Business Analyst

A Business Analyst is someone who analyzes an organization or business domain and documents its business or processes or systems, assessing the business model or its integration with technology. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) describes the role as "a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.

The Business Analyst, sometimes, is someone who is a part of the business operation and works with Information Technology to improve the quality of the services being delivered, sometimes assisting in Integration and Testing of new solutions.

The Business Analyst is one of the most critical role in the information technology space. The BA is responsible to analyze the existing/new systems from different perspectives, recommend solutions and align the IT part of the overall business with the strategic initiatives of the organization.

The Business analysts have grasp over application design, implementation and development concepts, they document and model data, participate in project management activities, conduct quality assurance and control, liaise with different stakeholders and are responsible to make sure that underlying technology is able to address the business issues.

The BA may also support the development of training material, participates in the implementation, and provides post-implementation support. This may involve the development of project plans and often requires project management skills.

Responsibilities

Listed below are the typical set of responsibilities an IT Business Analyst has to carry out. But, given the diverse nature of the job itself, IT analysts may see themselves carrying out additional tasks and activities specific to their project:

• Study the systems and operations and identify the scope of the problem – Done from the perspective of the business domain to which the project/issue belongs
• Liaise with key stakeholders and conduct brainstorming sessions to get exact requirements.
• Analyze the problem from different angles and perform gap analysis.
• Discuss the problem with the technical team and recommend technology needed to address the same
• Document exact business needs along with both functional and non-functional requirements.
• Prepare use cases, business requirements documents (BRD), system requirements specification (SRS) documents and other functional documents. 
• Based on system needs, create prototype, wireframes, mockups and screens.
• For large projects, data and process models also needs to be created.
• Interact with the development team and help them understand the technical aspects of the solution.
• Oversee the development, conduct meetings and perform project management.
• Conduct usability and functional testing and recommend corrective and preventive actions.
• Present the developed solution to the concerned audience and solicit feedback.
• Participate in migration, handover, end user training and deployment activities.

Common Skill set

These are some of the more common skills that are expected from all the analysis roles in general and the IT Business Analyst role in particular:

• Analytical and problem solving skills
• Comprehension and interpretation capabilities
• Exceptional command over verbal and written communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Management skills

Specific Skill set

Apart from the skills listed above, detailed below are some of the specialized skills that the IT BA must have. Let’s run through them

Knowledge of software development methodologies

In Information Technology space, the solution development for every project is carried out through a development methodology and the knowledge of these methodologies is one of the key skills for any IT business analyst to be successful. Some of the most common methodologies are ‘Waterfall model’, ‘Rapid Application Development’ and the recent ‘Agile Software Development’. A practical understanding of these methodologies will help an analyst figure out the process that will be followed for development, ‘what’ will happen ‘when’ in the development cycle and accordingly plan the analysis, elicitation and other activities.

Understanding of business concepts and cognizance of technical frameworks

The business analysts must either have a prior background to business concepts or must be well versed with the procedures, policies and processes that operate within global organizations. Additionally, they should also be cognizant of technical frameworks as they need to first understand the business priorities and requirements and then see how to achieve those requirements through the available tools and technologies. 

Data modeling and data mining skills

Data modeling consists of translating the layout of a system/application into easy to understand diagrams, flowcharts and models. A business analyst must be adept in creating such models and have a working knowledge of the different types of models. Since data modeling help identify relationships within the system to be build and also aids in highlighting any errors or ambiguities before the coding actually begins, this skill is one of the ‘must-haves’ for an IT Analyst.

Additionally, the focus today is on big data and organizations have already started extracting relevant and real-time information for their clients from twitter and other social media feeds. Now, to work in such a setting, the IT business analyst should have an ability to handle large amount of data, asses it and draw out relationships and patterns. Well, this skills is not something unique that is being asked from an analyst and should be viewed as an extension of his existing analysis and analytical skill-set.

Hands-on experience on different testing methods

Work of an IT Business Analyst is constantly hovering around web and application development and thus he can’t get away without a knowledge on the different testing methods. He should have a knowledge of how the developers are performing the unit testing, should know when and how to perform the functional testing, must perform system and integration testing, followed by acceptance testing. Also, an IT BA should aid the testing team in defining and creating the test cases and their structure and should help in carrying out the regression testing. Lastly, he should be able to assist the client in conducting the User Acceptance testing and must facilitate the same.

