PMI-PBA Mock Exam Lite - 4

Question 1

You are leading the business analysis activities for a software application development project. The project is following an adaptive delivery approach. You are currently planning the requirements management approach for the project. Which of the following requirement lifecycle states should you select for the project?

Answer 1

Not ready, ready, and done

The requirements life cycle on predictive projects represents the various phases or states through which a requirement moves as it is defined, elaborated, verified, validated and prioritized. When using an adaptive delivery approach, the requirement states may be more implicit. User stories may be states as not ready, ready, or done. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 179]

Question 2

You are leading the business analysis efforts for a complex Management Information System (MIS) being developed for your current organization. Most of the processes being digitized by this initiative are currently manual paper-based processes. You want to collect system user interface requirements, but the stakeholders are struggling to visualize the system. Which of the following technique can help you elicit the required information?

Answer 2

Wireframes

Wireframes are diagrams that represent a static blueprint or schematic of a user interface used to identify basic functionality. This will help you obtain UI requirements from the stakeholders rather than discussing abstract requirements. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 168]

Question 3

A team has recently conducted user acceptance tests for a recently developed product. You are responsible for analyzing the results of the acceptance tests and comparing these against acceptance criteria. You are also responsible for recommending an action plan dealing with scenarios where the product doesn’t meet the acceptance criteria. Which of the following processes you need to perform?

Answer 3

Evaluate Acceptance Results and Address Defects.

You need to perform the Evaluate Acceptance Results and Address Defects process. This process compares the acceptance criteria and the actual results of acceptance testing to provide recommendations on how to deal with situations where aspects of a solution do not meet the acceptance criteria specified for it. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 291]

Question 4

You are auditing an organization and are surprised to know that this organization doesn’t spend sufficient time planning the elicitation approach on any project and is unaware of the benefits involved in doing this properly. There are many benefits of properly performing the Determine Elicitation Approach process EXCEPT:

Answer 4

Stakeholders’ interests in the project is influenced.

Stakeholders may have positive or negative interests associated with the project which cannot be influenced by performing the Determine Elicitation Approach process. The rest of the statements are valid benefits that can be realized. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 156]

Question 5

You have recently completed the user acceptance testing of a new product. As an outcome of this, a few issues with the product have been raised by the stakeholders. As the lead business analyst on this project, what should you do next?

Answer 5

Analyze the reported issues and develop cost estimates for remedial activities.

As the business analyst you are responsible for the product and value delivery. A product that does not meet expectations may have defects, which will necessitate analysis of the cost to address the defects and the business impact of addressing them or accepting them. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 282]

Question 6

Given multiple alternatives, the group decision method that allows the largest block in a group to decide (even if more than 50 percent of the members of the group do not support the decision) is:

Answer 6

Plurality

This group decision-making technique is called Plurality. Even if a majority (where more than 50% of the members support the decision) is not achieved, the largest block in the group makes the decision. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 144]

Question 7

Which of the following models should you develop if you want to show the business data objects in a product and the cardinality relationship between those objects?

Answer 7

Entity Relationship Diagram

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

Question 8

A project team has recently presented the project cost estimates of a project. The team doesn’t have any past experience of performing similar projects. This could be a major risk with the project but the team is of the view that they have included sufficient reserves in their estimates. What is the primary risk when including reserves, or contingency allowances, in your cost estimate?

Answer 8

Overstating the cost estimate

Contingency funds are used to handle cost uncertainty due to unforeseen events during a project. These funds are generally used for items that are likely to occur but are not certain to occur. If the team has no prior experience of similar projects, there is a risk that the team has overestimated the reserves to compensate for their lack of experience. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 245]

Question 9

The high-level system design developed by your team has been approved. You are now required to develop the detailed design of the system. As part of this exercise, the team now must design how users or system processes will interact with each other 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 design and demonstrate these interactions. Sequence diagrams are most useful for communicating with:

Answer 9

Technical teams

Sequence diagram is a modeling technique that describes how user or system processes interact with one another across any involved users or systems and the order in which the processes or steps are performed. Sequence diagrams are most useful for communicating with technical teams about the flow of information between systems, the delegation of functionality to where it will be performed, and the flow of control from step to step. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 199]

Question 10

Shortly after the release of a new product, a number of customer issues have been reported. You have analyzed these issues and grouped them into related categories. You are presenting these results to the senior leadership team as a histogram. The leadership team is happy with your analysis but has asked you to sort the histogram by frequency of occurrence in a descending order. What type of chart has been requested by the leadership team?

