PMI-PBA Mock Exam Lite - 9

Question 1

Your organization has recently adopted Agile practices and all new internal projects are being managed using Agile methods. If you want to compare the performance of three projects, which of the following measures cannot be used?

Answer 1

Velocity

Any measure can be used to compare performance as long as the measure is used consistently on all projects. There is no issue with actual cost as that will be absolute values. Percent-completion, regardless of how that is measured, can be used for comparison; i.e., which project is near completion, etc. SPI and CPI are ratios and can be used for comparison. However, velocity is relative. Velocity is measured as story points are delivered per iteration on average. Since there is no universal measure for story points and different teams measure user stories differently, similar effort user stories can have different story points on two projects. Neither story points nor velocity can be used for comparison. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 148, 213, 416]

Question 2

During the course of the project a conflict between senior executives has arisen over project objectives and priorities. You requested the project sponsor for intervention but she has requested you instead to present her with available options. Assuming you haven’t carried out any of the following options, what must you do next?

Answer 2

Meet these executives and understand their expectations.

You should meet these executives and try to understand their expectations prior to escalating this issue to the sponsor. However, if this hasn’t been done yet, this needs to be done next. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 523; PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility]

Question 3

A new business transformation team has been setup and you have been appointed to lead this team. You need to analyze the organization’s business needs, identify a few opportunities and present these to the executive leadership team for further action. You have identified a few senior stakeholders who can help you identify business improvement opportunities; however, these stakeholders have extremely busy schedules and you can only plan your activities according to their schedules. Which of the following elicitation techniques should you use in this context?

Answer 3

Interviews

A facilitated workshop might not be possible because of the stakeholders’ schedule conflicts and document analysis is irrelevant to this context. Surveys and interview are two viable choices, however, interviews, being face-to-face interactive sessions, will give you better results in this situation. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 61]

Question 4

Agile teams generally use which of the following tools to keep project stakeholders informed of the project’s progress?

Answer 4

Burndown charts

A burndown chart is the most commonly used project’s progress presentation tool used by Agile teams. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 131]

Question 5

Which of the following statements regarding requirements management is correct for projects following a predictive lifecycle?

Answer 5

Requirements should be approved after verification and validation.

Approved requirements are requirements that are verified and validated. This doesn’t mean that when requirements are approved, they are automatically considered to be verified and validated. The Select and Approve Requirements process is performed after the Verify Requirements and Validate Requirements processes. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 263, 268]

Question 6

Your organization has recently launched a new online payments platform and have received a number of complaints. You have identified a number of underlying causes and analyzed their impacts. Which of the following management techniques can help you determine the set of causes you need to address first?

Answer 6

80/20 analysis

The 80/20 principle means that typically 80% of problems can be related back to 20% of the causes. Identifying the top 20% of the causes and addressing these causes will approximately resolve 80% of your problems. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 69]

Question 7

You have taken over a project as the lead business analyst. The project is currently in the planning stage and the outgoing business analyst has already developed a detailed business analysis plan. During the review of the business analysis plan, you find out that the selection of elicitation techniques was based on the stakeholders’ comfort zone and preferences. What is your opinion about this?

Answer 7

This is an acceptable practice.

There are a number of factors to consider when planning for elicitation. Selection of techniques that are familiar to the business analyst and key stakeholders involved is acceptable. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 53; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 8

You were reviewing the as-is and to-be process models with your stakeholders when several business rules have been identified by the stakeholders. Which of the following models should you build next that would map each identified rule to the related process step that enforces the rule?

Answer 8

Business rules catalog

A business rule catalog maps each business rule to the related processes or process steps that enforce the rule or data models that apply the rules. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 212]

Question 9

George is the business analyst on a system migration project. The project schedule allowed two months for concluding all elicitation activities. George is currently struggling to meet this deadline. Although seventy percent of elicitation work has been completed, requirements elicitation for some of the most valuable features have not been started yet. The project sponsor is not happy with the way George has conducted his elicitation activities so far. In your opinion, what was done wrong?

Answer 9

George did not plan his elicitation activities.

What is clear from the scenario is that George did not plan his elicitation activities, otherwise requirements relating to the higher value features would have been elicitated first. While the rest of the choices could be true, the scenario does not provide any evidence that any of these are true. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 54; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 10

All of the following are technical project management skills EXCEPT?

Answer 10

Maximizing the business value of the project.

Maximizing the business value of the project is an important skill required of a project manager. However, this is a business management skill and not considered a technical project management skill. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 58]

Question 11

Which of the following is a model user representing a set of similar end users described with their goals, motivations, and representative personal characterizes?

