Salesforce Business Analyst Sample Questions
Salesforce Business Analysts are professionals who use their expertise in Salesforce technology to help organizations optimize their use of Salesforce applications. They work closely with stakeholders to understand business requirements and design solutions that meet their needs. In this blog, we will explore some sample Salesforce Business Analyst questions that may be asked during an interview or as part of a certification exam.
These questions cover a range of topics, from Salesforce data modeling to user adoption strategies, and are designed to test your knowledge and understanding of Salesforce best practices. Whether you are preparing for an interview or studying for a certification, these questions can help you assess your knowledge and identify areas for improvement.
Advanced Sample Questions
Which of the following is a best practice for optimizing the performance of complex Salesforce workflows and automation?
- A) Reduce the number of field updates
- B) Use synchronous processing for all workflow rules
- C) Use complex formulas and functions in field updates
- D) Use complex validation rules to enforce data quality
Correct answer is A) Reduce the number of field updates.
Explanation: A) Reduce the number of field updates is a best practice for optimizing the performance of complex Salesforce workflows and automation. This is because each field update triggers a recalculation of the record, which can slow down the system. B) Using synchronous processing for all workflow rules can also slow down the system because it requires more processing power. C) Using complex formulas and functions in field updates can also slow down the system. D) Using complex validation rules to enforce data quality is important, but it does not directly impact the performance of workflows and automation.
What is the primary purpose of a Salesforce Opportunity?
- a. To manage customer relationships
- b. To store information about potential customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: c. To manage sales opportunities
Explanation: A Salesforce Opportunity is used to manage sales opportunities, tracking the progress of a potential sale and storing relevant information such as expected close date, stage of the sales process, and expected revenue. This information is used by sales teams to manage their sales pipeline and prioritize their efforts.
What is the primary purpose of a Salesforce Account?
- a. To manage customer relationships
- b. To store information about potential customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: a. To manage customer relationships
Explanation: A Salesforce Account is used to manage customer relationships, storing information about current customers and their interactions with the company. This information can be used to track customer engagement, support requests, and other interactions, helping sales teams build stronger relationships with their customers.
What is the primary purpose of a Salesforce Contact?
- a. To manage customer relationships
- b. To store information about potential customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: a. To manage customer relationships
Explanation: A Salesforce Contact is used to manage customer relationships, storing information about the people within a customer organization who are involved in sales interactions. This information can be used to track customer engagement, support requests, and other interactions, helping sales teams build stronger relationships with their customers.
What is the primary purpose of a Salesforce Campaign?
- a. To manage customer relationships
- b. To store information about potential customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To track marketing campaigns
Answer: d. To track marketing campaigns
Explanation: A Salesforce Campaign is used to track marketing campaigns, including the type
What is the main purpose of a Salesforce Custom Object?
- a. To store standard information about customers
- b. To store information specific to a particular business process
- c. To store information about products
- d. To store information about employees
Answer: b. To store information specific to a particular business process
Explanation: A Salesforce Custom Object is used to store information specific to a particular business process, such as customer complaints or service requests. This information can be tailored to meet the unique needs of a business, allowing organizations to track and manage information that is important to their specific processes.
What is the main purpose of a Salesforce Report?
- a. To store information about customers
- b. To display information in a specific format
- c. To track sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: b. To display information in a specific format
Explanation: A Salesforce Report is used to display information in a specific format, such as a tabular format or a chart. Reports can be generated based on specific criteria, such as closed sales opportunities or customer engagement, allowing organizations to gain insights into their data and make informed decisions.
What is the main purpose of a Salesforce Dashboard?
- a. To store information about customers
- b. To display information in a specific format
- c. To track sales opportunities
- d. To present key metrics in a visually engaging manner
Answer: d. To present key metrics in a visually engaging manner
Explanation: A Salesforce Dashboard is used to present key metrics in a visually engaging manner, allowing organizations to quickly and easily see the most important information about their data. Dashboards can be customized to meet specific needs and can be used to track metrics such as sales performance, customer engagement, and product performance.
What is the main purpose of a Salesforce Workflow?
- a. To automate business processes
- b. To store information about customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: a. To automate business processes
Explanation: A Salesforce Workflow is used to automate business processes, such as sending emails or updating record fields, based on specific criteria. Workflows can be used to streamline repetitive tasks and improve the efficiency of business processes, freeing up time for sales teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
What is the main purpose of a Salesforce Validation Rule?
