PMI-PBA Mock Exam Lite - 15

Question 1

You are currently helping an organization improve and mature its business analysis skills. You are currently developing a business analysis guide that would help all organizational business analysts to consistently apply business analysis skills to all future projects. Which of the following statements regarding product requirements is correct?

Answer 1

A product requirement should be independent of the design of the solution that addresses it.

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; hence the business need must be identified prior to identifying a solution, product or its requirements. A product requirement should be independent of the design of the solution that addresses it and the design of the solution must not drive the product requirements. Products and solutions do not always have a direct impact on the organizational revenue and instead have indirect impacts, e.g., employee training, improving goodwill etc. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 9]

Question 2

You have developed a use case diagram for your system that shows all the in-scope use cases for the system. You now need to visually document the steps or tasks that people perform in their jobs pertaining to each of the identified use cases. Which of the following models should you develop to meet this requirement?

Answer 2

Process Flows

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 solution. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 198]

Question 3

You are initiating an adaptive project. The business analyst has provided with you a list of requirements for the project. Which of the following tools would you now use to maintain this requirement list?

Answer 3

Backlog management

Backlog management is a technique used in adaptive approaches to maintain the requirements list. Configuration management is a technique that is used in predictive projects. The rest of the choices are irrelevant to maintaining the requirements list. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 265]

Question 4

You are working with a product team as their Agile coach and your job is to ensure that the product team follows the industry best practices. You have asked the product team to commence the iteration zero for the project. What should be the team doing in this particular iteration?

Answer 4

Initial planning

On adaptive projects, iteration zero is the iteration where the initial planning for all iterations occur. In some approaches this is also called sprint zero. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 399]

Question 5

Prioritization schemes are important planning tools. They provide a way to rank a diverse set of ideas by order of business value. How this list is usually obtained?

Answer 5

Through brainstorming

Prioritization schemes provide a way of ranking a set of ideas that are usually generated through brainstorming. The other choices are not valid idea generation techniques. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 234]

Question 6

You are currently analyzing business rules for an organizational system that needs to be digitized. You currently have all the business rules loosely documented in your notebook. Which of the following tools can be used to model these business rules?

Answer 6

Decision Tree

A decision tree and decision table are rule models that show a series of decisions and the outcomes to which the decision leads. Decision trees and tables are often used to model business rules. The rest of the choices are not rule models. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 189]

Question 7

Which of the following is the correct given-when-then format for acceptance criteria definition?

Answer 7

Given (the preconditions), when (the user does something within the product), then (product reaction)

The correct format for the definition of acceptance criteria is: Given , when , then [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 219]

Question 8

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. The product roadmap can be presented in which of the following formats?

Answer 8

Visual or textual

Product roadmaps may be assembled in the form of a text-based document or they may take the form of a visual model. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 94]

Question 9

Your organization has recently been transferred from public to private ownership and control. As a result, a new management board has been formed which has appointed a new CEO for the organization. The incoming CEO has announced that the organization will now be strategically managed. Which of the following is critical for an organization to achieve its strategy?

Answer 9

Capability

A capability is a function, process, service, or other proficiency of an organization. Capabilities enable an organization to achieve its strategy. Without the capability, the goals and objectives of the strategy cannot be achieved. This is the most relevant option from the given list of choices. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 64]

Question 10

You are helping an organization define and document its project management controls. Which of the following is the approved version of a work product that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results?

Answer 10

Baseline

Baseline is the approved version of a work product that can be changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 389]

Question 11

You are currently facilitating an elicitation workshop. During the first half of the workshop you have used the speedboat technique to elicit information about product features that customers/stakeholders find problematic. In the second half, you want to focus on the positive influences. You now want to use the sailboat technique to focuses on positive influences of the product. Where do you document those influences?

Answer 11

Sails of the boat

Sailboat is a variation of the speedboat technique that focuses on positive influences rather than identifying negative ones. All identified positive influences are documented on the sails of the boat. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 166]

Question 12

Agile release planning provides a high-level summary timeline of the release schedule based on the project roadmap. Agile release planning also determines the number of iterations required for the product development. These iterations are also known as:

Answer 12

Sprints

Agile release planning determines the number of iterations required for the product development known as sprints. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 216]

Question 13

You are the lead business analyst on a Student Management System upgrade project for a university. You are currently reviewing the standard operating procedures of the current system in place. Which of the following statements is correct?