Answer 11

Persona

A persona defines an archetypical user of a system, an example of the kind of person who would interact with it. The idea is that if you want to design effective software, then it needs to be designed for a specific person. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 117]

Question 12

You are analyzing a set of risks and their impacts. You want to develop a model that will force you to consider each combination of the risks and document an appropriate mitigation strategy for each combination. Which of the following models should you use?

Answer 12

Decision Table

A decision table and decision tree are rule models that show a series of decisions or conditions and their outcomes. Decision trees visually show the flow of decisions or conditions. On the other hand, decision tables are useful for ensuring that the business analyst has considered all possible combinations of decision or condition scenarios and related outcomes. This can also be used to analyze the different combinations of risks as mentioned in the question. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 189]

Question 13

Robert’s project is a high-priority project for his organization. Project stakeholder engagement is crucial for the project’s success. Robert needs to discuss the project stakeholder engagement levels with his project team on a regular basis. Which of the following is the best platform where Robert can review this with his team?

Answer 13

Project status review meetings

The phase gates and the kill points are the project reviews that are done at the closure of each phase of the project. Managing stakeholder engagement levels should be a continuous process that does not wait for a project phase to complete. Information management systems can be used for the exchange of project information, but project status review meetings are interactive communication sessions among the project team members. A project status review meeting provides the best platform to discuss the current engagement levels of the project stakeholders. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 535]

Question 14

You have gathered all relevant product requirements for your project. The next step is to get an assurance review done by a working group to ensure that the product requirements meets the needs of the customer and other identified stakeholders. This review is an example of:

Answer 14

Validate requirements

Validate requirements is the process of checking that the requirements meet business goals and objectives. Validation is the assurance that a product meets the needs of the customer and other identified stakeholders. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 221]

Question 15

Predictive projects often have formal change control processes in place. On such projects, when are these processes typically initiated if a change to product requirements is requested?

Answer 15

Change control begins after requirements are approved.

In predictive projects, change control typically begins after the requirements are approved and not just when these are just verified or validated. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 275]

Question 16

There are several communication methods used to share and distribute information to stakeholders, team members, and management. Which of the following communication methods is used when you notify the public about environmental effects from your project after implementation by posting reports on the project’s website?

Answer 16

Pull communication

Push communication is used to send information to specific recipients who need to know. Push communication is done using letters, faxes, memos, etc. Pull communication is used for large volumes of information. The methods for this type of communication include internet sites and blogs. Since you want to notify the general public about environmental effects by posting reports on the project’s website, this is an example of pull communication methods. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 374]

Question 17

Your organization has recently initiated a data migration project. You have been assigned as the business analyst on the project. You need to agree and document the decision-making process for all your business analysis activities on the project. Where will the decision-making process be documented?

Answer 17

The business analysis plan

Throughout the business analysis process, there are a number of decisions that need to be made before work can commence. Once the team determines the decision process, it is documented within the business analysis plan. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 68; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 18

You are currently planning elicitation activities to understand and analyze the current state of a supply chain process in your organization. This is a cross-functional process and involves many stakeholders. What should be your elicitation approach?

Answer 18

Plan iterative elicitation cycles.

Elicitation is highly cyclical. Even when elicitation is being performed to understand a single concept, such as the current state of an existing process, the processes are iterated through multiple times to obtain perspectives from different sources. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 155]

Question 19

You are helping an organization improve and standardize its business analysis methods, processes, tools and techniques. You are also developing some key templates that the organizational business analysts can use on their projects to enhance consistency. Which of the following artifacts documents how the business analysis process will be performed?

Answer 19

Business analysis plan

A business analysis plan is created to document how the business analysis process will be performed, including the plan decisions agreed to by the project team. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 46; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 129]

Question 20

A product team is developing an enterprise system that has a huge product backlog with many features. The product features now need to be grouped together and depicted in a hierarchical structure to define the product scope. Which of the following models should be developed to depict the product scope?

Answer 20

Feature Model

A feature model is a scope model that visually represents all the features of a solution arranged in a tree or hierarchical structure. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 193]

Question 21

Assessing current state helps an organization understand its business, data, processes and its environment. This provides a starting point to determining the organization’s future-state. Which of the following statements regarding the Assess Current State process is correct?

Answer 21

Assess Current State often occurs in conjunction with Conduct Elicitation.

