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A company with a big information technology (IT) department has hired a lead business analyst (BA) to enhance its business analysis practices. The lead BA discovers that sponsors are not satisfied with project outcomes. Developers complain about incomplete, ambiguous, and changing requirements. All stakeholders, including project managers, are blaming long cycles of analysis for the delays. The business analysts, in turn, feel overwhelmed with the number of projects and frustrated by the lack of collaboration from reviewers of their deliverables. All of the evidence is anecdotal and none of the groups could strongly substantiate their opinions.
The lead BA wants the BAs to report anticipated and actual completion dates for their deliverables, as well as the time spent on planned and unplanned activities. What is the lead BA trying to do by analyzing the results of such measurements?
Correct Answer: A
The lead BA is trying to improve the business analysis practices by finding out the root causes of the problems and inefficiencies in the current state. By measuring the time spent on planned and unplanned activities, the lead BA can identify the typical missing or wasteful activities that are affecting the quality and timeliness of the d eliverables. For example, the lead BA may discover that the BAs are spending too much time on rework, clarifications, or scope changes due to poor elicitation, validation, or prioritization techniques. The lead BA can then propose solutions to address thes e issues and enhance the business analysis performance and value. References :
CBAP / CCBA Certified Business Analysis Study Guide, 2nd Edition , Chapter 2: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, page 57
Senior Business Analysis Certification CBAP® | IIBA® , Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, page 5
The business analyst (BA) has been tasked with assessing and recommending the best solution that fits an
organization ' s need for a new third-party sales tool.
What technique would be used for identifying suitable options?
Correct Answer: B
Decision analysis is a technique for identifying and evaluating the possible options for a given problem or situation. It involves defining the criteria, alternatives, and consequences of each option, and applying a decision-making method to select the best option 1 2 . Decision analysis can be used for assessing and recommending solutions that fit an organization’s need for a new third-party sales tool, as it can help to compare the features, benefits, costs, and risks of differe nt vendors or products. The other options are not techniques for identifying suitable options, but rather tools or methods for other purposes. A balanced scorecard is a tool for measuring and managing the performance of an organization or a solution 3 . A vendor assessment is a method for evaluating the capabilities and suitability of a potential vendor or supplier 4 . A process an alysis is a technique for understanding and improving the current or future state of a business process
A company that specialized in manufacturing vending machines for books has been in business for 10 years. As the e-book and online retailing grow, the company perceived that a change is required to respond to the new emerging market forces. However, the change should focus on reusability as much as possible to reduce expenses. After analyzing the current state with the business subject matter experts, the business analyst
(BA) proposed investing in a new business line of vending machines that sell pay per use mobile device phone fast charging stations.
Due to the urgency of this change, the BA was asked to finalize requirements elicitation in the shortest possible time.
The BA was able to complete requirements elicitation activities in a short period of time. Which type of elicitation approach did the BA use?
Correct Answer: B
A collaborative approach is a type of elicitation approach that involves working with multiple stakeholders simultaneously to elicit, analyze, and validate requirements. A collabo rative approach can help to complete requirements elicitation activities in a short period of time, as it can:
Reduce the number of individual meetings and interviews that need to be conducted
Increase the quality and quantity of information that can be gathered from different perspectives and sources
Enhance the communication and understanding among the stakeholders and the BA
Promote the consensus and agreement on the requirements and the solution scope
Identify and resolve any conflicts, issues, or gaps in the requirements
Some examples of collaborative elicitation techniques are:
Requirements workshops: A structured and facilitated session that brings together a group of stakeholders to elicit, analyze, and prioritize requirements
Brainstorming: A technique that generates a large number of ideas or solutions from a group of stakeholders in a creative and spontaneous manner
Focus groups: A technique that collects the opinions, preferences, and feedback of a group of stakeholders on a specific topic or issue
Prototyping: A technique that creates a simplified or partial version of the solution to elicit, demonstrate, and validate requirements
The other options are not correct because they are not types of elicitation approaches, but rather techniques that can be used within an elicitation approach. An experiment is a technique that tests a hypothesis or an assumption by observing the results of a controlled or simulated scenario. An estimation is a technique that approximates the size, cost, duration, or effort of a project or a solution. A research is a technique that collects and analyzes information from existing sources, such as documents, reports, databases, etc.
