Interview questions for Business Analyst

Description

Business Analysts should list the learning from the project, hurdles that have been faced in previous projects and documents the same for future references. Also, documents and business processes, systems, etc. For the Business Analyst job interview, there may be three different rounds. The first round will be telephonic. In the second and third rounds, there may be a group of interviewers like HR, stakeholders of a technical team, higher management authorities, etc. Are you preparing for a business analyst job interview and wondering what questions you might be asked?

1. Can you name the tools that are helpful for business analysis?

The process performed by a Business Analyst is termed as Business Analysis. The tools used include Rational tools, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, MS Project, ERP systems.

2. In your experience as a business analyst, what is the most important aspect of analytical reporting?

Candidate should understand the importance of analytical reporting, its limitations and how it relates to the work they do. This question has them explain why and how they believe analytical reporting is important.

3. What is meant by Benchmarking?

The process of measuring the quality of policies, programs, products, rules and other measures of an organization against the standard measures or the other companies is termed as Benchmarking. This is used to measure the performance of a company to compete in the industry.

4. Can you describe a time when you had to steer a client toward a different course of action than the one they were set on taking?

Being a business analyst isn’t about telling a client what they want – it is about telling a client what is best for their business. This question shows how a candidate handles telling a client something they may not want to hear. I once had a client who wanted to expand a product line for their store, yet they were struggling to sell many of the products they already carried.

5. How can you say that a requirement is good or perfect?

• The features and standards of a good requirement can be pointed out using a rule called SMART rule.
• The description of a requirement should be perfect and specific enough to understand it.
• There are various parameters through which the requirement’s success can be measured.
• Resources should be able to achieve success with the requirement.
• States that what results are realistically achieved.
• Requirements for a project should be revealed in time.

6. What tools do you think are the most important for business analysts to do their job well?

There are a variety of tools business analysts commonly use. This question lets you see if the candidate is familiar with these tools and if they use applications common to your company. The tools I commonly use are Word, Excel, MS Visio, PowerPoint and Rational tools. I also know how to write SQL queries.

7. What are the validation methods used by the data analyst and which technical tools are often used for analysis and presentation?

The most common methods used by data analyst are:
• Data Screening
• Data Verification

8. What makes you unique from others?

The answer to this question will test your experience, skills and individuality. You can answer like, “I am technically sound and can make a strong relationship with the customer. With this unique combination, I can use my knowledge and information to build a user-friendly environment”.

9. What are the different variable techniques we know of?

This is the most popular Data Analyst Interview Questions asked in an interview. The different variable techniques are
• Information value criteria
• Clustering
• Principal Components
• Factor Analysis

10. What are the tasks that are not part of a Business Analyst’s job?

Business Analyst is not part of the enlisted tasks:
• Should not intend to organize the project team meetings.
• Should not bother regarding the risks and issues tracker of a project.
• Should not perform activities like testing (executing the TC’s), coding or programming.

11. How do you deal with difficult stakeholders?

This one can crop up in a variety of forms, depending on the difficulties perceived by your interviewer. This question is nice because it gives you a bit of insight into the challenges you might face at this organization, which you’ll want to understand before you accept an offer.

12. Differentiate between a Risk and an Issue?

‘Risk’ is nothing but a problem or something that can be predicted earlier so that some improvement plans are used to handle them. Whereas, an ‘Issue’ means the risk that had happened or occurred.
The role of a BA is not to solve the issue instead should suggest some plans to control the loss/damage caused. And this should be marked as a precautionary measure for other projects.
Example: On some roads, few caution boards are stating that “Road under repair, take diversion”. This is called Risk.
If we travel through the same route which is under construction, then this may cause some damage to the vehicle. This is called an issue.

13. Tell me about your typical approach to a project?

This question is looking both to understand your business analysis process and see how flexible you might be. If you start spouting lists of deliverables and processes, you’ll probably turn most hiring managers off. Instead, speak to the general phases or types of deliverables you tend to create and let them know how you’ve customized specific approaches to the project needs. Then ask about their project and business analysis processes.

14. List out the documents that are used by a BA in a Project?

As a Business Analyst we deal with various documents like Functional Specification document, Technical Specification document, Business Requirement document, Use Case diagram, Requirement Traceability Matrix, etc.

15. What do you see as the key strengths of a business analyst?

Business analysis is a growing and emerging profession. Employers want to know that you are aware of the skills needed to succeed as a business analyst, and that this is not just technology skills.

16. What is a misuse case?

Misuse case is defined as an activity performed by a user which in turn causes system failure. It may be malicious activity. As it is misguiding the system function flow, it is termed as misuse case.