So, till now you would have clearly figured out how appealing the role of an IT Business Analyst is as they are one of the very few lucky ones who get to work within a unique blend of business and technology. In today’s agile driven environment, IT analysts gets to work in multiple projects at a time belonging to diverse background and domains and share a major role in each and every stage of the project – right from the creation of a project charter till the project rollout !

1.   What is Business Analysis ?

Business Analysis is a set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies and operations of an organization and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.

2. What are the non-functional requirements ?

Non-functional requirements covers the conditions that do not directly relate to the behavior or functionality of the solution, but rather describe environmental conditions under which the solution must remain effective or qualities that the system must have.

Non-functional requirements include requirements related to scalability, performance, security, availability, and the information architecture and presentation of the user interface.

3. What is Use Case ?

A use case is a description of a set of interactions between a system and one or more actors (Where Actor can be people or other systems). For example: Online shoppers and PayPal, both can be actors. It is created as a Use Case document and generally include below information: 

• Use Case Title
• Use Case Description
• Actor/User
• Pre-conditions (The things that must have already happens in the system)
• Standard Path / Main Success Scenario (What will usually happen described as a series of steps)
• Alternate Path / Extensions (Variations on the above / edge cases)
• Post Conditions (What the system will have done by the end of the steps)

4. What is User Stories ?

A user story is a short description of something that your customer will do when they use your software or application focused on the value of result they get from doing this thing. They are written from the point of view of a person using your software or application, and written in the language that your customer would use.

A user story is usually written using the following format: As an [Actor], I want [Action] so that [Achievement]. Example: As a Facebook user, I want different privacy levels of my About Us info, So, I can control who sees which of my About Us info.

5. What is Test Cases ?

Test case is a document which has a set of Test Data, Pre-conditions, Expected Result and Post-conditions, developed for a particular test scenario in order to verify compliance against a specific requirement. A Test Case is usually written using the following format:

• Test Case ID
• Test Case Name
• Test Steps
• Test Environment
• Expected Result
• Actual Result
• Test Case Scenario / Prerequisites
• Test Result: Pass/Fail condition 

6. What do you mean by Wire-framing ?

Wire-framing is created by talking to the product owners about the story and sometimes by making sketches. Once the wire-frames are approved by the product owner, the BA brief the designers and developers again if requires. It's better to flag up any questions if the BA has or any restrictions too.

7. What is the difference between Analysis Model and Design Model ?

Analysis is all about understanding of the requirements, problems within requirements by breaking the whole module into sub-modules. UML diagrams can be made to understand and pin-point problems in requirements.

Where as Designing is all about creating of a solution for the analyzed problem. in short, Designing is to show how process will be carried out in a sub-module.

A 'Model' is some kind of simplification that is used to better understand the problem (Analysis Model) or the Solution (Design model).

8. What is the difference between BRD and FRD ?

BRD states about the high level business requirement along with the business need and business problem but FRD states about the functionality required in the application designed for the business problem and need mentioned in the BRD.  FRD contains the functional as well as non-functional requirements. Functional requirements are described with the help of Use Case Description and Use Case Diagram where as Non-functional requirements like - Capacity, Performance, Scalability, Security etc. are also mentioned.

9. How would you transform Business Requirements into Functional Requirements ?

While preparing the BRD we mention about why do we need to build a system i.e. Problem Statement. So, what we need to do while creating functional requirements is to specify the solution of the problem by creating high level Data Flow Diagrams, Domain Class Diagrams, and Entity-Relationship Diagrams.

BRD does not necessarily contains solution part but the functional requirement may contain it on how end user wants the system to perform.

This transition from Business Requirements to Functional Requirements can be indicated textually and also via UML Diagrams, using Use Cases, Activity Diagrams and Mockups.

10. How do you manage missing requirements after SRS signoff ?

Usually the new requirements are considered as Change Requests if they are to be worked on in the same phase. We maintain a CR (Change Requests) tracking sheet which have all such change requests. Otherwise, they would be part of the next phase SRS.

11. How to prepare a Functional requirement Document ?

For writing Functional specification, the user must have User Requirements or Business Requirements Document. User Requirements or BRDs have always contained high level information for instance "Application effective date would be 1st August 2017".

In Functional Requirement, user needs to define small nitty-gritty or low level details like a "new system process is effective with applications received on or after 1st January 2017". System can't process any application with respect to the system before 15th August 2017.

In functional specification, user need to keep in mind one thing that Users are in communication with developer and QA and telling them all the information which he/she got during requirements gatherings with Subject Matter Expert (SME).