The Assess Current State process belongs to the Needs Assessment Knowledge Area and the Defining and Aligning Process Group. This process is performed after the Identify Problem or Opportunity process. The correct answer is: The Assess Current State process often occurs in conjunction with Conduct Elicitation process. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, pages 24, 64]

Question 22

PMBOK® Guide offers a number of tools and techniques for all the project management processes. These tools and techniques must be carefully applied in order to meet the objectives of any process. Which of the following is not a tool or technique of the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process?

Answer 22

Interpersonal skills

‘Interpersonal skills’ is not a tool or technique of the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process. The rest of the choice are valid tools or techniques. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 516]

Question 23

You are the business analyst for a CRM system design and development project. The project stakeholders are time constrained and you want to make best use of their time in an upcoming elicitation event. Which of the following would help you make best use of your stakeholder’s time?

Answer 23

Share the agenda and elicitation materials with the stakeholders and request some prework prior to the event.

As the business analyst, you need to set the agenda and you need to facilitate the event. Starting the event with a clear agenda and setting the ground rules is a good practice, but if you want to maximize the value of your stakeholder’s time, sharing the agenda and elicitation materials with them prior to the event will be a great idea. You may also request them to do some prework, for example, investigate the current system, brainstorm some requirements, or gather and bring some relevant material to the workshop. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 161]

Question 24

Unlike financial measures such as IRR and NPV, the primary disadvantage to the payback period is that it fails to take into account the time value of money. Which of the following financial measures eliminates this drawback of the payback period calculation?

Answer 24

Discounted Payback Period

The discounted payback period method removes the primary disadvantage of the payback period method by applying appropriate discount factors to each item in the cash flow stream. All other choices are made-up terms. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 90]

Question 25

A product team is developing a software using adaptive methods. Since the product backlog is frequently changing, you need a mechanism to ensure each new story added to the backlog is aligned with the defined business objectives and goals. What would you ask the team to test at the time of introducing new stories to the backlog?

Answer 25

Backward traceability

Backward traceability is performed from the requirements to the scope features and business goals and objectives that triggered them. Forward traceability is performed from the requirements to design and test components and ultimately, the final product. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 253]

Question 26

You are managing an in-house ERP System development project for an organization with over 5,000 employees. The project was initiated more than a year ago but it is still in the planning stage. Although the high-level project scope has been documented and approved, the project is currently struggling with the elicitation and documentation of detailed system requirements that are required by the developers to build and test the system. A number of stakeholder workshops have been conducted in the past to collect these detailed requirements but the stakeholders seem to change their mind regarding the design specifics on almost every occasion as they have no prior experience of using such a system and are struggling to specify requirements. How should you resolve this issue?

Answer 26

Apply Agile methods such as prototyping to help users specify, clarify and validate system requirements.

You have a very specific issue at hand; the stakeholders are struggling to specify their requirements through workshops. In projects with such uncertainty, Agile methods come in handy. Prototyping is used to elicit and validate stakeholder needs through an iterative process that creates a model for design of requirements. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, page 133]

Question 27

A product has undergone a number of changes since its inception. You are currently reviewing the product backlog and ensuring that each user story has a relationship to a product requirement, business goals, or business objectives from which it originated. Which technique should you apply?

Answer 27

Backward traceability

Backward traceability is a technique that establishes the relationship of a requirement to the scope, business goals, or business objectives from which it originated. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 388]

Question 28

Your team has been recently awarded a project to develop an accounting system for a construction company. In order to fulfil the contractual requirements, the team has to follow a predictive lifecycle on this project. Which of the following scope analysis techniques can be utilized?

Answer 28

Work breakdown structure

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a planning technique for projects using a predictive lifecycle. WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work. Story mapping is a technique used for adaptive projects. The other two choices are not scope analysis techniques. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 134]

Question 29

During an elicitation event, you find that some of the participants are not clear about the problem the proposed solution is looking to address. How should you address this issue?

Answer 29

Walk the stakeholders through the situation statement.

Adjourning the meeting will be an extreme step. Seems like the stakeholders have not read or properly understood the situation statement. It is advisable to walk them through the situation statement to set the context for the meeting. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 162]

Question 30

You are leading business analysis activities for an enterprise-level development project which is currently in the requirements elicitation and analysis stage. You are running a requirements elicitation workshop and find that the stakeholders are struggling to specify their product requirements in a level of detail required for development. What should you do next?

Answer 30

Capture the stakeholder requirements as user stories.

