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Business Analytics has turned out to become one of the most demanding and lucrative job profiles in the modern industry. To become a successful Business Analyst requires capability in managing and helping in proper decision making and execution of the business processes to achieve the organizational goals.
The quality of decision-making and spot analysis is tested and is required during the interview process where there would be questions ranging on multiple topics concerning the handling of business processes, achieving objectives and organizational goals, managing issues, and risks as well as working on optimizing business processes to work within a stipulated duration and budget.
While those are inculcated through rigorous training and understanding, your skills, and this blog today will help you easily scale the interview process to get working in the field of Business Analytics.
Q.What is Business Analysis?
A: The core question of relevance to the topic. Define Business Analysis according to your own understanding of the topic but be sure to include some terms that drive the point home about your understanding including brief explanations of techniques like UML and different types of modeling like Waterfall and Spiral model. Be brief, concise, and to the point.
Q.What is the difference between a Business Analyst and a Data Analyst?
| Data Analyst | Business Analyst |
|---|---|
| The role requires more problem-solving skills and data analysis skills. | It requires more of decision-making and data visualization skills. |
| It is more of an operational role in the organization. | It is more of a strategic role in the organization. |
| It requires knowledge of statistics, SQL, data mining, etc. | Knowledge of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics, etc. is required for this role. |
Q.Enlist the steps involved in a business process?
A: First explain what a business process is (i.e any process or method that is undertaken to drive the business and the respective procedures towards achieving the goals thereby). The various steps involved in a business process are:-
- Gather information
- State roles & responsibilities of key stakeholders
- Identify the business objectives
- Determine the options
- Take note of the risks involved
- Assess the objectives and risks
- Define contingency plans
- Define requirements
- Formulate deliverables
- Implementation and evaluation
Q.Who is a Business Analyst? What are the responsibilities involved?
A: A business analyst is a person who takes the initiative of driving the various implementations of the processes that a company undertakes to drive business and thereby profits and shares.
The Business Analyst takes stock of current situations in and around the company and looks to align it with the various decisions that the organization undertakes to ensure that the process and the product help in developing the company’s position in terms of gaining profit and name.
Q.What are the major competencies and requirements for a Business Analyst?
A: The major requirements for a person to make a career in Business Analytics include:-
- Analytical thinking and decision making
- Core assessment skills
- Business knowledge
- Strong levels of planning efficiency, leadership and communication skills
- Problem-solving and negotiation skills
Q.What are the tools used in Business Analytics?
A: Some of the most used tools in Business Analytics are:-
- MS-Office
- SQL
- Tableau
- Python
- R
- SWOTSWOT
- Blueprint
- Balsamiq
- PowerBI
Q.What is SRS and what are its core elements?
A: SRS stands for System Requirements Specification/Software Requirements Specification. It is a document that describes the features of an application. It offers detailed information about systems and their features.The core elements of SRS are:-
- Scope of Work
- Dependencies
- Functional and Non-Functional Requirements
- Data Modelling
- Assumptions and Constraints
Q.What is BRD? How is it different from SRS?
A: BRD stands for Business Requirements Document which is a contract agreed between the client and the organization for the development of any specific product. The fundamental differences between BRD and SRS are:-
| BRD | SRS |
|---|---|
| It is a high-level functional specification of the software. | It is a high level functional and technical specification document of the software. |
| BA creates it after their direct interaction with the clients. | The System Architect creates it according to their need and technical expertise. |
| It is derived based on client interaction and requirements. | SRS is always derived from the BRS. |
Q.What is business process analysis?
A: Business process analysis is defined as the assessment of the various factors that any business process can inflict or influence. There are various means like economic, social, and commercial aspects that are to be considered when analyzing the viability of a business process.
Q.Explain the flow in business process analysis?
A: The flow of a business process involves multiple steps that are to be followed in an orderly manner. These are:-
- Information gathering
- Identify the key stakeholders
- Identify the business objective
- Determine the available options
- Scope definition
- Define the delivery plan
- Define the requirements for a project
- Implementation and evaluation
Q.What are the various steps undertaken to convert a product into an idea?
A: The steps needed to convert a product into an idea are:-
- Market Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- SWOT Analysis
- Customer Personas
- Strategic Vision Set
- Use Cases
- SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)
- Test Cases
- Scalability metrics and index
Q.Define risk and its impact on any business process?
A: A risk is defined as any activity that can harm a probable vulnerability in the system and cause a threat to the business process by impacting the revenue of profit-making capability in a business process. Understanding and assessing risks is a very important part of business planning and analysis.
What is the distinction between a risk and an issue?
A: A risk is defined as the potential onset of any threat to the organization’s working or infrastructure. An issue is a problem that has already arose and from which the organization looks to come out of by employing the best practices possible. Ex:- A company’s data getting hacked is an issue, the potential threat to the data being hacked is called risk.
Q.Define Personas
A: A persona is defined as the social roles that are analyzed instead of real-life activities performed by the person. They are used and analyzed to gauge customer behavior and ideals that they possess towards particular services, businesses, or activities.