12. What is Business Validation ?

Business Validation is nothing but validating/verifying the clients requirements as per the signed off agreement. It also includes business impact analysis. Business Validation occurs after the production has been delivered to the client in a test environment. The business when providing the requirements also comes up with acceptance criteria and expects the system to behave as per the requirements provided and successfully meet the acceptance criteria set for the delivered product.

Business Process Validation is the act of verifying that a set of end-to-end business processes function as intended.

13. How do you define a requirement?

A requirement is the capability possessed by a solution to solve a problem or achieve an objective.

14. How do you define the role of a BA in an organization?

A business analyst is a liaison between different stakeholders in an organization. He acts as a bridge, a connector and helps the complete project team work as a tightly integrated unit. Since stakeholders belong to different domains (e.g. finance, business, marketing) it’s very important for a business analyst to be able to sort and balance the needs of these stakeholders while fulfilling the business objectives at the same time.

15. What is your requirement elicitation strategy?

The elicitation strategy depends upon the type of the project. One can take advantage of direct collaboration with client and have facilitated  workshops, interviews and observe the end users. In conjunction, we can use techniques that provide us with more precise information like prototype and scenario building.

16. What are the best practices you follow while writing a use case?

The following are the best practices that are followed to write a clear and well documented use case:

• Capture both functional and non-functional requirements in a use case.
• Include use case diagrams along with the use case.
• Include the UI details/notes in the use case.

17. What do you know about scope creep?

Scope creep, also known as requirement creep is a term that denotes uncontrolled changes/deviation in the project’s scope without an increase in the other resources (schedule, budget) of the project. Scope creep is a risk to the project and is usually caused by poor project management, improper documentation of project’s requirements and poor communication between the project’s stakeholders.

18. What are the skills that a business analyst must possess?

A business analyst must possess fundamental skills such as elicitation skills, problem solving skills, communication and management skills. Alongside, he must have knowledge of IT skills, Software development understanding and domain knowledge regarding the domain he is working in. 

19. How do you avoid scope creep?

Scope creep is a hindrance to the project’s success and could be avoided by:

• Clearly document the scope of the project.
• Following proper change management.
• Informing the effects of change to the affected parties before making a change.
• Documenting the new requirements in the project log.
• Refrain from adding additional features to the existing functionalities (also called Gold Plating)

20. How do you deal with difficult stakeholders?

Stakeholders sometimes could be difficult to deal with but we could overcome this situation by:

• Patiently listening to them and being polite.
• Make them understand the situation from a prospective they understand.
• Show a commitment to working with them.
• Make them realize how their interests will be realized when they are more open and collaborative.
• Engage them and make them realize that their contribution is valued.

21. When are you done with requirements?

We consider the requirements are complete when:

• They are elicited from all the stakeholders from all they key stakeholders of the project.
• They align with the project’s business case.
• When they could be done with the resources available i.e. attainable.
• When the stakeholders of the project are in consensus with the elicited requirements.
• All the requirements which pass the above four criteria, they are considered to be as formal and final. These requirements re then documented and become a part of the project scope.

22. What is UML modeling?

UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a general-purpose modeling language, which is designed to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.  A modeling language is any artificial language that can be used to express information or knowledge or systems in a structure that is defined by a consistent set of rules. The rules are used for interpretation of the meaning of components in the structure.

23. Why do we use Activity diagram?

Activity diagram is a graphical depiction/flowchart of actions, representing a stepwise listing of
activities. We use activity diagrams for the description of those business processes that describe the functionality of the business system.

24. What are some of the common tools that a business Analyst uses?

MS Visio, Enterprise Architect, Rational Requisite Pro, MS PowerPoint, MS Word, MS Excel, JIRA, MS Project.

25. What documents a Business Analyst should deliver?

• Use case documents
• Process/business flow documents
• Requirement traceability matrix document (RTM)
• Functionality matrix (FM)
• Functional requirement specification document (FRS)
• System requirement specification document (SRS)
• Activity/sequence diagrams
• Business requirement document (BRD)

26. How do you manage rapidly changing requirements?

Too many changes can be detrimental to the success of the project and hence requirements should be managed carefully. We could do so by following a strict ‘Change control’ plan, according to which:

• We document when the change was requested, its description and its severity.
• We assess whether the change is in line with the business objective of the project.
• We then analyze the effects of change on the project constraints.
• We communicate the tentative schedule, cost and resources expenditure to all the stakeholders.
• We implement the change only when all the stakeholders are in consensus with the revised project constraints.

