PMI-PBA Mock Exam Lite - 13

Question 1

On Agile projects, who is primarily responsible for developing product roadmaps and decides whether and where to place the user stories in the backlog?

Answer 1

Product owner

A product roadmap shows the anticipated sequence of deliverables over time. Product owners are primarily responsible for developing product roadmaps. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 216]

Question 2

Which of the following is an informal peer review completed by one or more peers simultaneously to look over the work in progress items?

Answer 2

Desk check

Peer desk check is an informal peer review completed by one or more peers simultaneously to look over the work in process items. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 404]

Question 3

You are coaching a project team that has historically struggled with managing their project scopes. You tell the team that managing the project scope is an absolute must for any successful project. What is the MAIN reason for controlling the project scope?

Answer 3

Preventing scope creep

The main reason for controlling the project scope is to deal with the impact of changes on the project. This is done by managing approved changes and disregarding rejected changes. This reduces the risk of scope creep on the project. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 168]

Question 4

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?

Answer 4

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 5

A product team has recently completed all product requirements elicitation activities. The team now needs to analyze this information and develop a high-level scope model to define and clarify the boundaries of the system. The model also needs to identify the flows of information between the system and external entities. Which of the following models should you develop?

Answer 5

Context Diagram

A context diagram defines the boundaries of a system. It also identifies the flows of information between the system and external entities. A context diagram is a scope model that you can use in this context. None of the rest of the choices are scope models. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 186]

Question 6

A software team tracing the root cause of an application failure can use this to help determine the cause(s) of the failure:

Answer 6

Ishikawa diagram

Cause-and-effect diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams, illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 293]

Question 7

You are coaching a few junior business analysts on modern business analysis tools and techniques. One of the analysts in the class is finding it difficult to understand ER models. Which of the following statements regarding an ER model is incorrect?

Answer 7

The data objects in an ER model need to be exact data objects in the database.

The data objects shown in an ER model are not meant to be exact data objects in a database, but rather a conceptual view of the data in the solution from the perspective of the business. The rest of the statements are all correct. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 191]

Question 8

Which of the following describes the characteristics for a user story to demonstrate that it is good and ready for development?

Answer 8

INVEST

The term INVEST describes the characteristics that user stories need to demonstrate to be considered “good” and “ready” for development in adaptive approaches. INVEST is an acronym for independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, and testable. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 223]

Question 9

You have been notified of a major issue with a product that your team has recently launched. You need to conduct a root cause analysis to identity the real cause of the issue. You are planning to use Five Whys to carry out this analysis. Which of the following tools can be used to graphically show the results of your analysis?

Answer 9

Fishbone diagram

A fishbone diagram is a version of a cause-and-effect diagram used to depict a problem and its root causes in a visual manner. None of the rest of the choices have the capability of showing the outcome of a root cause analysis. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 70]

Question 10

The business analyst on your project suggested using the product box technique for an upcoming elicitation workshop. Which of the following is the key benefit of this technique?

Answer 10

It provides insights into the benefits and features that customer finds most valuable.

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 technique provides insights into the benefits and features that customer finds most valuable. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 166]

Question 11

You have gathered all business requirements regarding a product being developed by your team. You are now ready to transform these business requirements to system requirements. The product team has selected use case models for this requirements transformation. A junior business analyst will assist you with the drafting of these use cases. Which of the following sections would you request the analyst to include in each use case?

Answer 11

CORRECT RESPONSE REASON
Triggers, Preconditions, Normal Flow, Alternative Flow, and Post Conditions

Typical sections of a use case are: Name, ID, description, actors, organizational benefits, triggers, preconditions, post conditions, normal flow, alternative flow, and exceptions. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 215]

Question 12

A junior business analyst has requested you to review the product requirements he has elicited. You find out all requirements have been mixed up which should at least be categorized as functional or non-functional. Which of the following requirement is an example of a non-functional requirement?

