Deck 4: Agile Analyst

Question 1

Members of the team facilitate key stakeholders through an exercise to develop a mutual understanding of what is in and out of scope for the initiative and specify the organization value to achieve in the initiative. What technique did they use?

A) Sprint Goals
B) Visioning
C) Purpose Alignment Model
D) Story elaboration

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Planning horizons are important because they allow an organization to:

A) Support a structured response supported by all levels of the organization
B) Sense and respond to their changing environment
C) Ensure senior management is informed and engaged
D) Allow management guidance for decision making

Answer 2

B
Explanation: In constant and rapidly changing environments, organizations are required to be able to sense and respond to local opportunities and problems without the need to involve the whole organization, while also looking forward at emerging threats and opportunities. These planning horizons provide a framework for the shift in focus that occurs when moving between understanding the long-term strategic needs of the organization and the immediate needs of a customer.

Question 3

While discussing the Business Analysis Approach, decisions are made about which methodology or approach to use for the initiative being considered. These discussions are happening at the:

A) Feedback horizon
B) Initiative horizon
C) Strategy horizon
D) Delivery horizon

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The delivery team is reviewing information that starts with a broad view of the solution components and drills down to a level of granularity, including acceptance criteria, that supports solution build activities. The team is using the following technique:

A) Story elaboration
B) Real options
C) Detailed story
D) Backlog management

Question 5

When decomposing stories, the concept of "breadth before depth" signifies progressively breaking down:

A) Estimates and resources required to accomplish the story
B) Backlog items to the lowest level of detail upfront
C) Business goals into user stories representing smaller increments of value
D) Tests to align with usable functionality delivered through each story

Question 6

The delivery team is in a meeting identifying cycle time improvement opportunities for delivery of the final product. They decide to apply the following technique:

A) Backlog management
B) Value stream mapping
C) Story decomposition
D) Story mapping

Question 7

The team is creating plans at the Strategy Horizon. Diverse opinions are delaying this effort because different people are focused on different timeframes. After some discussion the team realizes they need to focus their efforts on the following viewpoint:

A) Business view of the teams working on the initiatives
B) Micro-view of the potential changes to the organization
C) Broader view of the impact of the change to the organization
D) Local view of the effect on the community.

Question 8

A team demonstrating the following characteristics: Expects rapid change Incorporates learning & feedback Has a preference for shorter time frames Treats plans as testable hypothesis is following planning practices that are described as:

A) Predictive and adaptive
B) Adaptive and hypothesis
C) Iterative and predictive
D) Iterative and adaptive

Question 9

After some debate the delivery team decides to use the product roadmap because it will help them:

A) Align strategy to goals
B) Maintain defined scope
C) Keep the team on schedule
D) Align increments with product vision

Question 10

While quality checking the written user stories, the team ensures one of the components included in the attributes of a user story is:

A) The explanation of the story's cost
B) The stakeholder responsible for testing
C) The benefit or business value received by the user when the story is implemented
D) The title describing the goal of the delivery cycle

Question 11

The team is expanding and refining customer scenarios as the solution components are being developed. This is an application of the following agile business analysis principle:

A) Understand what is doable
B) Avoid waste
C) Stimulate collaboration and continuous improvement
D) Get Real Using Examples

Question 12

The team is discussing one of the six key terms used to discuss both business analysis and its relationship with common terminology. Specifically, they are describing improvements as being deliberate and achieved though business analysis. This team is discussing the:

A) Solution
B) Need
C) Context
D) Change

Question 13

Making decisions based on a realistic understanding of current organizational strengths, capabilities, and challenges, is represented in the agile analysis principle of:

A) See the whole
B) Individuals and interactions over process and tools
C) Think as a customer
D) Understand what is doable

Question 14

At the initiative level, solution recommendations incorporate the following:

A) *Iteration plan for the start of delivery *Projected impact to future delivery capability *Priority of the identified need
B) *Ranked goal review *Impacts on other initiatives *Time & materials analysis
C) *Requirements management plan *MosCoW feature quadrants *Analysis of similar plans from the past
D) *Validation check on any assumption already made *Projected impact on identified need *Estimated costs, including time and money, and others if relevant

Question 15

A team has been delivering a steady stream of small value increments towards a goal for 4 months, and has completed several solution components, with several still potentially doable. The solution owner examines the reactions to the delivered components from customers, and decides which one(s) the team will do next. The solution owner is demonstrating:

A) Adaptation to revised strategy
B) Change in response to feedback and learning
C) Action in response to activity
D) Maintenance of solution alignment

Question 16

The team decides a story is too big to do in one iteration. The correct technique to apply at this point is:

