A Business Analyst is a person who can interprets and documents processes, products, services and software through data analysis. There are high demands for business analyst. Business Analyst is a good career because it offers strong salaries, plentiful job opportunities, and BAs generally report high job satisfaction and work-life balance. High demand also means there are more opportunities for Business Analysts to relocate to new cities, even new countries, or to work remotely.
Business Analysts’ skills are also highly transferable, which means they’re especially able to move to new sectors or take on new roles. This fact also speaks to their ability to advance their careers. Business Analysts’ resourcefulness and broad set of skills, combined with a high level of technical expertise, means they’re well poised to contribute to developing overarching business strategies, company and information systems architecture, process and program management, and project management – all top-tier aptitudes that translate into a higher level of job satisfaction, and can lead to executive positions.
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In this article we are providing some top questions to crack Business Analyst Interview.
Today, there is a huge requirement for Business Analysts in both technical and business areas irrespective of the domains. Over the last two decades, the role of a Business Analyst has evolved significantly
If you are commencing on the new role or experienced role in your Business analyst career, getting yourself ready with the different business analyst interview questions is essential. Because an interview is an art to represent yourself as a suitable candidate with proper justification of your knowledge to a company.
Top Business Analyst Interview Questions
Following are the top business analyst interview questions that are under the generic category and could be asked as a part of business analyst interview questions for any career levels.
Q: What according to you are the basic needs of a Business Analyst to accomplish his/her task?
A Business Analyst can have some basic requirements and they can be
1. Availability of the case scenarios
2. Access to logical data models
3. Data flow diagrams of the problems
4. Reports
5. Work Instructions
Q: Name some of the documents that a business analyst use to handle?
- Project vision document
- Use cases
- Requirement Management Plan
- User stories
- Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM)
- Business Requirement Document
- System Requirement Specification (SRS)/ System Requirement Document (SRD)
- Test case
- Functional Requirement Specification (FRS)/ Functional Specification Document (FSD)
Q: What is the role of a business analyst?
Business analysts essentially work as a bridge between different stakeholders in any organization. They clarify and finalize organizational requirements, and assist in project planning, designing, and validating developed components
Q: What is a requirement?
A requirement is a targeted solution to achieve specific business goals or objectives. It is an input to various stages of SDLC. This is a basis of a project which must be validated by the stakeholders and business users before implementation. Besides that, every requirement needs to be properly documented for future reference purpose.
Q: What is Use case?
A use case is a diagrammatic representation of a system which describes how a user uses a system to accomplish a goal. It is an integral part of software engineering and software modelling technique which defines the targeted features and the resolution of any possible errors which a user may encounter.
Q: What is Scope creep and how can you avoid scope creep?
Scope creep, or requirement creep is a term that relates to the uncontrolled changes or deviation in the project’s scope within the same resource range for example within same schedule and budget of the project. It’s an indication of poor project management and a viable risk to a project. Some of the possible causes of scope creep are:
- Poor communication between the project’s stakeholders
- Improper documentation of the project’s requirements
Q: What is Gap Analysis?
It is a technique to analyze the gap between the existing system and functionalities, and the targeted system. Here gap means the amount of task or change that may be required to get the intended result. It’s a performance level comparison between the present and the proposed functionalities.
Q: Name different actors in a use case diagram.
Broadly, there are two types of actors in a use case:
a. Primary Actors: Starts the process
b. Secondary Actors: Assists the primary actor
They can further be categorized as:
i. Human
ii. System
iii. Hardware
iv. Timer
Q: How will you define a good quality requirement as a business analyst?
We can measure the quality of a requirement using SMART rule. As per this rule, a good quality requirement should be:
Specific: The requirement should be specific and could be documented properly
Measurable: Different parameters can measure the success criteria of the requirement
Attainable: The requirement should be feasible within the scope of the given resources
Relevant: The requirement must be in line with the project’s business case
Timely: The requirement should be communicated early in the project lifecycle
Q: Define Personas?
Personas represents User-Centered Design methodologies. To enable an application capable of performing on a demographic basis, fictional characters are conceptualized by the business analysts and based on their possible demographic specific behavior scenarios are created during design.
Q: What is UML modelling?
UML stands for Unified Modelling Language. It is a standard that the industry uses for documenting, constructing and visualizing various components of a system. This modelling standard is primarily used for software development. However, it is also used for describing job roles, organizational functions, and business processes. Some of the important diagrams that BAs use as part of UML are the class diagram, state diagrams and use cases.
Q: What are the best practices to follow while writing a use case?
- To become a valid use case, the use case must provide some value back to the actor or stakeholder.