Answer 13

You are performing “Document Analysis” during the Assess Current State process.

You are performing “Document Analysis” during the Assess Current State process. Document analysis is an elicitation technique performed during the Assess Current State process to analyze existing documentation and identify relevant product information. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 68]

Question 14

You are currently working with a group of stakeholders to define future state of a strategy formulation process. The group has identified all the major process steps and sequenced them to complete the process flow. In order to complete the process model, you want to identify, “who does what” at each process step. Which of the following techniques can help you identify this?

Answer 14

RACI

RACI model is a common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform designations to define the involvement of stakeholder in activities. This would provide you with a great framework to complete your process model. All of the other choices are irrelevant to this objective. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 118]

Question 15

Who determines the “Conditions of Satisfaction” for the user stories?

Answer 15

Product Owner

Conditions of Satisfaction is the criteria that is used to gauge the success of a deliverable. Since the product owner has the ultimate responsibility of the project, the product owner provides the Conditions of Satisfaction. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 216, 217]

Question 16

You are helping your client organization mature its business analysis processes. You are currently creating some business analysis templates. The concerned manager has requested you to submit the templates for the business analysis plan and the business analysis work plan for review. What is the relationship between a business analysis work plan and a business analysis plan?

Answer 16

The business analysis work plan is a sub-component of the business analysis plan.

The business analysis work plan is a subcomponent of the business analysis plan. The business analysis work plan includes level of effort estimates for business analysis activities which can be compared to the actual work effort to help the team improve future estimates. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 65; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 146]

Question 17

The technique of comparing actual or planned project practices to those of other projects to generate ideas for improvement and to provide a basis by which to measure performance is known as:

Answer 17

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the technique of comparing actual or planned project practices to those of other projects to generate ideas for improvement and to provide a basis by which to measure performance. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 281]

Question 18

You are currently assessing product features with some SMEs. The SMEs have conflicting views about the priority of the development of some features. Arriving at a common point is critical for your product backlog prioritization. To bring all SMEs to a common decision, what should you do first?

Answer 18

Use group decision-making techniques

Setting ground rules will serve no purpose in this situation. Escalation should not be the first thing you should do. You cannot use the Feature Injection method as the values associated with the features is currently the bone of contention between the SMEs. You should first try to resolve this using group decision-making techniques. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 89]

Question 19

You have been appointed as the business analyst on a complex greenfield ERP implementation project. Due to the complexity of the project, you have decided to properly plan your elicitation approach. During the Determine Elicitation Approach process, you need to answer a number of questions EXCEPT:

Answer 19

How to confirm elicitation results?

Elicitation results are not confirmed during the Determine Elicitation Approach process, instead these are confirmed during the Confirm Elicitation Results process. All the other options are valid questions you need to address during the Determine Elicitation Approach process. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 154]

Question 20

You have recently been hired by an Airport operator that wishes to automate its baggage handling. In order to determine the future state system requirements, you want to understand how the operator currently manages baggage handling. You searched for this information but couldn’t find it. What should be your approach to get this information?

Answer 20

Schedule a workshop with the SMEs and map the current process flow.

Reading the international standards will be a useful thing for benchmarking or defining the future state. You could meet the VP of Operations and request the documentation, but most probably she would ask you to schedule a workshop with the SMEs and map the current process flow. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 81]

Question 21

Your company is considering buying a building worth $1 million. If the company buys this building and rents it out for the next five years, it will get $100,000 per year as rent (receivable by the end of each year). At the end of the fifth year, the company will resell the building at $1.1 million. What is the NPV of this investment at 10 percent per annum discount rate?

Answer 21

62092

NPV = discounted inflows – discounted outflows Since the full investment, i.e. $1 million, needs to be made now, we don’t have to discount the outflows. However, we need to discount all the inflows by 10% per annum. The discount formula is: Present Value (PV) = Future Value / (1 + discount rate)^period For year 1: PV1 = 100,000 / 1.1^1 = 90,909 For year 2: PV1 = 100,000 / 1.1^2 = 82,645 For year 3: PV1 = 100,000 / 1.1^3 = 75,131 For year 4: PV1 = 100,000 / 1.1^4 = 68,301 For year 5: PV1 = 1,200,000 / 1.1^5 = 745,106 Hence the total PV of the inflows = 1,062,092 NPV = 1,062,092 – 1,000,000 = $62,092 [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Pages 34, 473]

Question 22

Your project team has recently been authorized to develop a next-generation technology gadget. You have collected several features for this product and are currently in the process of shortlisting these for the development. Which of the following tools can help you analyze these features from the viewpoint of the customer?

