What are Requirement gathering interview questions for Business analyst?

In my previous article I have given detailed description about the Stakeholder related interview questions. In this article i would like to focus on most commonly asked requirement gathering interview questions for business analyst. The key responsibility of Business analyst is to gather the requirements and this article will help you to give the details about the requirement gathering interview questions. Now a days in scrum environment the product owner is responsible to gather the requirements. I would like to give you the details about multiple requirement gathering interviews.

Case We are taking for following interview questions :

We require to create the Mobile application to track the shipment details for logistics solutions. We require to gather the requirements in detail.

Question 1 : What is mean by requirements? (100% asked Requirement gathering interview questions )

Answer :

The requirement is nothing but the need or usable representation of need. The need is nothing but the what exactly software needs to run and which functionalities the software requires to complete the business need.

Question 2 : How to take the requirements in detail? Give us some examples.

Answer :

There are multiple ways to gather the requirements. The most common way to gather the requirements is to create a documents or set of document. But it may vary according to multiple circumstances. Sometimes we can use JIRA or confluence like tools to gather the requirements and add multiple story points accordingly.

Examples : ( Considering case given above)

Sales department needs the digital channel for allowing customers to check or track the package.

The Logistics coordinator needs the screen to display status of Areawide packages.

The System should respond within 5 seconds.

Question 3 : What are types of requirements? (100% asked Requirement gathering interview questions )

Or

What is difference between business requirements and and functional requirements?

Answer :

There are two types of requirements,

Business Requirements and Functional requirements

1.Business Requirements :

The Business Requirements are nothing but the representation of Business needs, goals ,objectives and outcomes etc.

It is nothing but representation of ‘What’.

We can not see how it will achieve.

Example :

The logistics lead needs a report on hourly basis which packages gone out from warehouse.

2.Functional Requirements:

The functional requirements are needs or functionalities which we require to add technically to the product or software.

It focuses on what the system must do to achieve the business requirements.

It represents how to achieve the business requirements and technical team involvement is must for gathering functional requirements.

Example :

The Logistics report shall display all the items on hourly basis.

Question 4 : What is mean by non functional requirement?

Answer :

The non functional requirements are nothing but quality requirements and constraint requirements. The functionality is not involved in non functional requirement.

It describes the following aspects :

  1. Performance related requirements.
  2. Security requirements
  3. Reliability
  4. Usability of product
  5. Maintainability and profitability
  6. Portability

example : The system should respond in 5 seconds.

Question 5: What is mean by Business Rule?

Answer :

The Business Rule is criteria or constraint which needs to be followed in the solution. The business rule is nothing but the specific, testable directive that serves the criteria for guiding the behavior of system and making decisions properly.

Example of Business Rule :

The Parcels needs to go out from warehouse before 6 PM. So this requirement we need to take in to consideration at the time of taking requirements.

Question 6 : What are multiple software requirement elicitation techniques you have used in past? (100% asked Requirement gathering interview questions )

Answer :

The following common techniques which I have used to capture the requirements ,

  1. Workshop
  2. Interviews : Individual or group interviews.
  3. Document analysis
  4. Brain storming sessions
  5. survey
  6. Prototyping
  7. Observations Which is passive or active

Question 7: What is mean by verification of requirements?

Answer :

The verification of requirements is nothing but requirement meets the quality standards and it fits for the purpose.

The purpose will be ,

The requirement is clear

the requirement is consistent

The requirement is complete

The requirement is testable

Understandable stakeholders needs to be involved.

Question 8 : What is mean by validation of requirement?

Answer :

The validation is nothing but the requirement is aligned to business needs,goals,outcome and whether it is supporting to the business value.

Question 9 : What is mean by requirement traceability matrix?

Answer :

The matrix which is used to trace requirements is called as requirements traceability matrix.

It provides backward and forward traceability and helps faster impact analysis to ensure that all Business requirements are covered.

Example :

Business Requirement –> Mapped to Stakeholder requirement —> Business Stakeholder and Technical Stakeholder –> Functional and non functional requirements –> Design,code,test cases for logistics solutions. This kind of mapping is called as RTM or requirement tracebility matrix.

