PMI PBA Certification PMI-PBA Certification General 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which PMI-PBA performance domain is responsible for ensuring that requirements align with and support the organization's strategic goals?
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Needs Assessment (Correct answer)
- Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
- Solution Evaluation
Correct answer: Needs Assessment
Needs Assessment establishes that the proposed solution addresses a real business problem and aligns with strategic objectives before requirements are elaborated.
Question 2: A business analyst is preparing a context diagram. What does this diagram primarily show?
- Internal data flows between modules of the solution
- The system boundary and its interactions with external entities (Correct answer)
- The sequence of events in a business process
- The hierarchy of stakeholder roles
Correct answer: The system boundary and its interactions with external entities
A context diagram (level-0 DFD) shows the system as a single process, defining its boundary and illustrating all external entities that interact with it.
Question 3: When is it most appropriate to use a decision table as a requirements technique?
- When documenting the organizational hierarchy
- When capturing complex business logic with multiple conditions and corresponding actions (Correct answer)
- When mapping data flows between external systems
- When estimating project timelines
Correct answer: When capturing complex business logic with multiple conditions and corresponding actions
Decision tables are ideal for representing complex combinations of conditions and their resulting actions, ensuring complete coverage of all business rules.
Question 4: In the PMI-PBA framework, who is ultimately responsible for approving the requirements baseline?
- The business analyst
- The project manager
- The designated stakeholders with approval authority (typically the sponsor) (Correct answer)
- The development lead
Correct answer: The designated stakeholders with approval authority (typically the sponsor)
Requirements baselining requires sign-off from stakeholders with formal approval authority, typically including the project sponsor, not the BA or project manager alone.
Question 5: Which elicitation technique is best suited for gathering requirements from a large, geographically dispersed group of stakeholders simultaneously?
- Prototyping
- Focus Group
- Survey/Questionnaire (Correct answer)
- Document Analysis
Correct answer: Survey/Questionnaire
Surveys and questionnaires can reach large numbers of distributed stakeholders simultaneously and gather structured input efficiently at low cost.
Question 6: A BA is asked to assess whether an existing solution is still delivering value after two years in production. Which activity does this represent?
- Requirements elicitation
- Needs Assessment
- Solution Evaluation (Correct answer)
- Stakeholder Engagement
Correct answer: Solution Evaluation
Evaluating whether an in-production solution continues to deliver intended business value is a core Solution Evaluation activity, part of ongoing business analysis.
Question 7: Which statement accurately describes the difference between validation and verification of requirements?
- Verification checks that requirements are complete; validation checks that they are written correctly
- Verification confirms requirements are correctly specified; validation confirms requirements will deliver the right solution to the right problem (Correct answer)
- Validation is performed by developers; verification is performed by stakeholders
- There is no meaningful difference; the terms are interchangeable in PMI-PBA
Correct answer: Verification confirms requirements are correctly specified; validation confirms requirements will deliver the right solution to the right problem
Verification asks 'Are we building the thing right?' (correct specification), while validation asks 'Are we building the right thing?' (does it solve the actual business problem).
PMI PBA Certification PMI-PBA Certification General 5
Which PMI-PBA performance domain is responsible for ensuring that requirements align with and support the organization's strategic goals?