Business Analyst Basics
1. What does a business analyst do? basic
A business analyst studies how a business works, finds problems or opportunities, gathers requirements from stakeholders and helps the team deliver solutions. The BA is the link between business people and technical teams.
2. What skills does a business analyst need? basic
Communication, requirement gathering, analytical thinking, documentation, stakeholder management, problem solving and basic knowledge of data tools like Excel and SQL. Domain knowledge helps a lot.
3. What is the difference between a business analyst and a data analyst? basic
A business analyst focuses on business processes and requirements and what should be built. A data analyst focuses on analysing data to answer questions. The roles overlap, and many BAs use data heavily.
4. What is the role of a BA in the software development life cycle (SDLC)? basic
The BA works mainly in planning and requirements, then supports design, clarifies questions during development, helps with testing and UAT, and supports go-live and handover.
5. What is SDLC? basic
The Software Development Life Cycle is the set of phases to build software: planning, requirements, design, development, testing, deployment and maintenance.
6. What is the difference between Agile and Waterfall? basic
Waterfall is sequential: each phase finishes before the next starts, and changes are hard. Agile works in short cycles (sprints) with frequent feedback and changes. Agile suits changing requirements, Waterfall suits fixed, well-understood ones.
7. What is a stakeholder? basic
A stakeholder is any person or group affected by or able to influence a project, such as sponsors, users, managers, developers and customers.
8. How do you identify and manage stakeholders? intermediate
List everyone affected, then assess their influence and interest. Keep high-influence, high-interest people closely involved, and keep others informed at the right level. Use a stakeholder matrix and a communication plan.
9. What is a business case? basic
A business case explains why a project is worth doing: the problem, options, costs, benefits, risks and the recommendation. It is used to get approval and funding.
10. What is a project, programme and portfolio? basic
A project is a temporary effort for a specific result. A programme is a group of related projects managed together. A portfolio is the collection of all projects and programmes an organisation runs.
11. What is the difference between a business analyst and a product owner? intermediate
The product owner is accountable for the product backlog and priorities and the product's value. The BA supports by analysing needs and writing detailed requirements. In some teams one person does both.
12. What is the difference between a business analyst and a project manager? intermediate
The PM manages scope, time, cost and risk to deliver the project. The BA defines what the solution needs to do and why. The PM asks 'when and how much', the BA asks 'what and why'.
Requirements Gathering and Documentation
13. What is requirement gathering? basic
It is the process of finding out what stakeholders need from a solution, using interviews, workshops, surveys, observation, document review and prototypes.
14. What are the techniques for gathering requirements? basic
Interviews, workshops, surveys and questionnaires, observation (job shadowing), document analysis, brainstorming, prototyping and focus groups.
15. What is the difference between functional and non-functional requirements? basic
Functional requirements say what the system must do, such as 'allow users to reset a password'. Non-functional requirements say how well it must do it, such as speed, security, availability and usability.
16. What is the difference between business requirements, user requirements and system requirements? basic
Business requirements describe high-level goals of the organisation. User (stakeholder) requirements describe what users need. System requirements describe how the system must behave to meet those needs.
17. What is a BRD? basic
A Business Requirements Document describes the business need, the goals, scope and the high-level requirements of a project, in language the business understands.
18. What are the differences between BRD, FRS and SRS? intermediate
BRD covers business needs and goals. FRS (Functional Requirement Specification) describes the system's functions. SRS (Software Requirement Specification) is a complete description of software behaviour including functional and non-functional requirements. Organisations use these names differently.
19. What is a user story? basic
A user story is a short statement of a need from the user's point of view: 'As a [role], I want [feature] so that [benefit].' It is used in Agile to describe work.
20. What are acceptance criteria? intermediate
Acceptance criteria are the conditions a user story must meet to be accepted as done. They are clear and testable, often written as Given-When-Then.
21. What makes a good user story (INVEST)? intermediate
INVEST: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small and Testable.
22. What is a use case? basic
A use case describes how a user (actor) interacts with a system to achieve a goal, with the main flow, alternative flows and exceptions.
23. What is the difference between a use case and a user story? intermediate
A user story is a brief statement of need, used in Agile. A use case is a more detailed step-by-step description of interactions, including alternative and exception flows.
24. What is a requirements traceability matrix (RTM)? intermediate
An RTM maps each requirement to its source, design, test cases and status. It makes sure every requirement is delivered and tested, and shows the impact of changes.
