Preparing for Your Cisco Systems Business Analyst Interview: Top Questions and Answers

Interviewing for a business analyst role at Cisco Systems can seem daunting. As one of the world’s leading technology companies, Cisco has high standards when hiring candidates. Thorough preparation and knowing what to expect in the interview can help you stand out from the competition.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common Cisco Systems business analyst interview questions and examples of strong answers. With the right preparation, you can ace your Cisco interview and land your dream job.

Why Do You Want to Work at Cisco?

This question tests your knowledge of and enthusiasm for Cisco. The interviewer wants to know that you have purposefully targeted Cisco, not just applied for every business analyst opening out there.

Strong answers will showcase your passion for Cisco’s products, mission, and company culture For example

• “I’ve admired Cisco’s innovative technology solutions for years. Getting the opportunity to turn business needs into technical requirements that shape your products would be an honor.”

• “The collaborative One Cisco culture where business analysts and engineers work closely together appeals to me. I thrive in team environments and think I could maximize my potential in this type of setting.”

• “Cisco’s company values – from customer focus to innovation – align well with my own principles. I would be proud to work for an organization with such commitment to ethics”

What Excel Skills Do You Have?

Business analysts at Cisco rely heavily on Excel to analyze data, model business processes, track metrics and KPIs, and present findings. Interviewers will want to know your level of Excel expertise.

In your answer, highlight advanced Excel skills like:

• Pivot tables and pivot charts
• VLOOKUPs
• Regression analysis
• Macros
• Data visualization

Quantify your experience where possible. For example, “I have over 5 years experience using Excel daily in my business analyst roles. I’m highly proficient in pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, data visualization, regression analysis, and basic macros.”

How Do You Prioritize Requirements?

Cisco deals with complex products and systems with multi-faceted requirements. This question tests your methodology for prioritizing and sequencing business needs logically.

Strong responses will demonstrate a systematic approach like:

• Evaluating impact on revenue goals or customer satisfaction
• Classifying based on effort and cost to implement
• Sequencing foundational needs before ancillary ones
• Partnering with product managers to incorporate stakeholder perspectives
• Using requirement traceability matrices

Using a real example from your past experience can lend credibility e.g. “When working on Project X, I created a ranking model based on 5 factors to prioritize over 200 requirements.”

Describe Your Experience Creating User Stories

Cisco business analysts develop clear user stories to help guide software development. This question gauges your skills in articulating requirements from the end user’s perspective.

In your response, be sure to touch on:

• Writing user stories following the standard “As a ____, I want _____ so that _____” template.
• Partnering with product managers and engineering teams to refine stories.
• Categorizing user stories based on priority and sequencing for development.
• Calculating relative effort to implement each story.

Reference examples of creating impactful user stories in your past projects. Numbers help demonstrate scope e.g. “For Project Y, I wrote over 75 well-defined user stories that helped development teams deliver all project requirements on time.”

How Do You Handle Ambiguous Requirements?

Requirements are often unclear at the start of Cisco projects. This question tests how you take vague requirements and create precise specifications developers can act on.

Compelling responses will convey a methodical approach like:

• Asking probing questions of stakeholders to clarify intent and goals.
• Researching processes, systems, and regulations that dictate needs.
• Identifying assumptions and validating them.
• Partnering with architects to determine technical capabilities.
• Avoiding inserting personal bias or interpretations.
• Documenting open questions and uncertainties for future testing.

You can use a “STAR” structure to tell a story demonstrating these skills in action. Set up the scenario, describe the task, detail the action you took, and share the positive result.

Tell Us About a Time You Had to Manage Stakeholders with Competing Priorities

Stakeholder management is a crucial business analyst skill at Cisco. This behavioral question evaluates your ability to handle conflicting stakeholder demands.

