Top 50 Business Analyst Interview Questions in 2023

Edvancer Edventures 27/05/2023

Business analysts play an important role in the success of an organization. They act as a bridge between different stakeholders and make sure that all their requirements are getting fulfilled. This is the reason why business analysts are among the most valued professionals in any company. If you wish to become a business analyst, you must be aware of what subjects and topics you need to learn. Moreover, it is also important to be familiar with the type of questions you will be asked in the interview.

You can prepare yourself for a business analyst job by enrolling in the right business analytics certification program. Make sure to consider the course curriculum and your learning style before you choose a course. To excel in a business analyst interview, here are some top questions you must prepare.

Business Analyst Interview Questions for Freshers

As a fresher, you will be asked the following types of questions in a business analyst interview:

1. What is a ‘requirement’ in business analytics?
Ans. The solution aimed at achieving business goals or objectives is known as a requirement. It is used as an input to different stages of SDLC. A requirement serves as the basis for any project and business leaders and stakeholders must check it before implementation. Moreover, every requirement must be documented for future purposes.

2. What do you understand by a use case?
Ans. In business analytics, a use case refers to a diagrammatic representation of how a user should use a system to achieve certain goals. It is an important part of software modeling and software engineering techniques defining the targeted features and the possible solution to any problems that users may face.

3. What are the responsibilities of a business analyst in an organization?
Ans. A business analyst acts as a link between different stakeholders from different domains of a business. The major responsibility of a business analyst is to understand the goals of a business and maintain a balance between the needs of different stakeholders.

4. List some commonly used tools by business analysts.
Ans. Some most common tools used by business analysts include MS Office Suite, SQL, Google Docs, Database knowledge, ERP systems, and a few more.

5. What are the MoSCoW and SWOT techniques?
Ans. The term ‘MoSCoW’ stands for Must or Should and Could or Would. A business analyst can use these processes to prioritize the framework requirements by comparing every demand with other needs. For example, they can understand whether a particular requirement is a must-have or a should-have.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, business analysts should be able to categorize them as opportunities and threats.

6. Name the different stages of a business project.
Ans. A business project consists of several stages, out of which, some most significant ones include Initiation, Planning, Implementation/Execution, Monitoring, and Closure.

7. How do you update yourself with the latest business trends and knowledge?
Ans. With these types of questions, the interviewer wants to make sure that you are motivated enough to keep yourself updated with the latest technologies and developments in the analytics field. You can answer by mentioning the news publications, magazines, and websites that you refer to for gaining the latest knowledge.

8. What do you understand by project deliverables?
Ans. Project deliverables can be defined as a set of products and measurable services that are delivered to the end consumers after the completion of a business project. In short, it is the final outcome of a business project.

9. Explain Business Modeling.
Ans. Business Modeling can be defined as the step-wise approach to identify the value proposition for operating the business. In other words, it is a set of plans and strategies that the businesses use to make a profit. The essential components of business modeling to prepare strategies and business plans include Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans.

10. When do you say that a requirement is perfect?
Ans. A requirement can be considered perfect when it is SMART (Specific, Mea/bsurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely). As per this, all the conditions and their description should be specific and the parameters needed for success should be measurable. Moreover, the required resources should be attainable and relevant to the business project. All the conditions and elements must be revealed timely.

11. What is SRS? Name its key elements.
Ans. SRS stands for Software or System Requirements Specification, which is a set of documents that describe the features of a software product. It involves various elements that stakeholders and customers need to convince the end consumers. The critical aspects of a SAS include Data Model, Scope of Work, Dependencies, Functional & Non-Functional Requirements, Assumptions & Constraints, and Acceptance Criteria.

12. What do you understand by Gap analysis?
Ans. Gap Analysis refers to the analysis of differences between the functionalities of the existing and the targeted system. In other words, gap refers to the changes that a system needs to achieve the targeted objectives. There are majorly four types of gaps in business analysis, including the Profit Gap, Performance Gap, Manpower Gap, and Market Gap.

