Agile Business Analysis Strategy and Initiative Horizons 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An organization realizes that most of its portfolio budget is consumed by Horizon 1 initiatives. What is the PRIMARY strategic risk of this imbalance?
- Excessive innovation spending
- Under-investment in future growth, leaving the organization vulnerable when core markets mature (Correct answer)
- Too many experiments failing simultaneously
- Over-staffing of agile teams
Correct answer: Under-investment in future growth, leaving the organization vulnerable when core markets mature
Over-indexing on Horizon 1 protects the present but starves future growth, creating a strategic vulnerability as core markets eventually plateau.
Question 2: A business analyst facilitates a 'Business Model Canvas' session for a new initiative. Which building block specifically captures the initiative's revenue model?
- Value Propositions
- Key Resources
- Revenue Streams (Correct answer)
- Customer Segments
Correct answer: Revenue Streams
The Revenue Streams building block of the Business Model Canvas describes how the initiative will generate income from each customer segment.
Question 3: In SAFe Lean Portfolio Management, what is the role of the 'Strategic Themes' during portfolio sync?
- To assign individual user stories to developers
- To provide business context that helps the portfolio prioritize and fund value streams appropriately (Correct answer)
- To replace the need for PI Planning
- To define coding standards for engineering teams
Correct answer: To provide business context that helps the portfolio prioritize and fund value streams appropriately
Strategic themes connect the portfolio to the enterprise strategy, ensuring that funding and prioritization decisions during portfolio sync reflect business direction.
Question 4: A business analyst is asked to identify leading indicators for a Horizon 2 initiative still in early development. Which of the following is a LEADING indicator?
- Revenue generated last quarter
- Number of pilot customers actively using the prototype (Correct answer)
- Total cost spent on the initiative so far
- Employee headcount on the initiative team
Correct answer: Number of pilot customers actively using the prototype
The number of engaged pilot customers is a leading indicator because it predicts future adoption before revenue materializes.
Question 5: An agile BA must recommend whether to pursue a 'build, buy, or partner' strategy for a capability gap. What is the MOST important factor to evaluate first?
- The vendor's geographic location
- Strategic importance and differentiation of the capability to the organization (Correct answer)
- The team's personal preference
- The number of features available in each option
Correct answer: Strategic importance and differentiation of the capability to the organization
If the capability is core and differentiating, building in-house is typically preferred; commodity capabilities are often better bought or partnered.
Question 6: Which planning horizon is MOST appropriate for agile portfolio roadmaps that balance commitment with adaptability?
- Fixed 5-year plan with locked scope
- Rolling 12–18 month roadmap with progressively less detail for later quarters (Correct answer)
- Week-by-week sprint schedule
- Single-quarter fixed plan
Correct answer: Rolling 12–18 month roadmap with progressively less detail for later quarters
A rolling 12–18 month roadmap provides enough foresight for stakeholders while maintaining agility to adapt as strategy and market conditions evolve.
Question 7: During a portfolio retrospective, the team discovers that initiatives repeatedly miss their expected business outcomes. What should the business analyst recommend addressing FIRST?
- Increase the number of initiatives in the portfolio
- Improve benefit realization tracking and outcome-based success criteria at initiative inception (Correct answer)
- Shorten all sprint lengths
- Remove outcome metrics to reduce reporting overhead
Correct answer: Improve benefit realization tracking and outcome-based success criteria at initiative inception
Poorly defined outcome criteria at inception make it impossible to measure or course-correct; fixing this upstream prevents systematic benefit realization failures.
Agile Business Analysis Strategy and Initiative Horizons 5
An organization realizes that most of its portfolio budget is consumed by Horizon 1 initiatives.
What is the PRIMARY strategic risk of this imbalance?