Business Analyst Interview Questions

1) What is a flowchart? Why it is important?

A Flowchart shows the complete flow of the system through symbols and
diagrams. It is important as it makes the system easy to understand for developers
as well as nontechnical stakeholders.

2) Define the Use Case Model

Use case model shows a sequence of events and a stream of actions regarding any
process performed by an actor.

3) What does UML stand for?

It stands for Unified Modeling Language.

4) Do you think Activity Diagram is important?

As the name implies, an activity diagram is all about system activities. The main
purpose of the activity diagram is to show various events taking place in an
organization in different departments.

5) Name two types of diagrams used in Business analyst

The two diagrams are Use Case Diagram and Collaboration Diagram

6) What is meant by an alternate flow in a use case?

It is the alternative solution or activity in a use case that should be followed in case
of any failure in the system.

7) What are exceptions?

These are unexpected situations or results in an application.

8) What are extends?

Extends is a relationship that is shown by a dotted line. It is usually used to specify
optional behavior which has no independent meaning. Example: Help on "Sign on"
extends use case "Sign on"

9) Name the two documents related to a use case

The two documents are:

• FRD (Functional Requirement Document)

• SDD (System Design Document).

10) What is the difference between Business Analyst and Business Analysis?

Business Analysis is the process performed by the Business Analyst.

11) As a business analyst, what are the tools which are more helpful to you?

There are many tools, but mostly use the tool are: 1)MS Visio, 2)MS Word, 3)MS
Excel, 4)PowerPoint, 5)MS Project.

12) In your previous experience, what kind of documents you have created?

I have worked on, Functional Specification Documents, Technical Specification

Documents, Business Requirements Documents, Use Case Diagram, etc.

13) Explain the term INVEST

INVEST means Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized Appropriately,

Testable. It can assist project managers and technical team in delivering quality
products/services.

14) Define SaaS

SaaS means Software as a Service. It is related to cloud computing. It is different

from other software bundles as you don't need this type of software to be installed
on your machine. All you need is the Internet connection and a Web Browser to use
it.

15) What steps are required to develop a product from an idea?

You have to perform, Market Analysis, Competitor Analysis, SWOT Analysis,
Personas, Strategic Vision and Feature Set, Prioritize Features, Use Cases, SDLC,
Storyboards, Test Cases, Monitoring, Scalability.

16) What do you think is better, the Waterfall Model or Spiral Model?

It all depends on the type and scope of the project. A life cycle model is selected
based on organizational culture and various other scenarios to develop the system.

17) How can you explain a user-centered design methodology?

It all depends on the end-users. In such a scenario, we develop the system with a
user's point of view. Who are the end-users, what they require etc. Personas are
helpful in this process.

18) How do you define Personas?

Personas are used instead of real users that assist developers and technical team
in judging the user behavior in different scenarios. Personas are social roles,
performed by any actor or character. It is derived from a Latin word meaning
"character." In marketing terminology, it represents a group of customers/end
users.

19) Define the term Application Usability

Application usability is the quality of the system that makes the system useful for
its end users. System's usability is good if it is capable of achieving users' goals.

20) What is a database transaction?

When we perform any activity in a database, such as addition, deletion,

modification, searching, etc. is said to be a database transaction.

21) Give a full form of OLTP

OLTP stands for On-Line Transaction Processing. Such systems are capable of
performing database transactions and are meant to provide good speed for
database transactions. These systems are mainly used for data entry and retrieving
data from the database.
22) What is Pugh Matrix?

Pugh Matrix is used to decide about the most optimal and alternate solutions. This
technique is now a standard part of Six Sigma technique. It is also known as a
problem or design matrix.

23) What does FMEA stand for?

It means Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. It is a failure analysis, that is used
mainly in product development, system engineering, and operations management.
This analysis is performed to figure out various failure modes and their severity in
any system.

24) What is a 100-point method?

This method is used to assign priority to different steps in a process. Each group
member is supposed to assign points to different steps. In the end, all the points
for each step are calculated. The step having the highest points has the highest
priority.

25) What is 8-omega?

It is a business framework that is mainly being adopted by firms and organizations

for the betterment of their business. Its key factors are Strategy, People, Process,
and Technology.

26) What is a misuse case?

It is a term derived from use-case. Unlike use case, a misuse case is something that
shows -what kind of malicious activities can be performed by an actor that may
result in system failure.

27) What is SQUARE stand for?

SQUARE stands for Security Quality Requirements Engineering. It is one of the

software engineering steps that mainly focus on documenting the security
requirements of the system.

28) What is Pareto Analysis?

Pareto Analysis is a decision-making technique, also known as the 80/20 rule. It is
used for quality control and defect resolution. It explains a few factors that can be
responsible for big problems. It is named as 80/20 rule, because as per this rule, 80
% effects in the system, arises from 20 % causes.

29) What is Agile Manifesto?

Agile Manifesto is a guide for software developers about Agile development

principles to ensure iterative solutions.

30) What BPMN stand for?

BPMN is the Business Process Model and Notation. It is a graphical representation

of business processes.

31) Define BPMN Gateway

BPMN Gateway is a processing modeling component that is used to control the

flow of interaction, the sequence of processes.

32) Name the five basic elements' categories in BPMN

They are Flow Objects, Data, Connecting Objects, Swimlanes, and Artifacts.

33) Have you ever used Kano Analysis in your previous jobs, and how do you
define it?

Yes, I have used Kano Analysis in one of my previous jobs. Kano Analysis is used to
analyze a system in terms of its requirements to identify its impact on customers'
satisfaction.

34) What are the key areas in a Kano Analysis?

Kano Analysis has three key areas -namely: Unexpected Delighters, Performance
Attributes, and Must-Have Attributes.

35) Define Pair-Choice Technique

The pair-Choice Technique is used to give priority to various items in a process. It is

mainly used when distinctive stakeholders are involved in the project. This
technique asks the group to compare each item with others and select the one
having the highest priority.

36) Do you have suggestions to make an effective use-case model?

Yes, I would suggest making two separate diagrams. One serves as a use-case, and
the other serves as an actor diagram. So that we can highlight all possible activities
in a use case & in actor diagram and then we can merge both the diagrams to get
an effective use-case diagram.

37) How many types of an actor can be depicted in a use-case?

Two types of actors can be depicted in a use-case, viz. primary and secondary
actors. Primary actors start the process, and secondary actors assist them.
Moreover, actors can be of four types such as Human, System, Hardware, and
Timer.

38) Define BCG Matrix

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix is developed to analyze several

business processes and new product offerings from companies. It is a useful tool
that can be used in portfolio analysis, strategic management, product
management, and brand marketing.

39) How can you differentiate between pool and swimlane?

A swimlane is related to group activities on an activity diagram while a pool is a

dedicated activity to a single person.

40) Differentiate between Fish Model and V Model?

Fish Model V Model

Fish model is comparatively very costly and time- V model requires less time and cost
consuming

Fish model is used when there were no ambiguities in Otherwise, V model is preferred.
the customer's requirements
41) How do you manage frequently changing customers' requirements while
developing any system?

As a business analyst, I would develop a document stating clearly that no change

will be accepted after a certain period of time and get it signed by the user.

42) Define use-case points

Use-case points are used to evaluate the cost of work done to develop the system.