13. What is the goal of the Requirement Traceability Matrix?
Ans. The purpose of a Requirement Traceability Matrix is to record all the needs of a client or customer and make sure that all the necessary needs are fulfilled.

14. Define INVEST.
Ans. The full form of INVEST is Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Size-Appropriately, and Testale. All these are the ideal characteristics of a user story. User stories should not be dependent on other users, should leave room for negotiation, must represent a value of users, should be estimable, should neither be too small nor too large, and must be testable.

15. What are the core competencies of a business analyst?
Ans. The core competencies of a business analyst are listed below:

Good listening skills
Good understanding of delegated business objectives
Ability to organize stakeholder meetings
Documenting and Preparing reports
Time Management
Strong understanding of business structures

16. What is the difference between business analytics and business analysis?
Ans. Business analytics and Business analysis are often used interchangeably, however, the two fields are slightly different. Business analysis focuses on identifying new business opportunities/risks and working on them to improve business processes. On the other hand, business analytics focuses on improving the decision-making processes of a business. Moreover, the business analytics field requires more technical skills than business analysis.

17. What is process design?
Ans. Process Design, as the name suggests, is the development or creation of a process to achieve specific business objectives. It includes the specification of raw materials, operating conditions, equipment, and other necessary aspects of the process. It also involves the process of determining desired output levels, process flow diagrams, and a few more characteristics.

18. What do you understand by Agile Manifesto?
Ans. Agile Manifesto can be defined as a set of principles for software development. It includes 4 key values and 12 principles that software developers should consider while working on a project. These principles emphasize interactions and individuals over the tools and processes.

19. What are the different phases of business development?
Ans. The four key phases of Software Development are as follows:

The ideation phase, where a person gets an idea for a new business.
The implementation phase, where an entrepreneur begins to execute his/her business plan.
The growth phase, where the business starts getting traffic and growing.
Exit phase, where the entrepreneur makes up their mind to sell their business.

20. Name different types of Agile methodologies.
Ans. There are various types of Agile methodologies with their unique approach to software development. Some most popular Agile frameworks include Kanban, Scrum, and Extreme Programming (XP).

Also Read: Land To Your Dream Job In Business Analytics: Why Is Certification A Key?

21. What is the difference between iterative and incremental development?
Ans. Both Incremental and iterative development are the software development processes focusing on delivering small and frequent updates rather than large and infrequent updates. The incremental approach focuses on delivering functionality in small chunks whereas the iterative approach focuses on delivering larger pieces of functionality.

22. Differentiate between extreme programming and scrum.
Ans. Both Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) are Agile methodologies, however, there are several differences between the two. Scrum focuses on delivering workable software quickly while XP emphasizes code quality and customer satisfaction. Moreover, Scrum works on the basis of input received from the product owner, while XP requires software developers to work closely with customers.

23. What do you understand by feasibility study?
Ans. The feasibility analysis is the study of how feasible an idea or project is. It is included in the early design phases of any project. It is carried out to identify the advantages and disadvantages of a company without any bias. It helps companies in understanding the answers to these questions: Does the business have all the necessary tools and technologies? Will the company get a high RoI?

24. Explain the process flow of business analysis.
Ans. The business analysis process includes a range of tasks, tools, and techniques. Below are the steps included in the process flow of business analysis:

Gathering all the data related to a project.
Identifying all the involved stakeholders and organizing a review meeting.
Examining all the important documentation of the project.
Noting down every single piece of relevant information you find.
Understanding the problem domain in-depth.
Introducing the requirements of your business.

25. What is a project lifecycle?
Ans. A project lifecycle is a framework that business analysts implement to split a project into different manageable phases. It also helps them improve the decision points throughout the project lifespan. Different models that one can employ are Spiral Model, Waterfall Model, Iterative Model, V-shaped Model, and Agile Model.