Requirement gathering interview questions

Question 10 : What are different requirement prioritization techniques which you have used ? Give us example.

Answer :

There are following requirement prioritization techniques :

1.MOSCOW : The most commonly used technique to gather the requirements which will be classified in :

1.MUST : Those are mandatory requirements

Example : We must need the report of logistics on daily basis which shows item numbers gone out of warehouse.

2.SHOULD : High priority items

Example : The report needs to schedule on hourly basis. This is high priority item.

3.Could : Preferred but not necessary.

Example : We require the graph of the items gone out of warehouse categorywise.

4.WOULD : Future execution requirements

Example : We can apply the AI to get the reports on phone.

Question 11: Have you heard about ranking technique?

Answer:

Yes! I have used the ranking technique in which i have given the ranks to the requirement items based on multiple discussions and prioritize requirements accordingly.

When we rank them just keep the clarity on higher value items.

Question 12 : Kindly explain about the Requirement gathering technique named user story map?

Answer :

In todays world everyone is using the agile methodologies where we are converting the requirements in to multiple user stories and decide the activity sequence. Every activity is called as user story and this needs to be prioritize accordingly. We require to create the minimum viable product which has basic functionalities usable by stakeholders.

Question 13 : What is most effective requirement gathering technique you have used?

Answer :

According to me the most effective requirement gathering technique is Workshop. But before that we require to complete the document analysis and everything which we require. After that we require to arrange the Workshop technique where we can gather highly important requirements from variety of stakeholders. Here you will get the clear requirements from set of stakeholders. You can gather most effective requirements in short span of time.

Question 14 : Can you please tell me about the conducted workshop and steps how you have conducted it?

Answer :

The following are three steps to conduct a workshop :

  1. Prepare for workshop : First we require to start with Stakeholder list. Then we need to set the clear purpose of the meeting or workshop. Then we require to schedule the meeting by checking calendar for all stakeholders.
  2. Conduct workshop : The first step to conduct workshop is sharing the agenda of the workshop which contains multiple sessions or activities. Then Capture the requirements in the session.
  3. Post Workshop : In one workshop you can not capture all the requirements. We require to arrange one to one meetings for detailed level requirements with stakeholders and create the requirement document. In this phase we require to take the signoff of the Requirement document.

Question 15 : What is major challenge you faced in Workshop arrangement?

Answer :

The major challenge to arrange workshop is stakeholders availability.

Mitigation :

Need to tell importance of workshop to every stakeholder

Rescheduling workshop according to stakeholder availability

Covering all topics individually.

Question 16 : How you have gathered requirement from Large group of people?

Answer:

We require to conduct the survey of group of people with some questionnaires.

Send that survey link to set of participants.

Compile the results and gather insights.

Question 17 : What are different requirement documents you have worked on?

Answer :

I have worked on the following requirement documents :

  1. Functional specification document
  2. Requirement specification document
  3. Application Information Document
  4. Use case documents
  5. Epics and user stories
  6. Requirement Traceability metrics
  7. Functional requirement document

Question 18 : What are contents in BRD?

Answer :

1.Executive summary

2.Business Context

3.Current State

4.Target state

5.Scope

6.Business and Stakeholder requirements

7.Assumptions

8.Dependencies

9.Business Rules

10.Glossary

Question 19 : What are contents of Functional Specification document?

Answer :

The following are fields in documents :

1.Purpose

2.Scope

3.Functional Requirement

4.Non Functional Requirements

5.Assumptions

6.Supporting Models ( Use case diagram,Activity diagram,Mock-ups)

7.Glossary

Question 20 : What is content in Epic?

Answer :

In Agile enviroment we need to capture the requirement in Epic and User stories.

The Epic contains Who, What and Why

Example : As a Logistics solution lead

I want a list of items which are out from warehouse

So that the manual work will reduce

These are most important Requirement gathering interview questions for business analyst. I will give details on Requirement document interview questions in another article. I hope you like this article. If you like this article or if you have any issues with the same kindly comment in comments section.