Answer 22

Kano Analysis

Kano analysis is a technique used to model and analyze product features by considering the features from the viewpoint of the customer. None of the rest of the choices could help you with this analysis. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 79]

Question 23

Your organization, a new startup, wanted to upskill its business analysis resources, and as a result, you and a few of your colleagues were sent for PMI-PBA training overseas. You are now expected to transfer these newly acquired skills to the junior business analyst in the organization. A junior business analyst has asked you to clarify the differences between a business analysis work product and a business analysis deliverable. Which of the following is a business analysis work product instead of a business analysis deliverable?

Answer 23

Stakeholder engagement meeting minutes

Agendas, meeting minutes, parking lot lists, and some types of models, although necessary to organize work and perform effectively, are not considered business analysis deliverables. These items are often called work products and are created in order to perform the work but are not a promised deliverable that will be tracked and managed. On the other hand, the rest of the choices are business analysis deliverables. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 62; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 24

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 $75,000. During the project, the discount rate changed to 7%. What will be the impact of this change?

Answer 24

The project’s NPV will decrease, which is an unfavorable condition.

The NPV expresses the value of an investment in today’s value of money. A higher discount rate reduces the present value of future returns and hence reduces net present value; which is not a favorable condition. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 90, 283]

Question 25

You are leading a user stories estimation session. Which of the following estimation techniques can help you and the team complete a quick relative estimation of all the user stories based on an agreed scale?

Answer 25

Estimation poker

Estimation poker is a collaborative relative estimation technique in which there is an agreed-upon scale used for the relative estimates. This is a typical user story estimation technique used in Agile projects. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 396]

Question 26

You are leading a new state-of-the-art product development project. In order to elicit product requirements, you plan to use collaborative games techniques with the stakeholders. If you want to focus on the features of the product that are important to the customer, which of the following collaborative games will you choose?

Answer 26

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. Speedboat method focuses on problematic features of the product. Spider web method focuses on relationships between the product being analyzed and other products. PERT is not a collaboration games technique. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 166]

Question 27

As the business analyst, you have developed a use case diagram for the product being developed. You have also created textual descriptions for all the identified use cases. When you supplied this information to the development team, they requested further information; ideally a model that describes how users and system processes will interact with one another across any involved users or systems and the order in which the processes or steps will be performed. You decide to develop a sequence diagram to meet this requirement. Which of the following statements is correct regarding sequence diagrams?

Answer 27

Sequence diagrams describe how users or system processes interact with one another.

You need to develop a sequence diagram to meet the team’s requirement. Sequence diagrams describe how users or system processes interact with one another across any involved users or systems and the order in which the processes or steps are performed. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 199]

Question 28

You have been assigned to lead the business analysis activities on a product development project. You are currently analyzing the project scope and scheduling the business analysis activities. The development team requires display-action-response models for the development of the application’s user interface. When should you schedule the development of the display-action-response model?

Answer 28

At the point when functional requirements or acceptance criteria are being specified.

Display-action-response models are generally created at the point when functional requirements or acceptance criteria are being specified. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 200]

Question 29

You have recently taken over the leadership of a software development project. Due to the complexity of the project and the highly regulated project environment, you are considering using a requirements management tool on this project. Which of the following statements is NOT a direct benefit of setting up a requirements management tool on this project?

Answer 29

Defining high-quality product requirements

Requirements management tools allow requirements and other product information to be captured and stored in a repository. These tools help maintain audit trails and perform version control to assist with change management. These tools also facilitate review and approval processes thorough workflow functionality. Requirements management tools catered to adaptive projects may include additional functionality to create and manage product and iteration backlogs, and produce burndown charts. A requirements management tool does not help define high-quality product information. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 260]

Question 30

A new government regulation has mandated your organization to improve its customer data security in your company’s flagship ERP product. You are the business analyst on this security upgrade project and have completed eliciting the upgrading requirements. Which of the following will help you assure that the elicited product requirements are aligned with the new security regulation?