43) What does PEST stand for?

It means Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. It is used to analyze the

business environment, in which it has to be operated.

44) Name the four key phases of business development?

They are Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.

45) Define Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is about measuring the performance of an organization to compete

in the industry. In this process, a company may measure its policies, performance,
rules, and other measures.

46) What do we mean by SWEBOK?

It means Software Engineering Body of Knowledge.

47) What do you know about GAP Analysis?

It is a process of comparing and determining the difference between two things or

processes.

48) Define Agile?

Agile is a technique that uses several light-weight methodologies such as Rapid

Application Development (RAD), Extreme Programming (XP) and SCRUM. All these
methodologies focus on the development of iterative solutions.
49) Define Scrum method

It is one of the agile methods, which is used to develop iterative information

systems. In this method, a small team works on the assigned tasks for 30 days,
usually.

50) What does JAD stand for?

It means Joint Application Development.

51) What is ETL?

Extraction, Transformation, and load is a data processing method mainly used in

data warehousing.

52) As a Business Analyst, which method do you prefer more- a waterfall

model or a spiral model?

The final decision will be taken depending on the culture of an organizational

lifecycle, model for a specific product like waterfall or spiral can be right
ascertained.

53) What is the requirement elicitation?

Requirement elicitation helps you to collects information from users and

stakeholders. It helps to understand what they want from a system. It is also
comprised of various strategies which directly collaborate with the users or clients.

54) What is the Kano Analysis?

Kano Analysis helps you to analyze a system. It helps to identify its impact on
customers' satisfaction.

55) What is Version Control?

Version control is a subset of configuration management. It is mostly concerned

with the handling changes arising in the previous document as compared to
configuration management, which handles the individual components.

56) Explain Black Box Testing

Black box testing is a kind of testing where the entire unit is tested as a whole
without considering the contents or how the inner components and units are
tested. This testing method only focuses on the known input signal and check
whether the output behavior is according to expectation or not.

57) What is an important quality of a good requirement?

The requirement should be good when it is clear, understandable, and it should be

easily verifiable.

58) What Is OOAD?

Object-oriented analysis and designing. It is used in object-oriented coding

languages like Java, c++, etc.

59) What is UAT?

UAT is User acceptance testing. If the UAR fails, BA did not understand the
requirement properly.

60) How can you measure the quality of a product?

We can measure the quality of a product by checking bugs in the product according
to the standard set by the company.

61) What is RAD?

RAD is a development process which is used to build applications in a smaller

duration. Generally, 50-70 days i.e., with some compromises.

62) What are the important areas in a Kano Analysis?

Important areas in a Kano analysis are:

• Unexpected Delighters
• Performance Attributes
• Must Have Attributes

63) Why do you like a career as a business analyst?

I like this career because it gives me a great opportunity to involve other people
and interacting with them.

64) What do you know about scope creep?

Scope creep is also called requirement creep is a term which means uncontrolled
changes in the project's scope without need to increase in the other resources
(schedule, budget) of the project.

65) What are the important skills that a business analyst must have:

• Problem-solving skills,
• Management and Communication skills
• Elicitation skills
• knowledge of IT skills

66) How can you avoid scope creep?

Scope creep can be avoided in the following method:

• Documenting the scope of the project.

• By following proper change management.
• Informing the effects of the change to the affected parties before making a
change.
• Documenting the new requirements in the project log.

67) Name three best practice you should follow while writing a use case

Important thing you should include are:

• Use case diagrams along with use case

• UI details/note in the use case.

68) What is CaaS?

CaaS stands for Communication as a Service. It is outsourced schema interfaction

which can be leased from a single Vend over the internet.

69) What is a requirement elicitation technique?

Requirement elicitation is a technique of requirements gathering from users,
stakeholders, users, clients by conducting interviews, sessions, brainstorming, etc.

70) What is the major difference between risk and issue?

A risk is a future event which negatively impacts business objective, while the issue
is a result of events currently happening.

71) How do you define a Kanban tool in Business analysis process?

It is a tool which helps agile teams to guide and manage work visually as it is
progressing through processes. It also helps you to scheduling system in agile just-
in-time production to describe the current development status.

72) Name important agile metrics which should be considered by business

analysts

Important agile metric to consider should be:

• The spring burndown matric

• Work category allocation
• The priority of the work
• Business value delivery
• Defect resolution time
• Work category allocation

73) What is meant by an increment in business analysis?

Increment term is used for the sum of all product backlog item, which is completed
in the previous spring.

74) How should BA perform risk management for your project?

A risk is an uncertain event which might cause an impact on the revenues and
profits of the business. By using various risk management techniques which allows
you to manage, identify, and control risks for a business.

75) Name out a different document that can come across to business analyst
The documents that are responsible for being completed as a Business Analyst
may include:

• Scope & Prospect of Project.

• Fact sheet for constraints
• Functional Requirements document including UML, Activity, and dataflow
diagrams.
• Testing phase documents along with QA Test requirements, plan, and types
of tests.

76) How many categories of business analysis techniques exist?

There are more than 100 business techniques which business analyst can select. It
should be categorized as strategic, investigative, project management,
documentation, and modeling techniques.

77) What is a misuse case?

Misuse case is an activity performed by a user which causes a system failure. It may
be a malicious activity which misguides the system function flow.

78) Which model is better Waterfall model or Spiral Model?

It is selecting the life cycle model for any project which should be based on its
scope,type, and limitations. It is dependent on the culture of the organization, their
policies and terms, and conditions and a process of developing the system.

79) What is a must for White Box Testing?

It requires programming knowledge and skill to examine the outputs.

80) What is BRD?

A Business Requirement Document is a formal contract between the client and the
organization for the development of the specific product.

81) State the important differences between BRD and SRS

The difference between BRD and SRS are as follows:

BRD SRS

It is a high-level functional specification It is a high level functional and technical

of the software. specification document of the software.

BA creates it after their direct The System Architect creates it according to their
interaction with the clients need and technical expertise.

It is derived based on client interaction SRS is always derived from the BRS
and requirements.

82) As a business analyst, which subject is more beneficial to you?

Economics is the most important subject for a Business analyst.

83) What is ERD mean?

ERD stands for Entity Relationship Diagram.

84) What is called the movement of information or material from one activity
or worksite to another?

It is called workflow.

85) What will employees and systems use to perform important functions?

Knowledge management is a system which is used by employees and systems.

86) Which method is mostly used for assessment or evaluation of a prospective

vendor?

In the business analysis process Vendor, Assessment technique is a more fruitful

method.

87) What are the important elements of the use case model?

The important elements of the use-case model are use-case diagram and use-case
description.

88) What are the four most important metrics in business development?
Storming, forming, Storming, norming, and performing are important metric in
business development process.

89) Name important phases of an IT project

Important phases of any IT project are:

• Initiation
• Planning
• Execution
• Monitoring and control

90) Explain critical path analysis

A project that involved in a set of activities from Start to Finish. A critical path is a
set of activities which includes the longest path in the entire project.

91) What is RUP Methodology?

Rational Unified Process, shortly known as (RUP) is a product application

improvement method. It is an object-oriented approach used to guarantee
successful project management and top-notch software production.

92) What are Project deliverables?