A) MoSCoW approach
B) Story decomposition
C) Epic analysis
D) Story partitioning

Question 17

The delivery team wants to ensure stakeholders contribute value on an ongoing basis to delivering the solution. This is an example of the following agile analysis principle:

A) Retrospective input and observations
B) Avoiding waste and unused functionality
C) Stimulate collaboration and continuous improvement
D) Value of assessing problems in a timely manner

Question 18

The team members are discussing the level of effort that different backlog items are likely to require, and how much effort is available for the next sprint. This is an example of the principle:

A) Analyze to determine what is valuable
B) Understand what is doable
C) Respect for individuals
D) Get real using examples

Question 19

At the Initiative Horizon, the solution owner using iterative planning principles decides to plan for a period of:

A) 6-12 months because competitive analysis requires thorough analysis
B) 1-3 months because it can be determined if needs are being met
C) 3-6 months because stability is required for long term planning
D) 1-2 weeks because it aligns with the increments delivered by the team

Question 20

While discussing team norms, the team determines that within the Delivery Horizon, communication will be:

A) Clear or reviewed
B) Appropriate and planned
C) Casual and as needed
D) Consistent or scheduled

Question 21

The team stops regularly to: inspect the quality of its outcomes adapt its processes to more effectively produce outcomes. This clearly demonstrates the team is working in an:

A) Retrospective context
B) Agile context
C) Waterfall context
D) Incremental context

Question 22

Strategic decision makers are considering large amounts of complex information covering many different areas. To reduce the information to a manageable level of complexity, they decide to use the following:

A) Reduction
B) MoSCoW approach
C) Models
D) Filtering

Question 23

The organization's decision to start a new initiative should always be based on:

A) Market assumptions
B) Evidence
C) Past initiative goals
D) Staff experience

Question 24

After a lengthy discussion the team agrees that the agile business analysis principle of "get real using examples" aligns with the BACCM core concept of:

A) Need
B) Value
C) Stakeholder
D) Solution

Question 25

For a user story to be considered ready for the next iteration, it must have:

A) Just enough detail for the team to successfully complete the story
B) Rigorous justification and defined meaning
C) Management approval and go-ahead
D) Quality checks and detailed documentation

Question 26

The sponsor is reviewing data from a new product launch and is evaluating threats and opportunities. What are the three options when evaluating the next steps?

A) Run a planning workshop, sequence future planning workshops, create business model canvas for all initiatives
B) Start a new initiative, change resources for existing initiatives, cancel an existing initiative
C) Distribute marketing surveys for customer feedback, gather internal feedback from the past delivery release, and re-evaluate product attributes
D) Run an experiment for the next product launch, set cost/benefit of future initiatives, delay decision making

Question 27

The team agrees that the agile business analysis principle of "see the whole" aligns with the BACCM core concept of:

A) Value
B) Stakeholder
C) Needs
D) Context

Question 28

The organization has a history of delivering products that often don't resonate with potential customers. After some discussion, the team decides to address this challenge by developing:

A) Metrics and KPIs
B) Personas
C) Project plan
D) Customer call center

Question 29

The standard format for documenting Behavioural Driven Development scenarios helps to maintain focus on:

A) Verifiable conditions, events, and actions
B) The user need and expected value.
C) Alignment of iterations with known user concerns.
D) The layers of modernist analysis

Question 30

The team will be performing its first review and trying to determine what should be demonstrated. After a lengthy discussion they decide to demonstrate:

A) Their response to critical customer feedback
B) Key lines of code that describe the solution
C) Slides of screens to be developed
D) An increment of the working solution

Question 31

In a planning workshop the team breaks down the product backlog increment and can assign work to members of the team. This is referred to as:

A) Release planning
B) Task planning
C) Resource planning
D) User story writing

Question 32

The team is making important decisions when assessing the initiative they are working on. Feedback received from the Delivery Horizon informs:

A) Priority and sequencing of solution components
B) Identification of reporting requirements
C) Suggestions for team process continuous improvement
D) How to build the required solution components

Question 33

Which of the following is true about the Strategy Horizon?