Answer 30

Verify the security requirements.

You can easily rule out scoping and estimating. Verification and validation are often confused. Verification is the evaluation of whether the product complies with regulation, requirement, specification, or imposed conditions. Validation is the assurance that the product meets the needs of the customer. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 58; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 31

A product team has identified that some of the product requirements are conflicting with each other. To resolve this, the team needs to know which change to pursue by analyzing the stakeholder support available for that change. Which of the following techniques can help you in this situation?

Answer 31

Force field analysis

Force field analysis is a decision-making technique that can be used to help the product team analyze whether there is sufficient support to pursue a change. The rest of the choices cannot help the product team in the current situation. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 398]

Question 32

All the product requirements are currently documented as epics. Due to the size of the epics, the product team decides to slice the stories so that they can fit the iteration size. In this case, how should the product team assign priorities to the sliced stories?

Answer 32

Each slice is prioritized by the value it delivers.

Whichever mechanism is used to decide how to slice the epics, the slices are prioritized by the value that each slice delivers. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 214]

Question 33

Two of the major electricity suppliers in the city have recently been merged together. You are working as a consultant for the newly formed organization and reviewing and consolidating its processes and procedures. A key requirement of this project is to keep key project stakeholders informed and engaged with the project. There are numerous ways available to you to share project information among the project stakeholders. Which of the following is the most efficient communication method?

Answer 33

Interactive communication

Interactive communication is the most efficient form of communication as it requires multidirectional exchange of information. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 374]

Question 34

You are leading the business analysis activities for a complex ERP design and development project. For such a complex project, what should ideally be your approach regarding the elicitation and analysis activities?

Answer 34

Perform elicitation iteratively with analysis to progressively elaborate information.

For complex projects, where progressive elaboration is required, elicitation is performed iteratively with analysis. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 155]

Question 35

You are comparing four alternative options. The product owner has asked you to assign scores to each option based on its reliability, ease of use, cost and serviceability. The product owner has also told you that she values reliability and serviceability more than cost and east of use. Which of the following tools should you use to perform this analysis?

Answer 35

Weighted ranking

Weighted ranking is a technique used to support objective decision making. It is typically performed with the use of a weighted ranking matrix. A weighted ranking matrix or table is used to weight, rate, and score each criterion against a set of options. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 90]

Question 36

Erica is managing a kitchen tools manufacturing project, which is intended to produce modern cooking ovens. This project is hugely important for the company as well as for Erica‘s career. Although the project scope statement was well-defined and requirements were gathered from stakeholders in the planning phase, many design change requests have come in from customers during project execution. Which of the following tasks must Erica perform to avoid scope creep caused by uncontrollable changes?

Answer 36

Perform scope control and process all changes through the integrated change control process

All scope changes must be controlled in a project through the Control Scope process. However, scope control must also ensure that all changes requested by customers go through the Perform Integrated Change Control process. This way, scope creep can be avoided, and project changes can be managed. Hence, Erica must perform scope control and process all changes through the Integrated Change Control process. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 168]

Question 37

You are managing a procurement process automation project sponsored by the finance department in your organization. Although the project is currently being championed by the chief financial officer, staff from the procurement department are not very supportive about this project. Specifically, the head of procurements has several concerns regarding the project. What should you do first?

Answer 37

Spend some time in building a relationship with the head of procurements.

As a seasoned business analyst, first you need to try to resolve the problem yourself. Spending more time with the head of procurements and finding opportunities for collaboration might help. If all your efforts fail, you then might consider escalation of the situation. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 43; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 38

A business analyst develops several models during a product life cycle. Many models, once developed, are often revisited, and updated. However, the development order might be different as some models can only be developed until more detailed and refined product information becomes available. In a product lifecycle, which one of the following models is typically developed first?

Answer 38

Context diagrams

Context diagrams are generally created early to define scope and can be updated as new information is identified. The rest of the choices are the models that are developed later as more information becomes available. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 186]

Question 39

Which of the following techniques would you use if you want to establish the relationship of product requirements to the product design or code components which implement them and to verify that these have been satisfactorily met?