The project deliverables are a set of measurable goods and services that are
delivered as an output at the end customer at the completion of the project.

93) List the important advantages of Business process modeling

• It is used to picture a clear understanding of business processes.

• It offers consistency, control over the processes of the project.
• It helps you to identify and removes errors and bottlenecks.

94) What are the important aspects of creating analytical reporting?

An important aspect of creating analytical reporting are:

• Ability to think critically

• Understand of business analysis
 • Show your analysis skills.

95) Why is process design important for the Business analyst?

Process design helps you to analyze all the challenges to find an effective solution.
This approach helps you to standardize the workflows is important Boosting the
same helps you to boost the quality, and businesses can make sure that they help
you to get the desired outcome in the shortest possible time.

96) How to define the feasibility study?

The feasibility study is a method of identifying the success rate of a proposed idea
for a business problem. It helps you to identify new opportunities and focus more
on a project.

97) What is CATWOE in business analysis?

CATWOE stands for Customers, Actors, Transformation process, Worldview,

Owners, and Environmental Constraints. This tool helps you get useful insights
from the collected data to make the right decisions from the same.

98) Difference between software development lifecycle and project lifecycle

Software development lifecycle Project lifecycle

Helps you to develop particular software products. Allows you to develop a new product in

It involves single software across different phases. It Involves multiple software in a single
scenario.

SDLC phases are requirement gathering, coding, Project lifecycle phases are Idea genera
documentation, operations, and maintenance. screening, development, testing, and a

99) What are the important elements of BPMN gateway:

The important elements of BPMN gateway are:

• Flow objects
• Data connection objects
• Swimlanes
 • Artifacts

100) What are the members of the Scrum Team?

Scrum Team consists of 1) Product Owner, 2) Scrum Master, and 3) Development

Team.

101) Why you should use a spring burndown chart?

A spring burndown chart is a graphic visualization of the rate of progress of current

spring. This chart is regularly updated over the course of the sprint.

102) Explain the velocity of a sprint?

Velocity of a sprint is the total work done by the development team is capable of
doing over the duration of the sprint. It is agreed upon based on the historical data
available about the previous sprint of the project.

1. What are your roles and responsibilities as a Business Analyst?

Well, to answer this question, you need to tell the general roles and responsibilities
with respect to Healthcare domain. That means, you need to answer in such a way
that the interviewer should get a feel that you really have some good experience in
healthcare domain as a Business Analyst. Below are few points to answer this
question.

I usually host the meetings with developers, Quality Analysts, Stake holders where
we discuss about the current project progress, road blocks and discuss about
pending questions that usually need answers from subject matter experts and
stake holders. Usually Quality analyst and developers list out some questions while
the development work is in progress. As a business analyst I answer the questions.
But If I am not sure then I bring these questions in meetings to discuss with stake
holders.

We also discuss about existing timelines and if we are on par with the initial time
frames, if QA leads ask more time then we discuss the possibilities.
When Testing team test the application they have to send their testcases, test
plans to me to review. I as a business analyst review those testcases to see if they
meet /cover the business requirements. If not I let them know to write additional
testcases to cover those.

I give my daily status to project managers. I also read the CMS.Gov website to
update my skills and to know the latest updates in Healthcare industry and
government mandates if any.

I gain knowledge in various Fee schedules changes for various states so that the
pricing for each healthcare service is to be properly billed by providers and payed
by payers.

I also update my knowledge on various new procedure codes, revenue codes and
changes in payments in those CPT codes. I let developers and Quality analysts
know about any termination of new CPT codes, revenue codes or anything that is
important for them to know.

2. What is the importance of use case diagrams in Business Analyst career?

A business analyst must have a a very good understanding of business. Business

analyst should know how the business works and know the new changes in
business flows. He/She should know the entire hierarchy of the business. But
knowing the business does not help unless you can explain that to other teams of
the organization. In order to explain in pictorial form, use case diagrams help in a
big way. Use case diagrams play important role in Business analyst career and any
changes to the business during the course of the project development, the use case
diagrams will go through lot of changes and the updated diagrams will be send to
all underlying teams.

You may know more about how to draw use case diagrams in our website.

3. What different tools you use most often as a business analyst?

As a business analyst I have excellent knowledge on various tools such as MS Excel,

MS Word, HP ALM tool for requirements and testcase documentation. I also have
working knowledge on SQL server where I write some sql queries to access
database tables.

4. Can you tell some of the important terminologies most widely used in
Healthcare domain.

Well in Healthcare domain, we use Class, Plan, Product, Procedure codes, Revenue
codes, Diagnosis codes, Providers, Members/Subscribers, Medical claims, Hospital
claims, Physicians.

5. What is the difference between Medical claims and Hospital Claims?

Medical claims are the claims that an insurance company (Payer) receives from a
Physician about his services to a patient (Subscriber of the insurance company).

Hospital claims are the claims that an Insurance firm receives from Hospital for the
services it rendered to a patient.

6. What are the different types of Claims that an Insurance company receives
daily.

Claims are usually will be received in paper form or electronic claims. Paper claims
if received from a physician or hospital will be manually entered in the system. If
claims are received in electronic form through EDI transactions. Electronic forms
are directly will be saved into database in Insurance company.

7. What are the important fields that will be used while dealing Healthcare
claims.

Date of service, Procedure code, revenue codes, Diagnosis codes, Price for each
service line, deductible, Copay, Coinsurance, Allowed amount for the claim,
Disallowed amount in the total claim, Subscriber, Provider.

8. Can you explain the hierarchy of various important components in

Healthcare insurance industry ?
A Group will have various sub groups, and Sub groups will have Subscribers or
Members.

Various products are assigned to Class/Plan combinations.

There is an agreement configured for each Provider who is having a contract with
that Insurance company.

Every product will have various payment procedures based on copay, deductibles
that are particularly assigned to a product.

4. What is EDI & HIPAA ? how they are used in healthcare industry?

EDI is: Electronic data interchange and HIPAA is health insurance portability and
accountability. HIPAA is a set of protocols or rules set for the privacy of the
individuals.

EDI is used to transfer the medical related data in the form of Electronic data
transfer.

5. What is COB? explain little about it.

COB is coordination of benefits and is used mainly when an individual has two
insurance policies and, in this case, how to adjudicate the claim? the whole process
is to pay the exact amount which is required.

6. What is EOB? explain little about it.

EOB is explanation of benefits which is a detailed explanation given by insurance

company to its policy holder regarding a claim.

Describe the following:

a) transaction

b) Acid properties
Transactions

A transaction is a unit of work, usually logical, in which all steps must be executed,
if any is omitted, the entire transaction is nullified.

Acid properties

The term ACID is an abbreviation of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability

These constitute the properties of a transaction; more information regarding these

properties is available in SQL (Structured Query Language) Server books online or
in any Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS)’s fundamental
textbook.

What is meant by de-normalization and state its usefulness.

As suggested by the name, this is a process that reverses normalization process.

It involves introducing redundancy into the database in a controlled manner.

Its purpose is to improve the query performance as it reduces the number of joins.