References :
[BABOK Guide v3], Section 4.2: Conduct Elicitation, p. 100-101
Types of Elicitation Techniques for the Business Analyst , Blog Post, September 2018
Elicitation Techniques Used by Business Analysts – Tips and Guidance , Blog Post, July 2023
Which of the following is a conversation between one or more speakers centering on one specific topic?
Correct Answer: B
A presentation is a conversation between one or more speakers center ing on one specific topic, such as a business analysis technique, a solution option, or a project status update. Presentations are used to communicate information, persuade stakeholders, or demonstrate a solution. Presentations can be delivered in various formats, such as slides, videos, or posters. Presentations are one of the 50 business analysis techniques described in the BABOK® Guide. References :
BABOK® Guide , section 10.41, Presentation
CBAP / CCBA Certified Business Analysis Study Guide, 2nd Edition , chapter 8, Eli citation and Collaboration Techniques, page 247
Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) | Coursera , course 3, Business Analysis: Elicitation a nd Collaboration, week 3, Presentation
A very large insurer of General Liability and Property Damage insurance has an upward trend of increased claims over the past 5 years.
The Risk Control Area for that company has just completed a 12 month Pilot of a new improved Risk Control Site.
The purpose of the site is to help their customers manage their exposures and ideally prevent them from having claims There were 100 customers that were part of the Pilot that represented 25 different industries. The business goals were to increase use of the site and provide tools to help customer awareness of their exposures, so that they may reduce existing exposures and ultimately reduce claims.
The sites Features were as follows:
* Improvements to the search engine to all customers to search for articles, tools and services on the site
* A checklist function that allow customer to create their own unique Checklists or utilize a sample provided by ABC company to use daily, weekly etc for an area of their facility.
* A promotion feature - where Risk preventing Articles, and tools on the site are marketed toward a customer.
* A profile section allowing for Customer Name, Address and contact Phone number.
Alter the 12 month pilot the business sponsor received an assessment of what was working and what was not. The Assessment of the pilot revealed overall site activity had significantly increased, however only 5% of the time the promotions were viewed. And the most shocking was that total claims increased by nearly 20% for these 100 customers during the pilot period. The business sponsor was perplexed as he had an expectation of reduced claims and at least for 30% viewing of promotions since the project team had spent a lot of careful time and effort on this feature. A BA was assigned to do further analysis regarding the low use of the promotions and why claims were not being reduced.
Regarding the use of promotions the BA looked into other similar companies to see what they did differently to get their customer to look at their promotions. The BA found that similar companies had promotions that targeted the industry the customer was in so it was more relevant to them and they were more interested to view the promotion. In addition the BA sent out a survey to all 100 pilot customers asking probing questions about what they thought of the site and if they felt it had decreased their exposure to risk sufficiently. The Survey responses came back with raving positive comments and providing examples of how the site had been helping in the reduction of claims from the customer ' s perspective. In addition the survey also revealed insight that the customers found the promotion often irrelevant to their industry.
The BA asked for a dump of all documentation of the 1000 claims that were filed over the 12 month pilot period. The BA found the nearly 90% of the claim filed were all in one region of the country and were all for property damage related to several severe winter storms in the region and the claims were nearly all unavoidable by the customers. The BA brought all this analysis back to the business sponsor and made the recommendation to the business sponsor to require the customer to select 1 of 25 industries in their profile. This would in turn allow for the ability to show industry specific promotions and promote search results relative to a customer ' s industry to be sorted at the top giving the customer a more personalized experience.
What was the business sponsor looking to validate about the use of promotions?
Correct Answer: B
Performance variance is the difference between the actual and expected results of a business activity or process. In this case, the business sponsor expected that the promotions would be viewed by at least 30% of the customers and that they would help reduce claims. However, the actual results showed that only 5% of the customers viewed the promotions and that claims increased by 20%. The business sponsor wanted to understand the reasons for this discrepancy and how to improve the effectiveness of the promotions.