- The functional and non-functional requirements must be captured appropriately in the use case.
- The use case must have one or more alternate flow along with the main flow.
- The use case should only describe what the system does and not how it is done which means it will not describe the design. It will act as a black box from the viewpoint of an actor.
- The use case should not have any, i.e. it should be stand alone.
Q: Do you think a business analyst should be involved in testing?
Yes. Because a business analyst understands the overall system requirements and challenges associated with it very well. Hence, he can be instrumental during the testing phase to run it appropriately and resolve any system related query.
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Q: What is Pareto Analysis?
Pareto Analysis which is also known as 80/20 rule is a decision-making technique. It is a useful technique for defect resolution and quality control. As per this analysis rule, 20 % causes create 80 % effects in a system, which is why it is named as 80/20 rule.
Q: What is Kano analysis?
It is used to analyze a system regarding its requirements to identify its impact on customers’ satisfaction.
Q: What, according to you, are the major problems that a business can face in the present time?
Businesses are becoming more and more challenging at the present time. This is mainly because there are a lot of problems and issues they need to deal with to overcome the gap between the clients and the products. The main issue is finding the target audience. Marketing advertisements and campaigns don’t let businesses get the desired outcome when they lack it. In addition to this, there can be problems with quality. Moreover, anything that is enhancing the gap between a customer and an organization is nothing but the problems businesses usually face
Q: What is Benchmarking?
It is about measuring the performance of an organization to compete in the industry. In this process, a company may measure its policies, performance, rules and other measures.
Q: Name any two documents that are directly related to a use case?
These are the System Design Document and Functional Design Document. Both of these documents simply help the Business Analyst to make sure of superior outcomes without compromising with anything
Q: What is Pugh Matrix?
Pugh Matrix – Helps to decide the most optimal & alternate product solutions. As this technique is a standard line of the Six Sigma technique, it is known as the design matrix/problem.
Q: Describe the Gap Analysis?
It is utilized to analyze gaps between the existing system and its functionalities against the targeted system. The gap is inferred to the number of changes and tasks that need to be brought in to attain the targeted system. It compares performance between the present and the targeted functionalities.
Q: As a business Analyst, what would be the first strategy that you will opt for when it comes to solving problems?
A business analysis should have one supreme quality and i.e. the ability to lead a team thus leadership matters a lot more than anything else. Good technical knowledge about the domain also largely matters. In addition to this, effective communication with others also eliminates a lot of barriers for businesses.
Q: What are the steps of the requirements analysis process?
The requirements analysis process involves 4 steps, namely:
- Eliciting requirements
- Analyzing requirements
- Modeling requirements
- Reviewing requirements
Q: Do you think that a Business Analyst should have technical knowledge?
The Business Analyst has to access a lot of technology to find solutions to the problems concerned with the business. It is not always possible for them to depend on the other resources or employees for accessing the same. Thus, they must have good knowledge about the same. If a business analyst is from an IT background, there is nothing wrong to say that innovative solutions to the problems can also be assured by the organizations.
Q: How can you categorize the problems that are mainly related to a business?
The problems can be classified into following
- Employees- Issues
- Technology-related problems
- Lack of access to the resources
- Outdated Business systems/policies
- Business model errors
Q: Who is a Business Developer according to you?
A Business developer is a professional who works hard to let the organization identify their exact needs as well as the opportunities. He/she is also responsible for deciding the best available opportunities for the business and taking all the moral decisions associated with the same.
Q: What should a data analyst do with missing or suspected data?
- Use data analysis strategies like the deletion method, single imputation methods, and model-based methods to detect missing data.
- Prepare a validation report containing all information about the suspected or missing data.
- Scrutinize the suspicious data to assess their validity.
- Replace all the invalid data (if any) with a proper validation code.
Q: As a Business Analyst, what are your views on the inter-organization migration of employees?
Well, sometimes the problems declare their presence because of no other reason than no proper resources. In the current time, most of the members of a business workforce have good technical knowledge. Even employees have the interest to work with other departments in some cases. Migrating the employees from one department to another is generally not common but it can solve a very large number of business problems if this is managed by a team of experts. Business Analysts often perform this task to get the best possible outcome.
Q: Do you think a Business analyst should be engaged in testing and integrating new solutions?
Of course, this is because a business analyst has the right knowledge about the challenges associated with most of the tasks. Very useful information can be driven and the testing procedures can be made more useful. In addition to this, a business analyst can simply guide an organization on what better can be done in a solution while it is under a test.
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Q: What does KPI stand for?
