BA Technical Flashcards
Q1. What is an enterprise System?
Enterprise system is a software package that has the capability to provide relevant information to entire organisation in different level and units by maintaining, information flow and security in hierarchical order.
Q2. What is the purpose of the Business Analyst within an organisation?
Business analysis ensures the organisation achieves the best values for its investment as it analyses different alternatives for an initiative and recommend the optimal solution with some tangible data.
Business analysis streamlines organisation business processes to make the organisation more efficient in everything it does by performing brainstorming, Lesson Learned process, SWOT, Root cause analysis, KPI etc.
Business analysis facilitates communication among business stakeholder and technical stakeholder through requirement gathering and translating business and stakeholder requirements into system requirements.
Q3. Describe a situation where you used business analysis techniques to gather business requirements from stakeholders. Which techniques did you use and why did you choose those techniques?
Which technique I will be using will depend on the type of stakeholders and organisation culture. When I gathered requirements for XYZ HTML five which is a browser based application as oppose to its windows based client server application, I performed at least 8 to 10 workshops involving various focus groups. The objective was gathering as much information as possible about usability and process improvements of current system.
We selected workshop technique because we felt that the workshop would the most cost effective way to gather requirements in compression to face to face meeting with such a large group of people. However conducting workshop requires some preparations and facilitation skills.
Q4. Describe a time when you were responsible to plan and facilitate a requirements workshop. How did you go about it?
When I gathered requirements for E-tivity HTML five which is a fully browser based application as oppose to its windows based client server application, I performed at least 8 to 10 workshops involving various focus groups. The objective was gathering as much information as possible about usability and process improvements of current system.
I selected workshop technique because I felt that the workshop would the most cost effective way to gather requirements in compression to face to face meeting with such a large group of people.
When I conducted these workshops, I had to prepare for the workshops which involve identifying and defining business goal and objectives that the workshop will address, identifying relevant participants and communicating with them to confirm their attendance, booking room, whiteboard, preparing power point presentation etc.
During Workshop session I made sure that everyone had opportunity to express their idea and thought, I encouraged participants be active by asking them questions. Also I monitored that the discussion remains relevant and documented stated requirements and stakeholder concerns. Later on I verified with them what I have documented are accurate.
Q5. Describe a time when you had to win a difficult stakeholder over to accept the project change that will affect his/her department. How did you do it
Recently XYZ’s client service manager was pity adamant that a process in Learning and development module must change because couple of her clients raised identical issue with that process.
I had to convince her that it is true that the process is less efficient in that particular scenario; however, the same process is more efficient in three other scenarios. To make my point, I prepared a spreadsheet where enter data for all four scenarios and demonstrated her why the existing process is still better option for us keep than the modifications she is asking for.
Q6. Describe a time when you were in a project where change happened constantly without any change control to requirements. How did you deal with this situation and how did you overcome the associated challenges?
Be honest with you…, I have not been involved in a project where a proper change management did not exist. And that is because where I found no change management exist or not defined properly, I took initiative to setup one. To me, the answer to your question would be:
First I will structure all requested changes in a spreadsheet. I will conduct a structured walkthrough session with key stakeholders. In that session, I will go through each change request with them to verify their validity and importance. I will eliminate change requests related to stakeholders desires not needs. I will rank change requests based on business and stakeholder needs. I will group less essential change requests for next version or release. I will estimate how many of these essential changes can be implemented within the given time and budget, and give the sponsor the good or bad news.
Q7. Describe a time when you had to deal with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation. How was the message different?
To answer this question, I will details the forecasting system that IT Magnet developed for Nestlé Australia, for which I led the Business Analysis team that enabled IT Magnet to successfully design and implement a complex and challenging project.
In 2007 Nestlé engaged IT Magnet as a third party consultant design a conceptual model a forecasting system that would meet individual division’s forecasting needs, and would also have the potential to be implemented within the given budget. For IT Magnet this was a challenging project, but it was lucrative enough for the company to proceed.
In this project, I led two other Business Analysts, where our responsibilities included understanding the organisation’s business model and existing systems, gathering business requirements, analysing existing problems, developing solutions to those problems, and selling our solutions to the key stakeholders including Nestlé’s CTO and CEO. During the design phase I had to communicate all levels of stakeholders starting from Sales people, department manager, IT operations manager, application manager, Head of IT, as well as external such as Woolworths.
Forecasting is a complex task, It requires data from various internal and external sources, and the quality of this data is critical to its ability to produce accurate and desired outputs. Nestlé Australia’s forecasting system required data from six different internal systems and a number of external systems, for example, the Bureau of Meteorology to predict rainfall in Gippsland, Victoria where the majority of Nestlé’s dairy farms are located. Tools were needed to be developed to refine and re-refine data from these internal and external systems. Technical specification documents for these tools had to be written in such a way so they catered to technical as well as non-technical stakeholders. The standard of the technical specification had to be of the highest level, as it would be reviewed by organisation’s external stakeholders such as Woolworths. Most importantly, specifications were required to be presented in a manner that would encourage the stakeholders’ acceptance of IT Magnet’s proposed solution.
Q8. What analysis and modeling techniques and methodologies have you found to be the most effective, and why?
