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BCS Practical Business Analysis Foundation Practise Exam Questions

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1. In which stage of the business analysis process model would the business analyst most likely apply the OSCAR mnemonic?

A) Investigate situation

B) Consider perspectives

C) Analyse needs

D) Evaluate options

 

Answer A is correct. Analysing Objectives, Scope, Constraints, Authority and Resources (OSCAR) can be useful for clarifying the terms of reference of a project or as an input for a project initiation document.

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2. What does the acronym COTS stand for?

A) ‚Could have‘, ‚Optional‘, ‚To be decided, ‚Should have‘

B) Customer level, Operational level, Tactical level, Strategic Level

C) Constraints, Objectives, Tactics, Scope

D) commercial off-the-shelf (solution)

 

Answer D is correct.

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3. Which of the following statements about process maps is true:

A) Process maps show sets of related processes, and their interactions, in a single diagram

B) Process maps show a detailed view of each of the processes within a higher level set

C) Process maps show what an organisation should be doing according to a stakeholder

D) Process maps usually have swim lanes for different actors in the process

 

Answer A is true. Answers B and D are true for business process models. Answer C is true for business activity models.

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4. What does the R stand for in SMART?

A) Resources

B) Relevant

C) Responsible

D) Risks

 

Answer B is correct.

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5. What is the difference between a RACI and a RASCI chart?

A) A label ‚S‘ for ‚supervision‘ is added for stakeholders who will supervise a particular task or execution of a deliverable

B) A label ‚S‘ for ‚should help‘ is added for stakeholders who are expected to help with a particular task or deliverable

C) A label ‚S‘ for ‚should have‘ is added for requirements that can be modified or delayed in the face of time pressure

D) A label ‚S‘ for ‚support‘ is added for stakeholders who will provide assistance and/or resources

 

Answer D is correct.

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6. Which category of activities would usually be identified last when developing a business activity model (BAM)?

A) Doing activities

B) Planning activities

C) Monitoring activities

D) Controlling activities

 

Answer D is correct. Controlling activities identify what actions should be taken when the monitoring activities reveal that performance is not as expected.

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7. Which of the following describes the objective of a PESTLE analysis?

A) To surface the enabling and actual changes required to deliver predicted business benefits

B) To identify the presence or lack of core competences necessary for a competitive move

C) To assess the broader external environment of an organisation

D) To set out the stages of emotions experienced when someone is faced with a change

 

Answer C is correct. PESTLE is an examination of the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental factors surrounding an organisation. Answer A refers to the goal of a benefits dependency network. Answer B refers to a resource audit. Answer D refers to the SARAH model.

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8. A requirement documents the business user who can make decisions regarding changes in the requirement. Under which heading in the requirements catalogue template would this information be recorded?

A) Author

B) Owner

C) Source

D) Stakeholders

 

Answer B is correct.

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9. In which stage of the requirements engineering framework would a feasibility evaluation of a requirement be undertaken?

A) Requirements elicitation

B) Requirements analysis

C) Requirements validation

D) Requirements management

 

Answer B is correct. Feasibility evaluation is one of the requirements filters that the business analyst can use to ensure a consistent, high-quality set of requirements.

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10. Which of the following statements about the Organisation Model after Harmon is true:

A) The Organisation Model considers the functional areas and reporting lines in an organisation

B) The Organisation Model considers the internal chain of value generation inside an organisation

C) The Organisation Model considers the internal processes and the external world of an organisation

D) The Organisation Model considers the hierarchies that exist within an organization

 

Answer C is true.

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11. As part of a feasibility evaluation, it is considered if and how a requirement can contribute to the critical success factors of a business. Under which aspect of feasibility would this be considered?

A) Technical feasibility

B) Financial feasibility

C) Business feasibility

D) Operational feasibilty

 

Answer C is correct.

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12. Consider the following list of statements about benefits dependency networks:

a. The stage of changes at the start of a benefits dependency network is called ‚enabling changes‘.
b. A benefits dependency network is a way to highlight all the streams of work which are required to achieve a project’s business benefits.
c. A benefits dependency network shows the changes required to realise a business objective.
d. A benefits dependency network helps identify who should take responsibility for each stream of work. e. A benefits dependency network is best created from right to left.

Which of the following is correct?

A) Statements b, d and e are correct, statements a and c are incorrect

B) Statements a, b and c are correct, statements d and e are incorrect

C) Statements a, c and e are correct, statements b and d are incorrect

D) All five statements are correct

 

Answer D is correct.

