Business Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Q: What is business analysis?

A: Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organization by defining needs and

recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

Q: What are the key responsibilities of a business analyst?

A: They include requirements gathering, stakeholder communication, documentation, process

modeling, and solution evaluation.

Q: What is a use case?

A: A use case is a detailed description of how users interact with a system to achieve a specific

goal.

Q: What is the difference between BRD and FRD?

A: BRD (Business Requirements Document) outlines high-level business needs, while FRD

(Functional Requirements Document) provides detailed system behavior and functionalities.

Q: What is a stakeholder?

A: A stakeholder is any person or group who is affected by or can affect a project. This includes

clients, users, developers, and managers.

Q: What are some techniques for requirement gathering?

A: Techniques include interviews, surveys, document analysis, observation, and brainstorming

sessions.

Q: Explain SWOT analysis.

A: SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is a strategic planning

tool used to identify these four elements in a business context.

Q: What tools do business analysts commonly use?

A: Tools include Microsoft Visio, Jira, Trello, Balsamiq, Lucidchart, and Microsoft Excel.

Q: What is a gap analysis?

A: Gap analysis is the process of comparing actual performance with potential or desired

performance to identify gaps.

Q: How do you handle changing requirements?

A: By maintaining clear documentation, using change control processes, prioritizing requirements,

and maintaining ongoing communication with stakeholders.

Q: What is the difference between functional and non-functional requirements?

A: Functional requirements define system behavior, while non-functional requirements specify

system performance, security, usability, etc.

Q: What is a user story?

A: A user story is a short, simple description of a feature told from the perspective of the user.

Q: What is the purpose of a wireframe?

A: Wireframes are used to design and visualize user interfaces before development begins.

Q: What is a process flow diagram?

A: A process flow diagram visually represents the steps in a business process or system operation.

Q: How do you prioritize requirements?

A: Using techniques like MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have) or value vs.

effort analysis.

Q: What is the difference between Agile and Waterfall methodologies?

A: Waterfall is linear and sequential; Agile is iterative, allowing flexibility and continuous feedback.

Q: What is a backlog?
A: A backlog is a list of tasks or features that need to be completed, prioritized by importance.

Q: What is scope creep?

A: Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project's scope.

Q: What is BPMN?

A: BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation, a graphical representation for specifying

business processes.

Q: How do you manage conflict between stakeholders?

A: Through active listening, negotiation, prioritization, and finding mutually beneficial solutions.

Q: What is RACI matrix?

A: RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed - used to assign roles and

responsibilities.

Q: What is prototyping?

A: Prototyping is creating a preliminary version of a system or product to visualize and test features

early.

Q: What is a feasibility study?

A: It assesses the practicality and viability of a proposed project or solution.

Q: What is version control?

A: Version control is managing changes to documents, code, or data to keep track of revisions.

Q: What is ETL?

A: ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load - it's used for data integration and warehousing.

Q: How do you ensure the quality of requirements?

A: By making them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), validated,

and traceable.

Q: What is requirements traceability matrix (RTM)?

A: RTM links requirements to their origin and ensures they are fulfilled throughout the project

lifecycle.

Q: What are KPIs?

A: Key Performance Indicators are measurable values used to evaluate success in achieving

objectives.

Q: What is benchmarking?

A: Benchmarking is comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or

best practices.

Q: What is the difference between data modeling and process modeling?

A: Data modeling is about data structure; process modeling is about business workflows and

activities.

Q: What is an activity diagram?

A: It is a UML diagram showing the flow of activities or actions within a system or process.

Q: What is an ER diagram?

A: Entity-Relationship diagram shows data entities and their relationships in a database system.

Q: What is Agile Manifesto?

A: A declaration of values and principles to guide Agile software development.

Q: What are the Agile ceremonies?

A: They include Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.

Q: What is Kanban?
A: Kanban is a method for visualizing work, limiting work-in-progress, and improving flow.

Q: What is a persona?

A: A persona is a fictional character that represents a user type and helps guide design decisions.

Q: What are acceptance criteria?

A: They are conditions a product must meet to be accepted by the user or stakeholders.

Q: What is Six Sigma?

A: A methodology for improving quality by removing defects and variability in processes.

Q: What is Lean methodology?

A: Lean focuses on maximizing value by eliminating waste in processes.

Q: What is design thinking?

A: Design thinking is a user-centered approach to solving problems creatively and practically.

Q: What is an epic in Agile?

A: An epic is a large body of work that can be broken down into smaller tasks or stories.

Q: What is the difference between a project and a product?

A: A project is temporary with a defined end; a product is an ongoing offering to users.

Q: How do you perform impact analysis?

A: By assessing the potential consequences of a change, including cost, time, and risk.

Q: What is Pareto analysis?

A: It is the 80/20 rule: 80% of effects come from 20% of causes, used to prioritize issues.

Q: What is risk analysis?

A: It is identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks to mitigate potential project issues.

Q: What are business rules?

A: They are specific policies or conditions that dictate how business operations are carried out.

Q: What is brainstorming?

A: A group creativity technique to generate a large number of ideas for solving a problem.

Q: What is the difference between validation and verification?

A: Validation ensures the product meets user needs; verification ensures it meets specifications.

Q: What is a business case?

A: A business case justifies a project by outlining benefits, costs, and risks.

Q: What is elicitation?

A: Elicitation is gathering information from stakeholders to understand requirements.

Q: What is a system requirement?

A: A condition or capability needed by a system to satisfy a contract or specification.

Q: What is user acceptance testing (UAT)?

A: It is the final phase where users test the system to ensure it meets their needs.

Q: What is a KPI dashboard?

A: A KPI dashboard visually displays key performance indicators to monitor progress.

Q: What is TOGAF?

A: The Open Group Architecture Framework, a methodology for enterprise architecture

development.

Q: What is change management?

A: Change management involves preparing, supporting, and helping individuals adopt change

successfully.
Q: What is a burn-down chart?

A: It is a graphical representation of work left to do versus time, used in Agile.

Q: What is story mapping?

A: A technique for organizing user stories to visualize the journey and prioritize development.

Q: What is backlog grooming?

A: The process of reviewing, refining, and prioritizing the product backlog in Agile.