- a. To ensure that data entered into Salesforce meets specific criteria
- b. To store information about customers
- c. To manage sales opportunities
- d. To manage product inventory
Answer: a. To ensure that data entered into Salesforce meets specific criteria
Explanation: A Salesforce Validation Rule is used to ensure that data entered into Salesforce meets specific criteria, such as minimum length or required fields. Validation rules can be used to improve the quality of data in Salesforce and ensure that important information is captured, reducing the risk of errors or missing information.
Basic Sample Questions
Question 1 – Cloud Kicks (CK) wants to increase its lead conversion rates using Sales Cloud, and the business analyst (BA) is going to analyze and break down CK’s typical sales cycle. How would process mapping help the Analyst get started?
- A. By showing the relationship between the steps and actions in the sales cycle for communicating and understanding the current state and identifying improvement areas.
- B. By modeling the changes in the current customer experience, analyzing the change’s potential for impact, and visualizing the potential improvements in the sales cycle in advance of the solution design.
- C. By displaying complex ideas in a consistent format, highlighting blockers and impediments for helping stakeholders quickly assess issues in the sales cycle, and see the project timeline at a glance.
Correct Answer: A
Question 2 – Which of the given options is a common misconception related to the work business analysts do?
- A. They have a basic understanding of the platform and its limitations.
- B. They help with simple configuration changes in the platform if needed.
- C. They are in charge of eliciting and documenting the client’s requirements.
Correct Answer: C
Question 3 – Northern Trail Outfitters’ business analyst is getting ready to conduct a user acceptance testing (UAT) session for a global Sales Cloud project. What must he do for engaging the business most effectively during UAT?
- A. Handing off ownership for writing, reviewing, and executing UAT scenarios, providing feedback, and approval for release to business stakeholders.
- B. Working with quality assurance analysts for collaborating in writing, reviewing, and executing UAT scenarios, providing feedback, and approval for release.
- C. Working with business stakeholders for collaborating in writing, reviewing, and executing UAT scenarios, providing feedback, and approval for release.
Correct Answer: B
Question 4 – Which of the given options has the three main activities performed by business analysts?
- A. Testing, analyzing information, and resource management.
- B. Project sponsoring, documenting requirements, and implementing solutions
- C. Communication, testing, and elicitation
Correct Answer: C
Question 5 – The business analyst discovered that a large number of test cases failed during the first round of user acceptance testing for a Sales Cloud project. What could be the reason behind the failing test cases?
- A. Missing test script details
- B. Missing test result details
- C. Missing test org access details
Correct Answer: A
Question 6 – An executive sponsor asks the business analyst why user stories are being created instead of standard requirements as a business analyst engages stakeholders in a user story writing workshop. Which of the following is a benefit of creating user stories for sharing with the executive sponsor?
- A. It helps testers in determining the most efficient way for validating solutions.
- B. It defines technical specifications early in the process.
- C. It saves time while prioritizing and implementing the functionality.
Correct Answer: C
Question 7 – At Universal Containers, the project team is reviewing the existing Salesforce manufacturing solution that is underused and has a number of customizations, including custom objects, custom fields, and renamed standard objects. What would you recommend to the project team for increasing the understanding while documenting requirements, processes, and potential solutions?
- A. Using industry terminology and language.
- B. Using customer terminology and language.
- C. Using Salesforce terminology and language.
Correct Answer: B
Question 8 – As part of Salesforce’s scrum process, an executive planning a vacation wants to know when work will begin on a new feature so that they can answer additional implementation questions. According to the business analyst (BA), all future releases will be managed using Kanban instead after consulting with the product owner. What would you tell the executive?
- A. Work would begin after executive approval is given.
- B. Work would begin when capacity becomes available.
- C. Work would begin in the next sprint.
Correct Answer: B
Question 9 – Universal Containers’ business analyst has begun user acceptance testing on a new Experience Cloud implementation, and a major gap has been identified in one of the documented scenarios for one of the personas. What went wrong?
- A. Failure in including all stakeholders in the requirements-gathering process
- B. Failure in performing thorough unit testing during the development process
- C. Failure in validating the application against the functional requirements
Correct Answer: A
Question 10 – The Northern Trail Outfitters Salesforce org is large, with a large number of items in the backlog being worked on by the sales, marketing, and billing departments. Which of the following management process would you suggest for helping the teams in aligning on their competing priorities?
