CAPM Business Analysis Frameworks Practice Question
A business analyst discovers that two requirements conflict with each other. What is the best strategy to resolve this conflict?
⚠ Common exam trap
CAPM often tests the instinct to escalate to the sponsor or defer to the team — the exam expects the collaborative, stakeholder-facilitated resolution as the 'best' answer in conflict scenarios.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Facilitate a meeting with the key stakeholders to negotiate a resolution
When two requirements conflict, the best strategy is to bring the key stakeholders together and facilitate a negotiation to resolve the conflict collaboratively. This aligns with PMI/CAPM principles of stakeholder engagement, conflict resolution, and collaborative problem-solving rather than unilateral escalation or deferral. The business analyst or PM facilitates, but the stakeholders own the decision.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ask the project sponsor to choose which requirement to keep
Why it's wrong here
Escalating to the sponsor bypasses the business analyst's own elicitation and negotiation duties; the sponsor supplies direction, not requirement analysis. It tempts when stakeholders hold equal authority and deadlock persists, yet the analyst should first facilitate compromise, assess priority against business objectives, and document the conflict before escalation.
- ✓
Facilitate a meeting with the key stakeholders to negotiate a resolution
Why this is correct
Conflicting requirements stem from divergent stakeholder interests, not technical defects, so negotiation is the only route to an agreed outcome. Facilitating a meeting lets the business analyst surface each party's underlying need, then broker a compromise that both accept, preserving requirements traceability and stakeholder buy-in.
- ✗
Document both requirements and let the development team decide
Why it's wrong here
Deferring to the development team hands a business decision to people without authority over requirements, leaving the conflict unresolved and priorities unclear. It is tempting because developers implement the solution, but requirement conflicts are resolved by the business analyst through stakeholder negotiation, prioritisation or escalation, not by the delivery team.
- ✗
Include both requirements and add a third requirement to reconcile them
Why it's wrong here
Adding a reconciling requirement does not resolve the underlying conflict; it defers the decision and inflates scope, leaving both original requirements contradictory. It tempts when conflicts stem from differing stakeholder interpretations that a bridging requirement could align, but genuine either/or conflicts need direct negotiation or sponsor arbitration.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PMI exam blueprint
This CAPM practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CAPM exam.