How many relationships in SQL

There are three types of relationships in a relational database system, namely the
one-to-one, one-to- many and many-to-many, briefly describe how you would
implement each one of them when designing a table.

i) One to one relationship:

This is usually implemented in a single table and thus of less technical importance
as compared to the others though it can sometimes be implemented as two tables
with primary keys and foreign keys

ii) One-to-many relationship:

Such a relationship is implemented by splitting the data into tables thereby ending
up with a primary and foreign key relationship.

iii) Many – to – many relationship:

This type of database relationship is implemented in the following way:

A junction table is created having the primary keys from both the related tables
thus forming a common primary key for both the tables.

State the difference and similarity between unique and primary keys in a
database.

The difference is that by default primary key creates an index column which is
clustered whereas the unique key creates a non-clustered index under default
situation. The second major difference is that primary key can not allow a NULL
entry whereas the unique key just allows the NULL entries. Similarity is that both
the keys are used to enforce uniqueness in particular columns.

Describe user-defined data types and their importance.

User-defined datatypes are datatypes created by the user from the primitive
datatypes such as the int. Examples of user defined data types involve classes and
structures.

They help one to extend the base Structured Query Language (SQL) Server
datatypes in that they can provide a descriptive name and also format the
database as per the user’s desire. Consider a database comprising of a column
called Flight_Num appearing in many tables all of which are of varchar(8) i.e.
variable character datatype of length eight in such a situation, one would do a user
defined datatype and call it Flight_num_type of varchar(8) and use it all along the
table.

Explain the meaning of bit datatype and state the kind of information that one
can store in a bit column:
Bit datatype are datatypes of type bool, i.e. true or false or the logical 1 and 0
respectively, thus a bit column can only store the datatypes of this nature. SQL
Server version 7.0 and above support a third form of bit datatype called the NULL
datatype.

Explain the following types of keys as used in database systems: Candidate

key, composite key and the alternate key.

Candidate key is the type of key used in identifying each and every row uniquely in
a given table. It usually becomes the primary key of the given table, in a situation
whereby there exists more than one candidate key, only one will be considered to
be the primary key and the rest will then be called the alternate keys, a
combination of these keys, i.e. the candidate as well as the alternate keys is
referred to as the composite key.

Describe the term ‘default’ and state whether or not there is a column in which
defaults can not be bound.

A default is a value which will be automatically adopted by the column under

circumstances whereby the user has not provided any value.

Columns such as IDENTITY column and the TIMESTAMP column can never have
default bound to them

What is transaction and its ACID properties.

A transaction is a unit of work, usually logical, which have steps that all have to be
performed, in an event that some steps of a transaction are omitted, the entire
transaction is nullified. The term ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation,
Durability, which are the terms constituting the properties of a transaction.

What is Lock Escalation.

Escalation is the process of converting high volume of low level locks e.g. row and
page locks into high level locks such as table locks.
It is worth noting that every lock constitutes a memory structure thus many lock
would mean high use of memory.

To treat the above, SQL Server escalates the many fine grain locks in order to yield
few coarse grained locks thereby saving memory and yielding into efficient
resource utilization.

What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE table commands.

The difference is that DELETE TABLE is a logged operation, meaning that each and
every row deleted ends up getting logged in transaction log making it relatively
slow whereas in the case of TRUNCATE TABLE, there is no logging of each row and
as a result it is faster, here, there is just de-allocation of data pages for the table. In
the case of TRUNCATE TABLE command, ACTION ROLLBACK can take place thus an
added advantage.

What is SQL constraint and also explain different types of constraints.

Constraints are limits used in the Relational Database Management System to

implement integrity of the database without human intervention (automatically)
or without even the need for the user triggers, rules or defaults. The following are
the available types of constraints: CHECK, UNIQUE, NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY, and
PRIMARY KEY.

Describe the term index naming the available parts (of index). Also state the
number of clustered indexes that can be created on a given table and then
state the advantage and disadvantages of an approach which involves
creation of a separate index on each column in a given table.

The term index as referred to in SQL Server reserves the meaning as to the way it is
used in a book; they help in quickening the rate of information/data retrieval from
the server.

There exist two types of indexes in a SQL database system, namely the clustered
and the non-clustered indexes.
The difference is that when a clustered index is put on a table, all the rows in this
table are stored in the order of the given clustered key index, it is worth noting that
only one clustered index can exist in any table. Non-clustered indexes have their
own storage separate from the storage for the table data.

Query performance is improved when one creates an index on each and every
column of the table. Here, the query optimizer is in a position to choose from all
the existing indexes so that it may come up with an efficient execution plan but
operations involving data modification e.g. the DELETE, UPDATE or INSERT
becomes slower as it is observable that all the indexes are to be updated each and
every time data changes in the table .Also one uses more disk space as the number
of indexes is usually directly proportional to the amount of disk space used thus
another disadvantage.

Steps necessary to improve performance of query if at all the performance is found

to be low.

Usually, so many reasons can lead to a low performance for queries and every
reason has its own cure, the most common ways to solve such a problem is to
ensure that all indexes, tables scans are available and that statistics are updated to
the date, also one should try to ensure that there exist no blocking, no excess
recompilation of stored procedures, try ensure that there is no procedures and
triggers without SET NO COUNT ON, eliminate all the queries which have been
poorly written especially those without necessary joins, reduce the amount of
normalization as well as excess use of temporary tables and cursors.

The following are methods that can help one in troubleshooting a performance
problem:

SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON, SET STATISTICS IO ON, SET SHOWPLAN_ALL ON,

WINDOWS NT/2000 Performance Monitor, Graphical Execution Plan in query
analyzer, SQL Server profile

Explain the steps necessary to ensure security in a SQL server.

There are so many things one could talk about in an attempt to answer this
question, these include the preference to NT authentication, use of server and
database as well as application roles to get assistance in controlling access to the
data, using the New Technology File System (NTFS) permissions to physically
protect database, using a hard to guess SA password, creating a physical perimeter
around the server to physically restrain unwanted access, doing away with or
simply disabling guest account, renaming the administrator account on the SQL
server, using a high level of encryption such as the multi-protocol encryption,
putting up an SSL, isolating the database server (SQL Server) from the Web Server,
making use of firewalls, advising users on the importance of server security,
detecting the potential threats and addressing them in time, having backups to
lower downtime in event of successful attacks, ensuring a hierarchy to the users so
that less trusted users have less only access to less sensitive information, etc.

Distinguish between deadlock and lovelock stating clearly how one would go
about the deadlocks.

Deadlock is a situation whereby two or more processes are not able to carry on
with their operations because they are waiting for data which is being held by other
processes waiting for some other data or recourses held up elsewhere too. Each
process will have to wait for an indefinite period of time unless an external
intervention is brought upon by forces outside the deadlock, e.g. by the help of an
efficient algorithm or so, usually in an SQL server, this may involve terminating one
of the user�s processes to allow the rest of the processes carry out the relevant
operations with the required resources then leave it for the other processes in
turns.

A live lock on the other hand is the situation whereby there exist repetitive denials
for a request regarding an exclusive lock. This happens due to the fact that there is
a series of overlapping shared locks which keep interfering. SQL server has a
mechanism to detect such a situation, usually when it happens more than four
times and thereby curing the situation by refusing any further shared locks.

A live lock under normal circumstances takes place when a table or a page is
monopolized by a read transaction thus forcing the write transactions to wait
indefinitely.