It stands for Key Performance Indicator
Q: What is PaaS?
PaaS is one of the categories of cloud computing that provides a platform and environment to let the developers build apps and services over the internet. PaaS services are hosted in the cloud and are accessed by users simply through their web browsers.
Q: Name the tools that are used for business analysis?
The common tools used by a BA are Rational tools, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, MS Project, ERP systems, Jira and Confluence, Trello, Rational Requisite Pro, Balsamiq,Pencil, Microsoft Visio, Google Docs, and many more.
Q: What are the skills needed by BA for getting hired?
- Fundamental skills
- Technical skills
- Business Analysis skills
Q: Do you think different business models can create a challenge for the Business Analyst?
It depends on the credentials and skills of a professional in this domain. Although different businesses adopt different models that can highly impact the methods and other strategies, there are scenarios that are common among the different models that organizations are adopting these days.
Q: What is CaaS?
Communications as a Service (CaaS) is an outsourced scheme interactions solution that can be leased from a single vendor over the web.
Q: What is IaaS?
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides for virtualized computing resources over the internet itself.
Q: What is INVEST?
INVEST is an abbreviation of Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized appropriately, and Testable. This term is used by business analysts and project managers to deliver quality services and products.
Q: Are you aware of the different techniques like MoSCoW and SWOT?
MoSCoW stands for Must or Should, Could or Would. A business analyst should implement this process by comparing every demand with other needs to prioritize the framework requirements.
SWOT or Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis is the most widely used technique in organizations for proper resource allocation.
Q: What do you mean by the process design?
It helps businesses to analyze challenges and to find effective solutions for the same. Process design workflows are designed to get the best possible outcome in the shortest period.
Q: Explain UML and its uses?
UML or Unified Modeling Language is a general-purpose, developmental modelling language that provides a standard way to envision the system. It is used to rationalize the system behaviour for the detection and elimination of errors/bottlenecks.
Q: How to capture the non-functional requirements?
No-functional requirements are captured in the SRS document of a project.
Q: Should a business analyst get involved in testing?
Yes, a business analyst should get involved in testing because he is familiar with the overall requirements and challenges associated with an application or software project. Also, he can be instrumental in managing errors during the testing phase and resolving any system query.
Q: What is the purpose of the Requirement Traceability Matrix?
It records all the requirements given by a client and ensures that all the necessities are met.
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Q: What is an activity diagram and what are the important elements of it?
An activity diagram is a graphical representation of the sequence of activities that take place in a system. The main purpose of an activity diagram is to model the flow of control within a system.
There are four important elements that should be included in an activity diagram:
- Activities: These are the actions that take place within the system.
- States: These represent the different states that an activity can be in.
- Transitions: These indicate the order in which the activities take place.
- Objects: These are the objects that are affected by the activities.
Q: What is BPMN and what are its basic elements?
BPMN, short for Business Process Model and Notation, is a standard graphical notation used to model business processes.
The basic elements of BPMN are:
- Event: An occurrence that triggers a process
- Gateway: A decision point in a process
- Activity: A task that needs to be performed
- Data Object: Information that is required or produced by an activity
Q: What is the Agile Manifesto?
The Agile Manifesto is a set of principles for software development that emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.
Q: What are the various stages of a business project?
The main stages of any business or IT project are Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Closure.
Q: What do you mean by project deliverables?
These are the set of measurable services and products delivered to the end customer after project completion. It is the outcome of the project.
Q: What is BRD?
BRD is an abbreviation for Business Requirement Document. It is a formal contract between the organization and the client for the development of the specific product.
Q: What is RUP Methodology?
RUP or Rational Unified Process is a product improvement technique with numerous devices and tools. It guarantees successful project management in the end and top-notch software production too.
Q: What is RAD Methodology?
RAD or Rapid Application Development is an incremental method where project modules are developed in parallel as independent products.
Q: How will you define the requirement prioritization?
Requirement Prioritization is the process of allocating resources based on business urgency to multiple sources like costs, schedules, etc.
Q: What are the popular techniques for requirement prioritization?
Ans:-Here are the following techniques that can be used for requirement prioritization.
- Moscow Technique
- Requirements Ranking Method
- 100-dollar method
- Kano Analysis & More
- Five Whys
Q: What is Benchmarking?
Benchmarking is the process of measuring the performance of an organization in order to compete in the industry. This process involves the measure of its policies, performance, rules, and other such parameters.
Q: What is the difference between exception flow and alternate flow?
Alternate flows are the alternative actions that can be performed apart from the main flow and can be considered an optional flow.
