PMI-PBA Domain Area Test: Analysis

Question 1

You are leading the business analysis activities for a new product development project. You have collected all business requirements and are ready to transform these into solution requirements. Which of the following models will help you transform the business requirements into solution requirements?

Answer 1

Use cases

Use case modeling is frequently used to identify and elaborate requirements, especially when moving from business requirements to stakeholder requirements or solution requirements. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 214]

Question 2

You are analyzing a complex business workflow. You now have to present your findings to the project team so that they can provide a high-level development schedule estimate. Which of the following tools should you use if you want to show the steps and tasks different people perform in this workflow?

Answer 2

Swim lane diagram

Process flows are in the process model category and are used to visually document the steps or tasks that people perform in their jobs or when they interact with a system. Other names for process flows are swim lane diagrams, process maps, process diagrams, or process flow charts. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 198]

Question 3

Each critical project communication requirement must be carefully analyzed. One good way is to use a communication model to design effective communications. What is the sequence of steps in a basic communication model?

Answer 3

Encode -> Transmit -> Decode -> Acknowledge -> Feedback

Encode -> Transmit -> Decode -> Acknowledge -> Feedback is the right sequence. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 371, 372]

Question 4

Which of the following stakeholder groups, especially if the size of the group is large, is ideal for the success of the project?

Answer 4

Supportive stakeholders

Neutral and unware stakeholders usually don’t pose any serious threat but they are volatile and can sway in any direction as more information becomes available to them. Leading stakeholders are beneficial for the project as long as they are limited in number. If the size of the group is large this can be damaging. The supportive stakeholders are usually low in potential to affect the project but high in potential for collaboration. This is an ideal stakeholder group that supports the project’s goals and objectives. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 521]

Question 5

The data architect on your project has asked you to submit the CRUD matrix for the product being developed. The metrics will be used to describe who or what has permission to perform each of the CRUD operations on elements, such as data or user interfaces. CRUD stands for:

Answer 5

Create, Read, Update, and Delete

CRUD stands for (C) Create, (R) Read, (U) Update, and (D) Delete. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 393]

Question 6

You are currently auditing a project. You are keen in understanding the project scope and how project processes are applied to achieve the project objectives. Which of the following Manage Quality techniques examines problems, constraints, and non-value-added activities that occur during project work?

Answer 6

Process Analysis

Process Analysis examines problems, constraints, and non-value-added activities that occur during project work. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 292]

Question 7

Skills such as empathy, influence, creativity, and group encouragement are valuable assets when managing the project team. These skills are often referred to as ______________.

Answer 7

Soft skills

Interpersonal skills, sometimes known as “soft skills,” are particularly important to team development. By understanding the sentiments of project team members, anticipating their actions, acknowledging their concerns, and following up on their issues, the project management team can significantly reduce problems and increase cooperation. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 357]

Question 8

Which of the following is the Elicitation process of organizing and scheduling resources and preparing necessary materials for an individual elicitation activity?

Answer 8

Prepare for Elicitation

Prepare for Elicitation is the process of organizing and scheduling resources and preparing necessary materials for an individual elicitation activity. This should not be confused with the Determine Elicitation Approach process which 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 159]

Question 9

You are analyzing a complex information management system that requires digitization. A huge number of system functional requirements haven been elicited. You have grouped these as system elements (L1 elements) and sub-elements (L2 elements). Now, you want to visually represent these elements arranged in hierarchical structure. Ideally you are looking to develop a:

Answer 9

Feature model

A feature model is a scope model that visually represents all the features of a solution arranged in a tree or hierarchical structure. The other choices do not show the hierarchy of a product’s features. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 193]

Question 10

You are leading a complex enterprise system development project. The business analyst has supplied you with a list of all use cases that are required to be developed. Which of the following tools should you use to ensure that all approved product requirements are covered by identified use cases and nothing is missing?