Answer 12

System availability and performance requirements

Non-functional requirements express the environmental conditions or quality requirements for the product to be effective. System availability and reliability are non-functional requirements. The rest of the choices are functional requirements. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 402]

Question 13

You are responsible for the business analysis activities for a reporting system. The system will draw information from several systems and is also expected to provide inputs to a few management information systems. You decide to use the spider web technique to discover the proposed system relationships with other systems. On a spider web diagram, the circle in the middle of the sheet represents:

Answer 13

The product

The spider web is an elicitation technique used to discover unknown relationships between the product being analyzed and other products. The technique is performed by drawing a circle in the middle of a large sheet of paper to represent the product. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 166]

Question 14

You have asked your business analyst to focus on the product requirements and asked your project coordinator to focus on the project requirements. Your business analyst and project coordinator are not sure about the difference and want to clarify this with you. Which of the following statements regarding a project lifecycle is incorrect?

Answer 14

All project phases in a project lifecycle follow a strict linear sequence.

A project lifecycle is the series of phases through which a project passes from its initiation to its closure. The phases can be sequential, or they may overlap. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 15,16]

Question 15

You are currently auditing a project in your organization with a task to identify non-value adding activities and optimizing project costs. Which of the following techniques should you use to identify non-value-added activities in the project?

Answer 15

Process analysis

Process analysis examines problems experienced, constraints experienced, and non-value-added activities identified during process operation. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 292]

Question 16

You are automating a complex network of manual workflows that has many touchpoints. You need to understand how and when different system functionalities will be initiated. You decide to document the outcomes of this analysis in an event list. What does a typical event list describe?

Answer 16

Any external events that trigger solution behavior

An event list is a scope model that describes any external events that trigger solution behavior. Event lists help define the in-scope events that the solution must react to or handle. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 192]

Question 17

You are managing a software development project. According to the project management plan, you have outsourced the development of some system components to a contractor expert in the technology. The first deliverable passed the unit test and met the specifications outlined in the contractor’s agreement, but the deliverable failed the integration test when integrated with the other internally developed components. You have asked the contractor to fix the issue but the contractor is insisting that a milestone payment be made before any further work. What should you do first?

Answer 17

If the deliverable meets the agreed specifications, release the payment immediately. Then conduct a detailed root cause analysis regarding why the integration testing failed.

You should not hold the payment if the deliverable meets the agreed specifications. You need to release the payment but conduct a detailed root cause analysis regarding why the integration testing failed. You need to determine if there is a bigger issue with the overall design that needs to be fixed or some key specifications that were somehow excluded in the contract. [PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct]

Question 18

You are leading the business analysis efforts on an information system development project. The technical architect on the team needs to understand the involved business data objects and the relationships between them to design the backend database for the system. You decide to develop an entity relationship diagram (ERD) and supply this to her. An ERD is a:

Answer 18

Data model

An entity relationship diagram is a business analysis model that shows the business data objects or pieces of information of interest and the relationships between those objects, including the cardinality of those relationships. An ERD is a data model. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 191]

Question 19

Your organization recently rolled out a new insurance claims management tool which has attracted significant customer dissatisfaction. You want to examine each complaint and the associated root causes to identify the needed capabilities to address the complaints. Which of the following tools should you use to carry out this analysis?

Answer 19

Capability table

Capability tables can be used to depict the relationship between a situation, its root causes, and the capabilities needed to address the situation. Capability framework, on the other hand, is used to rank the maturity levels of business capabilities. The other two choices are irrelevant to the question. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 67]

Question 20

You have been assigned to lead the business analysis activities on a project. You are currently planning, estimating and scheduling your business analysis activities. Recently a project manager has also been appointed on this project. What should you do next?

Answer 20

Work closely with the new project manager when formulating the business analysis plan.

It is a best practice to have the project manager and business analyst working together while the business analysis approach and plan are formulated. The rest of the choices are incorrect. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 38; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127-129]

Question 21

A product team is developing a new cost management system for your organization. This system must be integrated with a few other upstream and downstream systems. As the project’s business analyst, you want to understand these relationships. Which of the following model should you develop to identify these upstream and downstream systems and their interrelationships?

Answer 21

Ecosystem map

The ecosystem map allows the business analyst to see where there are possible interface requirements or data requirements for systems directly interfacing to the solution and for those up- or downstream from the solution. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 190]

Question 22

You are currently managing a complex project that requires a lot of knowledge work. You want some sort of visual management system that can help you visualize the flow of work, make impediments easily visible, and allow flow to be managed by adjusting the work-in-process limits. Which of the following tools can help you in this regard?