Impactful responses will highlight strategies like:

• Building strong individual relationships with each stakeholder through 1:1s.
• Developing consensus by helping stakeholders understand how demands fit into the big picture.
• Quantifying costs, risks and impacts to guide stakeholders toward appropriate trade-offs.
• Using data and requirements traceability to remove personal bias and emotion from decisions.
• Compromising to meet baseline needs rather than full wants when resources are limited.

Share a specific example that demonstrates stakeholder management challenges you navigated in a past project to showcase these abilities.

How Do You Ensure Requirements You Elicit Will Meet Business Needs?

Cisco business analysts must validate requirements to prevent wasted development efforts. This evaluates your diligence in confirming needs will satisfy business goals.

Compelling responses will exhibit validation techniques like:

• Reviewing requirements with stakeholders to ensure accuracy.
• Tracing requirements back to business goals, market demands, and pain points.
• Analyzing data on customer behavior to quantify needs.
• Researching processes and systems to understand how they shape requirements.
• Performing cost/benefit analyses to validate ROI.
• Writing test cases early that prove requirements were met after implementation.

Providing an example of how you utilized these techniques to validate requirements demonstrates first-hand experience.

How Do You Go About Testing and Validating a New Software Feature?

Cisco business analysts collaborate closely with QA teams on testing. This question gauges your skills and methodology for verifying software functionality.

Highlight in your answer:

• Reviewing requirements and user stories to identify key test scenarios.
• Partnering with QA leads to map tests to requirements.
• Trace testing back to expected business outcomes.
• Developing thorough test cases covering normal and edge use cases.
• Leading user acceptance testing with customer groups when possible.
• Logically sequencing test scenarios.
• Tracking testing progress and evaluating results.

Examples of leading successful feature testing in a previous role will strengthen your response.

Why Did You Decide to Become a Business Analyst?

Cisco wants to know what drives your passion for business analysis work. This question evaluates your career motivations and fit for the role.

Effective responses will highlight qualities like:

• Strong problem-solving skills and intellectual curiosity to get to the heart of business needs.
• Enjoyment of partnering cross-functionally to shape solutions.
• Passion for using data to guide decisions.
• Desire for continuous learning and new challenges.
• Belief in maximizing impact by matching business goals with the right technical solutions.

If you have a personal story or experience that sparked your interest in the field, briefly sharing it can help create a memorable answer.

How Would You Go About Implementing a New Process at Cisco?

Cisco business analysts often drive process improvement initiatives. This assesses your change management approach.

Compelling responses will display strong practices like:

• Partnering with process owners to fully understand needs.
• Analyzing existing processes and gathering data to diagnose issues.
• Researching other Cisco teams that have implemented similar processes.
• Building consensus with stakeholders on optimal new workflows.
• Developing communications to explain the upcoming change.
• Creating a training strategy and support resources.
• Defining metrics and KPIs to track progress against goals.
• Planning a pilot before company-wide rollout.

Use a real example of process improvement you drove to provide tangible evidence of these change management abilities.

What Is Your Experience with Process Modeling Tools Like Visio?

Process modeling is central to business analysis at Cisco. The interviewer will gauge your hands-on expertise with key tools like Visio to map processes, systems, data flows, etc.

In your response, be sure to cover:

• Specific process modeling techniques you have used – flowcharts, swim lanes, value stream maps, etc.
• The scale of models you have created – e.g. “I built a future state process map encompassing 20 interconnected systems.”
• Types of processes modeled – e.g. order to cash, procurement, etc.
• Proficiency with Visio features like shapes, connectors, drawing aids, reports, etc.
• Examples of insights uncovered or improvements driven through your process models.

Numbers help quantify the extent of your experience – aim for specifics over generalities.

How Do You Stay Up-To-Date on Business Analysis Best Practices?

Lifelong learning is valued at innovative companies like Cisco. This question reveals your commitment to continually developing your business analysis skills.

Highlight activities like:

• Reading industry books, publications, and blogs on business analysis.
• Attending virtual and in-person events and workshops through BA associations.
• Taking coursework and certifications in areas like process improvement, Agile, etc.
• Network