CBAP · Question #461
A company with a big information technology (IT) department has hired a lead business analyst (BA) to enhance its business analysis practices. The lead BA discovers that sponsors are not satisfied wit
The correct answer is C. Track approvals al the level of individual requirements. This question tests the best approach to unblock a stalled requirements sign-off process when only a subset of requirements is disputed. Granular tracking allows progress to continue on agreed items.
Question
A company with a big information technology (IT) department has hired a lead business analyst (BA) to enhance its business analysis practices. The lead BA discovers that sponsors are not satisfied with project outcomes. Developers complain about incomplete, ambiguous, and changing requirements. All stakeholders, including project managers, are blaming long cycles of analysis for the delays. The business analysts, in turn, feel overwhelmed with the number of projects and frustrated by the lack of collaboration from reviewers of their deliverables. All of the evidence is anecdotal and none of the groups could strongly substantiate their opinions. Even after dozens of reviews, some stakeholders refuse to sign off on the requirements specification documents because of a few questionable requirements. This puts the projects at risk and creates tension between the participants. What should the lead BA do first?
Options
- AEscalate the problem to the executive management
- BSet limits on duration of sign-offs and the number of reviews
- CTrack approvals al the level of individual requirements
- DOffer the stakeholders incentives to sign off documents sooner
How the community answered
(54 responses)- A4% (2)
- B2% (1)
- C85% (46)
- D9% (5)
Why each option
This question tests the best approach to unblock a stalled requirements sign-off process when only a subset of requirements is disputed. Granular tracking allows progress to continue on agreed items.
Escalating to executive management bypasses proper process for what is a requirements management problem and does not address the root cause of ambiguous or contested requirements.
Setting time limits on sign-off duration is a procedural constraint that does not resolve the underlying quality concerns causing stakeholders to withhold approval.
Tracking approvals at the level of individual requirements allows the team to identify and isolate the specific requirements that stakeholders find questionable, while obtaining formal approval on all other requirements. This breaks the all-or-nothing logjam, enables development to proceed on approved requirements, and focuses dispute resolution on a small, well-defined set of contested items.
Offering incentives to sign off documents is inappropriate and ethically questionable, and does not address the validity of stakeholders' concerns about requirement quality.
Concept tested: Requirements approval tracking at granular level
Source: https://www.iiba.org/career-resources/a-business-analysis-body-of-knowledge/babok/
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