It is not uncommon for business stakeholders to struggle in trying to articulate their requirements in detail required for product development. Agile methods solve this problem by allowing a business analyst to document the stakeholders needs as user stories and work on elaborating these stories later. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 215]

Question 31

A project team has recently initiated a complex knowledge work project. Due to the complexity of the project and unclear project scope, the team has decided to apply adaptive project management techniques to manage this project. One key characteristic of adaptive lifecycles, such as the Agile approach for product development, is that product features are developed using:

Answer 31

Time-boxed periods of work

In adaptive life cycles, the requirements are documented in user stories that are then prioritized and refined. The product features are developed using time-boxed periods of work. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 177]

Question 32

Your organization has successfully rolled out a new human resource management system into the organization. You have served as the business analyst on this project. Now since the project is over, what should you do with the project’s business analysis plan?

Answer 32

Store it as an organizational process asset.

The outcome of business analysis activities will give you your lessons learned but the business analysis plan itself is not updated to the lessons learned library. Recalling, discarding and including this in the project’s final report do not make any sense. You need to store this as an organizational process asset so that future project and product teams may benefit from it. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 67; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 111]

Question 33

You are working with stakeholders to define the metrics that will later be used for evaluating the product’s performance. Several metrics have been proposed that you would like to prioritize. Which of the following techniques you can use to prioritize these metrics?

Answer 33

MoSCoW

Prioritization schemes such as MoSCoW can help decide which metrics must, should, could, and won’t be collected. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 289]

Question 34

You manage an airport construction project. Since sophisticated technology and systems are involved, your project procurements require significant lead times. Your procurement specialist has recently proposed a new procurements management process that will significantly reduce these lead times and result in cost savings for the project. Besides implementing this new process, what else should you do?

Answer 34

Update the lessons-learned database

Sharing lessons learned information on mistakes, innovations and outcomes from projects can have a positive impact on your next project. The procurement specialist came up with a cost- and time-saving technique and this will prove to be valuable for future projects. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 484]

Question 35

You are reviewing your product backlog and slicing the user stories. As a result of this activity, which of the following requirements relationship you should immediately document with each sliced story?

Answer 35

Subsets

All sliced stories have a subset relationship with the original story. Other relationship types may or may not exist, but you need to document the subset links. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 261]

Question 36

Joe has been managing a project for Exton Oil Corp. This project involves redesigning filling stations across the state. The redesign involves new gas pumps, security cameras, convenience stores, and use of environmentally friendly materials in the construction. While the redesigning work proceeds, Joe’s design engineer suggests a secondary alarm system for gas pumps to alert the attendant in case of a spill. Although this suggestion is not in the project requirements, Joe is impressed with the engineer’s recommendation. What should be the next step for Joe with regard to the engineer’s suggestion?

Answer 36

Initiate the formal change control process to find the impact of his recommendation

Change requests should always be recorded in written form and entered in the change management system to determine the impact of the change on the scope, budget, schedule and quality. Thus, Joe must initiate the formal change control process. After approval from the change control board, Joe can allocate resources and funds to implementing the change. Hence, Joe must initiate the change first. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 113]

Question 37

Adam has just taken over a construction project. The project is currently in the planning phase of the project lifecycle. Adam’s next deliverable is to produce an effective stakeholder engagement strategy. Which of the following is the most important component of an effective stakeholder engagement plan?

Answer 37

Communications

An effective stakeholder engagement plan recognizes the diverse information needs of the project’s stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement relies on continuous communication with stakeholders to understand their needs and expectations, addressing issues as they occur, managing conflicts and fostering stakeholder engagement. [PMBOK® Guide 6th edition, Page 518]

Question 38

ABC Co. is currently developing a business analysis guide to help business analysts apply business analysis tools and techniques consistently across all organizational major CAPEX projects. On predictive projects, once the business analyst drafts the business analysis plan and the business analysis approach, what is the business analyst’s next action item?

Answer 38

Review the business analysis plan with the key stakeholders.

Once the business analysis plan is completed, the business analyst reviews the plan with the key project stakeholders. The objective for the review is to reduce the risk of stakeholders failing to support business analysis activities when the work begins. Commencing the requirements elicitation process or developing the product breakdown structure without having the business plan reviewed and approved will be risky. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 67; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 127]

Question 39

You are leading a requirement review and approval workshop with some senior project stakeholders. During the workshop, a conflict developed between the stakeholders over some requirements. Which of the following is a consensus-building technique you can use to find common ground?