Write a short note regarding the CREATE DATABASE syntax.

By impulse, many people just create databases using the Enterprise Manager or by
simply entering the CREATE DATABASE command, this method does not take into
account a situation whereby one needs to create a database with more than one
file groups, say, even two, whereby one is on the drive C and another on the on a
separate drive, say, D with a log on drive E having an initial size of say 600 MB and
growing at a factor of 15%. Due to this, database administrators needs to be very
familiar with the CREATE DATABASE syntax.

What is Restarting an SQL server in a Single User Mode and Starting a server in
Minimal Configuration Mode?

Like many programs, SQL too can be started from the command line, go to start,
run, then type in SQLSERVER.EXE, here exists some parameters which the database
administrator is supposed to be familiar with including, -m used to for starting the
SQL Server in single mode as asked in this question and �f used to start the SQL
server in minimal configuration mode.

Describe the term statistics, stating under what circumstances they go out of date
and how to correct this situation, i.e. update the out of date statistics.

Statistics is a set of parameters obtained and analyzed from a given set of data;
usually used in determination of selectivity of indexes, the selectivity is done in a
manner that it is more to the indexed columns with unique values as opposed to
the index columns without unique values. Indexes are also used by the query
optimizers to determine whether or not to choose an index while executing the
given query.

The following are the situations under which it is necessary that one updates
statistics.

1) When upgrading database to the next version.

2) When there is a change in the distribution of key values, i.e. when there is
addition, change or removal of a large amount of data in an indexed column or
when there is truncation of the table using the TRUNCATE TABLE statement and
then a repopulation.
3) When there is a notable change in the key values in the given index.

State the ways one can use to move data or databases between different servers
and also databases just within the SQL Server.

So many ways can lead to the solution of this problem and thus it is upon the
user�s discretion to choose the way forward depending on the problem pertinent
to his situation.

Available alternatives include BACKUP/RESTORE, detaching and attaching

databases, DTS, replication of the database, BCP, using the INSERT-SELECT
statement, using the INSERT-INTO statement, using or creating INSERT scripts to
generate data.

Define database replication, state different kinds of replication one can set up in
the Structured Query Language (SQL) Server.

Copying or moving data over the same or different SQL Servers is what is referred
to as replication.

The following are types of replication scenarios supported by the SQL server

a) Merge replication

b) Transactional replication

c) Snapshot replication

Describe the term cursor, and then write short notes about cursor regarding types
of cursor, disadvantages of cursors and how to avoid cursors.

Cursors are attributes which allow that allow processing of result sets in a row by
row format. The following types of cursors do exist:

– Static cursors

– Dynamic cursors
– Key-set driven cursors

– Forward only cursors

Disadvantages of cursors:

There is a result into a network roundtrip every time one fetches a row from the
cursor yet a normal SELECT query makes only one roundtrip even if the result set is
very large.

They are costly since they consume more memory for storage.

Again, case of memory results into consumption of processor cycles as this

involves more use of the input output operations. Not all types of cursors can be
used with the SELECT statement fully; there exists restrictions regarding this
concept.

In many occasions, it is usually advisable that one substitutes the use of cursors
with the use of set-based operations as can be illustrated below:

1. Can you define a Business Analyst? (definition)

In simple terms a Business Analyst is a facilitator between top level management
and Developers / Testers. Which means a BA will gather requirements from client or
stake holder and understand those requirements, documents those requirements
in detail steps and prepares Functional requirement specification (FRS)
documents. Then those documents will be given to Developer team to start writing
coding and Testing team to test the coded application.

In this process, several questions will come from developers or Testers and those
questions will be answered by Business Analyst, if the BA does not know the
answer then the questions will be directed to client or SME (Subject matter expert).

So in a nutshell, a Business Analyst will have to work on a continuous basis with a

motive of improving the clients business.
 2. How do you gather requirements from client? (requirements gathering)

Yes, requirements gathering is one of the most important responsibility of a

Business Analyst. A business analyst day starts from gathering requirements. So
what is requirements? requirements are nothing but foundation step of a any
project. So gathering requirements is not a easy task as many think, if by any
chance the project fails, then majority blame comes to business analyst. So you
need to be very careful while gathering requirements. So how best you can gather
requirements.

Listen clearly what client is saying, write down each and every step in a notebook,
do not interrupt the client when they are explaining about requirements. Even if
you have 100 questions, wait for your chance. Do not expect to clear all your
questions in one sitting. Usually there will be few more meeting before we finalize
or freeze the requirements.

While the discussions are going on, ask yourself few questions. What is the purpose
of these requirements? is it a new application or upgrade to existing application? or
it is migration from one technology to other technology? (example: From
mainframe application to Java based application). What are the road blocks in this
process? Do we have proper technical resources to implement this project? Do we
have enough budget? Are we getting enough time to complete this project? These
are all the common questions to ask ourselves in order to get best requirements.

3. What are the essential duties of a Business Analyst? ( roles and

responsibilities )

Well, there are many tasks that a Business Analyst will do in his daily life, but just to
name a few,

• Gathering requirements,
• Converting the requirements into functional specifications (also called FRS
documents)
• Conducting daily meetings with developers, testers and other managers to discuss
about the progress of requirements, this will happen until requirements freeze.
• Working on daily basis to improve process improvement.
• Thinking and working towards reducing the cost and improving the business
process.

4. What do you think are your strengths as a Business Analyst?

I think that I have following strengths in my past profile as a business analyst:

The right mix of functional and technical knowledge , Ability to communicate

effectively between the development (whether internal or third party vendors)
team and the end users. Strong levels of persistence and quick learning
capability. Finally Adaptability to the work environment as desired.

5. What do you think are your weaknesses as a Business Analyst?

I believe in turning my weaknesses into strengths, so I strive towards having a calm

and cool attitude. Also, I would like to at par with the latest technology in the
market but it is not always possible.

6. What can you do for us that other prospective candidates cannot?

I am confident on being the best fit for this role as my principles are I believe to be
in line with the company vision and mission. I will bring to the organization my
technical know-how as well as my functional expertise, striving to achieve success
for the company.

7. What are your goals as a Business Analyst?

I want to go for the professional Business Analysis certifications such as ISEB and in
the near future will be striving for the PRINCE 2 certification also, which will enable
me to grow in the Business Analyst career path

8 . Why do you want to work for this company?

This is quite a well known company and its principles are in line with my principles.
I believe that the organization will give me the best available platform available
with the right amount of support and motivation.
 9. What is the motivating factor which you expect from your role as a Business
Analyst?

Believing that the work done by me is contributing in the organizational growth

and success is my utmost motivation. It is a feeling of knowing that the work done
by me has contributed towards the company’s good results, and being a part of
that achievement, howsoever small my part might have been gives me great
pleasure. I know for sure that if the company is performing well, then it will
definitely down the line look after it main resources. its employees and I would be a
proud party to that!

10. What Part of Your Job Do you like The Most?

The ability to analyze and research the various aspects and arriving at the solution
or way forward so as to benefit the organization or at least at the project level gives
me great satisfaction.

11. What Part Of Your Job Do You Dislike The Most?

There is currently no part of my job that I dislike, and I am glad that I have chosen
this career path.