Exception flow is the path traversed in case of any exception or error.
Q: How do you perform requirement gathering?
The requirement gathering process is generally divided into multiple steps which are agnostic to the SDLC cycle. Each step involves:
- specific tasks to perform
- principles to follow
- documents to produce
Q: What are the problems that a business analyst may face?
From the initiation to post-implementation of a project, a business analyst may face the following problems –
- Employees related issues
- Technology-related problems
- Access related
- Business policies-related issues
- Business model errors
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Q: Differentiate between a Risk and an Issue.
Risk is nothing but a problem or something that can be predicted earlier so that some improvement plans are used to handle them. Whereas, an ‘Issue’ means the risk that had happened or occurred.
Q: Explain critical path analysis.
A project that involved a set of activities from Start to Finish. A critical path is a set of activities that includes the longest path in the entire project.
Q: What is the meaning of OLTP?
OLTP is an abbreviation for Online Transaction Processing. It is a system that is widely used to perform transactions on a database. They are very important systems that help in the rapid addition and removal of data from the database.
Q: Can exception flow be considered the same as alternate flow?
No. Even though the concepts sound similar, they cannot be considered the same. Alternate flow talks about situations where system failure occurs while exception flow talks about correction if there is an occurrence of an error or an exception.
Q: Are you familiar with the difference between pool and swimlane?
In an activity diagram, pool denotes a single person engrossed in one activity, however, swimlane means activities among groups.
Q: What are the four key phases of business development?
The four key phases of business development:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
Q: When should you use the Waterfall model instead of Scrum?
If the requirement is simple and specific, we should go for the Waterfall model instead of Scrum.
Q: What is “Clustering?” Name the properties of clustering algorithms.
Clustering is a method in which data is classified into clusters and groups. A clustering algorithm has the following properties:
- Hierarchical Clustering
- Hard and soft
- Iterative
- Disjunctive
Q: What is Pugh Matrix?
Pugh Matrix – Helps to decide the most optimal & alternate product solutions. As this technique is a standard line of the Six Sigma technique, it is known as the design matrix/problem.
Q: List the components of the Requirements Work Plan.
- Project description
- Key issues
- Deliverables
- Goals and objectives
- Strategy
- Resources
- Budget and time
Q: How well can you explain System Analysis in a business?
It is nothing but a simple process of interpretation of the business needs and all the rules imposed by the management for the use of technical systems. The restrictions largely matter and businesses should pay very close attention to the same.
Q: What is a bigger threat – issue or risk?
The answer to this question has a direct dependency on the project at hand. Issue talks about the outcome of the events that have already occurred while a risk projection talks about a future event that is yet to occur.
Q: The SRS document is derived from BRD – True or False?
True. The Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document is derived from the BRD after the business analysts interact with the client regarding the requirements of the project at hand.
Q: What is the meaning of FMEA and how is it used?
FMEA is an abbreviation for Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It is an important part of business analysis that is used to showcase the contingency plans in terms of failure occurrence and its impact on the system.
Q: How to compare iterative and incremental development?
Iterative software development happens without any interruptions. While incremental software development follows the product design, implementation, and testing incrementally until the product is finished.
Q: How to compare scrum and extreme programming?
Scrum and extreme programming both are based on iteration known as sprints. However, sprinting may last from two weeks to months based on the project schedule. Extreme programming is more flexible than scrum as it does not allow changes during iterations.
Q: How should a business analyst perform risk management for your project?
A risk is an uncertain event that may cause an impact on the revenues and profits of the business. With risk management techniques, we can manage, identify, and control risks for a business.
Q: What is the abbreviation of SQUARE in business analysis?
SQUARE is an abbreviation for Security Quality Requirements Engineering. It is an important step in this domain that helps to document the requirements in terms of security for the system.
Q: How can you define a requirement elicitation strategy?
Requirement elicitation is the process of requirements gathering from stakeholders, users, customers by conducting sessions, meetings, interviews, questionnaires, or brainstorming prototyping, etc.
Q: Which to choose for project development, Waterfall, or Spiral models?
Well, it depends on the project’s nature. If requirements are simple then you can choose the waterfall in this situation otherwise you can opt for the Spiral model.
Q: Why is analytical reporting critical?
Since business analysis is a domain that aims to solve problems by using data, reporting is used to add value by providing concrete information, results of analytics, and recommendations in a structured manner. These reports can later serve as a foundation for stakeholders to decide upon a course of action.
Q: How to define the feasibility study?
The feasibility study is all about identifying the success rate of a proposed idea for a business problem. It helps in identifying new opportunities and focusing more on a project.
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