Business Analyst
Agile
medium
When would you recommend waterfall over agile for a BA project?
Asked at
TCSInfosysAccentureCognizant
Framework
cost-of-change axis
Model answer
When requirements are stable, regulated, and expensive to change — think banking core migrations, healthcare compliance, or hardware-software integration. Agile assumes cheap change; waterfall protects you when change is expensive.
What great candidates actually do
- Regulatory environments often force a waterfall gate even in agile shops.
- Hybrid ('water-scrum-fall') is the honest answer for most enterprises.
- The wrong reason to pick waterfall: 'that's how we've always done it.'
Traps to avoid
- Naming the solution before the problem — always restate the goal in one sentence first.
- Answering without structure — pick a framework out loud, then execute it.
- Skipping the trade-off — every strong answer names what you would NOT do and why.
Related questions
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Walk me through the last BRD you wrote — how did you structure it?
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What's the difference between a BRD, FRD and SRS — and when would you use each?
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How would you elicit requirements from a senior stakeholder who won't give you time?
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