12. What Made You Apply For This Job And Why Do You Want It?

I have the right mix of educational background; technical and functional skills. The
job role is as per my expectations and can be described as a best fit. I can add value
to this role and contribute towards the success of the organization.

13. Are you aware of the various software methodologies? Name a few

There are various SDLC methodologies which are available and used by the
majority of the organizations for their software development projects. Some of
these software development methodologies are:

1. a) Waterfall method : this is one of the most widely used systems development
process
2. b) Agile methodologies like RUP (Rational Unified process), RAD (Rapid Application
development), JAD (Joint Application development) .
3. c) Prototyping Model : involves the presentation of a simplified prototype of the
system based on the requirements
4. d) Spiral model : hybrid of the waterfall and the prototyping method

14. What are the various testing stages in a software project life cycle?

The major testing stages in a software development life cycle are:

1. a) Unit Testing : this is usually done by the developers who have coded the unit
2. b) Integration testing : this is done by the QA team (quality assurance) and /or the
business analysts to test that the integration of the units is working fine
3. c) System testing : is done by the QA team or the Business Analysts to see whether
the system is working as a whole or not
4. d) Regression testing : is done to test whether the current parts and the new
development are synchronized and there is no impact on any other system. This
testing is done by the analysts.
5. e) User acceptance testing : is covered by the end users in order to test that the
requirements given for the system are in line with the developed application
6. f) Stress and/or Load Testing : is done by the technical team to test whether the
system can sustain heavy load and usage etc.

15. What are some of the challenges you have faced as a Business Analyst

As a business Analyst, one has to be an interface between the users and the
technical team and provide regular support. Some of the major challenges which a
business analyst has to face in his profile are:

There should be clarity regarding the requirements as they lay the foundation of
the project. In case of any gaps, there can be huge repercussions.

There are several software methodologies, technologies, documentation

standards in the market and they keep on evolving. The business analyst has to be
on top of such methodologies and trends to be successful in the profile.
The business analyst Is regarded as the knowledge house regarding domain
knowledge and has to keep on updating himself with the industry and company
know-how to keep himself at par.

16. What are the documentations which you have completed in your
experience? Explain in detail.

A business analyst is expected to document the following:

a. Feasibility Study

b. Scope of the project

c. Business Requirement Documentation

d. Functional specifications

e. Main content

f. UML Diagrams

g. Prototypes(in HTML/Excel etc)

h. Non Functional specifications

I . Test plan, scenarios and cases

17. What is UML? What are the tools which are generally used by business
analysts for UML diagrams?

UML is Unified Modeling Language and is a worldwide standard for diagram-based

object-oriented modeling. Class diagrams, Use case diagrams and Activity
diagrams are usually used by business analysts during their functional
documentation and requirements analysis process.

Usually, business analysts use any of the following tools for UML diagrams:
MS Visio, Rational Rose, Sparx Systems, Enterprise Architect

18. What are non-functional requirements?

Non-Functional requirements include the following:

Performance Characteristics of the system speed, response time, capacity
constraints Error and exception handling , systems logs, error logging
External Interfaces & Integration, data integration, data feed schedules.
Security of the system, user profiles, administrator, privileges
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plan , system back ups
,User and Training requirements , for users and technical team.

19. What is mean by logical data model?

Data model tells clear details about the data and how the data is stored physically
in a database.

20. What do u mean by high level & low level use case?

A broad view of a business process is called a high level use case. And if we divide
the big view into different small sub use cases, then it is called low level use case.

21. What do you know about SDD ?

It is also called system design document. My role as a BA is just a mediator or a

middle layer between business users and developers and we make developers to
understand the business requirements.

22. What do understand by URS & FS ?

User requirement specifications and Functional specifications. To keep track of

these requirements, we generally use Traceability matrix.

By using Test director we can do traceability of requirements n testing phase.

23. How do you prepare use cases?

BY using MS Visio and Rational rose.

24. How do you participate in testing as a BA?

I participate mainly in reviewing the test cases to see if all the requirements have
been met.

25. What is the main quality of a good requirement?

The requirement should be good, clear, understandable, and consistent and

should be easily verifiable.

26. What do u understand by UML ?

UML is basically Unified Modeling Language. This is the standard language used in
the system to understand, document, construct different components in the
system.

27. What are different diagrams to be known by a BA?

Entity relationship diagram, data flow diagram, use case diagram, class diagram,
activity diagram, state chart diagram, sequence diagram, collaboration diagram,
component diagrams, deployment diagrams etc..

Use case diagram: basically explains the business environment. Series of all
related actions performed by actor.

Activity diagram: Used in the early stage of analysis and designing level. It
describes each individual component.

Sequence diagram: It tells the objects interactions with each others arranged in
time sequence. Very useful for developers and testers to understand the system
better.

28 .Where did u use rational rose & requisite pro ?

When we created different modules of requirements for different functions, and
finally collected all together and made a single requirement document, we used
requisite pro to do this.

And we used rational rose to create the business model as a visual representation.

a. Created High level & low level use cases.

b. Activity diagrams

c. State diagrams

d. Collaboration diagrams

e. Sequence diagrams

29 . Version control and configuration management are terms used widely in

the business industry, write short notes about the terms.

By definition, version control is essentially a subset of configuration management.

It is usually concerned with the handling changes arising in previous documents as
opposed to configuration management which essentially handles the individual
components.

30. Good documentation management systems are highly recommended in

system development; briefly describe the factors that contribute to a good
documentation management system.

For a documentation system to be considered good, the following factors should

be prevalent in it: It should be made in such a way that it can accommodate future
changes, including version changes, bearing system security features such as
providing access only to the allowed users, i.e. have good authentication features.
In general, one should take in data as well as information security measures in
place, putting in mind that the documentation should also be able to bend to the
changing needs of its users as well as the market conditions.

31. State the different software methodologies.

 The term software methodology, software development methodology and
software process mean almost the same thing in computer software or system
development, i.e. the activities carried out by computer system engineers or
computer software engineers in an attempt to procure particular computer
software that servers a certain function or purpose. This includes the framework
adopted, structure, plan as well as the control of the resources engaged in the
software or system development process.

There are so many software methodologies and the choice as to which one to
adopt is usually dependant on so many other factors such as the purpose of the
given software, the prevailing conditions regarding the software development
environment and the will of the company or the client procuring or intending to
use the final software as some clients even look into the software or system
engineers� methodology to as one of the factors determining whether to contract
him or not.