Answer 39

Forward traceability

Forward traceability is a technique that establishes the relationship of a requirement to the design or code which implements it. On the other hand, backward traceability establishes the relationship of a requirement to the scope, business goals, or business objectives from which it originated. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 388, 398]

Question 40

You have recently completed all requirements elicitation activities for a new product. You have analyzed these requirements and identified the features required to be built. You now want to ensure the alignment of these identified features with the business problem and objectives identified in the business case. Which of the following tools can help you do that?

Answer 40

Business objectives model

In business objectives models, busines problems and business objectives decompose high-level business strategies into lower-level business problems and objectives to visually represent the value of the project and how the solution will achieve the business objectives. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 195]

Question 41

Which of the following tools is generally used by Agile teams to monitor the progress against the release plan?

Answer 41

Burndown charts

Burndown charts are the primary way of tracking and communicating the team’s progress against the release plan. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 131]

Question 42

You are responsible for designing a new handheld gadget followed by a mass rollout to the market. The project has been requested as a result of your organization’s blue ocean strategy, and if successful, will create a market for its own. However, there is a high degree of uncertainty around the requirements which can only be uncovered through prototyping. Which of the following approaches is most likely to succeed?

Answer 42

Using a hybrid model; Agile approaches for the design phase followed by a predictive approach for the rollout.

Since the product requirements are not known upfront and can only be discovered through a series of prototyping iterations, an Agile approach is suitable for the design phase. Once the product is developed, the mass rollout can be manage using a predictive life cycle. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 19]

Question 43

You are conducting a post-implementation solution evaluation of a product. During the review you found many instances where the product failed to meet the target performance levels. Which of the following elicitation techniques would you use to enable multiple SMEs to collaboratively work together to identify the root causes and the variances?

Answer 43

Facilitated workshops

Facilitated workshops use a structured meeting led by a skilled, neutral facilitator and a carefully selected group of stakeholders to collaborate and work together toward a stated objective. This is the technique you should use to have the SMEs collaboratively work together to identify the root causes and the variances. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 283]

Question 44

You are leading a complex Agile project that is expected to last two years. You have a huge list of features to be prioritized. If you have a large number of stakeholders, which of the following techniques should you use to prioritize these features?

Answer 44

Questionnaires

A questionnaire is the right tool to be used if you have a large population base and you need to quickly identify which features are valued more than the others. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 68]

Question 45

Once the problem (variation) has been identified, the next step is to uncover the underlying root cause (source). Fishbone diagrams break down the causes of the problem statement into discrete branches, helping to identify the main or root cause of the problem. The fishbone diagram starts with recording the problem or issue at the fish’s:

Answer 45

Head

The fishbone diagram starts with recording the problem or issue at the fish’s head. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 70]

Question 46

Recently a new product was launched by your company. Although the company was able to witness great numbers with regards to the sale of the product, several performance issues were reported by the product customers. You have been asked to investigate this matter and conduct a detailed post-implementation solution evaluation. You started with defining your solution evaluation approach. Which of the following will be a key input to this exercise?

Answer 46

Product scope

Product scope is defined as the features and functions that characterize a solution. The product scope and the business goals and objectives on which a solution is based provide suggestions as to what types of information should be collected and measured for evaluation purposes. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 288]

Question 47

You will soon be leading a complex project. Project communication is critical to the success of the project; specifically, all team members need to be kept updated on project progress. Which of the following approaches will produce the best results?

Answer 47

Use a Kanban board.

The most effective method would be to use a Kanban board as that would provide a continuous means to visually communicate project status to the team. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 233]

Question 48

You are conducting the business analysis activities for a critical project for your organization. You have assembled a small team of SMEs to help you through the project. In order to identify all project stakeholders involved in this project, which of the following is recommended?

Answer 48

Facilitate a brainstorming session.

Common techniques that can be used in the discovery of stakeholders are brainstorming, interviews, surveys, and organizational charts, to name a few. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 39; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 111]

Question 49

You want to create some scope models for an information system your team is developing. The models need to show the structure and organization of the features, functions, and boundaries of the information system. Which of the following cannot be used for this purpose?

Answer 49

Use case

Use case is a process model, while the rest of the choices are all scope models. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 185]

Question 50

In projects with adaptive life cycles, the overall scope of the project will be decomposed into a set of requirements and work to be performed, sometime referred to as:

Answer 50

Product backlog

In projects with adaptive life cycles, the overall scope of the project will be decomposed into a set of requirements and work to be performed, sometime referred to as a product backlog. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 131]