Business Analysis in Agile Environments Flashcards

A business analyst is asked to facilitate a 'pre-mortem' before a major product release. What is the PRIMARY purpose of this technique?

Answer: To proactively identify potential failure points by imagining the project has already failed and working backward

A pre-mortem asks the team to imagine failure has already occurred, which surfaces risks and hidden concerns that might otherwise go unspoken.

When using MoSCoW prioritization in agile, which category of requirements should the BA and product owner be MOST cautious about overloading?

Answer: Must Have

Overloading 'Must Have' undermines prioritization by making everything equally critical, defeating MoSCoW's purpose of forcing trade-offs.

Which of the following BEST describes the concept of 'minimal marketable feature' (MMF) in agile business analysis?

Answer: The smallest set of functionality that delivers enough value to be worth releasing to customers

An MMF is the smallest unit of functionality that provides sufficient value to be released and generate meaningful customer feedback or business benefit.

A business analyst is working with a distributed agile team across three time zones. Which practice MOST helps maintain shared understanding of requirements?

Answer: Using collaborative digital tools (e.g., shared backlogs, wikis, video refinement sessions) with asynchronous documentation to bridge time zone gaps

Shared digital tools combined with asynchronous documentation enable distributed agile teams to maintain alignment on requirements without requiring simultaneous availability.

In agile, the concept of 'last responsible moment' (LRM) for decision-making means a BA should:

Answer: Delay decisions until the last point where choosing not to decide would eliminate a valuable option, allowing more information to inform the choice

LRM preserves decision-making flexibility by waiting until deferral is no longer possible without losing options, allowing decisions to be based on maximum information.

What is the PRIMARY purpose of a business analyst participating in the sprint planning ceremony?

Answer: To help the team understand the intent and acceptance criteria of selected user stories so work can be planned accurately

The BA's role in sprint planning is to clarify story intent and acceptance criteria, ensuring the team understands what 'done' looks like before committing to delivery.

When a business analyst uses 'kano analysis' to prioritize features, which category describes features that cause dissatisfaction when absent but are unnoticed when present?

Answer: Must-be (basic) features

Must-be features are baseline expectations—their absence causes strong dissatisfaction, but their presence is taken for granted and provides no incremental delight.