26. How do you design a use case?
Ans. While designing a use case, you need to make sure that it should be well defined, concise, and correctly documented. Following are some effective strategies or approaches to design a use case:

In the first phase, you need to identify users to create user profiles for different user categories.
In the second phase, you need to create use cases by considering both functional as well as non-functional requirements.
In the final phase, you need to review and validate the use cases.

27. What is UML? Explain its use cases.
Ans. UML stands for Unified Modeling Language. It is a developmental modeling language with a general purpose that provides you with a standard method to envision systems. One of the common use cases of UML is rationalizing the behavior or a system for detecting and eliminating errors.

28. How is BRD different from SRS?
Ans. BRD stands for Business Requirement Development. It is a contract signed by the organization as well as the client for developing a specific product. It is different from SRS (System Requirement Specification) in several ways. BRD is a functional specification that is created by Business Analysts after interacting directly with the clients. On the other hand, SRS is designed on the basis of technical requirements and expertise. SRS is a smaller term derived from BRD.

29. How can you perform requirement gathering?
Ans. You can perform requirement gathering in many ways and some most commonly used methods include focus groups, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. One needs to choose the right method depending on the available resources and the type of information required. Here are some ways to perform requirement gathering:

Interviews allow you to gather requirements through in-depth open-ended conversations.
Focus groups include small groups of people and allow you to gather requirements based on in-depth conversations just like interviews.
Surveys can be performed to gather information about people’s interests, experiences, opinions, etc.

30. What do you mean by scope creep?
Ans. Scope Creep refers to a problem where the scope of a project keeps expanding and crosses its original parameters. This can happen due to various reasons, including changes in the objectives or requirements of the project, poor planning, etc. It is quite challenging to avoid a score creep but becomes very important in order to keep a project on track.

31. Explain Pareto Analysis.
Ans. Pareto Analysis is an important technique that is used to recognize the most significant factors contributing to a particular goal or problem. It helps businesses in identifying the most important areas that they need to focus on in order to improve their processes to the greatest extent.

Business Analyst Interview Questions For Experienced Professionals

Following are some advanced-level business analyst interview questions for experienced professionals:

32. What are some common problems faced by business analysts?
Ans. Some common problems that a business analyst may face include:

Issues related to technology and tools
Employee related issues
Issues related to business policies
Access related problems
Business model errors

33. What is the requirement elicitation strategy?
Ans. The process of gathering requirements for a system from its end users or stakeholders is known as the requirements elicitation strategy. The nine methods that can be used as a part of this process are observation, interviews, brainstorming, focus groups, document analysis, interface analysis, prototyping, survey, and requirement workshops.

34. What are some essential requirements for an Agile Business Analyst?
Ans. Some essential qualities of an Agile Business Analyst are:

Collaborating with product owners to elicit the requirements.
Making requirement specifications, business rules, and data models as lightweight as possible.
A good understanding of agile terminologies and technologies.

35. When do you use the Waterfall model instead of Scrum?
Ans. In case of simple and specific requirements, you can go with the Waterfall model instead of Scrum.

36. What is FMEA?
Ans. FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) is a tool that business analysts use to identify potential risks of failure in a process or system. After determining and quantifying the risks, business analysts can work closely with the respective teams and develop mitigation plans.

37. What is analytical reporting?
Ans. Analytical reporting can be defined as a type of business reporting that includes recommendations, information, and data analysis. Recommendations are the important factors that make analytical reporting different from informational reporting.

38. How do you manage the pre-implementation and post-implementation problems of a project?
Ans. Pre-implementation problems are the issues that arise before the implementation of a project. On the other hand, post-implementation problems are the problems that can be observed after the implementation of a project. For business analysts, it becomes quite challenging to overcome these problems completely. However, they can minimize these issues to a maximum extent within a little time frame.

39. What are the different techniques used for requirement prioritization?
Ans. Requirement Prioritization, as the name suggests, is the process of ensuring that the most important requirements are addressed first and then the less important ones. Also, the process helps in making sure that all the resources are being used efficiently. You can use various techniques for requirement prioritization, such as value-based prioritization, cost-benefit analysis, and stakeholder analysis.