27. What are the non-functional requirements?

Non-functional requirements covers the conditions that do not directly relate to the behavior or functionality of the solution, but rather describe environmental conditions under which the solution must remain effective or qualities that the system must have. 

Nonfunctional requirements include requirements related to Scalability, Performance, Security, Availability and the Information Architecture and Presentation of the user interface.

28. What do you think is better, the Waterfall Model or Spiral Model?

Each project has got different and unique needs and thus the SDLC phases should be chosen based on the specific needs of the project. In brief: Waterfall model follows a structured approach with each phase having specific deliverable. But, it has little flexibility and adjusting scope later is very difficult. In spiral model, estimates of project constraints become more realistic as the work progresses and it involves the developers early in the project. But, it takes more time and high cost to reach the final product.

29. What do you know about a misuse case?

A misuse case is inverse of a use case and documents the scenarios that should not happen within the system. The actions depicted in a misuse case can be performed by any person or entity in order to harm the system. Thus, misuse case are usually used in the field of IT security and data protection.

30. What are the use of configuration management and version control?

Configuration management is everything that you need to manage in terms of a project. This includes software, hardware, tests, documentation, release management, and more. Configuration management includes, but is not limited to, version control. Version control is saving files and keeping different versions of them, so you can see the change over time.

31. 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.

32. Please explain the use of 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.

33. What is Pareto Analysis?

Pareto analysis is a technique which is used to identify the issue that are causing the most number of defects. The issues and their respective defects are plotted in a bar graph and the issue which is causing the highest amount of defect is addressed first. Pareto analysis is considered as a creative way of looking at causes of problems as it organize data into logical segments for better analysis, comprehension and communication.

34. What can you tell us about BPMN?

BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation. It’s a global standard for graphically representing business process in the form of a diagram. BPMN contains a set of graphic elements which are used by business users and developers to create activity flows and processes. BPMN's four basic element categories are: 

• Flow objects: Events, 
• activities, gateways
• Connecting objects: Sequence flow, message flow, association
• Swim lanes : Pool, lane
• Artifacts: Data object, group, annotation

35. Explain the difference between a task and an activity with respect to BPMN.

Activity is a generic term that is used to denote a process/sub process and is a collection of a task or group of tasks whereas a task is a self-contained piece of work.

36. What do you understand by JAD?

Joint Application Development (JAD) consists of a structured workshops session between end user/client, project manager, business analyst, technical team and subject matter experts (SME) to facilitate the design and development of the product. Applications developed through JAD development approach has higher customer satisfaction and less number of errors as the end user is directly involved in the development process.

37. Do you know about the term ‘force-field analysis’?

Force-field analysis aids in making decisions by identifying the factors for and against a proposed change to the system. The ‘for’ and ‘against’ factors are tabulated and are then analyzed, discussed and evaluated for their impact on the change.

38. What are Test cases?

A test case is a document which contains listing of all the possible scenarios that could happen based on a respective use case. Thus, every test case is developed with a use case as a base. A test case contains main flow, positive scenarios, negative scenarios and scenarios covering non-functional requirements also. A single use case could contain many test cases and these cases are clubbed to make a test script. Test Cases are written in a testing tool like Test Director, but they can be also be written in MS Word. The audience for a test case are the QA testers.

39. What are the different testing techniques you use?

The aim of testing is to verify and validate the quality of a developed functionality according to the project requirements. A BA does various types of testing, which are:

• Black box testing: This is a functional testing where a BA validates that the output generated by the system is as per the requirements/use case
• Unit Testing: A BA does unit testing on a developer’s machine to make sure the requested functionality is being achieved.
• Integration Testing: This type of testing is done when more than one piece of code are integrated to realize a functionality. A BA does integration testing to make sure than the system is performing as expected after different modules are integrated.
• Functional Testing: A BA is expected to conduct functional testing to validate that the system is achieving the functionality specified in the use case/functional requirement specification document (FRS).
• Acceptance Testing: A BA along with the client, does the acceptance testing to validate that the system is performing as per the business requirements and the product’s acceptance criteria. 
• Regression Testing: Regression testing is done after a modification has been made to the existing system. Its aim is to make sure that all the system functionalities are working as expected.
• Beta Testing: A BA along with the testing team, does the beta testing and it is done on a pre-production version of the product. This testing is done to make sure that the functional and non- functional requirements of the system are met.

40. Tell me about SaaS.

SaaS is Short for Software as a Service and it is a software delivery model under which a software and its associated services are remotely accessed by an end user as a web based service. E.g. Facebook, which is deployed over internet and the users access its services by an internet enabled device.