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13. Which of the following is true for stakeholders with some or high interest but no or low power/influence:

A) In some situations we may wish to encourage their increased interest in a project

B) A good management strategy is to keep them informed of what is going on and of the reasons for a proposed change

C) They are usually regulatory bodies

D) If their attitude towards the project is a negative one, it’s good practise to account for their needs in the project roadmap

 

Answer B is correct. This basic management strategy prevents frustration and passive resistance by these types of stakeholders. As their influence is low, trying to increase their interest in a project or adapting the product roadmap according to their needs will most likely not be fruitful. Regulatory bodies usually have some power/influence and might get involved in a project when a breach of the rules is suspected.

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14. Which of the following is a technique used to evaluate an industry’s profitability and attractiveness?

A) McKinsey’s 7-S model

B) SWOT analysis

C) Porter’s Five Forces model

D) Balanced Business Scorecard

 

Answer C is correct.

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15. Which of the following would be an appropriate name for a task in a ‚Loan item‘ business process model in a library system?

A) Handle item

B) Receive item

C) Manage availability

D) Customer wants to to borrow an item

 

Answer B is correct. It is good practice to use the verb-noun format for task names. Answers A and C use the unspecific words ‚manage‘ and ‚handle‘ which could be processes by themselves. Answer D describes an event.

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16. The following is a list of statements about stakeholder analysis and management:

a. Stakeholders should be identified at the project initiation stage.
b. Stakeholders’ positions usually remain static during the lifecycle of the project.
c. All Stakeholders should be treated identically, independent of their level of interest in the project.
d. Stakeholder management strategies should be revised regularly during project execution.

Which of the following is correct?

A) All four statements are correct

B) Statements a and c are correct, statement b and d are incorrect

C) Statements a and d are correct, statement b and c are incorrect

D) Statements b, c and d are correct, statement a is incorrect

 

Answer C is correct. For a successful project, the stakeholder management strategy should be defined at the beginning of the project which means that stakeholders should be identified at the project initiation stage. Stakeholder management strategies should be revised throughout the project because stakeholders’ positions might change during the execution of the project. A different approach to dealing with each stakeholder should be selected depending on their level of interest in the project and their influence and power over the project.

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17. Security, backup, and recovery, maintainability and capacity fall under which category/type of requirement?

A) General

B) Technical

C) Functional

D) Non-functional

 

Answer D is correct.

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18. Which of the following is an example of explicit corporate knowledge?

A) A job description for a project manager

B) A user interface design style guide

C) A network of knowledge exchange for IT system admins

D) An ability to set up project in a particular project management software

 

Answer B is correct. Answer A is explicit individual knowledge, answer C is tacit corporate knowledge, answer D is tacit individual knowledge.

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19. Which of the following is true about spaghetti maps:

A) A spaghetti map is a tool that shows the movement and interactions of a stakeholder in a particular environment, while performing a particular task or process

B) A spaghetti map identifies problems and their underlying causes in a particular process

C) A spaghetti map is a way of summarising a lot of information in a simple visual form and highlighting connections between different ideas and topics

D) A spaghetti map provides an overview of an entire business situation by using any symbols and any notation that fits the context of the situation

 

Answer A is correct. Answer B is true for fishbone diagrams, Answer C is true for mind maps, Answer D is true for rich pictures.

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20. Which of the following is an advantage of using an internal business analyst over an external consultant?

A) They have a dispassionate view of the host organisation

B) Increased retention of knowledge within the host organisation

C) They bring an external viewpoint into the organisation

D) They only have to be paid when they are needed

 

Answer B is correct.

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21. In a customer relationship management system (CRM), each customer has an ID which will be referenced in every invoice sent to the customer and in every support case. How would the customer ID be modeled in a UML class diagram?

A) As an attribute of the Customer class

B) As an attribute of the Invoice and the SupportCase classes

C) As associations between the Customer and each of the Invoice and the SupportCase classes

D) As an association class between the Customer and each of the Invoice and the SupportCase classes

 

Answer A is correct.

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22. Which of the following is not a support activity according to Porter’s value chain:

A) Firm infrastructure

B) Procurement

C) Operations

D) Human resource management

 

Answer C is correct. Operations is a primary activity according to Porter’s value chain. In a manufacturing organisation this would be the core activity where products are being made. In a service organisation, this activity will usually be combined with the outbound logistics activity.

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23. Which of the following is an example of a non-functional requirement?