Answer 10

Pareto chart

The leadership team has asked for a Pareto chart which is a histogram that has been ordered by the frequency of occurrence, that shows how many issues were reported by each identified category. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 403]

Question 11

You are the lead business analyst on a process improvement project. You have identified your key project stakeholders and are currently analyzing their roles. A solid understanding of their current state roles is required for the definition of the future state process. Which of the following techniques would help you understand how particular roles are performed by stakeholders?

Answer 11

Job analysis

Business analysts can conduct job analysis to understand how particular roles are performed by stakeholder. The rest of the choices are not stakeholder analysis techniques. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 45; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 12

The CTO of your organization has sent you a project brief for a recently authorized project and appointed you as the lead business analyst on the project. You are currently planning your business analysis activities for this project. Which of the following tools can be used to identify business analysis tasks, activities, and deliverables by detailing out the business analysis work?

Answer 12

Decomposition model

A decomposition mode is used to identify business analysis tasks, activities, and deliverables by detailing out the business analysis work. The rest of the tools cannot be used to meet this objective. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 63; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 13

Which of the following is an agile technique that regularly checks the effectiveness of the quality process, looks for the root cause of issues, and suggests trials of new approaches to improve quality?

Answer 13

Retrospectives

Recurring retrospectives regularly check on the effectiveness of the quality process. They look for the root cause of issues then suggest trials of new approaches to improve quality. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 276]

Question 14

Your product team is new to Agile practices. Historically they have used detailed weekly reports to report project progress. Which of the following techniques will you recommend the team to use on this project replacing the traditional weekly formal reporting?

Answer 14

Daily standups

Since the most effective and efficient way of conveying information to and within a team is face-to-face conversation, Agile teams report all work in process issues during the daily standups. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 144, 244]

Question 15

Your product team has developed some wireframes that can now be reviewed with the stakeholders. You now need a model that displays specific user interfaces and commonly used screens and plot out how to navigate between these. Which of the following models should you develop?

Answer 15

User Interface Flow

A user interface flow is an interface model that displays specific user interfaces and commonly used screens within a functional design and plots out how to navigate between them. These can accompany process flows or use cases to help visually show the users’ interactions within the system. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 207]

Question 16

You are analyzing the requirements for a complex ERP system development project. As your next business analysis deliverable, you are required to develop a model that visually shows the complex flow of system use cases. The model is expected to show the user and system interactions and mirror the textual district descriptions of the system use cases. Which of the following diagrams should you develop?

Answer 16

Activity diagram

An activity diagram is a type of process model that visually shows the complex flow of use cases. Activity diagrams are similar to process flows in syntax; however, they commonly show user and system interactions in one diagram and mirror the textual descriptions of use cases. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 387]

Question 17

You are leading a complex organizational transformation project. You have a wide range of stakeholders from active supporters to non-supportive and resistant stakeholders. You are now analyzing these stakeholders based on their influence and impact. What will be your strategy to manage the stakeholders classified as “low influence” and “low impact” stakeholders?

Answer 17

Stakeholders in this category should be monitored to ensure that their relationship to the solution does not change as the solution definition evolves; stakeholders in this group should not be ignored.

Stakeholders who are expected to adapt to the implemented solution once it is built are from the “low influence/high impact” group. Stakeholders that are just being monitored to ensure their behavior does not change over time are from the “low influence/low impact” group. Stakeholders who are decision-makers have “high influence”, and the stakeholders who are a critical source for requirements are “high impact”. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 119-120]

Question 18

Your organization has recently initiated its operating model transformation program. A small team of business analysts has been formed to analyze the current state and design the future state operating model. Although most of the project stakeholders are supporting the initiative, some senior stakeholders are actively resisting the change. How should you engage with these non-supportive stakeholders?

Answer 18

Spend more time with these stakeholders.

Spending more time with non-supportive stakeholders may uncover unspoken business needs, requirements, training issues, resource constraints, or past and current experiences important for the project team to understand. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 40; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 19

A project team is developing an information system using Agile product development methods. The project is one of the key initiatives the organizations has started this year. Which of the following is a series of conditions that the entire team must agree to complete before a user story is considered sufficiently understood so that work can begin to construct it?

Answer 19

Definition of Ready

The definition of ready is a series of conditions that the entire team agrees to complete before a user story is considered sufficiently understood so that work can begin to construct it. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 212]

Question 20

X-Technologies is undergoing a major organizational restructure and you have been hired to help the organization develop a new business architecture. You have setup a stakeholder register and now are looking to identify key stakeholders. Which of the following techniques can help you quickly identify some key stakeholders?