41. What problems a Business Analyst could face during requirements gathering?

Some of the problems faced by a BA during requirements gathering are:

• Lack of Clarity in the Scope of the Business requirements
• Misalignment of the requirements with the business case of the project
• Ill management of Business Requirements
• Constantly changing requirements
• Unavailability of the key stakeholders
• Communication gap between the stakeholders

42. Could you describe the main qualities of a good requirement?

The golden rule to measure the quality of a good requirement is the ‘SMART’ rule. According to this rule a requirement should be:

• Specific: The requirement should be specific so that it could be properly documented
• Measurable: We should be able to measure the success criteria of the requirement by different parameters 
• Attainable: The requirement should be possible to attain with the given resources 
• Relevant: The requirement should be in line with the project’s business case 
• Timely: The requirement should be posed in time i.e. early in the project life cycle.

43. What are different diagrams that a BA should know about?

There are a couple of different diagrams about which a BA should have concrete knowledge. They are: Entity relationship diagram, data flow diagram, use case diagram, class diagram, activity diagram, sequence diagram, collaboration diagram, component diagrams and deployment diagrams.

44. What are the main responsibilities of a BA?

A business analyst is expected to visualize the ‘big picture’ and his responsibilities extends towards both the business side as well as the technology side of the project. The major responsibilities that he is expected to fulfill are:

• Ascertain the feasibility of the solution/project/product.
• Analyze, organize and document requirements.
• Liaise and enhance communications with stakeholders.
• Clarify doubts, concerns regarding the solution to be developed.
• Conduct unit testing and verify the development is as per the requirements
• Gain acceptance/approval of the deliverables from the client.
• Document and prioritize change requests from the client.
• Create final product documentations, achieve records and document project lessons learned.

45. What are the different analysis techniques employed by a BA?

The major business analysis techniques used by a BA are: interview, SWOT analysis, facilitated workshop, brainstorming, observation, prototyping and root cause analysis.

46. What is a 100-point method?

The 100-point method is a prioritization method that can be used to prioritize items in a group environment. Each person within the group is given 100 points which they can distribute as votes across the available items.

47. What do you know about 8-omega?

8 Omega is a business change framework to improve the existing business processes. Based on its name, this framework consists of 8 lifecycle phases namely; Discover, Analyze, Design, Integrate, Implement, Manage, Control and Improve. Also, it address 4 key perspectives of business i.e. Strategy, People, Process and Technology.

48. What is FMEA and why it’s used?

FMEA stands for ‘Failure Mode and Effects Analysis’ and it is used for failure analysis, risk analysis and quality engineering. It involves reviewing components, systems and subsystems on parameters like functional, design and process to identify failure models. The resulting data is then used for risk management and mitigation.

49. What is a use case ?

A use case is a methodology used in requirement analysis to identify, organize and document the requirements. Following are the main characteristics of a use case:

• Contains both functional and non-functional requirements
• Describes the flow of events/scenarios
• Defines the actors involved in the scenarios
• Contains main flow, alternative flows and exceptional flows.
• Contains business rules and associated diagrams.
• Use cases can be used at various stages of a project and its audiences are both technology and business.

50. Tell us the difference between an alternate flow and an exception flow of a use case?

Alternate flow are the alternative actions that can be performed apart for the basic flow and might be considered as an optional flow whereas Exception flow is the path traversed in case of the error or an exception being thrown. For e.g. on a logic page the ‘Forgot password’ is the alternate flow and system showing ‘404 error’ when correct username and password are entered is exception flow.

51. What is the user of trigger in a use case?

Trigger is an action which will invoke a specific flow which would otherwise have been inactive.

52. What all diagrams are used to visualize a use case?

Use Case Diagram, Activity diagram, Sequence diagram, Communication diagram and State machine diagram.

53. Please explain the term Use Case Points.

Use Case Points are normalized unit of measurement used to size and estimate the cost of work that is to be done on a system.

54. What is use case generalization and actor generalization?

In the context of use case modelling, sometimes two or more use cases share a common structure and behaviors. When this happens, we create a new use case that describes the shared parts of its parent use cases. Similarly, actor generalization is the relationship between two actors in a use case where the child actor inherits the properties of a parent actor.

55. What are the advantages of unit testing?

Unit testing is the type of testing which is done at the developer’s desk and if a BA conducts unit testing he is able to find a defect before it gets integrated with other codes. This way, a bug gets identified early and is usually fixed in less duration.