Answer 22

Kanban board

A Kanban board provides a means to visualize the flow of work, make impediments easily visible, and allow flow to be managed by adjusting the work-in-process limits. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 233]

Question 23

You have scheduled a three-day product requirements elicitation workshop and have invited around thirty stakeholders to attend the workshop. The stakeholders are day-to-day process workers and have no business analysis experience. For such a large product requirements elicitation event, which of the following is NOT advisable?

Answer 23

Ask the stakeholders to come prepared with their list of requirements.

You need to facilitate and help the stakeholders articulate their requirements. Asking them to come prepared with their list of requirements is not reasonable. All the rest are great ideas. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 160]

Question 24

You are currently preparing for a large elicitation event. You have got the elicitation approach, requirements and other product information captured to date, the situation statement, and the stakeholder engagement and communication approach. Which of the following is the key input you are still missing?

Answer 24

Product scope

The five inputs to the Prepare for Elicitation process are elicitation approach, requirements and other product information, situation statement, stakeholder engagement and communication approach, and the product scope. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 160]

Question 25

You are developing a story map of your product and sequencing the user stories based upon their business value and the order in which their users typically perform them. This story map will be shared with the stakeholders to obtain their feedback. The walking skeleton section of the story map should contain:

Answer 25

The full set of end-to-end functionality

The walking skeleton is the full set of end-to-end functionality that the stakeholders require for the solution to be accepted or considered functional. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 204]

Question 26

You have been asked to develop a new website for one of your clients. The website is required to be browser independent and delivered within a month. Although the website has a simple design, the requirement of browser independence has added some complexity to the project. Which of the following approaches would you recommend for this project?

Answer 26

Iterative

The project requires a single final delivery. However, project work might require repetitions until all browsers are supported. An iterative approach is ideal in this situation. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 19]

Question 27

You need to model a number of business processes so that these can be automated by your developers. A number of stakeholders are involved in the execution of these end-to-end processes and most of them only have knowledge around a specific section of the process. Unless you model the current state process in a way that all stakeholders easily understand, developing and obtaining sign off on the future state model will be a big challenge. Which of the following tools should you use to model the current and future state processes?

Answer 27

Flowchart

A flowchart is a visual representation of the sequence of steps and decisions needed to perform a process. From the given choices, this is the only tool you can use to model the current and future state processes. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 284]

Question 28

Evaluation of a solution performance typically occurs:

Answer 28

After a solution has been released

Evaluation of solution performance typically occurs after a solution has been released. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 281]

Question 29

Which of the following consensus-building methods should you use if you want to reduce peer pressure or groupthink in the requirements validation process?

Answer 29

Delphi

Delphi is a consensus-building method that consolidates anonymous input from subject matter experts using rounds of voting. The rest of the choices are group decision-making techniques and do not keep SMEs’ inputs anonymous. The Delphi method reduces peer pressure or groupthink in the validation process. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 228]

Question 30

A product team is developing a process automation solution. As the business analyst, you have identified and documented the product requirements. You have also defined and documented all use cases pertaining to the solution. Which of the following models should you develop next to document the system functionality constraints imposed by the business policies?

Answer 30

Business Rules Catalog

A business rules catalog is a type of rule model. It is a table of business rules and related attributes. Business rules are not processes or procedures; rather, they describe how to constrain or support behaviors within the operations of the business. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 212]

Question 31

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?

Answer 31

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 32

Your project team has recently developed a new accounting and cost control system for your organization. The project followed a waterfall development life cycle and took 35 months to complete. The system not only digitizes most of the manual paper-based processes, it also automates some decisions during the procurement and cost recording processes. You are ready to release the solution but you are not sure if the organization and the staff are prepared for this change. What should you do next to determine the magnitude of this preparedness?

Answer 32

Conduct a readiness assessment.