Regarding the purpose of the software, lets look at the following, example is a
situation of a safety critical system such as an aircraft navigation system and a
business system, one would find that in a business system, one can have its
prototype done and users start using it as they identify its weaknesses and tell the
engineers to rectify whereas in an aircraft navigation system, no weakness would
be allowed at all for it can cause huge loss of property and life thus all the possible
identifiable weaknesses are eliminated first before that system comes into
operation. Much stories and arguments apart, the following are the available
software methodologies:

1. i) SLDC- Software Development Life Cycle, also understood as System

Development Life Cycle which encompasses activities such as Analysis, Design,
Implementation, Testing, Inauguration and Maintenance in that order and then
back to Analysis, note that it is a cycle hence once we get to the last stage, i.e. the
maintenance we still go back to the analysis stage and move along to the
maintenance once more iteratively
2. ii) The RUP The Rational Unified Process, which when looked into intuitively is an
iterative software development process framework that was created by the
Rational Software Corporation in the US which is a division of the IBM
(International Business Machine). However, this process is usually not considered
as a single prescriptive framework yet as an adaptable process which can be
 tailored by the development team or organization selectively in order to end up
with their respective results depending on the needs prevailing either on the
clients side, the industry standards or even the development constraints which
involve time, scope as well as the budget, Intuitively, this process has
characteristics overlapping with other development processes and methodology
as will be seen when considering the other methodologies below.

iii) The iterative process

1. iv) The waterfall model

2. v) The agile software development methodology
3. vi) The XP (Extreme programming)

vii) The ISO 9000 methodology provided by the International Standards

Organization.

viii) The ISO 15504 model also provided by the International Standards
organization

1. ix) The Capability Maturing Model Integration (CMMI) which replaced the former
Capability Maturing Model (CMM)
2. x) The Six Sigma methodology
3. xi) The Test Driven Development (TDD)

32. Describe the abbreviation OOAD as used in Object Oriented Programming.

The term OOAD is an abbreviation of the phrase Object Oriented Analysis and
Design. Contrary to the traditional programming, also called procedural
programming whereby the entire code of a given program is written line by line,
from scratch. There is a new more powerful approach to software development or
simply programming referred to as the Object Technology where predefined
objects pertaining to particular situations are pre-designed by experienced
software engineers and then the programmers just call them into their code in
order to implement a given function in their code.

Just the way experienced civil engineers design building blocks for particular
situations in a particular house so that the inexperienced mason just lays them
appropriately in order to end up with a nice house is the way experienced software
 engineers make these objects. This helps even novice programmers to use the
objects to build nice computer software or a program. It is the analysis and design
of these objects with intention to make good software that is referred to as Object
Oriented Analysis and Design, the OOAD. Programming languages that use the
Object Technology include C++, JAVA, and the PHP among others.

33. Describe the meaning of the term data mapping.

By definition, the term data mapping is the process by which a system developer
creates data element mappings that relates two models of data (databases) in
order to assist in data integration. This usually assists in the following manner:

1. i) Data mediation or transformation between the source and the destination of

data
2. ii) Assisting in data lineage analysis by identifying the data relationships

iii) Assists in data masking by discovering sensitive data

1. iv) Assists in data de-identification process

2. v) Assists in consolidating multiple databases into one thus identification of
redundant columns and advising the developers for consideration or even
elimination.

34. Describe the term black box testing.

Black box testing is the type of testing whereby the entire unit is tested as a whole
without considering the contents or even how the inner components of the unit
under test work, the tester is only consideration is to enter a known input signal
and check whether the output behavior is the one expected out of that unit given
his input signal.

35. Give the importance of using a flowchart.

It is easier to interpret as it is graphical in nature and thus all persons involved in

the project development can understand it with ease.

36. Briefly explain the use case model.

This is a model used by software engineers to describe the business environment
of a given project. It encompasses of a series of workflow that are pertained to a
particular actor.

37. What do you understand by the term UML?

The term UML is an abbreviation of the term Unified Modeling Language which is
the standard language used in construction of as well as visualization and
documentation of varied system components. It has a collection of graphical
notation techniques used in the development of abstract models for certain
specific systems.

38. Describe the importance of an activity diagram.

This is the diagram used in a business system to show the workflow involved,
activities happening as well as the completed actions. In a company comprising of
several departments e.g. the medical department, accounting department, and
even the human resource department, usually each department has its own
peculiar privileges to the system, for instance the medical department can only be
allowed to access the screens related to their activities such as medical records
while the human resource department will be allowed to view only the screens
which are relevant to them too, thus these activity diagrams assist in showing the
relationship between particular activities with their relevant and related
departments so that during coding, the coders may refer to them to implement the
discrepancies accordingly. Designers too can be guided by these activity diagrams.

39. How many types of diagrams do you know and what do you know about
them?

Am aware of two types of diagrams namely the use case diagram and the
collaboration diagram, the use case diagram has been discussed above and as a
result I will only talk about the collaboration diagram here, these are diagrams put
into being by modeling the objects of a given systems and then representing the
prevalent associations between the objects in questions with the use of links.

40. Describe your understanding regarding the so called alternate flow in use
case.
 These are the contingent flows that arise when a system fails to curb an
encountered situation and thus the system doesn’t result in the expected results.
When the system resorts to the alternate flow under this circumstance, it may still
end up yielding the expected results.

41. Describe your understanding regarding the exception flow in use case.

This is generally unpredicted situation that may lead to undesired result under
normal circumstance in a system; several methodologies called exception handlers
are available to help control such situation

42. Describe the meaning of the following words as used in the use case
scenario:

1. i) Extends
2. ii) Includes

In the use case scenario, the term extends is used to imply that a certain action
needs to have taken place in order for the other to take place too whereas includes
implies that it is not important, as in the action may take place or as well may fail
to take place but the other will still take place.

43. What are the documents related to the use case?

There are two documents related, namely the FRD (Functional Requirement
Document) and the SSD (System Design Document) or the TRS (Technical
Requirement Specifications).

44. Describe your understanding regarding logical data model.

It is the data model, which is not actually physical and describes how data is
physically stored in the given database.

45. Describe your understanding regarding high level and low level use cases.
 The high level use case usually refers to the entire business process whereas when
it is divided into smaller units, the outcome or the sub units are what are then
referred to as the low level use case

46. Describe your understanding regarding the SDD.

This is the abbreviation of the term System Design Document; it acts as the
mediator between business users and the system developers so as the system
developers may understand the business requirements of the system they are
developing in order to know where to put emphasis and end up with a quality and
objective based system.

47. Describe your understanding regarding the following terms

1. i) URS
2. ii) FS

The URS is the User Requirement Specification whilst the FS is the Functional
Specification; traceability matrix is usually used to keep track of these
requirements. TEST DIRECTOR can be used to do the traceability of the given
requirements during the testing phase.

48. How is use case prepared?

It is prepared using drawing application software such as the Microsoft Visio and
the also the Rational rose.

49. Describe how you would participate in testing as a BA (Business Analyst).

As a Business Analyst, I would participate by reviewing the test cases to ensure that
all the stipulated requirements have been met by the system in question.

50. Describe the main qualities of a good requirement.

There are several qualities regarding a good requirement but the most outstanding
ones include the:
Clarity the requirement should be clear enough to be understood by its users.

Understandable the requirements should be put in a manner easy to understand

by users of all levels.

Consistent the requirement should be such that it doesn’t contradict itself, it is

important noting that during system development, all users need to be consulted,
including the managers as well as the junior staff, one would find that the
managers would like a wider control of the system so as to monitor the junior staff
to the date whereas the junior staff are objecting these view, hence a
contradiction. When this issue is not considered carefully, usually through
consultation or negotiation either the managers or junior staff may resent the
system thus by this, once the users resent the system, obviously it will not be
exploited to the maximum thus lowering the benefits the organization derives from
it thus consistency must always be considered in the system development
requirements.

