CCBA Reviews Questions

According to the BABOK® Guide, the plan business analysis activities process is the process of defining the tasks, dependencies, effort, and schedule for the business analysis work. The four inputs to this process are:

• Business analysis approach: This input provides information about the selected method and level of detail for performing the business analysis work, such as the plan-driven, change-driven, or hybrid approach, and the level of abstraction, formality, and rigor of the requirements and designs.
• Stakeholder list, roles, and responsibilities: This input provides information about the stakeholders who are involved in or affected by the business analysis work, their roles and responsibilities, their communication preferences, and their availability.
• Organizational process assets: This input provides information about the policies, procedures, standards, guidelines, and templates that are relevant to the business analysis work, such as the project management methodology, the business analysis methodology, the requirements management plan, and the change management plan.
• Business analysis performance assessment: This input provides information about the current state and desired state of the business analysis performance, such as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the business analysis work, the performance indicators and measures, and the improvement actions and recommendations.

Stakeholder tolerance for risk is not an input to the plan business analysis activities process, but rather an input to the identify risks process, which is a sub-process of the plan business analysis approach process. Stakeholder tolerance for risk provides information about the degree of uncertainty and potential impact that the stakeholders are willing to accept for the business analysis work and the solution. References: BABOK® Guide, page 25; Business Analysis Expert Certification, CCBA® | IIBA®, section “What Should I know to be CCBA Certified?”

According to the IIBA, a data flow diagram is a technique that shows where data comes from, which activities process the data, and if the output results are stored or utilized by another activity or external entity1. A data flow diagram consists of four basic elements2:

• Data flow: A data flow is a line that represents the movement of data from one point to another. It can be labeled with the name or description of the data.
• External entities: External entities are rectangles that represent the sources or destinations of data outside the system boundary. They can be people, organizations, systems, or devices that interact with the system.
• Data process: A data process is a circle that represents a process that transforms data by performing some operation on it. It can be labeled with the name or description of the process.
• Data store: A data store is an open-ended rectangle that represents a place where data is stored or retrieved. It can be a database, a file, a queue, or a memory.

Among these elements, the one that represents a process that transforms data by combining it with other data is concatenation. Concatenation is a type of data process that joins two or more data flows into one data flow. For example, a concatenation process can combine the first name and last name data flows into a full name data flow3. References:

• 1: BABOK Guide, section 10.13 Data Flow Diagrams, page 402
• 2: CCBA® and CBAP® Certifications Study Guide, section Data flow diagrams, page 1
• 3: Data Flow Diagram Symbols, Types, and Tips, section Data Flow Diagram Symbols, page 1

 According to the BABOK® Guide, a schedule constraint is a restriction or limitation on the timing or duration of a project or a solution. The 60-day implementation represents a schedule constraint because it limits the time available for the business analyst to identify and implement new opportunities to improve the existing web services. References: BABOK® Guide, page 30; Business Analysis Expert Certification, CCBA® | IIBA®, section “What Should I know to be CCBA Certified?”

When there are relatively few criteria involved in assessing the solution options, it is best to focus on the differences of the solutions, as they are likely to have the most impact on the decision. Focusing on the commonalities, the life cycle costs, or the implementation costs may not provide enough information to distinguish the solutions and select the best one for the business need. References: BABOK Guide v3, section 10.4.3.2; CCBA Handbook, section 5.4.4.3.