A readiness assessment is an evaluation of how well an organization is prepared for a change. It provides an evaluation of the ability of an organization to transition to the future state enabled by the solution. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 297]

Question 33

You are reviewing a legacy system and analyzing how its users are currently using the system. You have conducted multiple workshops with the users to understand the manual workarounds being performed by the users to compensate for the gaps in the product functionality. However, so far you have not been successful. Which of the following techniques would you use to better understand these workarounds methods and practices?

Answer 33

Observation

You can use the observation technique to identify the workarounds being used by the product users to compensate for the gaps in the product performance. Such workarounds could be missed when using interviews and other verbal communication techniques, because it may not occur to users who are familiar with using the product for a long time to mention how they compensate for a lack of functionality. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 283]

Question 34

You are leading a new workflow digitization project. The project will take about two years to deliver the final product. The product’s benefits stated in the business case can only be evaluated once the system is in production for at least a year. In this scenario, how would Solution Evaluation be performed?

Answer 34

Operational business area may lead the long-term Solution Evaluation.

Some aspects of a solution that reflect the benefits and value may not be measurable until well after a solution is released. In these situations, the operational business area responsible for the product may take responsibility for identifying and measuring leading indicators. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 279]

Question 35

A product team was managing some product risks during the development of a new software system for the organization. Now since the product has been released and accepted by the stakeholders, what should the team do with these product risks?

Answer 35

Transfer these to the operational teams to manage going forward.

Product risks not addressed within the duration of the project may be transferred to operational teams to manage going forward. None of the other choices are reasonable actions to take. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 296]

Question 36

The CEO of your organization has recently appointed you as the business analyst on a major project. One of your colleagues has been assigned as the project manager on this project. Due to the high value of the project, the organization’s PMO is actively overseeing the project. As the first compliance deliverable, the results of project stakeholder analysis needs to be shared with the PMO. Which role should identify and assess the project’s stakeholders?

Answer 36

Both the project manager and the business analyst should identify and assess the stakeholders.

Project managers use stakeholder analysis to assess how the stakeholder groups will influence and impact the project work. Business analysts use the results to understand how the stakeholders will impact the business analysis process. Both roles assess stakeholders to understand how to communicate, collaborate, manage and set expectations. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 39; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115]

Question 37

As an experienced PMP, you have found that running a WBS meeting is tricky because you need to find a balance between insufficient decomposition and excessive decomposition. When items are excessively decomposed, it leads to all the following except:

Answer 37

Breaking the 100 percent rule

Excessive decomposition can lead to inefficient use of resources, decreased efficiency and non-productive management efforts. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Pages 160, 161]

Question 38

You are setting up a PMO in a manufacturing plant and advocating standardized project management on all internal organizational projects. Due to the nature of the business, the staff is well aware of quality management processes but is not aware of scope management processes. Which of the following best describes the Validate Scope process?

Answer 38

Obtaining the stakeholders’ formal acceptance of the project deliverables

Scope Validation involves obtaining the stakeholders’ formal acceptance of project deliverables. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 163]

Question 39

The chief operating officer of your organization has called in your team and has asked the team to initiate a new project. She distributes a list of items that need to be delivered through this project. The list contains features and functions that characterize the required solution. What has the COO shared with the team?

Answer 39

Product scope

The COO has shared the product scope which is the set of features and functions that characterize the required solution/product. The project scope defines the work that needs to be done to deliver a product, service, or result. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 17]

Question 40

You have recently completed all product elicitation activities and gathered a huge list of product requirements. You want to prioritize these requirements based on their value to stakeholders. You call a workshop to play “buy a feature” game with the stakeholders to prioritize these requirements. You give each stakeholder an amount of pretend money to buy their choice of features, splitting the money received across features however desired. What is the main benefit of this approach?

Answer 40

It puts emphasis on the perceived value of the features and limits the buying capacity of the stakeholders.

“Buy a feature” is a type of collaborative game used to enable a group of stakeholders to agree on prioritization by giving each stakeholder an amount of pretend money to buy their choice of features, splitting the money received across features however desired. It puts emphasis on the perceived value of the features and limits the buying capacity of the stakeholders. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 391]

Question 41

A control point is a designated event scheduled for the conclusion of a segment of work in order to evaluate progress against plans to determine if the project should be changed, terminated, or continued as planned. Which of the following is an example of a control point on Agile projects?

