IT Business Analyst Mock Interview
Practice 29 IT Business Analyst interview questions covering requirements gathering, stakeholder management, and system analysis.
Question 6 of 29
What are the main types of charts and diagrams you use, and why are they important?
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William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
This is an operational question which seeks to understand how you go about doing your job. IT business analysts use several different tools, including charts, diagrams, and other reports. You should be able to demonstrate that you are familiar with these and understand how to use them to communicate with project stakeholders.
William Swansen has worked in the employment assistance realm since 2007. He is an author, job search strategist, and career advisor who helps individuals worldwide and in various professions to find their ideal careers.
"The primary tools I use when communicating with my clients are flowcharts. I like these because they provide a visual image of a system, which makes it easier for clients to understand. I also use activity diagrams to illustrate the activities occurring on different projects. My other go-to tools are use case diagrams that show which users interact with a system and what goals they achieve."
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Anonymous Answer
I mostly use flowcharts, context diagrams, and case diagrams, depending upon which is more suitable to communicate with the stakeholders. I feel it is easier and clear to communicate the process with the diagram and provides better understanding.
Marcie's Feedback
You do a great job explaining which chart and diagram types you typically use, and you also mention why they are important - because they help you to more clearly communicate with stakeholders. Good job! If you want to add more detail to your answer, you might delve into the various situations when you would choose to use one type of chart or diagram over another.
Anonymous Answer
The primary tools I use when communicating with my clients are flowcharts. I like these because they provide a visual image of a system, which makes it easier for clients to understand. My other go-to tools are use case diagrams that show which users interact with a system and what goals they achieve.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! It's great that you like to use flowcharts, and your answer clearly explains why. Are there instances when you prefer to use flowcharts over case diagrams (or vice versa)? You might also talk about this, and you could also include an example of a time when you used a chart or diagram to communicate your findings to a client.
Anonymous Answer
In my experience, depending on the given situation, there is always a chart that will be more useful than the others. When prioritizing my solutions backlog at the strategic horizon, I like to use Pareto charts since it allows me visually appreciate which tasks/solutions would provide the greatest value with the least effort. When explaining a current or proposed process I employ flowcharts since they are great to illustrate the flow within a given system or process. When there are a series of dependent tasks/events we must follow I like to use CPM/PERT charts to educate my team on the importance of giving priority to a certain task (the bottlenecks) over others. On that same note, I also find that activity diagrams and use case diagrams are essential when working with UML notation.
Amanda's Feedback
You've listed several pertinent charts and the corresponding scenarios in which they are most helpful. Consider wrapping up your response by talking about why charts are important in general for visualizing steps or information, making complex processes easier to explain, etc.
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