56. Elucidate the difference between assumptions and constraints.

Assumptions are scenarios that are considered to be as facts while a product is being designed / developed and constraints are restrictions that are imposed and have to be mandatorily followed.

57. Explain the term 'Kano analysis'.

Kano analysis is a quality measurement process aimed at categorizing and prioritizing the customer requirements in an effort to increase the customer’s satisfaction.

58. What is a RACI matrix?

RACI matrix is a type of responsibility assignment matrix used to assign roles and responsibilities within the project team. The acronyms stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

59. Explain how do you organize or prioritize your workload?

As a Business Analyst, organizing the task is my first priority. I prioritize work based on 'Urgent' vs 'Important Tasks'. If there is an urgent task that may impact production, I would work on that first than a task that is important such as creating a report on cost and benefit analysis of an upcoming project. I also try to group similar tasks together and get started early on difficult task or time consuming projects so that when I brush up against the deadline I am not scrambling and can give attention to other projects as needed.

60. Tell me your experience evaluating existing processes and recommending enhancements?

I evaluate existing business process by reviewing the existing process, document reviews, impact analysis and gap analysis. For most of the procedures, the evaluation of existing system is done with an as - is process analysis. This can also be done with document analysis or by other requirements elicitation method. Once the analysis is done, the evaluation should be done by cause-effect or SWOT methods.

61. How do you cope up with the conflict at the workplace?

I am proactive. I monitor situations closely to prevent minor problems from escalating into major ones. In most cases, minor problems can be resolved by simply meeting individually with affected parties. It's not a good idea to ignore a problem in hopes that it will resolve itself.

Some people avoid confrontation, which often results in bigger problems that are most difficult to handle. Effective leaders are aware of many factors including jealously, individual differences and other issues that create conflicts among employees.

Therefore effective managers must meet individually with feuding employees and suggest workable solutions.

62. How do you manage your time?

I make a list. I work out what order to do things in by thinking about which tasks are urgent and how important each task is. In order to make a list, I jot it down in a desk diary.

If I'm not sure what's urgent and what isn't, or how important different tasks are, I find out. If I'm given a new task, I add it to the list and decide when to do it, so I adapt the order in which I do things as necessary.

63. What all documents does Business Analyst prepare?

Business Analyst prepares RACI, Gap Analysis document, BRD, FRS, SRS, Use Cases, BPM. SRS contains technical details about the system, the system capabilities, scope etc.

64. What is your significant project achievements from a  Business Analyst perspective?

• Identifying and eliciting all the requirements for the system 
• Improve existing process
• Avoiding rework
• Eliminating user conflicts by prioritizing requirements based on organizational goal.
• Review of acceptance criteria
• Defect tracking in UAT

65. If you are asked to include particular requirement in current requirements, what will you do ?

It is essential to know why this change propped up now. It is also essential to check if it is a regulatory requirement. I would do an impact analysis and show the following results to the PM and the business users and ask the PM to make a decision:

• Whether this change is causing project delays, cost over runs and extra manpower
• Does it benefit the organization
• If we include the change in the next release

66. Describe a time when you had to deal with a conflict ?

ST - Situation / Task
A - Approach / Action
R - Resolutions / Results

ST (Situation) - I was in charge of delivering on time and I had to manage my team members from marketing, sales, graphic design, and product management. The designer that was assigned to the project was very talented but unfortunately missed a deadline that I assigned. When I approached him about it, he blew up at me. It was an important and complex project with a tight deadline. The designer not only missed a deadline but threw a fit when called on it. This is the conflict that could have led to disaster if handled poorly.

A (Approach) - I was taken aback by his response but remained calm. He relaxed a little when he saw that I was not attacking him.

R (Result) - He told me about all of his other competing projects and how overwhelmed he was when we agreed that it would help if his manager had a better understanding of how important and time consuming this project was and decided that we would speak to him together.

I ended up assigning some of his other projects to another designer, which took some of the pressure off him. As a result, the designer was able to complete the project and meet the deadlines. He apologized for his blow-up and thanked me for my help.

67. Are there any times where you had a conflict with your superior ? If yes, how did you handle it and resolve it ?

I have had differences of opinion with one of my previous manager. Our disagreement were not significant but someone had to be confronted and resolved. Therefore, I asked my manager, I disagreed to explain his perspective and then to consider my point of view.

This way, we were able to take into account each other's perspective and come to an agreeable compromise. If a compromise could not be reached , I accepted my manager's decision regardless of individual perspectives, managers are responsible for setting policy and sub-ordinates are responsible for executing it.