Answer 41

End of sprint evaluation

Examples of control points are stage gates or phase gates. The evaluation which occurs at the end of a sprint, iteration, or release can also be considered a control point. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 392]

Question 42

Your firm has been engaged by a client organization to improve its operating model. Before you can recommend any improvements, you need to analyze the organization structure and operations. Which of the following tools can help you describe the organization by mapping its high-level and essential characteristics, such as people, locations, processes, applications, data, and technology?

Answer 42

Architecture

The business architecture is the tool that describes an organization by mapping its essential characteristics, such as people, locations, processes, applications, data, and technology. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 388]

Question 43

You are the product owner of an information management system that is currently being developed. The project sponsor has asked you to review the product backlog and prioritize the user stories based on their relevance to the organization’s strategy. What should you do next?

Answer 43

Develop a purpose alignment model.

The purpose alignment model is a technique that provides a framework to support strategic or product decision making. The framework is used to categorize options by aligning them with the business purpose they support. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 81]

Question 44

You are evaluating a solution’s performance post its release. According to the business case, which was developed three years ago at the project initiation, the NPV of the project at 5% discount rate was $15,000. During the project, the discount rate changed to 7% resulting in a new NPV value of $10,000. How should you interpret this result?

Answer 44

The project’s NPV has fallen, which is an unfavorable condition, however the project is still profitable.

The project’s NPV has fallen, which is an unfavorable condition, however the project is still profitable since the NPV is still a positive value. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 90, 283]

Question 45

You are leading the business analysis activities for an ERP implementation project. This is a major project that is expected to take two years to complete. You have recently circulated your project’s situation statement to the key stakeholders. To your surprise, the project stakeholders look confused and seem to have different ideas of the situation. You are now not sure whether the situation statement is accurate and there is a risk of developing a wrong solution. What should you do next?

Answer 45

Revisit the Identify Problem or Opportunity process

If the situation statement is not properly understood, or if the stakeholders have a different idea of the situation, there is a risk that a wrong solution will be identified. Since the situation statement is an output of the Identify Problem or Opportunity process, you need to reperform this process to ensure that the situation statement is properly developed. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 57]

Question 46

You are leading the business analysis activities for a process automation project at a train maintenance yard. The worksite is located outside of the city and has a big number of rostered engineers and technicians working seven days a week to maintain a fleet of trains the state’s transportation authority operates. In this scenario, which of the following assumptions is incorrect?

Answer 46

Since all staff are working at one location, there will be no cultural differences between the staff.

Culture and location are not the same thing. Even when all the stakeholder groups reside in one location, there are cultural differences among the groups. All the other choices are valid project assumptions. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 42; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 47

You and your project team are inspired to deliver a project in an Agile setting. Although the concept of a self-organizing team sounds appealing, not clearly defining the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities might introduce significant risk to the project. What should you do?

Answer 47

Use a hybrid model

The scenario makes it clear that you cannot accept the risk. Since you need to try Agile approaches while retaining some of the predictive methods, it is recommended that you and the team sit together and agree on a hybrid model for this project. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 19]

Question 48

You are leading the development of a management information system for your organization. This is a complex enterprise-level system and its main purpose is to capture day-to-day operational data and produce several management reports for efficient decision making. In addition to the prototypes for all of the required reports, which of the following should also be supplied to the developers so that all reporting requirements are developed?

Answer 48

Report tables

A report table typically accompanies a prototype of a report to show the implementation team what the report should look like. The rest of the choices are irrelevant in this context. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 201]

Question 49

You are helping an organization establish a centralized project management office. You are proposing different project management and business analysis methodologies for projects based on their complexity levels. Which of the following is the most defining characteristic of complexity in projects?

Answer 49

Multiple stakeholders

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® In-Depth Report: Navigating Complexity, the presence of multiple stakeholders contributes maximum to the project complexity. The rest of the three choices are the least impacting factors. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 42; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 50

Which of the following processes should you perform to check that the requirements meet business goals and objectives?

Answer 50

Validate requirements

Validate requirements is the process of checking that the requirements meet business goals and objectives. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 225]