Answer 20

Reviewing the organizational chart

While all given techniques are valid approaches to stakeholder identification, reviewing the organization chart will help you quickly identify stakeholder groups or individuals who have been impacted by the restructure. The rest of the options will require more time to produce the similar information. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 113]

Question 21

The Department of Homeland Security has recently requested tenders for a data migration project. Basic project information and scope has been included in the tender documents. Due to the sensitivity of the project no further information and no access to stakeholders will be made available during the bidding process. In order to develop your bid, you need to understand the project requirements. Which of the following requirements elicitation is your only choice in this situation when interaction with stakeholders is not possible at all?

Answer 21

Document analysis

Brainstorming and surveys would require interaction with stakeholders which, according to the scenario, is not possible. Benchmarking with other similar deployments will not give you your client’s data migration requirements. In this scenario, document analysis, i.e. analysis of the tender documents, will give you your stakeholder requirements. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 44; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 115-116]

Question 22

You have scheduled a stakeholder workshop with an aim to discover and understand detailed product requirements. Based on your experience with the stakeholders, you think that having a meeting agenda helps in providing a structure to the meeting. Preparing the agenda for the workshop is an example of:

Answer 22

Elicitation preparation material

Preparing the agenda for the elicitation event is an example of preparation of elicitation materials. This is neither an Agile practice nor document analysis. Confirming elicitation is irrelevant to the context of this question. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 163]

Question 23

Prioritizing requirements is an important step in managing the product scope. The product requirements prioritization criteria are generally documented in the business analysis plan. Which of the following statements regarding requirements prioritization is correct?

Answer 23

Adaptive lifecycles use prioritization techniques for each upcoming iteration.

Adaptive lifecycles use prioritization techniques for each iteration in order to determine the features to be provided in the next release of the product. Projects using a predictive or waterfall lifecycle will conduct prioritization up-front before project execution. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 55; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 24

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 backbone section of the story map should contain:

Answer 24

The minimum viable product

The backbone of a story map is the minimum set of capabilities that absolutely must be in the first release for the solution to serve its purpose. This set of capabilities is called the minimum viable product (MVP). [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 204]

Question 25

The new CEO of your organization has come up with a very ambitious strategy for the organization. You have been asked to analyze the new strategy and the current organizational capabilities to achieve this strategy. Documentation on which of the following PMI’s Guide to Business Analysis processes will help you perform this task?

Answer 25

Assess Current State

Evaluating the current capabilities of the organization is a significant focus during a current state assessment. Documentation on the Assess Current State process is most relevant to the given scenario. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 64]

Question 26

You are performing the Assess Current State process for a student management system implementation project for a university. The project has touch points across multiple faculties and departments within the university. You have found that terminology used by one faculty might mean something else in the other. What is the technique you should use to foster common language?

Answer 26

Glossary

In business analysis, a glossary provides a list of definitions for terms and acronyms about a product. A glossary should be started as early as possible in portfolio, program, or project analysis to support common language. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 69]

Question 27

You have completed all product requirements elicitation activities and are currently analyzing the results. You have identified a huge list of potential features that need to be developed as part of the product. Which of the following models should you develop if you want to group these features together and show which features are sub-features of other ones.?

Answer 27

Feature model

Feature models are helpful to show how features are grouped together and which features are sub-features of other ones. Feature models are useful because they can easily display many features across different levels on a single page, which may represent an entire solution’s feature set. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 193]

Question 28

One of your clients has requested a major change request to a product. The requested changes were carefully analyzed and developed. Which of the following is a tool-supported validation that can now be used after changes have been made to ensure that these changes did not unintentionally alter the system in some other way?

Answer 28

Regression testing

Automated regression testing is a tool-supported validation used after changes have been made to a software system to ensure that these changes did not intentionally alter the system in some other way. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 388]

Question 29

You are auditing a product team and find out that the team has missed several requirements during the design of the solution. Although a traceability process was agreed by the team, it was not adequately followed. Which of the following could be the real cause of this?

Answer 29

The process was time-consuming and considered wasteful to maintain.

Each team member does not need to sign and approve the process. If the team has agreed to it, they should have stuck to it. It seems like that the team did not have confidence in the process or that they thought it was time-consuming and wasteful to maintain. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 254]

Question 30

Recently a few product security issues have been reported by the end users. You want to analyze these issues in a greater detail and want to uncover the most significant causes and effects involved in these security breaches. Which of the following is a special type of cause-and-effect diagram that can help you identify related causes and effects for this situation?

