problems, and risks throughout business analysis activities. Management of issues is important so that they can be resolved in a timely manner to ensure success. Answer: D is incorrect. Baselining the requirements does not track problems but creates a standard set of requirements that deliverables may be compared against. Answer: A is incorrect. Issue tracking is not a valid business analysis term. Answer: B is incorrect. An RTM is a requirements trace matrix which tracks requirements through the solution, not issues.

Question 6

In the life of a project, when do the number and impact of change requests often increase?
A) During project planning  
B) Once the project scope is reviewed
C) Towards the end of the project
D) At the launch of the project

Accepted Answer

As the life of the project draws towards its end, there's often an increase in the number of change requests. When change requests are made towards the end of a project, however, the cost and impact of the change increases significantly. Answer: D is incorrect. It's ideal for change requests, if they must happen, to happen at the launch of the project, not just at the end. Answer: A is incorrect. The best answer is that change requests must happen towards the end of project execution, not just project planning. Planning spans the entire life of the project. Answer: B is incorrect. Scope review happens early in the project and changes early in the project are easier to incorporate and manage than changes at the end of the project.

Question 7

A business analyst is studying the cost of the endeavor in relation to the projected income the endeavor will bring once the project is completed. What financial valuation technique can the business analyst use to determine the breakeven point for the project?  
A) Payback period  
B) Average rate of return
C) Cost-benefit analysis
D) Discounted cash flow

Accepted Answer

Payback period quantifies the duration that the project will need to exist and generate revenue in order to pay back the original investment of the project. The payback period is also known as management horizon or the breakeven point. Answer: B is incorrect. Average rate of return describes the rate of return the project will create. Answer: C is incorrect. Cost-benefits analysis describes the relation of costs to benefits in a project. Answer: D is incorrect. Discounted cash flow describes the future value on the investment of the project.

Question 8

According to 'A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge', the two most common data models are the entity-relationship diagram and what other model?
A) Class model  
B) Project network diagram
C) Data flow diagram
D) WBS

Accepted Answer

The class model is most often used with object-oriented development, while the entity-relationship diagram is preferred for relational databases. Answer: D is incorrect. WBS isn't a data model, but a decomposition of the project scope. Answer: B is incorrect. The project network diagram is an illustrated flow of project activities. Answer: C is incorrect. A data flow diagram shows how data moves into, through, and out of a system.

Question 9

Kendra is the business analyst for her organization. She's working with the project manager and the project sponsor to discuss the current requirements. Kendra believes it's important for the project manager to first implement the requirements with the highest amount of risks. Is this a good idea?
A) No, the project manager and team should actually implement the lowest risk requirements first.  
B) Yes, if the risky requirements cause the project to fail, the organization will not suffer much loss, as it hasn't invested much time or money on the project.
C) No, the project manager and team should implement the requirements with the highest risks last.
D) Yes, this allows the project manager to get the risky work done as soon as possible in the schedule.

Accepted Answer

It's often best to implement the most risky requirements first in the project. If the risky requirements cause the project to fail, the organization will not suffer much loss, as it hasn't invested much time or money on the project. Answer: A is incorrect. It's not the best idea to implement the lowest risk requirements first. Answer: C is incorrect. Implementing the highest risk requirements last could cause all of the prior work to be worthless if the risky requirements fail. Answer: D is incorrect. This choice is tempting, but the best reason is the financial consideration of the risky event in the project.

Question 10

You are the business analyst for your organization and working with the stakeholders to prioritize the requirements. The stakeholders are concerned about the financial impact of the requirements should some of them fail during the implementation. You would like to rank the risk tolerance of the stakeholders based on their comments about the solution and the requirements. The following are the three categories of risk tolerance associated with the stakeholders except for which one?
A) Neutrality  
B) Mitigation
C) Risk-seeking
D) Risk-aversion

Accepted Answer

Mitigation is a risk response that seeks to lower the risk's probability and/or impact. It is not one of the three categories of risk tolerance.

Question 11

Which of the following are documented approaches to the business analysis work? Each correct answer represents a complete solution.
A) Deming's Quality Circle  
B) Lean
C) Six Sigma
D) Waterfall approach

Accepted Answer

The waterfall approach, lean, and Six Sigma are the valid answer for business analysis approaches. Answer: A is incorrect. Deming's Quality Circle describes the quality management approach of plan, do, check, and act. This isn't a business analysis approach.