Q.What is the difference between Risk Mitigation and Risk Avoidance?
A:
| Risk Mitigation | Risk Avoidance |
|---|---|
| Risk mitigation is what to do when a risk occurs. | Risk avoidance is what to do to avoid the risk. |
| It reduces the probability of risk occurrence. | It avoids the risk by eliminating the cause. |
| It checks whether any impact occurs for the project/business. | The impact of the threat occurrence is reduced to 0%. |
| Cost is high in case any risk occurs. | Cost is eliminated in risk avoidance. |
Q. Define “Requirement Elicitation”
A: Requirements Elicitation is the process of taking in all customer needs and requirements regarding any service or product. It forms the bedrock of any business process and is the primary part of the process flow as well.Requirements elicitation can generally be done using:-
- Surveys
- Brainstorming
- Feedback
- Observation
- Prototyping
- Resource and requirements filtering, etc
Q.Differentiate between SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and PLC (Project Life Cycle)
A:
| Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) | Risk Avoidance |
|---|---|
| Used for developing particular software products | Used for developing a new product in the business |
| Mostly involves single software across different phases | Involves multiple software in a single customer scenario |
| SDLC phases include requirement gathering, design, coding, documentation, operations, and maintenance | PLC phases include Idea generation, screening, research, development, testing, and analysis |
Q.What is “Critical Path Analysis”?
A: A “critical path” is defined as the most important process and also the backbone of any business project. It contains the most number of major activities that are to be undertaken to achieve the final goal and sometimes these activities are also called Critical Path activities or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It is important to keep track of the critical path activities that help us keep track of how much work is done and how much remains in our quest for completion.
Q.What is “Gap Analysis”?
A: “Gap Analysis” is referred to as the process that helps in keeping track of the work required in attaining the proposed result from the existing system. Using Gap Analysis, we can ascertain what requirements a certain existing system or process requires and we can also assess what improvements are to be made in the journey.
Q.What are the types of gaps possible during Gap Analysis?
A: A Gap Analysis can result in four types of gaps:
- Profit Gap – It is the gap between the estimated and actual profit of a company.
- Manpower Gap – It denotes the gap between the required number and quality of workforce and actual workforce strength in a company.
- Performance Gap – It is the difference between the actual performance and the expected performance.
- Product/Market Gap – It is the gap between estimated sales and actual sales.
Q.List the various components used in formulating and executing a business plan?
To formulate and execute a business process or plan, we require the following components:-
- Vision
- Mission
- Key Objectives
- Strategies
- Plan of Action/Execution
Q.What is UML? What is it used for?
A: UML stands for Unified Modelling Language. It is used for constructing, visualizing, and documenting the various components of the system. It is used for various processes such as business process development, software cycle development, testing, organizational functioning, etc. It has unique features that tend to every way that helps create a very proactive business environment that is well-managed.
Q.What are the various diagrams used to represent UML procedures?
A: There are a lot of UML diagrams that perform different types of processes and aid in various measures and activities along with the original process flow. UML diagrams are generally classified into two different types:-
-> Structural diagrams - Structural, Package, Object, Component Diagrams
->Behavioural diagrams - Collaboration, Activity, Sequence, Use-Case Diagrams
Q.Explain Activity Diagram?
A: An Activity Diagram is used to denote the life cycle of activities that are occurring within the development life cycle, their priority, and also their period of execution.
Q.What are the major diagrams used in Business Analytics?
A: The major diagrams in usage for Business Analytics measures are the Use Case Diagram and Collaboration Diagram.
Q.How do you analyze performance metrics?
A: Performance metrics are quantifiable observations that help in assessing the way operations are done to achieve business goals. There are three ways to analyze the metrics of performance:-
- The metrics are scalable towards achieving the final goal
- Make sure the key deliverables are met
- Quality of the process and the various objectives are maintained
- The budget and time should not be extended and rather the process must be optimized to accord the above-mentioned features
Q.Differentiate between Fish Model and V Model
| Fish Model | V Model |
|---|---|
| Fish model is comparatively very costly and time-consuming | V-model requires less time and cost |
| Fish model is used when there were no ambiguities in the customer's requirements | Otherwise, V-model is preferred |
Q.Differentiate between Agile Model and Waterfall Model
| Agile Model | Waterfall Model |
|---|---|
| Flexible in nature | Structured software development methodology |
| Focuses on customer satisfaction, majorly | The internal process does not require customer participation |
| Flexible to changes in requirement | Requirements must be clearly defined; changes are difficult to implement |
| Incremental approach | Sequential design process |
| Testing can be done in every phase | Testing is performed only in the final phase |
Q.What is scope creep?
A: Scope creep is defined as the uncontrolled or sudden changes or deviations in the project’s scope without changes in other resources of the project. It is due to the failure in proper monitoring, miscommunication, etc. Scope creeps can prove to be detrimental to an organization’s and project’s prospects.