40. Explain non-functional requirements.
Ans. Non-functional requirements are the requirements that specify the conditions that a system needs to fulfill in order to be successful. These are exactly opposite to the functional requirements. While functional requirements specify the behaviors that a system should exhibit, non-functional ones specify the essential conditions to be fulfilled. Some common types of non-functional requirements include security, performance, scalability, and usability.

Also Read: Business Analyst Salary for Freshers and Experienced in 2023

41. Differentiate between alternate flow and exception flow.
Ans. Alternate flow focuses on expected events while exception flow focuses on dealing with unexpected events that occur when a program is being executed.

42. Explain BPMN and its basic elements.
Ans. BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) is a graphical notation that analysts can use to model business processes. The aim of this notation is to provide a language that technical developers and business users can use to communicate and document business processes. Some basic elements of BPMN include Gateway, Event, Activity, and Data Object.

43. What do you understand by benchmarking?
Ans. Benchmarking can be defined as the process of comparing a company with others in the same industry. The comparison can be made on the basis of specific metrics, such as profitability, customer base, productivity, etc. The main purpose of benchmarking is to identify the areas of improvement for a business and develop better strategies to compete in the market.

44. What is Kanban?
Ans. Kanban is a popular system used by various businesses and industries for managing their workflows. It has become specifically popular in the software development industry for managing agile software development.

45. What do you know about a Pugh Matrix?
Ans. The Pugh matrix is a popular technique used by businesses to find an optimal answer after various other solutions have come into existence. This tool’s ease of use and minimal math requirements are the most significant factors for its popularity.

46. What is the difference between risk avoidance and risk mitigation?
Ans. Risk avoidance refers to the process of removing a risk completely from negatively affecting a business. On the other hand, risk mitigation is the process of reducing the impacts of a potential risk instead of removing it completely. One major difference between risk avoidance and mitigation is that avoidance eliminates the cost and in the case of mitigation, the cost is substantial.

47. How do you handle conflicts when working on a business project?
Ans. With this question, the interviewer wants to examine your ability to handle challenges. You can answer this by saying that you use structured problem-solving techniques to prioritize the requirements on the basis of their feasibility and impact.

48. What is Kano Analysis?
Ans. Kano Analysis is a technique for quality management that helps businesses in identifying customer needs and preferences. It helps in improving marketing strategies, product development, and customer satisfaction. It has five levels for customer needs: basic needs, performance needs, reverse needs, excitement needs, and unknown needs.

49. What are some important Agile Metrics?
Ans. You can use a number of metrics to measure the success of an agile software development project. Some most important ones include lead time, cycle time, velocity, test coverage, and defect density.

50. What do you understand by the term ‘increment?’
Ans. Increment in business analytics refers to the process of assigning a value to a variable. For example, if you have a variable called total and you want to add 20 to it, you will say that you are incrementing the total by 20.

Learn Business Analytics at Edvancer

Edvancer is one of the top online platforms offering career-oriented learning programs. The ‘Certified Business Analytics Professional’ course by Edvancer is among the best business analytics certifications in India. The course provides you with complete coverage of all the required topics, technologies, and tools. Moreover, you can gain practical experience by working on real industry projects based on business analytics. This course provides you with two types of learning options, including self-paced learning and live online classes, and you are free to choose any one that suits your needs.

FAQs

1. How to pass a BA interview?
Ans. To crack a Business Analyst interview, you don’t only need to learn theoretical subjects, but your practical experiences and soft skills also matter. You can develop practical skills through Edvancer’s business analytics course which allows you to work on real industry projects while you learn. Moreover, you should also work on your soft skills, such as problem-solving, communication, etc.

2. How many rounds are there in a business analyst interview?
Ans. The number of interview rounds may vary for different organizations. In general, there may be three rounds in a BA interview. These rounds include a telephonic interview, a technical round, and a final round with HRs or senior management.