A) The agile mindset is the same, but we operate under a specific set of Strategic Principles
B) The principles and agile mindset are the same as those at other horizons
C) The principles are identical, but we use only a prescribed set of techniques
D) The principles are identical to the other horizons, but the agile mindset is different

Question 34

In the past, a team has been unable to deliver solutions in a timely manner and they feel this is due to the customer being unable to decide what they want. The team has decided to ask the customer to "sign-off" on their requirements. This violates the following value statement:

A) Individuals and interactions over process and tools
B) Prioritizing outputs over outcomes
C) Working solutions over comprehensive documentation
D) Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Question 35

Agile business analysis focuses on producing something, showing it to stakeholders, and eliciting immediate feedback. This demonstrates the following characteristic of working in an agile context:

A) Systems approach
B) Focused nature
C) Empirical nature
D) Planned approach

Question 36

All team members participate at a review of their delivery process for the past 2 weeks. They consider issues, both pro and con, that influenced how much the team got done, as well as what they can do to make that better. This meeting is an example of the principle:

A) Understand what is doable
B) Iteration and progression
C) Avoid Waste
D) Stimulate collaboration and continuous improvement

Question 37

The team is discussing one of the six key terms used to discuss both business analysis and its relationship with common terminology. Specifically, they are discussing a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a context. This team is discussing the:

A) Plan
B) Need
C) Value
D) Solution

Question 38

The team discusses the agile principle of avoiding waste and decide it's important because it allows the team to:

A) Verify that the budget is aligned with spending
B) Focus on items that contribute to satisfying the need
C) Ensure clear and effective communication
D) Demonstrate ongoing quality backlog refinement

Question 39

During a delivery team meeting, some members of the team are confused about the "time" dimension depicted on a story map. After some discussion they conclude it describes:

A) User story implementation order
B) The project timeline
C) Sequence of activities a user follows
D) Time to complete stories

Question 40

At the strategy level, a major component of waste can be avoided by ensuring the enterprise:

A) Only begins an initiative when a budget is approved for all work
B) Has a shared understanding of organizational goals and priorities
C) Has changes to existing work approved by senior management
D) Has comprehensive business cases approved by senior management

Question 41

While working at the strategy level, the team needs to ensure stakeholders actively support an environment for constructive communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement. They decide to use the following to achieve this goal?

A) Product Roadmap
B) Reviews
C) Behavior driven development
D) Release Plans

Question 42

At the Initiative Horizon, we see the concept of adaptive planning expressed when a solution owner:

A) Ensures technical documentation is updated in response to changes
B) Seeks guidance and direction from senior stakeholders for remaining work
C) Uses feedback to make decisions about remaining solution components or initiatives
D) Meets with stakeholders to gather feedback about delivered solution components

Question 43

The team is prioritizing stories in the backlog and discussing the elements that result in a well-structured, actionable backlog. They identify the following as a central consideration:

A) Accessibility of key stakeholders for signoff
B) Rapid delivery of value
C) Refining the personas used
D) How many features are in the backlog

Question 44

While reviewing criteria for a well-written story, the team discusses the following criteria:

A) Detailed persona characteristics
B) Cost-benefit valuation
C) Alignment to the organization's vision statement
D) Achievable unit of development

Question 45

When the product owner determines there has been enough value delivered on the initiative to satisfy the need, then the sponsor's immediate next step is to:

A) Cancel future work on the initiative to avoid waste
B) Start work on the list of enhancements to improve the delivered product
C) Hold individual interviews to collect feedback
D) Dive deeper into the next delivery cycle's stories

Question 46

The team establishes ground rules for considering business analysis performance improvements. They agree that speed and accuracy of executing analysis activities becomes very important at the following horizon:

A) Feedback horizon
B) Strategy horizon
C) Initiative horizon
D) Delivery Horizon

Question 47

Backlog items that are dependent on other backlog items compromise and limit rapid decision making, fast delivery and strategic alignment by not leveraging:

A) Feedback loops
B) Daily standups
C) Retrospectives
D) Thinking like a customer

Question 48

The team demonstrates they value customer collaboration over contract negotiation by:

A) Constantly refining their understanding of the need based on stakeholder feedback
B) Learning what works by trying things out
C) Making people the center of the work
D) Updating the backlog based on the solution created

Question 49

The team is very busy working on a top priority initiative. They have delivered many user stories and have many left to complete. However the components they are delivering are not yet delivering end-to-end business value. How can the team maintain understanding of the big picture without getting lost in the details?

A) Create a gantt chart
B) Refine their backlog
C) Create a story map
D) Fully elaborate user stories

Question 50

A team member has written a full user guide about a feature that has not yet been developed. Shortly before delivery is to start, the feature is dropped. What did the team member forget to value highly?

