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Interview Questions for Business Analysts and Systems Analysts

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INTERVIEW QUESTION:

If you are introduced to a new industry, what steps do you take to become familiar with it and understand it?

Posted by Chris Adams

// 9081 Views // 4 Additional Answers & Comments

Categories: Business Analysis, Systems Analysis, Domain Modeling

ANSWER

Creating a business entity model can really help increase the pace at which analysts, or anyone else for that matter, come up to speed in a new business industry. Business entity models document the entities, or things, that a business or business process uses and interacts with in order to accomplish its business activities and goals Therefore, it is an excellent tool for identifying the scope of the business domain and for providing a framework from which the analyst can continue to build and elaborate to increase their knowledge. It helps the analyst quickly identify not only those things that they know about the business but also those things that they don't know about the business.

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ADDITIONAL ANSWERS / COMMENTS

BHASKARC posted on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 1:22 AM

Being new to any Industry as a BA is a great challenge. There can be several critical areas which may get unnoticed due to lack of knowledge. So it is very important to work under the supervision of some senior BA initialy and be close with end users during initial days. Also lot od stdy and homework may be required on the vertical. Gradually after gaining maturity one can handle things independently.

urchinwang posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 1:10 PM

Basically try to get a flow chart to identify the whole process, from beginning to end. In the chart, you will be able to see what functions are performed by which entities, relationships b/w them, conditions of certain events. Other things like documents, organizations, business rules could be found by doing research or interviewing business people.

lygen posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 4:28 PM

Ask a lot of questions, look at the existing documentation and create diagrams that describe the current business process, where they do not exist. Also, for those who are able to understand the code which implement the business process, is is helpful to read it, as the existing diagrams and documentation may not be up-to-date.

Alok Bose posted on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 9:53 AM

Hang on Tight, Stay Low...read a lot, dont be a 9 to 6 person. Chart a questionnaire and try to answer them yourself. Get your answers ratified by a domain expert and get answers to the questions you could not answer. Its best to have an approach document ready before talking to a domain expert.

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Do your homework prior to the business analysis interview!

Having an idea of the type of questions you might be asked during a business analyst interview will not only give you confidence but it will also help you to formulate your thoughts and to be better prepared to answer the interview questions you might get during the interview for a business analyst position. Of course, just memorizing a list of business analyst interview questions will not make you a great business analyst but it might just help you get that next job.