Certified Business Analysis Professional Sample 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A business analyst is facilitating a requirements elicitation workshop and stakeholders keep introducing scope changes. What is the BEST immediate action?
- Accept all changes to maintain stakeholder goodwill
- Document the changes in a parking lot for later review (Correct answer)
- Reject all changes to protect the project schedule
- Escalate immediately to the project sponsor
Correct answer: Document the changes in a parking lot for later review
A parking lot captures ideas without derailing the workshop, allowing them to be evaluated later through proper change control.
Question 2: Which elicitation technique is MOST effective when stakeholders are geographically dispersed and cannot meet synchronously?
- Focus groups
- Observation
- Surveys and questionnaires (Correct answer)
- JAD sessions
Correct answer: Surveys and questionnaires
Surveys and questionnaires allow asynchronous data collection from stakeholders regardless of location or time zone.
Question 3: A BA notices that two business units have conflicting requirements. According to BABOK, what should the BA do FIRST?
- Implement the requirement from the higher-ranking business unit
- Facilitate a conflict resolution session with both parties (Correct answer)
- Remove the conflicting requirements from scope
- Ask the project manager to decide which requirement to keep
Correct answer: Facilitate a conflict resolution session with both parties
The BA should facilitate conflict resolution to help stakeholders reach a mutually acceptable solution before escalating.
Question 4: In the context of CBAP, what does 'solution scope' define?
- The budget allocated for the solution
- The boundaries of what the solution will and will not include (Correct answer)
- The timeline for solution delivery
- The list of approved vendors for the solution
Correct answer: The boundaries of what the solution will and will not include
Solution scope defines the capabilities and features included in the solution and explicitly excludes out-of-scope items.
Question 5: A stakeholder requests a feature that satisfies their stated need but contradicts their underlying business objective. A skilled BA should:
- Implement the feature as requested to maintain trust
- Analyze the underlying need and propose an alternative solution (Correct answer)
- Decline the request without explanation
- Defer the decision to the development team
Correct answer: Analyze the underlying need and propose an alternative solution
A BA must understand the root business need and advocate for solutions that truly address it, not just stated wants.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes a 'business requirement' in BABOK terminology?
- A technical specification for a software feature
- A high-level statement of a goal, objective, or need of the enterprise (Correct answer)
- A detailed description of how a system should behave
- A constraint imposed by regulatory bodies
Correct answer: A high-level statement of a goal, objective, or need of the enterprise
Business requirements describe goals and objectives at the enterprise level, independent of any specific solution.
Question 7: When validating requirements, what is the PRIMARY goal a BA is trying to achieve?
- Ensuring requirements are written in the correct format
- Confirming requirements will deliver value when implemented (Correct answer)
- Getting sign-off from all stakeholders
- Verifying requirements trace back to business goals
Correct answer: Confirming requirements will deliver value when implemented
Requirements validation confirms that implementing the requirements will actually fulfill business needs and deliver expected value.
A business analyst is facilitating a requirements elicitation workshop and stakeholders keep introducing scope changes.
What is the BEST immediate action?