ECBA Exam Dumps - Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)

While assessing requirements changes, a business analyst (BA) determines the formality of the assessment process based on the governance approach. The governance approach provides the framework within which changes are evaluated and decisions are made regarding the approval or rejection of changes. This approach outlines the processes, roles, responsibilities, and standards that guide how changes are managed, ensuring that changes align with organizational policies and strategic objectives .

There are two commonly used relationships between use cases:

Extend: allows for the insertion of additional behavior into a use case. The use case that is being extended must be completely functional in its own right and must not depend on the extending use case for its successful execution. This relationship may be used to show that an alternate flow has been added to an existing use case (representing new requirements).

Include: allows for the use case to make use of functionality present in another use case. The included use case does not need to be a complete use case in its own right if it is not directly triggered by an actor. This relationship is most often used either when some shared functionality is required by several use cases or to abstract out a complex piece of logic.

Business analysts use ‘Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria’ to measure the quality of requirements. This technique involves setting specific criteria that the requirements must meet to be accepted. These criteria are used to evaluate whether the requirements are well-defined, clear, and meet the necessary standards for successful project outcomes. By establishing these criteria, BAs can ensure that the requirements are aligned with business objectives and can be tested against predefined standards. References: The use of acceptance and evaluation criteria is a common practice in business analysis for ensuring requirement quality and is discussed in various business analysis resources, including the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) guide1.

When a BA considers opportunity costs, they are performing a cost-benefit analysis to determine the best solution. This falls within the task of "Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution", where different design options or requirement implementations are evaluated for their expected value and opportunity costs (what must be forgone when choosing one option over another).

This involves:

Comparing expected benefits vs. associated costs

Evaluating risks and missed opportunities

Recommending the solution with optimal value delivery

BABOK® Reference:

Found in the Requirements Analysis and Design Definition knowledge area, this task emphasizes assessing the relative value of each solution option.

In the context of business analysis, the term "stability" refers to the likelihood that a requirement will change due to the need for further analysis or because stakeholders have not reached a consensus. Stability is a critical attribute to assess as it impacts the prioritization, planning, and management of requirements. Requirements with low stability may require additional attention, analysis, or engagement with stakeholders to clarify, refine, and agree upon the needs to ensure they are well-understood and stable enough to be implemented effectively without significant changes in the future.

When a business analyst ensures that a set of requirements is developed with enough detail to be usable by a particular stakeholder, they are performing the activity of verifying requirements. Verification of requirements involves ensuring that the requirements or designs have been developed in enough detail, are internally consistent, and are of high quality. This process is crucial for making sure that the requirements are sufficiently detailed and clear for stakeholders who will be using them to guide further work, including development and implementation of the solution .

When the number of requirements increases or the level of formality is raised, it becomes more challenging to manage and trace all the requirements. This is because each requirement needs to be documented, analyzed, and tracked throughout the project lifecycle to ensure it is met. As complexity grows, so does the effort required to maintain oversight and ensure that all requirements are accounted for and aligned with the project’s goals.

 The task of defining design options involves identifying, exploring, and describing different ways of meeting the business need. This includes defining the solution approach, identifying opportunities to improve the business, allocating requirements across solution components, and representing design options that achieve the desired future state. It is about considering various possibilities that could be created (building), purchased (buying), or a combination of both, to satisfy the business need. References: The information is based on the BABOK® Guide, specifically the section on ‘Define Design Options’ which outlines the purpose and activities involved in this task12.