Q.What is RUP methodology?
A: Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an object-oriented approach that guarantees successful project management and top-notch software production by understanding the objectives that help in achieving a unilateral goal.
Q.What is RAD methodology?
A: RAD stands for Rapid Application Development which is the process of making and executing robustly phased developments in a project schedule. Individual developments and increments that lead towards achieving the project scope are made which are then assembled, timed, slotted into the project, and delivered as one.
Q.What is Business Process Modelling?
A: Business Process Modelling is defined as the creation and depiction of any business process that forms part of an organization’s business practices. It forms part of the business management techniques.
Q.Define Benchmarking in Business Analytics
A: Benchmarking is defined as the process of assessing an organization’s capability to compete and thrive within the industry. Through benchmarking principles, one can assess the revenue generation capability, the rules, policies, goals, and performance in achieving those goals as parameters to determine the capability index.
Q.What is the Agile Principle?
A: Agile principle is arguably the most important principle in a business project process. Agility stands for resilience, flexibility, and robustness. It is the method by which iterative solutions can be found and incorporated within a project model. It also provides room to right the wrongs and improves on mistakes made in project execution.
Q.What do you understand by the term “Agile Manifesto”?
A: Agile manifesto is considered as the guide to be followed while developing software incrementally. It places emphasis on some key guidelines:-
- Individuals and interactions must be given more preference than process and tools
- Working software must be preferred over incessant documentation
- Flexibility should ensure within a project’s scope & objective rather than a plan
Q.List some of the different Agile methodologies
A: Some of the most prominent Agile methodologies are:-
- Scrum
- Kanban
- Crystal
- Feature Driven Development
- Lean Software Development
- Extreme Programming
Q.Define Scrum
A: Scrum method is one of the most basic and prominently used Agile methodologies. It is used to develop iterative systems by assigning tasks to a small team that works on the same for 30 days.
Q.Define Kanban tool for Agile development
A: Kanban is a very useful tool in that it helps individuals and teams keep track of the developments in a project visually as it progresses. It also helps you in scheduling processes for just-in-time production to describe the current development status.
Q.List some important Agile metrics
A: Prominent Agile metrics are:-
- Spring burndown metric
- Work category allocation
- Priority of work
- Business deliverable allocation
- Value delivery
Q.What is the scope of Business Analysts within the Agile methodology aspect?
A: Business Analysts act as a bridge between the development team and stakeholders. They act on key deliverables to prioritize and deliver the project in the stipulated time and budget.
Q.Define SaaS and CaaS?
A: Saas stands for Software-as-a-Service. It is the process where software is created and utilized for managing all infrastructure and operational work within an organization or a team within the organization.
CaaS stands for Conversation-as-a-Service. It is defined as communication mediums that exist between the company and service vendors where they brainstorm and work-out different requirements and developments with respect to product development and outsourcing.
Q.Why is a Requirement Traceability Matrix used?
A: A Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) is used to take note of and keep track of customer and vendor requirements. Through an RTM, one can keep track of and ensure that consumer requirements are being met.
Q.What are KPIs? Why are they important?
A: KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. They are quantifiable objectives that are laid out for individuals and teams that work within a project on their quest to achieve the ultimate goal of the project. The KPIs contribute towards achieving the ultimate goal as they are mini-increments of that goal itself which the groups try to complete within set durations and conditions.
Q.What is the SMART technique?
A: Every KPI or business goal must follow the SMART technique. It postulates that any quantifiable achievement or fulfillment of a goal and its scope is achieved only when the goals and the results of it are:-
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant, and
- Time-bound
Any business goal that follows the SMART technique is sure to achieve success.
Q.What is the Kano Analysis? When is it used?
A: Kano Analysis is an essential analytical tool (technique) that is used to understand requirements to determine their capabilities in achieving customer satisfaction. When any requirements are instilled into the system, Kano Analysis is used to assess the potential of the need and its ability to influence customer usage.
Q.Define BPMN
A: BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation. It is a graphical representation of the business process and the flow of the same.
Q.What is a BPMN Gateway?
A: BPMN Gateway is a processing modeling component that is used to control the flow of interaction, the sequence of processes.
Q.What are the important elements of a BPMN Gateway?
A: The important elements of a BPMN gateway are:-
- Data
- Flow Objects
- Connecting Objects
- Interaction tools
- Swimlanes
Q.Define INVEST principle
A: INVEST principles stand for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized Appropriately, Testable. It comprises the elements of the entire process which guarantees a high-quality product.
Q.How many categories of business analysis techniques exist?
A: There are more than 100 business techniques that business analysts can select. It should be categorized as strategic, investigative, project management, documentation, and modeling techniques.
We hope the knowledge you gained through these questions will help you succeed in the interview process and lead you to a successful career as a Business Analyst. If you have no knowledge of Business Analytics in the first place, don’t fret, Verzeo has just the right course for you. Check out our Business Analytics course which helps you understand all the basics and advanced concepts of Analytics in a lucid and in-depth manner.