Top 20 BA Interview Questions

1. What are Flow Charts? Why they are used by Business Analysts?

The Flow charts are one of the representations that are used explain various technical and non-technical concepts in a pictorial representation. With the help of flow Charts, the business analysts can effectively showcase the business concepts and plans to the shareholders.

2.What are the common types of diagram used by Business Analysts?

The diagram and representation skills are one of the important skills required for Business Analysts. Among many diagrams used by Business Analysts, activity diagrams, case diagrams and sequence diagrams are used frequently.

3.What is the different thinking abilities required to be a Business Analyst?

In order to accomplish business analysis successfully, the business analyst need to invest adequate logical thinking, technical thinking and critical thinking abilities at appropriate phases of analysis.

4.What are the things to consider while handling changes to requirements?

Firstly, there is a need prioritize the changes to requirements, impact of those changes on the project and the scope of the changes before handling those changes to requirements.

5.What is Impact analysis?

Impact analysis is used by the business analysts to project the cost, resources and timeline consumed by the project or any changes in the requirements of the project.

6. What are popular Business Intelligence tools used by the Business Analysts?

SAP BI tools, Excel Plugins, OLAP are some of the business intelligence tools used by the business analysts.

7. How soft skills help the business analysts?

Soft skills and communication skills will help the business analysts to handle the difficult stakeholders and to share the ideas and business implementation strategies with the team and stakeholders effectively.

8. What is the key strength that every business analyst should possess?

Technical Expertise – Every business analyst should acquire adequate technical knowledge to understand the working of technical aspects in the business.

Business Intelligence – A business analyst should be aware of all the important business intelligence concepts and approaches.

BI Tools – There were several business intelligence tools like SAP BI which supports the business analysts in accelerating and easing their tasks and responsibilities.

9. What is SDD?

SDD is the short form of System Design Document and it is the very essential for sharing the knowledge between the users and the developers.

10. Explain a typical project approach of a Business Analyst.

A typical project approach involves a business analyst to examine and estimate the deliverable and the general phases to reach the target.

11. What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis is defined as the process of enabling a change process in the organization. It involves a set of tasks and techniques to liaison with various project stakeholders define their needs and recommend solutions to meet the defined goals.

12. Who is a Business Analyst (BA)?

Business analysts are professionals who serve as the bridge between business and technical stakeholders. Their role involves eliciting and managing requirements, UAT, implementation of systems, end-user training, and implementation support. Business analysts are key personnel in software development projects.

13.What is IIBA?

IIBA stands for International Institute of Business Analysis. It is a globally renowned independent organization dedicated to the field of business analysis. This non-profit organization is actively engaged in serving Business Analysis field by providing resources, training and credentials to improve the knowledge of business analysts around the world. You can find the IIBA accredited certification training providers among the above trainers list.

14. What is the responsibility of a Business Analyst?

A communication link between the team and the stakeholders is the very most important responsibilities of Business System Analysts.

15. What do you see as the key strengths of a Business Analyst?

Business Analysis is increasing and developing profession. There are some key strengths of a Business Analyst and they are

• Communication skills
• Core Skills
• Critical Planning Skills
• Problem Resolving Skills
• Business Analysis Skills
• Visual Modelling
• Analysis Skills
• Documentation and Specification Skills
• Facilitation and Elicitation Skills

You may like to read this article ‘How to Construct an Effective Business Analyst Resume?‘

16. What is the purpose of a flowchart?

A flowchart visually shows the arrangement of doing in a process and who is in charge for those activities.

17. What are the goals of Business Analyst?

There are some of the goals that Business Analyst wants to achieve,

• Creating Solutions
• Gives sufficient tools for robust project management
• Develop productivity and reduce waste
• Provide vital documentation, like necessities document, project beginning documents, and others.

18. What does the term ‘Problem Domain’ mean to a Business Analyst?

In broad terms, the Problem Domain describes the area undergoing analysis. The scope of the problem domain needs to be identified upfront by the Business Analyst. The size and scope of the problem domain can vary greatly depending on the goals of the project being undertaken. The scope may align with the boundaries of an entire organization or it may be much more granular, aligning with a single organizational unit, a specific business process, or a particular system.

Even when the scope of the problem domain aligns with the boundaries of a particular group or system it may also include stakeholders outside of the process or organizational group such as customers, suppliers, or any other stakeholder which provides an input or accepts an output of a process, organization, or system.

19. What is an epic, and what purpose does it serve on an Agile project?

Business epics are large, typically cross-cutting initiatives that encapsulate new development needed to realize certain business benefits. One or more epics can form the basis for the business case that justifies and initiates a project.

Epics are often used as placeholders for new ideas that have not been thought out fully, or whose full elaboration has been deferred until actually needed. Epics are then evolved into split into multiple user stories that help Agile development teams effectively manage and groom their product backlog.

20. How are personas used in requirements elicitation on agile projects?

• A persona is a description of a fictional person, representing key characteristics of a specific user class or group. Personas provide models of the user community that make it easier for project teams to understand and predict how users will act and react, based on characteristics such as age, education, knowledge, and attitudes.
• A key purpose that personas serve on agile projects is in the formulation of user stories, so that each story is written from the perspective of a distinct person with known attributes – rather than a generic “user” or job role.
• Personas are also invaluable in making design decisions, and determining how usability can be optimized for the user community.
• As with all other aspects of Agile projects, personas should be developed collaboratively among the team and refined in iterative manner over the course of the project.