PMI-PBA Domain Area Test: Needs Assessment Flashcards
Which of the following processes belong to the planning process group?
Plan Stakeholder Engagement
All of the given choices are the processes from the project stakeholder management knowledge area. However, only the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process belongs to the planning process group. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 25]
You are currently studying a manufacturing process with an aim to reduce the manufacturing costs by least by 5%. Which of the following are a variation of process flows that can be used to identify manufacturing process steps that add value and those that do not?
Value stream maps
Value stream maps focus on specific areas (process level) of an organization, e.g., the situation given in the scenario. On the other hand, value chain maps analyze all of the activities (organizational level) within an organization. The other two models do not focus on value-added activities. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 70]
You are hired as a business analysis consultant and have been asked to help the organization upgrade and standardize its business analysis methods. You are stressing the importance of needs analysis prior to initiating any project. Which of the following must be produced as part of the Identify Problem or Opportunity process prior to developing a project charter?
Situation statement
From the given options, only the situation statement is an output of the Identify Problem or Opportunity process. A situation statement is an objective statement of a problem or opportunity. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 62]
You are conducting a root cause analysis of a recent system failure that has caused a major embarrassment for the organization. You have developed an interrelationship diagram of the situation and are now reviewing this with the stakeholders. Which part of the diagram indicates the source of the problem?
Nodes with the largest outgoing arrows.
An interrelationship diagram is a special type of cause-and-effect diagram that depicts related causes and effects for a given situation. Factors (or nodes) that have a large number of “outgoing” arrows are the sources of the problem. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 71; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 23]
You are the lead business analyst on a high-tech software development project. You need to develop a product roadmap and require inputs from key stakeholders. The stakeholders are subject matter experts in their own domains but do not have experience in developing product roadmaps. Which of the following techniques should you use?
Facilitated workshop
Brainstorming and facilitated workshop are good choices. However, given the limited experience of the stakeholders in developing roadmaps, a facilitated workshop is a better option. Facilitated workshops use a structured meeting led by a skilled, neutral facilitator. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 95]
A product development team is trying Agile development methods to deliver a new technological solution your organization has requested. An Agile coach, who is helping the team on this project has recommend using the Feature Injection technique during sprint planning sessions. What is involved in the step “inject feature” in the Feature Injection technique?
Selecting the features with maximum business value.
The “inject features” step in the Feature Injection technique involves selecting the features with maximum business value and presenting these in the form of scenarios. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 89]
You are leading a software development project and following an adaptive delivery model. There are a number of product-related decisions that the team needs to make. You have recommended delaying all decision-making until as late as possible so that the team may get more time to discover and improve its knowledge base. Which of the following is a decision-making thought process you have recommended?
Real options
Real options is a decision-making thought process that can be used on projects that follow an adaptive delivery model. Two fundamental principles are applied to decision making with real options. The first is to reduce the number of decisions that need to be made in the short term, and the second is to delay all decision making until as late as possible. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 89]
You are attending a conference where representatives from different companies are presenting their approaches to business analysis. One speaker has mentioned that their business analysis processes are inspired by PMI’s Guide to Business Analysis and have been grouped into five categories: Defining & Aligning, Initiating, Planning, Executing and Monitoring & Controlling. You believe that the speaker’s organization is missing out on one critical business analysis process group. Which one is that?
Releasing
The six Business Analysis Process Groups are: Defining and Aligning, Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and Releasing. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 21]
Your state government is conducting a conference on technological innovations and has invited your organization to participate and present its flagship product. The CEO of your organization has chosen your project to be presented at the conference and has asked you to represent the organization. You are required to present your product’s roadmap at the conference. Which of the following are usually shown on a product roadmap?
Vision, releases, features, and timelines
Several key elements are typically elicited and documented in a product roadmap, including strategy information, portfolio, program, initiatives, product vision, success criteria, market forces, product releases, features and timelines. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 93, 94]
Visual communication is the transmission of information and ideas using graphics. This is generally considered to be more powerful than verbal communication. Which of the following techniques should you use to elicit new product high-level requirements from the stakeholders in situations where visual communication is more effective than verbal communication?
Prototyping
Group decision-making techniques, brainstorming and multi-voting techniques do not involve any visual communication approach. Prototyping uses models that provide a visual representation of what may eventually evolve into a product’s design. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 61]
You have been asked to initiate a new software development project. Since the project requirements are not clear, you and the project team believe that the project will benefit from an adaptive lifecycle. The project sponsor has asked you to document the high-level scope of the project. What should you do next?
Identify the user epics.
Adaptive projects often create a brief statement of project intent which states the business objectives, value propositions, benefits, goals, and milestones, etc. It may also include very high-level user epics that are later broken down into user stories. At this stage, you need to identify the user epics that comprise the project scope. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 62]
The CEO of your organization has engaged a process improvement consultant to help improve some of the core business processes that have been shortlisted by the executive leadership team. During the first week of engagement, the consultant calls a senior stakeholder workshop to map the high-level future-state processes and proposes initiating multiple process improvement projects. In your opinion, what’s wrong with this situation?
The consultant went straight into “determining the future-state” prior to assessing the current state.
The CEO’s engagement of the consultant for a process improvement job identified by the executive leadership team indicates that the Identify Problem or Opportunity process was completed in some shape or form. The next step is to assess the current state which seems to be ignored by the hired consultant. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 63]
Change control tool selection should be based on the needs of the project stakeholders, including organizational and environmental considerations and/or constraints. Which of the following is not a key change management consideration while selecting an appropriate change control tool for a project?
Configuration item verification and audit
Configuration item verification and audit is related to configuration management instead of change management. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Pages 118, 119]
The CFO of DigitalTech is sponsoring a supply chain automation project and has engaged your firm to analyze the business need and conduct a detailed feasibility study. A junior BA has come up with some requirements. Which of the following is not a valid example of a product requirement for this initiative?
The business must initiate a process improvement initiative to optimize the supply chain processes prior to their digitization.
A product requirement is a condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need. All of the given choices are valid business requirements but initiating a process improvement initiative prior to the implementation of the SCM system is outside the scope of the SCM system implementation, hence not a SCM system product requirement. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 9]
The net present value (NPV) is a:
Cost-benefit analysis technique
The net present value (NPV) is a cost benefit analysis technique. It is a monetary value expressed as the difference of the present value of revenues and the present value of expenditures over the lifecycle of the product or service delivered by the project. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 60]
