10 Frequently Asked Business Analyst Interview Questions & Answers

A Business Analyst (BA) is a professional who assesses a business’s changed needs and the impact of those changes on the business. His prime role is requirement management; he captures, analyzes, and documents requirements and communicates those requirements to the relevant stakeholders in an easily comprehensible form for further action.

These professionals play a vital role in the proper functioning of a business and thus, they are in high demand. If you are also looking for a job in this field, you have to clear the interview. We have mentioned here ten frequently asked business analyst interview questions and answers that will prove very helpful in your interview preparation: 

Q1. Can you shed light on the role of a business analyst in an organization?

Ans. A Business Analyst plays a crucial role in an organization:

1. His most important role is to identify the needs of an organization and to predict even the future requirements and issues. Subsequently, he suggests a suitable course of action for implementing changes and addressing issues.
2. He also acts as a bridge between the organization and its different stakeholders.

• In a project, a BA can play the role of a Business Planner, Data Analyst, System Analyst, Application Designer, Technical Architect, and so, based on his specialization.

1. The role of a BA can vary from project to project, domain to domain, and organization to organization.

Q2. How will you handle the changes in requirements?

Ans. As a business analyst, first of all, I will get a document signed by the user stating that after a particular point of time no changes to the requirements will be entertained.

In the cases where the changes to the requirements are accepted, as a BA:

1. I’ll jot down the changes made to the requirements and will prioritize them.
2. Then, I will go through those changes and assess the possible impact that they could make on the project.

• Afterwards, I will calculate the cost, timeline, and resources needed to nullify the impact of the changed requirements on the project.

1. I will finally, make sure that those changes doesn’t adversely affect or create gaps in functional design documents, testing or coding.

Q3. How will you determine whether a requirement is a good and perfect requirement?

Ans. There is a rule called SMART for determining a good or perfect requirement:

Specific – The description of a requirement should be unambiguous and detailed enough to be understood well.

Measurable – The requirement must be such that its outcomes are clearly measurable.

Attainable – There should be resources available for the fulfillment of the requirements.

Relevant – States that what requirements are relevant to the project and are realistic.

Timely – The requirements, in order to be entertained, should be communicated within the specified time frame in a project lifecycle.

Q4. Can you name the tools which are most used in the business analysis process?

Ans. The tools that are considered most helpful in the business analysis process are Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, MS Power Point, MS Project, Rational tools, and ERP systems.

Q5. What makes you different from the other candidates for this role?

Ans. I have sound technical knowledge and can establish a strong relationship with the clients. By the wise use of both these qualities, I can build a user-friendly environment.

Q6. Please name the documents that are frequently used by a BA in a project.

Ans. A business analyst has to deal with various kinds of documents as a part of his job. These documents may include Technical Specification document, Functional Specification Document (FSD), System Requirement Document (SRD), Use case diagram, Business requirement document, Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM), and Test Case.

Q7. What are the best practices you follow while writing a use case?

Ans. The best practices to be followed to write a clear and well-documented use case are:

Properly capture both functional and non-functional requirements in a use case.

Attach use case diagrams along with the use case.

Include the UI details/notes in the use case.

Q8. What’s the difference between Fish model and V model?

Ans. The fish model takes more time in dealing with requirements in comparison with the V model. The former is also relatively expensive than the latter. The fish model is normally preferred over the V model only when there are no uncertainties in the requirements.

Q9. Tell us how to avoid a scope creep?

Ans. Scope creep is an obstruction in the way of the success of a project, which could be avoided by taking some important steps in time like:

• Precisely documenting the scope of the project
• Following proper change management
• Informing about the possible outcomes of the change to the affected parties in advance
• Duly documenting the new requirements in the project log
• Avoiding the addition of extra features to the existing functionalities, also called Gold Plating

Q10. How do you define Personas?

Ans. Personas are basically social roles accomplished by an actor or character. They are used in place of real users that help the developers and the methodological team in assessing the user behavior in varied situations, with accuracy. The word persona is a Latin word that means character. In the marketing perspective, personas indicate a group of clients or end users. Read More