Even If you are a seasoned Business Analyst, preparing thoroughly for your Business Analyst interview is a must, and will help you to impress your potential employer.
No matter how many years of experience you may have, all organisations are different. Different aims and objectives make preparing a niche task. However, each BA role will have common themes. Here are some Business Analyst interview questions that will help you prepare and land your next big project.
8 common Business Analyst interview questions.
What key skills does a Business Analyst need?
You probably have your own list that you are able to talk about here, however to get an idea about the key skills your potential employer thinks a BA should have you may like to read the job description to help you. This will give you some clues of the types of skills the employer is looking to see from you.
Be prepared to talk about both the technical and non-technical skills you believe to be important, and those you would bring to the role should you be successful.
How do you typically approach each project?
The aim of this question is to assess whether you have a sound understanding of the Business Analysis planning process. Your interviewer isn’t looking for the details of every project you have undertaken, more that you are able to speak about the general phases or types of deliverables you may create. You might like to use an example to highlight how you work, to refine a point, or to let the hiring manager know you are able to adapt your approach to meet the needs of each project.
Have you encountered difficult stakeholders? How did you manage them?
With this question, the interviewer is trying to assess your soft skills; they are assessing how you communicate and collaborate with others. Being able to use non-technical skills to work with those from other departments, all with different areas of concern is a key attribute of a Business Analyst.
Tell me about the business intelligence tools or systems you have worked with.
Here, you should be able to talk fluently about all the specific tools you have used, and how you used them. If you are not familiar with those this organisation uses, you may like to talk about one that you were unfamiliar with, have learned, and then used successfully. This demonstrates that you are quick to learn and that you can adapt what you do know to help you. You may also like to discuss your plan to help you get up to speed.
What do you know about SDD?
Of course, this is an example, and there are many business analyst terms that are defined by abbreviation. To cover all the bases, you should be familiar with the abbreviated terms, and be ready to talk about them.
SDD stands for System Design Document and is a middle step separating business users and developers and helps developers to understand the business requirements.
Can you define the diagrams most used by Business Analysts?
Again, this type of question reassures your interviewer that you have the skills needed to get the job done. You should be able to talk about case diagrams, activity diagrams, and sequence diagrams.
How do you deal with changes to requirements?
This question is testing your logical thinking skills. It is assessing how you respond to changing situations.
For example, you may like to order your response like this.
“First, I prioritise the changes to requirements, the scope of changes, and the impact the changes may have to the project. Then I would perform an impact analysis of the budget, the timeline, and the resources of the project. Lastly, I assess whether the scope change is introducing new gaps to the technical or functional designs, development or testing”.
Why do Business Analysts use flowcharts?
Flowcharts are an important tool that help BAs use to help them explain concepts and processes to technical and non-technical team members. Flowcharts are a helpful reference for everyone to understand the process model, showing every step of a process in a clear and explicit manner.
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