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 Documenting the source of each requirement in the requirements traceability matrix allows for easy identification of the requestor and facilitates communication with stakeholders. References: PMI-PBA® Examination Content Outline, Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide.

Status is a critical field that is needed to ensure that the traceability matrix is usable. Status indicates the current state of each requirement, such as approved, deferred, implemented, tested, or verified. Status helps to track the progress and completion of requirements throughout the project life cycle. It also helps to identify any gaps or discrepancies that may exist between the requirements and the project deliverables. References: = PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline (2019), page 10; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide (2015), page 40.

The business analyst should follow the change control process to handle the new regulatory mandate that affects the project. The change control process is a set of procedures that defines how changes to the requirements or the project scope are identified, analyzed, approved, and implemented. The change control process helps to ensure that changes are aligned with the business need, the project objectives, and the stakeholder expectations. References: PMI Guide to Business Analysis, Chapter 9, Section 9.4.1; PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline, Domain IV: Traceability and Monitoring, Task 2.

 A change control process is a set of procedures that defines how changes to the requirements are identified, assessed, approved, implemented, and communicated. A change control process helps to ensure that changes are aligned with the business objectives, do not introduce unnecessary risks, and do not adversely affect the quality of the solution. A change control process also helps to manage stakeholder expectations and avoid scope creep. References: PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline1, page 13; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide2, page 77.

Communication is an essential part of requirements management, as it ensures that the requirements are clear, consistent, and agreed upon by all the project stakeholders. Stakeholders are the individuals or groups who have an interest or influence in the project, and who can provide input, feedback, and approval for the requirements. Communication also helps to avoid surprises, misunderstandings, and conflicts among the stakeholders, and to manage their expectations and satisfaction. Communication should be timely, accurate, relevant, and transparent, and should follow the communication plan and strategy defined in the requirements management plan12.

One of the aspects of communication is the status of the requirements, which indicates the progress and completion of the requirements throughout the project life cycle. The status of the requirements can be tracked and documented using a traceability matrix, which is a tool that links the requirements to their sources and traces them throughout the project. The status of the requirements can also be monitored and controlled using a change control process, which is a process that evaluates, approves, and implements any changes to the requirements. The status of the requirements can have different values, such as proposed, approved, implemented, verified, deferred, deleted, or rejected12.

When the status of a requirement changes, it should be communicated to all the project stakeholders, not just the source of the requirement or the project team. This is because the change in the status of a requirement may have an impact on the scope, schedule, cost, quality, or risk of the project, and may affect the interests or expectations of the stakeholders. Communicating the status of the requirements to all the project stakeholders helps to keep them informed and engaged, and to obtain their feedback and approval. It also helps to prevent surprises, such as the one experienced by the major stakeholder in the question, who was unaware that a particular requirement was deferred12.

Therefore, the best option is C. The status should have been communicated to all project stakeholders. Option A is not the best option, because the status should have been communicated to more than just the requirement’s source. Option B is not the best option, because the status should have been communicated earlier than prior to project launch. Option D is not the best option, because updating the status in the traceability matrix is not enough, as the stakeholders may not have access to or awareness of the matrix. References: 1 PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline, page 9-11; 2 Requirements Management 101 | Smartsheet 2

A requirements traceability tool is a tool that provides combined functionality for business analysis and quality assurance activities. It helps to document and track the relationships and dependencies among the requirements, the sources of the requirements, and the project deliverables. It also helps to monitor the status, changes, and verification of the requirements throughout the project life cycle. A requirements traceability tool can also support the analysis, validation, and testing of the requirements, as well as the evaluation of the solution quality and performance12.

A functional specification tool is a tool that helps to define and document the functional requirements of a system or a solution. It describes the features, functions, behaviors, and inputs and outputs of the system or the solution. It also specifies the acceptance criteria and the expected results of the system or the solution. A functional specification tool is mainly used for business analysis activities, but not for quality assurance activities13.

A system use case modeling tool is a tool that helps to illustrate and communicate the interactions and scenarios between the users and the system or the solution. It uses diagrams, symbols, and text to represent the actors, use cases, relationships, and flows of events of the system or the solution. It also defines the preconditions, postconditions, and exceptions of each use case. A system use case modeling tool is mainly used for business analysis activities, but not for quality assurance activities14.

A solution quality assurance tool is a tool that helps to measure and evaluate the quality of the system or the solution. It uses various methods and techniques, such as testing, inspection, review, audit, and feedback, to check the quality of the system or the solution against the quality standards and criteria. It also identifies and reports any quality issues, defects, or errors of the system or the solution. A solution quality assurance tool is mainly used for quality assurance activities, but not for business analysis activities1 .

References: 1 PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline, page 9-11; 2 Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 121; 3 Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 133; 4 Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 135; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 125

 The business analyst should conduct a stakeholder analysis and balance requirements by understanding the relative power associated with each stakeholder group. This action will help the business analyst to identify and prioritize the needs and expectations of different stakeholders, and to manage any conflicts or trade-offs among them. The business analyst should also consider the alignment of the requirements with the project objectives and the business value. References: PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline1, page 9; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide2, page 38.

The system requirements verification matrix is a tool that helps to track the status of each requirement throughout the project lifecycle. It shows whether a requirement has been accepted, rejected, deferred, or implemented. The business analyst should have used this tool to record the reasons for rejection or deferral of any requirement, as well as the impact and resolution of such changes. This way, the business analyst can easily provide a list of rejected and deferred requirements to the project manager upon request. Setting up a change control board is not enough to track the number of rejections, as it does not provide a detailed record of each requirement’s status. Limiting the number of rejected requirements on the project is not a realistic or helpful approach, as some requirements may be invalid, incomplete, or conflicting and need to be rejected or deferred for the benefit of the project. Spending more time up-front reviewing the requirements may reduce the chances of rejections, but it does not guarantee that no requirement will be rejected or deferred later in the project. References: Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, page 161-162; PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline, page 19.

The best approach to resolve this issue is to suggest re-estimating the requirement and following the change control process. This would allow the project team to assess the impact of the change request, evaluate the feasibility and cost of the modification, and obtain the approval of the stakeholders before implementing the change. A change control process is a method used to manage change requests for projects and big initiatives. It’s part of a change management plan, which defines the roles for managing change within a team or company1. Meeting with the customer and apologizing for misunderstanding the business’s need is not sufficient, as it does not address the root cause of the problem or propose a solution. Providing the stakeholder with a copy of the approved requirements baseline and moving forward without making a change is not acceptable, as it ignores the stakeholder’s feedback and dissatisfaction. Requiring development resources to work overtime to modify the deliverable to satisfy the stakeholder is not advisable, as it may compromise the quality of the work, increase the project cost and risk, and demoralize the team. References: PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline2, PMI Guide to Business Analysis3, Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide4, What Is a Change Control Process? (with Example Change Log)

Interface analysis is a technique that involves identifying and describing how a system or product interacts with other systems, products, or users. Interface analysis can help the business analyst to analyze the complex, in-house processes that are being converted into the new system by defining the inputs, outputs, functions, features, behaviors, and performance of each interface. Interface analysis can also help to ensure compatibility, interoperability, usability, and security of each interface. References: = PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Examination Content Outline (2019), page 12; Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide (2015), page 69.