Question 12

You are a business analyst for your organization. Your current business analysis endeavor includes working with stakeholders who are located in offices around the world. Because these stakeholders are dispersed, what are likely to increase in this endeavor as opposed to a collocated group of stakeholders?
A) Face-to-face meetings  
B) Communication needs
C) Risks
D) Costs

Accepted Answer

Of all these possible choices, the best answer is that communication needs will increase. Because complex projects often involve non-collocated stakeholders, it may be necessary to travel more often, have more teleconferences or video conferences, or take other measures to provide accurate and consistent communications across offices, countries, and time zones. Answer: A is incorrect. Face-to-face meetings are often the best type of communication, but this isn't the best choice presented. Answer: C is incorrect. Risks do not necessarily increase because the stakeholders are not collocated. Answer: D is incorrect. Costs do not necessarily increase in the business analysis approach because of dispersed stakeholders.

Question 13

Shelly is the business analyst for her organization and she's working with Thomas to review the business requirements. They are discussing the identified requirements, how the requirements will transition to the operations, and the longevity of the solution. Thomas is concerned that the identified requirements may not map to the desired future state of the organization. What business analysis task is Shelly facilitating in this scenario?
A) Acceptance evaluation criteria definition  
B) Requirements quality assurance
C) Validate requirements
D) Stakeholder management

Accepted Answer

Shelly and Thomas are performing the validate requirements task. This task helps to ensure that the requirements map to the business goals and objectives, resolve the issue, and predict the longevity of the requirements to satisfy business needs. Answer: B is incorrect. There is not a business analysis task called requirements quality assurance. Answer: A is incorrect. Acceptance evaluation criteria definition is a task to ensure that the requirements are clear and precise enough to create tests and inspect to know that the work has been completed. Answer: D is incorrect. Stakeholder management is the management of stakeholders' issues, conflicts, queries, concerns, threats, and perceived threats about the requirements.

Question 14

Which element of the process of assessing the capability gaps is best described as gathering as much enterprise architecture information as is available about the current state of the organization and the areas affected by the business need?
A) Current capability analysis  
B) Current organizational needs assessment
C) Enterprise architecture assessment
D) Snapshot baseline

Accepted Answer

Current capability analysis is an approach of assessing the organization's capability gaps. This process reviews the process and helps determine what capabilities exist now and how large the gap may be. Answer: C is incorrect. This isn't a valid assessment type so this choice is not valid. Answer: B is incorrect. This isn't a valid assessment type so this choice is not valid. Answer: D is incorrect. This isn't a valid assessment type so this choice is not valid.

Question 15

You are the business analyst for your organization. Management has asked you to define and document the requirements of an endeavor so that the requirements may be reused again in the organization. Why would an organization want to re-use requirements?  
A) Re-using requirements is useful if the organization wants to sell the set of requirements to its customers.  
B) Re-using requirements is useful if the current solution fails.
C) Re-using requirements is useful when the requirements are something the organization must do on an ongoing basis.
D) Re-using requirements doesn't mean re-using the requirements over and over, but tracing the requirements to actual deliverables.

Accepted Answer

When an organization identifies a set of requirements for an ongoing set of activities, it's useful to craft the requirements so that the requirements may be used over and over. This saves time, effort, and cost. Answer: B is incorrect. This is not a valid statement about re-using requirements in an organization. Answer: A is incorrect. This is not a valid statement about re-using requirements in an organization. Answer: D is incorrect. This is not a valid statement about re-using requirements in an organization.

Question 16

When a business analyst completes the elicitation process, she will create four outputs. Which one of the following is an output of the elicitation process?
A) Requirements management plan  
B) Resource identification
C) Stakeholder Concerns
D) Solution scope

Accepted Answer

Following are the outputs of the elicitation process: Stakeholder Concerns Elicitation Results Schedule Resources Supporting Materials

Question 17

You are the business analyst for your organization and you're performing the solution assessment process. When you assess a solution, what are you actually looking for?
A) To determine the value of the proposed solution to the stakeholder requirements  
B) To determine the quality of the proposed solution to the stakeholder requirements
C) To determine the cost of the proposed solution to the stakeholder requirements
D) To determine the accuracy of the proposed solution to the stakeholder requirements

Accepted Answer

The purpose of assessing proposed solutions is to determine how closely they meet stakeholder and solution requirements. The business analyst, while assessing a single solution, determines whether the solution delivers enough business value to justify its implementation. However, the business analyst has the additional goal of attempting to determine which solution delivers the greatest business value while assessing multiple alternative solutions. Answer: A is incorrect. Solution assessment isn't concerned with the value of the solution. Answer: B is incorrect. Solution assessment isn't concerned with the quality, but with the accuracy of the solution in light of the stakeholders' requirements. Answer: C is incorrect. Solution assessment isn't concerned with the costs, but with the accuracy of the solution in light of the stakeholders' requirements.

