Agile Business Analysis Flashcards

What is the PRIMARY difference between 'given-when-then' and traditional use case formats for defining acceptance criteria?

Answer: Given-when-then expresses behavior in a scenario-based, testable format accessible to all team members

Given-when-then (BDD-style) writes acceptance criteria as concrete scenarios that are easily understood by business analysts, developers, and testers alike.

A business analyst is facilitating a product backlog refinement session and notices one story has a very high estimate. What should the analyst do?

Answer: Facilitate a discussion to understand complexity and split the story if needed

A high estimate often signals a story that is too large or complex and should be broken into smaller, more manageable pieces.

In Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), what is the role of a 'Business Owner' during PI Planning?

Answer: To provide business context and validate team objectives against business priorities

Business Owners attend PI Planning to provide strategic context, review team objectives, and ensure alignment with business priorities.

Which analysis technique helps a business analyst determine the minimum viable set of features needed to test a hypothesis with real users?

Answer: MVP (Minimum Viable Product) analysis

MVP analysis identifies the smallest feature set that delivers enough value to test core assumptions with actual users and gather feedback.

A product owner asks the business analyst to help prioritize the backlog. The team has limited capacity and many conflicting stakeholder requests. Which technique accounts for BOTH business value AND effort?

Answer: WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First)

WSJF prioritizes items by dividing the cost of delay by job duration, balancing business value against the effort required.

What does 'continuous discovery' mean in the context of Agile Business Analysis?

Answer: Ongoing user research and validation throughout the product lifecycle, not just at the beginning

Continuous discovery is the practice of regularly engaging with users and stakeholders throughout development to validate assumptions and learn from real feedback.

When creating a context diagram for an Agile project, what does it primarily show?

Answer: The system's boundaries and its interactions with external entities

A context diagram illustrates the system boundary and shows how the system interacts with external actors, systems, and data sources.