- A. Vision, Values. Methods, Obstacles, and Measures (V2MOM)
- B. Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
- C. Integrated DEFinition for Process Description Capture Method (IDEF3)
Correct Answer: A
Question 11 – Cloud Kicks’ executive has asked the Salesforce team to streamline a very manual process in the company’s Salesforce organization. What would you do first before a future state is proposed to key stakeholders?
- A. Discussing the project trade-offs with the executive sponsor.
- B. Managing project integrations with the technical team.
- C. Holding a kickoff meeting for setting expectations with the project team.
Correct Answer: C
Question 12 – Cloud Kicks (CK) has expressed concern about its distribution process for a new line of shoes because it consistently fails to meet its delivery dates. CK asks the business analyst (BA) to identify the problem and suggest a solution. What would you do next?
- A. Shadowing an operations team member at the CK distribution facility.
- B. Reviewing future state distribution processes for CK.
- C. Exploring how retailers similar to CK handle distribution.
Correct Answer: C
Question 13 – Northern Trail Outfitters has assigned a BA to a project to revamp their case management process, and he has already gathered requirements and drafted the first drafts of user stories for the project. What would he use for assessing the quality of a user story?
- A. Gap analysis document
- B. INVEST checklist
- C. Numerical framework
Correct Answer: B
Question 14 – Which of the following is the correct order of the user stories structure?
- A. ‘Who,’ ‘Why,’ ‘What’
- B. ‘Who,’ ‘What.’ ‘Why’
- C. ‘What,’ ‘Why,’ ‘Who’
Correct Answer: B
Question 15 – As part of a recent sprint, Cloud Kicks created user stories for the Opportunity object as part of the new lead conversion process in Sales Cloud. The lead conversion process was tested with scripts. Testing of the new functionality passed with no errors, and the new functionality was deployed, but end users reported errors when creating opportunities manually. Which of the given areas of user acceptance testing (UAT) was overlooked?
- A. Several teams must be a part of UAT for representing multiple viewpoints.
- B. Functionality on interconnected objects should be part of UAT.
- C. Tests should be conducted by end users familiar with those functions.
Correct Answer: B
Question 16 – Cloud Kicks is introducing a new sales methodology and identifying several integrations that touch the Opportunity object and could be affected by the new approach is being handled by the business analyst working with the technical team. A functional test, a code review, and unit testing are all requested by the project manager. Which of the following does the project team require to agree upon, for ensuring the work is ready to be deployed?
- A. Entity relationship diagram
- B. User acceptance criteria
- C. Definition of done
Correct Answer: C
Question 17 – You interview a few members of Northern Trail Outfitters’ onboarding team using e-mail questionnaires in order to create a current state process map for onboarding new retail employees within Salesforce. The BA receives feedback that the process map is incorrect after presenting it to the entire onboarding team. What must you do for providing the product development team with more accurate information about the onboarding team’s process?
- A. Reviewing survey feedback again for understanding the pain points in the existing onboarding process.
- B. Conducting individual interviews with each team member for gathering more information about the existing onboarding process.
- C. Meeting with key project stakeholders in a live workshop for building consensus on the current and desired onboarding processes.
Correct Answer: C
Question 18 – In order to complete a project at Universal Containers, the business analyst (BA) needs to gather information on the steps users take to achieve a goal, the challenges they face, the people they interact with, the applications they use, and their level of morale during the process. Which of the given elicitation techniques should be used?
- A. Survey/Questionnaire
- B. Journey Mapping
- C. FOCUS Groups
Correct Answer: B
Question 19 – The business analyst (BA) at Northern Trail Outfitters discovers a problem in the service team’s workflow while working on a new Sales Cloud feature request for the sales team. Assuring the BA that there would be little impact on service, the sales director assures her. Which of the following steps should the BA take next?
- A. Reviewing the effort and Impacts with the service team, and working for aligning requirements across the teams.
- B. Continuing with the effort as defined by sales and adding a backlog item for reviewing the service impacts in the future.
- C. Prioritizing the effort as defined by sales and asking the director for reviewing any service impacts.
Correct Answer: A
Question 20 – A business analyst (BA) is evaluating the risks associated with leveraging Cases and Support Queues and the potential effects on the timeline of the project as a result. Which of the following type of analysis is the BA performing?
- A. Enterprise Analysis
- B. Strategy Analysis
- C. Stakeholder Analysis
Correct Answer: B