Answer 30

Interrelationship diagram

An interrelationship diagram is a special type of cause-and-effect diagram that depicts related causes and effects for a given situation. Interrelationship diagrams help to uncover the most significant causes and effects involved in a situation. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 399]

Question 31

Gemba walk, a lean terminology, is a management technique that requires visiting the workplace to gain insights into business operations and to discover opportunities for improvements. Which of the following elicitation techniques carried out during the Assess Current State process supports Gemba walks?

Answer 31

Observation

Observation is an elicitation technique that provides a direct way of eliciting information about how a process is performed or a product is used, by viewing individuals in their own environment performing their jobs. This is known as a Gemba walk in lean terminology. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 68]

Question 32

You are beginning a new project. The project scope includes delivery of some key capabilities to the organization. The timely completion of this project is critical for the organization to maintain its market position in the industry. You are aware that due to the nature of the project, the project scope can never be locked and there are going to be a number of changes throughout the project. The change control process in your organization has historically been a time consuming activity. When should you use the Perform Integrated Change Control process on your project?

Answer 32

Throughout the entire project

Changes can occur in the project at any time. The Perform Integrated Change Control process is valuable for managing and tracking those changes. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 115]

Question 33

Who is primarily responsible for user stories elaboration?

Answer 33

Business analyst

The business analysis responsibilities entail choosing items for the iteration backlog that are sufficiently elaborated upon and most important in terms of delivering business value. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 233]

Question 34

Your product team is developing a new website for your organization. You need to develop a blueprint that represents the skeletal framework of the website. This blueprint then needs to be reviewed and approved by the stakeholders before any further development work could be carried out. Which of the following models should you develop?

Answer 34

Wireframe

A wireframe is a representation of the expected solution before it is built. A wireframe is a type of prototype, specifically a mockup of a user interface design, used to show what a screen should look like. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 199]

Question 35

During which of the following processes does a business analyst typically perform gap analysis between existing capabilities and proposed changes necessary to attain a desired future state?

Answer 35

Determine Future State

Determine Future State is the process of determining gaps in existing capabilities and a set of proposed changes necessary to attain a desired future state that addresses the problem or opportunity under analysis. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 74]

Question 36

You have recently joined a product team that is halfway through a new product development for the business. The product team has already developed a feature model and a business objective model in the past. You now which to connect these together and ensure the alignment. Which of the following tools should you use to connect these models together?

Answer 36

Traceability matrix

A traceability matrix is a table that connects or traces links between items. Most commonly, business analysts use traceability matrices to trace requirements backward to features and business objectives. A business analyst can repurpose the traceability matrix to analyze models to ensure that they are complete. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 195]

Question 37

Your product team has recently completed the development of a software tool. You are currently conducting the acceptance testing of the developed tool to assure that the product meets the needs of the customer. In business analysis jargon, this is called:

Answer 37

Validating the product.

Since you are conducting acceptance testing, your objective at this stage is neither to train the users nor elicit the requirements. Acceptance testing is conducted to ensure that the customer is happy with the product. 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 38

You are analyzing a curriculum development and approval workflow for a university. This is a complex workflow and the “course curriculum” data object undergoes a number of changes whenever it transitions between one workflow stage to another. Which of the following tools would help you graphically depict this behavior?

Answer 38

State diagram

The state table and state diagram are data models that show the valid states of an object and any allowed transitions between those states. Objects can be business data items or any piece of information of interest when analyzing a solution. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 203]

Question 39

Your organization’s Strategy and Planning department conducts a current state analysis of the organization on a regular basis and uses that as an input to update the organization’s strategy, goals and objectives. As a result, the Strategy and Planning department proposes a number of transformation projects to be initiated by the organization’s PMO in collaboration with the impacted department or business units. In this scenario, which of the following statements could be true?

Answer 39

The business analysts on each transformation project skip the Assess Current State process.

Given that a number of departments and business units exits in the organization, this doesn’t look like a highly projectized organization. The PMO should analyze all the proposed initiatives and, based on the organization’s capabilities and available resources, only the viable transformation projects must be selected. Further, each project work must include its specific business analysis work. In this scenario the current state assessment is frequently conducted by the Strategy and Planning department, so it is most likely that the business analyst on each transformation project might skip performing this again and rather reuse the available knowledge. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 65]

Question 40

A business analyst is using “product box” technique during an elicitation workshop. He divides the participants into multiple teams and provides a plain box and art supplies to each team. Each team is then asked to decorate the box, marketing the product in a manner that would entice a customer to purchase it. What is the prime focus of this technique?