Once the business objectives are defined I prepare a requirement document, in which I use analysis techniques such as enterprise analysis if I need to discover more about the organisation structure and operations. As a third party consultant quite often I will be assigned to a job for a new business to which we did not have any previous working relationship. I perform Stakeholder analysis when I need to identify group of stakeholders how will be positively or negatively affected by the proposed solution. Often I conduct workshop to elicited more information about requirements also, I run structured walkthrough to verification and validation of requirements. I perform document analysis for requirement analysis, this involves study the system’s technical and non-technical user guides, specification document, data dictionary etc. I perform active or passive observations to analysis requirements validity. I analysis organisation business rules, goals and objectives to ensure requirements are accurately aligned with the organisation business rules and its visions. Occasionally I perform decision analysis to justify implementation of a requirement or module. This involves financial modeling such as NPV, average rate return. Occasionally I perform SWOT analysis with stakeholders to identify strength and weakness of a stated requirement. I perform interface analysis if requirements are related to integration with another system. Often I perform requirement impact and risk analysis through forward and backward tractability using Requirement management System. I analysis requirements for priority and release.
In relation to modeling, I am vastly experienced in object modeling, including UML Use case, class diagram, activity diagram, component diagram. For process modeling I use flowchart, swim line diagram. For interfacing with another system I use context or data flow diagrams. For database design I use ERD diagram where I define relationship between different entities.
For development methodology I had experience in Rational Unified Process (RUP) when I worked for IT Magnet for 10 years. My current company E-tivity practices Waterfall methodology for Business analysis and Agile for development work. I am a BABOK certified business analyst and currently I am preparing for Prince 2 certification for project management methodology.
Q9. What diagrams and/or other materials do you use to capture and describe customer needs and convey technical information?
What diagrams I will be using to describe business and stakeholders needs will depend on the target audiences and the actual need. I use diagrams such as Use case, Activity diagram, Class diagram for system specification. Flowchart, swim line diagram to define business process. Where requirements are related to interfacing with external systems I use context or data flow diagrams. For relational database design I use ERD diagram. For stakeholder mapping often I use onion diagram or RACI matrix. For prototypes often I prepare mock-up user interfaces using MS Visio and Photoshop to display how a solution will be implemented.
Q10. What is the difference between a functional requirement and a non-functional requirement?
Functional Requirements describe behaviours or operations of a requirement. For example, the user should be able to produce the sales report in PDF, MS Word and MS XLS format.
Non-functional Requirements describe environmental conditions in which the system will operate. They describe requirements related to usability, Reliability, performance, supportability etc. For example, the system must be able to process 2000 thousands payslip per minute. Non-functional Requirements are generally included in SLA for items such as backup, uptime, Support, etc.
Q11. What are the attributes of a good business requirement?
I make sure each requirement must have the following characteristics:
- Cohesive, meaning requirement is related to something. It could be business process, organisation unit, business rules.
- Complete, requirement should have all the relevant information.
- Consistent, requirements need to be described in similar fashion.
- Correct, requirements must be accurate.
- Unambiguous, individual requirement must be clear. A requirement must not allow for multiple interpretations of that requirement.
- Testable, a requirement must have a way to prove that the requirement has fulfil the desired outcome
Q12. What is contained within a typical Requirements Management Plan?
A requirement management plan typically includes what requirement attributes will be captured. How requirements will be stored in the repository or system. How requirements will be communicated or presented to stakeholders for approval. Once requirements are approved how they will be baseline. How tracking will be performed to link requirements to other requirements, business objectives, stakeholders, artefacts the project team produces. What type of requirements will be kept for re-use. How requirements will be prioritised for release and change management. Who changes will be assessed, prioritised and implemented.
Q13. What is the difference between a functional specification and a business requirements document? How are they related
Business Requirements are higher-level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of the business. Business requirements document describes needs of the organization as a whole, and not groups or stakeholders within it. For example, why a project has been initiated, the objectives that the project will achieve, and the metrics that will be used to measure its success. Business Requirements are developed and defined through enterprise analysis.
On the other hand Functional specification document details how the system will accomplish the business need, in logical term. The document describes business process, using text, diagrams, layout of screens etc.
Q14. Describe an effective way to manage change to requirements within a project.
For changes management I follow a set of steps that have been serving me well so far. First I make sure everyone involves in the project is fully aware of what is a change, what is a bug and what is a new request. I do to that by copy few sections of organisation standard for the project management, and email these to relevant people.
Next thing is selecting 3 to 5 stakeholders who are familiar with the project scope as well as out of scope deliverables. Often this group is called change control board.
After that I will define a set of guidelines for the change control board. These will include:
A template for change request, through this I will ensure requester types enough information requires for the change to be assessed accurately.
Setup a system to log change requests, preferably browser based.
Define some criteria how change requests will be assessed and priorities.
Once decision is made, communicate the course of action and time frame to stakeholders who will be affected by the change.
Q15. What is the purpose of requirements traceability?
Tracing requirement refers to look at a requirement and other to which it is related. Requirement traceability involves identifying and documenting the lineage of each requirement, including its backward traceability (derivation), its forward traceability (allocation), and its relationship to other requirements.
It helps for change management, risk management, time management, cost management, and communication management. It also is used to detect missing functionality or to identify if the implemented functionality does not support a specific requirement.
Q16. Describe the phases of the SDLC. Which phases have you worked in?
The System Development Lifecycle includes five or six phases depend on what development methodology an organisation follows. These are Gatherer User Requirement, Analysis User Requirements, Design the program, Code the program, Document and test the system, Operate and maintain the system. I work in phase 1 and phase 2.