A) Following the plan
B) Detailed processes
C) Fixed iterations
D) Working solutions

Question 51

A practice common to most agile approaches is to require that the items in the product backlog that are targeted to be delivered next, are:

A) Loosely prioritized with some having the same priority
B) Strictly prioritized, and sequenced from smallest to largest work effort
C) Unprioritized, but with known business value
D) Strictly prioritized and forced ranked

Question 52

When recommending solution options at the Initiative Horizon, the team decides that their goal is to provide decision makers with:

A) The exact cost and timeframe options will take to complete
B) Just enough information to make an informed and accurate decision
C) The list of stakeholders that are allowed to have input
D) Everything known about the resource team doing the delivery

Question 53

Wanting to ensure the delivery team is working as productively as possible, they decide backlog items, including user stories, should be:

A) Fully detailed before they get prioritized
B) Refined and elaborated by the Tech Lead
C) Refined and elaborated throughout the planning horizons
D) Fully detailed as they enter the backlog

Question 54

The team is delivering a high priority solution component and is discovering new information about the need and how well the work being delivered satisfies it. They conclude that learnings from this component will be used to:

A) Refine the components
B) Explain the components
C) Implement the components
D) Descope the components

Question 55

The Product Owner reviews the value of the solution being created to gain an understanding of the context, the solution, and the stakeholders. Which principle of agile business analysis is the Product Owner demonstrating?

A) Understand the Waste
B) Plan Backlog Priority
C) See the Whole
D) Collaboration over Contracts

Question 56

Two key components of assessing solution options at the Initiative Horizon include:

A) Shared understanding of the need and a very broad description of solution options
B) Shared understanding of the need and a description of the selected solution
C) Shared understanding of the need and a detailed description of all potential solutions
D) Shared understanding of the need and top three solution options

Question 57

The team is assessing feedback from the work that's been completed. After some discussion they realize this feedback can be used to assess the remaining components that are yet to be built. Specifically, this feedback can be used to help them determine if the initiative's remaining solution components are:

A) Impacting other initiatives
B) Supported by management
C) Likely to be completed
D) Still appropriate

Question 58

The team is discussing what analysis performed at the initiative level should include. They realize this analysis will support a number of key decisions, particularly decisions around the:

A) Needs and the solution that will satisfy those needs
B) Objectives and strategies to meet those objectives
C) Problem and the system that will address that problem
D) Strategy and identifying actions that will address that strategy

Question 59

Through ongoing collaboration with stakeholders the team continues to uncover new information. This is leading to changes to the products that are being produced. The team should:

A) Stop all work until stakeholders can decide what they need
B) Schedule additional review sessions to speed up stake holder decisions
C) Accept all changes but delay additional solution development work to minimize rework
D) Continue as is since the process is working

Question 60

The following can be described as a critical differentiator for work in an agile context related to backlog refinement:

A) Stakeholder feedback
B) Management approval
C) Using user stories
D) Team feedback

Question 61

When teams use relative estimating, an important outcome of this technique is:

A) Clarity from discussing discrepancies in estimating to uncover assumptions
B) Consensus with the tech lead on accurate estimates
C) Eliminating outliers and adopting the most common estimate
D) Increased velocity by agreeing on higher estimate values

Question 62

The following type of learning and feedback could result in identifying new items for the backlog:

A) Velocity metrics and retrospective results
B) Flow metrics and testing results
C) Burndown chart and management feedback
D) Impact metrics and stakeholder feedback

Question 63

The delivery team discusses how to maintain the integrity of their backlog items. They decide to?

A) Delay changes until they are caught up
B) Develop a business case for all changes
C) Monitor stories and features for staleness
D) Ensure all changes are approved

Question 64

The team is struggling with how to best design and explore options for moving forward. They settle on a time-boxed research approach which is often referred to as a:

A) Simulation
B) Wasteful
C) Spike
D) Incremental

Question 65

During a project to improve efficiency at a customer service center, the product owner has established that a 15% improvement from the start on each of a specific set of 5 measures is the target for a particular initiative. They meet this goal and move on to a new initiative. Having a metric and a target helped them do what activity?

A) Analyze to determine what is valuable
B) Assess stakeholder compliance
C) Determine if the need is satisfied
D) Prioritize the next initiative

Question 66

Good analysis practices at the Strategy Horizon facilitate the transfer of relevant knowledge between teams to:

A) Better understand what features will be delivered
B) Cancel initiatives that no longer provide value
C) Stimulate collaboration and continuous improvement.
D) Prioritize and sequence features for delivery

Question 67

The team is discussing the initiative and thinking about what solution increments are worth doing. An appropriate technique for them to use is:

A) Backlog refinement
B) Portfolio kanban
C) Purpose alignment model
D) Story elaboration

Question 68

During a backlog refinement meeting, the team uses the appropriate technique to focus discussion on backlog items and their:

A) Technical designs and related details
B) Related users, user goals, user activities and their importance
C) Estimates determined by the delivery team
D) Resource requirements and availability for work.