Answer 40

Customer

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 41

You are leading a manufacturing process automation project. So far you have conducted several workshops and elicited business and system-level requirements. Although all these requirements have been approved, you have a feeling that some requirements are not right and will not produce the desired outcome once implemented. How can you resolve this?

Answer 41

Observe the process and assess the suitability of the requirements.

Escalating the matter to the steering committee is not necessary at this stage. However, you should keep them informed. Since several elicitation workshops have been arranged already, and these requirements have been approved, the only way to test the suitability of these requirements is to observe the process being performed firsthand. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 168]

Question 42

Your organization is considering two capital projects. Although both projects address some key business needs, due to funding limitations, only one project can be initiated at this stage. The organization’s total budget for capital projects is $100,000. Project A has an NPV value of $50,000 while project B has an NPV value of $25,000. Which project will you select and why?

Answer 42

Project A; since its NPV value is higher than project B’s NPV value.

The higher the NPV, then greater the amount of value an option is expected to provide. Hence, if the organization has to choose one between these two projects, project A must be selected. Note that NPV value is not the cost to execute the projects; it is the future value of expected benefits expressed in the value that those benefits have at the time of investment. The organization’s capital budget is irrelevant to this question. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 90]

Question 43

The Direct and Manage Project Work process requires implementation of approved changes covering all the following except:

Answer 43

Acceptance criteria

Direct and Manage Project Work implements approved change requests. This includes corrective action, preventive action and defect repair. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 93]

Question 44

You are leading a product team developing the new website for your organization. Due to some technical reasons, you believe one user story cannot be developed at this stage and this user story needs to be terminated from the current iteration. The product owner is willing to terminate the story on technical grounds only if all product team members believe the story cannot be completed in the current iteration. What decision-making style has been used by the product owner?

Answer 44

Unanimity

This is example of unanimity; you reach a decision by everyone agreeing on a single course of action. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 267]

Question 45

What is the next logical step for a business analyst during the business analysis work planning once the business analysis deliverables have been identified and agreed upon and the business analysis tasks have been identified and sequenced?

Answer 45

Determining the roles and responsibilities.

The process of developing a business analysis work plan is: Identify the deliverables -> Determine the business analysis tasks and activities -> Determine the timing and sequencing of tasks ->Determine the roles and responsibilities -> Identify the resources -> Estimate the work. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 61-65; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 111]

Question 46

You are managing a complex workflow automation project. The customer values module A more and wants that to be delivered as soon as possible. However, the module A cannot be delivered prior to delivering module B due to some technical limitations. What is the relationship between module A and B?

Answer 46

Implementation dependency

This is an example of an implementation dependency; some requirements are dependent on the implementation of other requirements before they can be implemented. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 259]

Question 47

You are about to start the Confirm Elicitation Results process. Apart from the unconfirmed elicitation results obtained from the Conduct Elicitation process, which of the following inputs do you need for this process?

Answer 47

Elicitation preparation materials

The two inputs to the Confirm Elicitation Results process are elicitation preparation materials and unconfirmed elicitation results. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 170]

Question 48

A decision tree is a Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis technique. A decision tree is represented by a Decision Tree Diagram. The decision tree describes a situation under consideration, the implications of each of the available choices, and the possible scenarios. A Decision Tree Diagram shows how to make a decision among alternative capital strategies known as:

Answer 48

Decision nodes

The decision points are known as Decision nodes. The decision tree incorporates the cost of each available choice, the possibilities of each of the available choices, and possible scenarios. It shows how to make a decision among alternative capital strategies (decision nodes) when the environment is not known with certainty. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 435]

Question 49

You are leading a moderately complex process automation project. To identify the right resources for the project you need to understand the high-level product requirements. On an adaptive project, when would you schedule elicitation of high-level product requirements?

Answer 49

Iteration zero

In adaptive projects, elicitation of high-level product information occurs within iteration zero. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 163]

Question 50

You have been hired as a consultant to help an organization mature its business analysis skills and capabilities. You soon find out that the organization has not invested much in conducting Needs Assessment on any of its past projects. You are now helping the product teams understand the importance of conducting these critical business analysis processes. Most of the analysis completed during Needs Assessment is used in the development of which of the following business analysis artifacts?

Answer 50

Business case

Much of the analysis completed during Needs Assessment is used in the development of a business case. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 98]