25. How do you prioritise requirements? intermediate
Use methods such as MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Won't), value versus effort, Kano analysis, or ranking by business value and risk, agreed with stakeholders.
26. What is MoSCoW prioritisation? basic
MoSCoW groups requirements into Must have, Should have, Could have and Won't have (this time). It helps agree on what is essential for a release.
27. How do you handle conflicting requirements from stakeholders? intermediate
Bring the stakeholders together, clarify the underlying goals, link each requirement to business objectives, use priority methods and data, and escalate to the sponsor if they cannot agree.
28. What is scope creep and how do you prevent it? intermediate
Scope creep is uncontrolled growth of project scope. Prevent it with a clear scope statement, a change control process, impact analysis on each request, and sponsor approval for changes.
29. What is a change request? intermediate
A change request is a formal proposal to alter the agreed scope, time or cost. It is assessed for impact and approved or rejected through change control.
30. How do you make sure requirements are clear and complete? intermediate
Write them in simple, specific and testable language, review them with stakeholders, use examples and diagrams, check for conflicts and gaps, and get formal sign-off.
31. What is a requirement baseline? basic
A baseline is the approved version of the requirements. Later changes go through change control, so everyone works from the same agreed version.
32. What is a gap analysis? intermediate
Gap analysis compares the current state with the desired future state to find what is missing, and defines the actions to close the gap.
33. What is a SWOT analysis? intermediate
SWOT looks at Strengths, Weaknesses (internal) and Opportunities, Threats (external) to support planning and decision making.
34. What is root cause analysis? intermediate
It is a method to find the underlying cause of a problem, rather than fixing symptoms. Techniques include the 5 Whys and fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams.
35. What is a feasibility study? intermediate
It checks whether a proposed solution is workable in terms of technical, financial, operational and schedule aspects before investing.
36. What is cost-benefit analysis? intermediate
It compares the total expected costs of a solution with its expected benefits to decide whether it is worthwhile, often using measures like ROI and payback period.
Agile and Scrum
49. What is Scrum? basic
Scrum is an Agile framework where a team delivers work in short sprints (usually 1-4 weeks), with defined roles, events and artefacts.
50. What are the Scrum roles? basic
Product Owner (manages the backlog and value), Scrum Master (helps the team follow Scrum and removes blockers) and the Development Team.
51. What are the Scrum events? basic
Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum (stand-up), Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
52. What is a product backlog and a sprint backlog? basic
The product backlog is the ordered list of everything needed in the product. The sprint backlog is the subset chosen for the current sprint, plus the plan to deliver it.
53. What is backlog grooming (refinement)? intermediate
It is the ongoing activity of reviewing backlog items, clarifying them, adding detail, estimating and prioritising so they are ready for sprint planning.
54. What is a definition of done and definition of ready? intermediate
Definition of done lists what must be true for work to be complete (coded, tested, documented). Definition of ready lists what a story needs before the team can start it.
55. What is velocity in Agile? intermediate
Velocity is the amount of work, usually in story points, a team completes in a sprint. It is used to plan how much work fits in future sprints.
56. What are story points? intermediate
Story points are a relative estimate of the effort, complexity and risk of a story, often using a scale like Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8). They compare stories, not measure hours.
57. What is a Kanban board? intermediate
A Kanban board shows work items as cards moving through columns like To Do, In Progress and Done. It limits work in progress and makes bottlenecks visible.
58. What is the difference between Scrum and Kanban? intermediate
Scrum uses fixed-length sprints with defined roles and ceremonies. Kanban is continuous flow with no fixed sprints, focusing on limiting work in progress. Scrum plans in batches, Kanban pulls work as capacity frees.
59. What is an epic, a feature and a story? intermediate
An epic is a large body of work, a feature is a piece of functionality inside an epic, and a user story is a small item the team can finish in a sprint.
60. What does a BA do in an Agile team? intermediate
Writes and refines user stories and acceptance criteria, helps prioritise the backlog, clarifies needs for developers, supports testing and demos, and keeps close contact with stakeholders.
61. What is a minimum viable product (MVP)? intermediate
An MVP is the simplest version of a product that delivers value and allows learning from real users, before investing in more features.
Testing and UAT
62. What is UAT? basic
User Acceptance Testing is testing by the real business users to confirm the solution meets their needs before go-live.
63. What is the BA's role in UAT? intermediate
The BA helps prepare test scenarios from requirements, supports users during testing, logs and triages defects, and confirms that acceptance criteria are met before sign-off.