Answer 39

Delphi technique

Delphi is a consensus-building technique. Stakeholders participate in this technique anonymously. This uses rounds of anonymous voting till common ground is found. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 265]

Question 40

DynamicSoft is a new startup company. The CEO believes that the organization would benefit from an ERP implementation and digitization of all core processes. Since this is a new organization, resistance to change is minimum. The requirement for ERP implementation is a:

Answer 40

Business requirement

A business requirement describes the higher-level needs of an organization such as business issues and opportunities. On the other hand, solution requirements describe the features, functions and characteristics of a product that will meet a business requirement. Functional and non-functional requirements are types of solution requirements. In this case, the requirement to implement an ERP system is a business requirement. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 10]

Question 41

You have completed the elicitation activities for your project. In your organization, at this stage, all analysts are required to present their elicitation results to a review committee and obtain a go/no go decision. At the upcoming review meeting, you are required to present your elicitation results in a concise manner. Which of the following is the best thing to do?

Answer 41

Develop models for the elicited information.

Models are visual representations of information, in the form of diagrams, tables, or structured text, that effectively arrange and convey a lot of information in a concise manner. Developing models for the elicited information is the best option for you. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 184]

Question 42

You are leading the business analysis activities for a software development project. To complete your business analysis plan for the project, you need to quickly develop your business analysis work plan and get it approved. What is the first step in building the business analysis work plan?

Answer 42

Identifying the deliverables that the business analyst is responsible for producing.

The business analysis work plan is a subcomponent of the business analysis plan. The business analysis work plan is ultimately integrated with the project management plan. The first step in building the plan is identifying the deliverables that the business analyst is responsible for producing. [Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 61; The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 146]

Question 43

Which of the following processes will you perform to supplement the user stories in your product backlog with additional information from business stakeholders?

Answer 43

Story elaboration

Story elaboration is the process by which user stories are supplemented with additional information from conversation with business stakeholders, until they are sufficiently detailed for product development to begin. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 219]

Question 44

You are the lead business analyst on a supply chain management system implementation project in your organization. The project sponsor tells you that the new system must be available to all employees so that they may submit their requisitions. All requisitions must be approved by the line managers through the system. This is an example of a:

Answer 44

Functional requirement

This is an example of a functional requirement. Functional requirements describe the functionality and the behavior of the system. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 10]

Question 45

Which of the following processes should you perform to check that requirements are of sufficient quality?

Answer 45

Verify requirements

Verify requirements is the process of checking that requirements are of sufficient quality. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 221]

Question 46

You are conducting a workshop where you have collected several business improvement ideas from the stakeholders. Once all the ideas were collected, you put these together in the form of an affinity diagram. What is the benefit of this approach?

Answer 46

The affinity diagram will sort all the ideas into categories and sub-categories.

Affinity diagrams display categories and subcategories of ideas that cluster or have an affinity to one another. These are used to process a large amount of information or ideas into a manageable set of data organized by categories. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 77]

Question 47

A project team has recently initiated a procurements management system development project. The following diagram was included in the project’s business case. The diagram doesn’t document:

Answer 47

System requirements

This is an example of a context diagram. A context diagram defines the boundary between the system and its environment. This diagram is a high-level view of a system. The context diagram is an example of a scope model. It shows the system boundary, the actors and their interactions. However, the context diagram doesn’t capture system requirements. [PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition, Page 146]

Question 48

You want to develop a scope model for your product that shows all the relevant systems, the relationships between the systems, and any data objects passed between them. Which of the following models should you develop?

Answer 48

Ecosystem Map

An ecosystem map is a scope model that shows all the relevant systems, the relationships between the systems, and optionally, any data objects passed between them. None of the other choices are the models that are relevant in this context. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 190]

Question 49

You are conducting a post-implementation solution evaluation of a product one year after its release. The product was expected to generate an IRR of 25%. Reviewing the actual financial performance, you find out that the product actual IRR is 30%. How would you document this finding in your final report?

Answer 49

The product exceeded its target financial performance.

The higher the IRR, the better. During the post-implementation review we consider the result of an actual versus expected cost-benefit analysis to assess the business value of the solution. In this case, the product exceeded its targeted financial performance. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 283]

Question 50

A project requires an initial investment of $100,000 and returns $22,961 annually for the next six years (one payment at the end of each year). At 5% discount rate, the present value of all cash inflows is $116,542. What’s the project’s payback period?

Answer 50

Five years

The total returns at the end of fourth year = $22,961 x 4 = 91,844, while the total returns at the end of the fifth year = $22,961 x 5 = $114,805. In order to recover the full initial investment, you need to wait till the end of fifth year. [The PMI Guide to Business Analysis, page 90]