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New Post 12/6/2009 11:14 AM
User is offline joe
1 posts
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BA Practice exam question.  

 Hope some one can answer this practice ba question.....

During a requirements confirmation meeting, there is a difference of opinion between the hr manager, the employees union rep, and the chirf security officer. The difference is escalating into heated exchanges. what is the first thing, facilitator might do?

1. Ask that the discussion of that point be defered to another meeting for resolution.

2. declare that there is a conflict and state that in order to complete the stated meetings objective, the requirements conflict will be documented for follo up later

3. call a break, and ask the two of three combatants not to come back

4. tell them that you will take all their information into consideration and make a decision on which requirements to implement later. 

I choose 2, and it appears thats wrong choice....

 

 
New Post 12/6/2009 3:22 PM
User is offline Adrian M.
764 posts
3rd Level Poster




Re: BA Practice exam question.  

 badboys2 wrote  Hope some one can answer this practice ba question.....

During a requirements confirmation meeting, there is a difference of opinion between the hr manager, the employees union rep, and the chirf security officer. The difference is escalating into heated exchanges. what is the first thing, facilitator might do?

1. Ask that the discussion of that point be defered to another meeting for resolution.

2. declare that there is a conflict and state that in order to complete the stated meetings objective, the requirements conflict will be documented for follo up later

3. call a break, and ask the two of three combatants not to come back

4. tell them that you will take all their information into consideration and make a decision on which requirements to implement later. 

I choose 2, and it appears thats wrong choice....

I would say that # 1 is the answer - at least what I would do.

# 4 - this tells the participant that you, the Business Analyst, can make a better decision by yourself - not good!

# 3 - you can't ignore people's points of view an unilateraly exclude them from the process.

# 2 - while it is not a terrible option - it still leaves the question open of how this will be resolved.  # 1 clearly states that there will be another meeting with all the participants to hash through the issues.

Hope this helps!

- Adrian


Adrian Marchis
Business Analyst Community Blog - Post your thoughts!
 
New Post 12/6/2009 11:41 PM
User is offline Guy Beauchamp
257 posts
www.smart-ba.com
5th Level Poster




Re: BA Practice exam question.  

 adrian wrote

 badboys2 wrote  Hope some one can answer this practice ba question.....

During a requirements confirmation meeting, there is a difference of opinion between the hr manager, the employees union rep, and the chirf security officer. The difference is escalating into heated exchanges. what is the first thing, facilitator might do?

1. Ask that the discussion of that point be defered to another meeting for resolution.

2. declare that there is a conflict and state that in order to complete the stated meetings objective, the requirements conflict will be documented for follo up later

3. call a break, and ask the two of three combatants not to come back

4. tell them that you will take all their information into consideration and make a decision on which requirements to implement later. 

I choose 2, and it appears thats wrong choice....

I would say that # 1 is the answer - at least what I would do.

# 4 - this tells the participant that you, the Business Analyst, can make a better decision by yourself - not good!

# 3 - you can't ignore people's points of view an unilateraly exclude them from the process.

# 2 - while it is not a terrible option - it still leaves the question open of how this will be resolved.  # 1 clearly states that there will be another meeting with all the participants to hash through the issues.

Hope this helps!

- Adrian

Hi, my thoughts for what they are worth is that this is an interesting question: I would have chosen #1 OR #2 but it's all in the wording as essentially #1 and #2 are the same! This question illustrates one of my many problems with exams: they (almost universally) assume that there is 1 and only 1 'correct' answer and all the other answers are 'incorrect'. Any exam for any subject beyond basic arithmetic is going to struggle with this (or rather the exam taker - the BA in this case - struggles with this: the exam setters can smugly set the question, declare with godlike impunity the one and true answer and condem the blasphemers who get it 'wrong' to the purgatory of a resit which in most cases for BAs means extra fees and you have to wonder who gets those...).

So I would say the exam setters got the answer wrong and that in the real world when you are doing real work for real people and making a real difference, then you could choose answers #1 or #2 or indeed something else not in the allowed set of answers (it's not even stated in the exam question whether the difference of opinion is about requirements: could be football!).

Stoopid exams!

Guy

 

 
New Post 12/8/2009 12:48 AM
User is offline KJ
243 posts
6th Level Poster


Re: BA Practice exam question.  

1 and 2 two are essentially the same. Defer and speak to each individually to ascertain their needs but most importantly assess their WIIFMs (whats in it for me). Try to satisfy the WIIFM first,this will get him/her onside then resolve the issue!

I once had a SME who said he was fedup of consultants stealing his good ideas and getting rewarded, whilst he remained in his job. His WIIFM was, he wanted recognition for his ideas. Once I agreed to satisfy his WIIFM, he was onside. For the presentation to management, I deliberately put "Source: Mr Smith" on each of the slides which pertained to his area. The presentation went well and he got a promotion.

In this case Mr Smith's gripes were legitimate, your people might just have abrassive personalities and that a totally different fish!

 
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