64. What is the difference between verification and validation? basic
Verification checks that the product is built right according to the specification. Validation checks that it is the right product for the user's needs.
65. What are the types of testing? intermediate
Unit, integration, system, regression, performance, security and user acceptance testing. Each checks a different level or quality.
66. What is regression testing? intermediate
Regression testing re-runs earlier tests after changes to make sure existing features still work.
67. What is a test case? basic
A test case is a set of steps, inputs and expected results used to check a specific requirement.
68. What is the difference between a bug and a change request? intermediate
A bug is behaviour that does not match the agreed requirement. A change request asks for new or different behaviour from the original requirement.
69. What is defect severity and priority? intermediate
Severity is the technical impact of the defect. Priority is how urgently it should be fixed from a business view. A typo on the home page may be low severity but high priority.
70. What is a go-live or cutover plan? intermediate
It lists the steps, owners and timing to move the solution into production, including checks, communication and a rollback plan if something goes wrong.
Data and SQL for Business Analysts
71. Why does a business analyst need SQL? basic
SQL lets a BA check data, validate numbers, understand how systems store data and answer questions without waiting for developers.
72. Which KPIs are common in business analysis? intermediate
Revenue, profit margin, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, churn, customer lifetime value, NPS, average handling time and on-time delivery, depending on the business.
73. How do you measure the success of a project after launch? intermediate
Compare agreed metrics before and after, such as cost saved, time saved, error reduction or adoption, gather user feedback, and report against the original business case.
74. What is ROI? intermediate
Return on investment is net gain divided by cost, shown as a percentage. For example, a project costing 100 that returns 150 has an ROI of 50%.
75. How do you validate data in a requirement? intermediate
Check source definitions, compare totals with a trusted report, test sample records, ask data owners about rules, and verify edge cases such as blanks and duplicates.
76. What is the difference between OLTP and OLAP? intermediate
OLTP systems run daily transactions, such as order entry. OLAP systems are built to analyse large amounts of history for reporting and decisions.
77. What is master data and metadata? intermediate
Master data is the core business data shared across systems, like customers and products. Metadata is data about data, such as column definitions, owners and formats.
78. What is data governance? intermediate
Data governance defines who owns data, the standards for quality and security, and the rules for its use, so that data is trusted across the organisation.
79. What is a data dictionary? intermediate
A data dictionary documents each data field: name, meaning, type, allowed values and source. It helps everyone use data the same way.
80. What is data migration and what does the BA do in it? intermediate
Data migration moves data from an old system to a new one. The BA defines mapping rules, data quality checks, reconciliation and acceptance criteria.
Scenario and Behavioural Questions
81. How would you handle a stakeholder who keeps changing requirements? intermediate
Understand why they change, show the impact on time and cost, use a formal change process, confirm requirements in writing, and involve the sponsor if needed.
82. What do you do when developers say a requirement is not feasible? intermediate
Ask why, understand the technical limits, explore alternatives that meet the underlying business need, and involve stakeholders in the trade-off decision.
83. How do you handle a project with unclear requirements? intermediate
Start with discovery: ask questions, hold workshops, build prototypes, and break the work into small pieces to learn quickly, documenting assumptions to confirm.
84. How would you approach a project to reduce customer complaints? advanced
Gather complaint data, group it into categories, find the top causes with Pareto analysis, map the process to find failure points, propose fixes, run a pilot, and measure complaints afterwards.
85. Describe a time you solved a business problem with data. intermediate
Use a real example in STAR style: the problem, your task, the analysis you did, the recommendation, and the measurable result.
86. How do you communicate bad news to a stakeholder? intermediate
Tell them early and directly, explain the facts and impact, bring options and a recommended way forward, and agree next steps.
87. How do you manage your time with multiple projects? intermediate
List all tasks with deadlines and impact, prioritise, block time for focused work, communicate expectations early, and flag risks before they become delays.
88. How do you handle a difficult stakeholder? intermediate
Listen to understand their concerns, stay professional, focus on shared goals, use facts, and agree clear next steps. Build trust with regular updates.
89. How would you decide whether to build or buy a solution? advanced
Compare cost, time, fit with requirements, customisation need, maintenance, integration and vendor risk. Score options against agreed criteria and present a recommendation.
90. Why do you want to be a business analyst? intermediate
Connect your strengths to the role: you enjoy understanding problems, working with people and using data to help decisions. Give a short example that proves it.