Answer 10

Interaction matrix

An interaction matrix is a lightweight version of a traceability matrix that is used to figure out whether requirements are sufficiently detailed or if any entities are missing. In an interaction matrix, the rows are one type of product information, typically in the form of use cases, user stories, or process flows. The columns of the matrix are the names of a different type of product information, such as data entity, business rule, or user interface. You can use an interaction matrix to validate that all approved requirements are covered in one or more use cases. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 196]

Question 11

Which of the following is a correct format to document acceptance criteria for user stories in a behavior-driven development approach?

Answer 11

Given-when-then format

The behavior-driven development approach includes a commonly accepted syntax to write acceptance criteria for user stories; the given-when-then format. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 219]

Question 12

Which of the following Business Analysis Process Groups involves processes performed to elicit, analyze, model, define, verify and validate product requirements?

Answer 12

Executing Process Group

Executing Process Group involves processes performed to elicit, analyze, model, define, verify, validate, prioritize, and approve all types of product information, ranging from backlogs to user stories and requirements to constraints. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 21]

Question 13

You are considering collaborative games for an elicitation event. Which of the following elicitation techniques divides the participants into teams, asking each team to design a box that represents how the product would be packaged?

Answer 13

Product box

Product box is an elicitation technique that uses game play to focus on the features of a product that are important to the customer. It divides the participants into teams, asking each team to design a box that represents how the product would be packaged. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 166]

Question 14

You are currently selecting a few elicitation techniques that you will use during an upcoming elicitation workshop. Regardless of the elicitation technique selected, which of the following are the stages that are applicable for any elicitation activity?

Answer 14

Introduction, body, and close

There are three stages during an elicitation activity that are applicable regardless of the elicitation technique used: introduction, body, and close. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 165]

Question 15

A product team is developing a new labor time-sheeting and cost allocation system. As part of the system, a few management reports need to be produced by the system. Which of the following models should you develop in collaboration with the stakeholders to describe the detailed reporting requirements?

Answer 15

Report Table

A report table is an interface model that describes detailed requirements for a single report. Report tables contain both information about the report, such as the report name or decisions made from the report, and field-level information, such as which data fields are displayed and any calculations. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 201]

Question 16

Which of the following tools would you use to prioritize the requirements?

Answer 16

Goal model and business objectives model

The goal model and business objectives models describe the business objectives that the solution is meant to achieve, along with the high-level features for the solution. Either model can be used as a tool to help prioritize the requirements according to how much they support or achieve the objectives. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 233]

Question 17

Which of the following statements regarding a release burndown chart is incorrect?

Answer 17

A release burndown chart can be used to accurately forecast the project completion.

A release burndown chart shows the number of story points or ideal days remaining in the project as of the start of each iteration. A team’s burndown is never perfectly smooth. It will vary because of inaccurate estimates, changed estimates, and changes in scope. A burndown chart can help in forecasting the project completion but the forecast is usually not very accurate. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 131]

Question 18

You recently sent an ERD and the associated data dictionary to your database designer. The designer is happy with the quality of the artifacts but is now requesting additional information. He wants to know who in the organization will create, read, update and delete each data object. What should you do next?

Answer 18

Prepare a CRUD matrix and share with the designer

CRUD, defined as create (C), read (R), update (U), and delete (D), represents the operations that can be applied to data or objects. CRUD matrices describe who or what has permission to perform each of the CRUD operations on elements, such as data or user interface screens. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 197]

Question 19

You are managing a complex project with loosely defined requirements. By the end of each iteration, the number of story points delivered are offset by the addition of new requirements. How would that affect your burndown chart?

Answer 19

The slope of the burndown line will become zero.

If the number of story points added offsets the number of story points delivered, the remaining story points on the project will not change. The slope of the burndown line will become zero and the line will become perfectly flat in the horizontal direction. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 131]

Question 20

You are drafting a procurement requisition use case. The organization has a standard requisition process for items that exist on the organizational product catalog. However, if the request is regarding a non-catalog item, a secondary approval workflow is required to be appended to the primary approval workflow. Which section of the use case will you use to document the primary approval workflow?

Answer 20

Normal flow

Each use case contains a normal flow, which is the most common scenario of interactions between the system and user, as well as alternative and exception flows, where the scenario diverges from the normal flow. In this scenario, the primary approval workflow needs to be documented as the normal flow of the use case. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 214]