Question 18

What's the difference between a desired outcome and a solution? Choose the best answer.
A) The desired outcome is how the organization will operate in the future; the solution is the method to reach the desired outcome.  
B) They are synonymous.
C) The solution is the ideal fulfillment of the business goals; the desired outcome is the financial gain created by the implementation of the solution.
D) The desired outcome is what the solution will remove.

Accepted Answer

Of all the choices, only this answer properly identifies the desired outcome as how the organization will operate once the solution has been implemented. Answer: B is incorrect. Business goals and desired outcomes are not the same. Answer: D is incorrect. The solution doesn't remove the desired outcome. Answer: C is incorrect. The solution is not always a financial gain so this choice is not valid.

Question 19

Beth is the business analyst for her organization and she wants to be certain that she and her team follow the correct procedures for enterprise analysis. What document can provide the governances for enterprise analysis efforts?
A) Organizational process assets  
B) Enterprise environmental factors
C) Business analysis plans
D) Project charter

Accepted Answer

Business analysis plans define the governance or rules and procedures that Beth should follow as the business analyst for her organization. Answer: A is incorrect. Organizational process assets are the rules and procedures for the implementation of documents, templates, and guidelines. Answer: B is incorrect. Enterprise environmental factors are the regulations, policies, and procedures that are unique to an organization and industry. Answer: D is incorrect. The project charter isn't the correct answer, as the charter authorizes the project, not business analysis activities.

Question 20

In order to plan the business analysis approach, the business analyst must understand the organizational process needs and what other thing?
A) Objectives that apply to the initiative  
B) Stakeholders' threats and perceived threats
C) Consideration of risk and reward
D) Purpose of the proposed solution

Accepted Answer

The business analyst must understand how the organization operates and the objectives of business analysis duties. Without a clear understanding of what the expected outcomes are to be of the business analysis duties, the business analyst cannot adequately plan for the business analysis duties. Answer: B is incorrect. It's important for the business analyst to identify and categorize stakeholders, but this isn't the best answer for this question. Answer: D is incorrect. The purpose of the proposed solution is valid only if the initiative is to solve a problem. Business analysis can also occur to detail an opportunity, not just to create solutions to identified problems. Answer: C is incorrect. This isn't the best answer for this question.

Exam 2: Certification of Competency in Business Analysis

You are currently working on creating the activity list for an initiative in your organization. What characteristic must be assigned to each task in your task list?

Billy is the business analyst for her organization and she's working with a team to select a model. Richard doesn't understand why a model is needed for the requirements. Which one of the following statements best describes the reason to use a model?

Tracy is a business analyst for her organization and she's gathered and identified the needed requirements for the solution scope. What must Tracy do before she can begin managing the requirements? Choose the best answer.

You are the business analyst for your organization and preparing to plan the business analysis approach. There are three inputs to the business analysis approach. Which one of the following is not an input to this approach?

You are the business analyst for a large software development project. There are several issues that must be resolved by certain dates or the problem will prevent the project from advancing. What technique can you use to track problems with the requirements?

In the life of a project, when do the number and impact of change requests often increase?

A business analyst is studying the cost of the endeavor in relation to the projected income the endeavor will bring once the project is completed. What financial valuation technique can the business analyst use to determine the breakeven point for the project?

According to 'A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge', the two most common data models are the entity-relationship diagram and what other model?

Kendra is the business analyst for her organization. She's working with the project manager and the project sponsor to discuss the current requirements. Kendra believes it's important for the project manager to first implement the requirements with the highest amount of risks. Is this a good idea?

Which of the following are documented approaches to the business analysis work? Each correct answer represents a complete solution.

Which element of the process of assessing the capability gaps is best described as gathering as much enterprise architecture information as is available about the current state of the organization and the areas affected by the business need?

You are the business analyst for your organization. Management has asked you to define and document the requirements of an endeavor so that the requirements may be reused again in the organization. Why would an organization want to re-use requirements?

When a business analyst completes the elicitation process, she will create four outputs. Which one of the following is an output of the elicitation process?

You are the business analyst for your organization and you're performing the solution assessment process. When you assess a solution, what are you actually looking for?

What's the difference between a desired outcome and a solution? Choose the best answer.

Beth is the business analyst for her organization and she wants to be certain that she and her team follow the correct procedures for enterprise analysis. What document can provide the governances for enterprise analysis efforts?

In order to plan the business analysis approach, the business analyst must understand the organizational process needs and what other thing?