Verifiable: The requirements of a given system should always be verifiable as in

they should be put in a manner that can be checked across in future so as one can
clearly identify whether the particular requirement has been met or not, it is
usually advised that the requirements are put in a manner that during verification,
the answer is either true or false and nothing vague as it is during this stage that
legal action can be taken by the either the contractor or client if at all the answer is
no and always with the law, matters of doubt are generally not recommended.

51. What is the meaning of the word UML?

This usually is the abbreviation of the Unified Modeling Language, a standard

language in the system development used to implement the understanding,
documentation and construction of varied system components

52. Describe the diagrams which should be known by the Business Analyst
(BA).

The Business Analyst (BA) is expected to be conversant with the following

diagrams:
1. i) Use case Diagram: this is the diagram which gives the details concerning the
given business environment, this entails the series of action usually performed by
given actors such as analyzing the procurement portfolio, giving out an order to a
certain supplier, acknowledging the reception of the goods, processing them as
appropriate, doing the relevant marketing, handing the goods to the hands of a
customer at a profit, receiving payments, either by cheque or cash, printing a
receipt, and entering the transactions into relevant accounts, making payrolls,
preparing final accounts including the balance sheets as well as the profits and loss
accounts.
2. ii) Activity Diagram: this is the diagram which is usually employed in early analysis
stages to describe the involved components.

iii) Sequence diagram: This is the type of diagram used to tell the way particular
objects interact with other objects in a manner arranged in both time and
sequences. This is usually very useful for system developers as well as the system
testers as it enhances the level at which a given system can be understood.

53. Explain where you would use the rational rose and the requisite pro.

In a situation whereby different modules of a given requirements have been

created for varied functions, then collected together and made into a single
document, the requisite pro is the one which comes in handy. The other one, the
rational rose, is used to create the business model as a visual representation. It is
helpful in creating high level and low level use cases, activity diagrams, state
diagrams, collaboration diagrams, sequence diagrams etc..

54. What is the importance of a flow chart???

Flow chart is graphical representation of the process which makes the system
simple to understand for all the persons who belongs to the development of the
project.

55. What is a use case model? Explain in brief ?

Use case diagram:

Use case diagrams describe the business environment. It is a series of events / flow
of actions related to a process that are performed by an actor.

56. What is called an UML modeling?

UML means unified modeling language. It is the standard language for

constructing, visualizing and documenting the components of a system.

57. What is the importance of an Activity diagram?

The main use of an activity diagram is to show the work flow of the business and to
show the activities happening in the business system and actions completed. In a
companies there may be different sections like medical, accounting, HR etc..and
each department has different privileges to the system. I.e medical dept can access
only medical related screens and HR dept to only HR screens etc..So this activity
diagrams shows the activities of different departments with their relation. This will
be useful to the developers while designing and coding.

58. How many types of diagrams and what you know about them ?

Use case diagram &

Collaboration diagram.

59. What is meant by alternate flow in use case ?

It is a flow that will come into picture when there is a failure in the system and
expected results did not come.

60. What do you mean by exception flow in a use case?

It is basically any unexpected situations or unusual results in an application.

These exceptions are handles in different ways.

Section 3: 25 Junior Business Analyst Interview Questions.

61. What do you mean by extends and includes in an use case?

Extend means when there is a specific action must take place. And include means
the action may or may not take place.

62. What are different documents that relate to a use cases.?

There are 2 docs.

FRD (functional requirement document)

SDD (system design document) / TRS (Technical requirements specifications)

63. What are the common tools that are used by a business Analyst?

Ans: Rational tools, MS Visio, MS word, MS Excel, Power point, Quality center/test
director MS Project, And there may be some tools which are project and client
specific which you do not have to worry. etc..

64. What are the documents that a Business Analyst needs to deliver?

Ans: Well there are some important documents such as “functional specification
documents, technical specification documents, Requirements traceability, BRD
(business requirements document), Use case diagrams, Business flow, etc..

65. Can you tell me what a use case diagram?

Ans: First of all a use case diagram is a part of UML and it is a behavioral digram
which is created from a use case analysis. The main reason or use of this use case
diagram is it defines the functions of the module or system and the role of each
actor associated to that function.

For Eg: “Order Management” is a main function, and the person who receives the
order in the office is an actor.

66. What do you consider is your greatest strength as a Business Analyst?

 I think the biggest strength is the domain and the technical experience that I have
had over the years as a business analyst. I have the right communication and
leadership skills required to excel in this role.

67. What do you consider is your biggest weakness as a Business Analyst?

I would like to think that my weaknesses are like my stepping stones towards
success. At present I would like to fine tune my technical abilities to the constantly
changing technologies available in the market.

68. What are the methods you use for gathering requirements ?

As a business analyst, we not only have to gather the requirements but also
provide solutions often with the help of the technical team

• Requirement gathering with Zachman framework – Use the famous 5W + 1H

formula (Who , What , When , Where , Why + How). Keep asking about the problem
with this formula to find the principle requirements
• Implicit requirements : we should not forget about these as they can make or break
the whole project
• Prototyping and process flows : these tools help in illustrating the requirements to
the end users and confirm whether the Business analyst has done the requirement
analysis correctly

69. What is the difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control and
how are they related to the Business Analyst profile ?

Quality Assurance focuses on the process: is the method chosen able to produce
the product or is the deliverable free from errors and/or defects. Quality Control
speaks about the products or deliverables themselves: the final examination of the
product or deliverable to ensure they stand to the specifications and they�re free
from error of defect.

A business analyst has to take care of Quality Assurance as well as control is in

place in the final product which is delivered.

70. What are the challenges which you would face as a business analyst?
A balance between technology constraints and business needs should be
maintained at all times. Technology is used to help fulfilling business need, so it�s
usually close to the need. You also have to keep an open mind as to how a process
works effectively and accurately produce the required product. Then, you must
make sure that the written specifications are written properly to avoid
misinterpretations.

71. How did you handle a requirement / enhancement that was not feasible?

I know that even if I think a requirement was not feasible, I have a responsibility
to explain why it was not feasible to the business representatives. So first I’d clarify
the requirement, what was the true requirement there. Then, I’d explain the
technical limitations in non-technical language to them as to why the requirements
couldn’t be accommodated at the same time.

Most of the times, the reason was not feasible because it is not affordable. After I
present the business representatives with the estimated cost, they would decide
whether or not the requirement was really needed. Whichever the outcome was,
the business representatives would feel that they are in command and they are
involved in the decision making process.

72. How do a Business Analyst handle in case a QA team blames the

requirements for failed testing?

This is a very common situation that when ever a project failed or a testcase failed
usually the QA team blames either Dev team or Requirements team. Sometimes
they might be right because a wrong requirement in the early stages might have
got approval from business analyst and other stake holders. So the first think a
Business Analyst should do is refer the tractability matrix to see if the requirements
are properly mapped to test cases. Also verify if the requirements are as per the
initial early notes taken from the client.

73. How is a System Analyst different than a Business Analyst?

A : Business analyst mostly deals with business from business point of view, where
as a System analyst must have a technical knowledge as well, like the environment,
operating system, SQL, etc..
74. Do a Business Analyst need to have technical knowledge also?

A: Not necessarily. A Business Analyst need not have technical knowledge, but
being said that, it will definitely help to have some idea about it. Because a
Business Analyst is a bridge between stake holders and Technical team like
developers, having knowledge about the technology helps in understanding from
both parties.