A) The system must respond to all user input within 2000 ms

B) The system must allow the user to submit an invoice

C) The system must respond with an error message if a transaction couldn’t be completed

D) The system must allow the user to amend customer details

 

Answer A is correct.

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24. Which of the following is not an element of requirements management?

A) Cross-referencing

B) Configuration management

C) Requirements identification

D) Requirements validation

 

Answer D is correct. Requirements validation constitutes its own stage in the requirements engineering framework.

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25. The senior managers of an organisation recognise that supplier prices will go up in the next five years. In which part of a SWOT analysis would this be recorded?

A) Strengths

B) Weaknesses

C) Opportunities

D) Threats

 

Answer D is correct. Rising supplier prices is an external factor that could negatively affect e.g. the profitability of an organisation.

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26. A flight booking system sends out email notifications to customers for them to check in online 48 hours before the scheduled departure time of the flight. How will this time be represented in a use case diagram?

A) As a use case

B) As an association

C) As an actor

D) As a system boundary

 

Answer C is correct. In this example, the time is an actor while ‚sending out an email notification for check in’ is the use case.

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27. Which of the following is not true for wild cats (or question marks or problem children) according to the Boston Box?

A) They are unprofitable but are investments for the future

B) They need to be carefully examined and either an investment needs to be made so that their market share can grow or they should be abandoned

C) They have the potential to become stars

D) They are mature products or services in markets with low growth

 

Answer D is correct. This is true for cash cows, which are mature products or services in markets with low growth.

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28. In an employee management system, employees must be either allocated to one Sales region or to one Office. They cannot be allocated to both a Sales region and to an Office at the same time. How would these relationships be represented in an entity-relationship diagram?

A) As exclusive one-to-many relationships

B) As exclusive many-to-many relationships

C) As fully mandatory one-to-many relationships

D) As fully optional one-to-one relationships

 

Answer A is correct.

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29. Which two of the following tools can both be used to identify aspects of a business that might need to change for a strategy to be implemented?

A) McKinsey’s 7-S model, PESTLE

B) POPIT model, SWOT analysis

C) Business capability model, McKinsey’s 7-S model

D) PESTLE, SWOT analysis

 

Answer C is correct.

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30. Which of the following is true about activity sampling:

A) Activity sampling is a qualitative form of observation where the business analyst assesses how well an employee of an organisation follows the defined process

B) Activity sampling is a quantitative form of observation where business users give a five star rating to each activity they execute during the day

C) Activity sampling is a form of interview where customers are being asked how they feel when interacting with the products or customer service of an organisation

D) Activity sampling is a quantitative form of observation and records how people divide their work time among a range of activities

 

Answer D is correct.

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31. A business case for a project claims that a new system will increase job satisfaction of employees by automating away repetitive tasks. How would this be classified in a cost-benefit analysis?

A) An intangible cost

B) A tangible benefit

C) An intangible benefit

D) A tangible cost

 

Answer C is correct.

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32. The following is a list of statements about stakeholders in a project:

a. A customer can be considered as a stakeholder in a project.
b. A supplier can be considered as a stakeholder in a project. c. A shareholder can be considered as a stakeholder in a project.
d. A competitor of an organisation can be considered as a stakeholder in a project.
e. An insurer of an organisation can be considered as a stakeholder in a project.

Which of the following is correct?

A) Statements a, b and c are correct, statement d and e are incorrect

B) Statements c and e are correct, statement a, b and d are incorrect

C) Statements a, b, c and e are correct, statement d is incorrect

D) All five statements are correct

 

Answer C is correct. As an explanation, consider the following working definition of a stakeholder: ‚anyone who has an interest in, or may be affected by, the issue under consideration‘. This implies that anyone who may be affected by the project or is in a position to influence it may be considered a stakeholder.

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33. A team of business analysts is following the business analysis process model. They have recently completed the stage at which they performed a detailed analysis of the stakeholders and their perspectives on a project. Which of the following represents the next stage of their work?

A) Consider perspectives

B) Evaluate options

C) Investigate situation

D) Analyse needs

 

Answer C is correct.

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34. What does the C in CATWOE stand for?

A) Customer

B) Clientele

C) Constraints

D) Consulting

 

Answer A is correct.

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35. Consider the following list of statements about the waterfall approach to delivering IT requirements:

a. The waterfall lifecycle is a linear approach, whereby steps are carried out in sequence and are completed before moving on.
b. The waterfall lifecycle can incorporate changes to the functional requirements quickly while keeping the cost fixed.
c. The requirement to sign off each stage before the next one starts should lead to a high-quality system.
d. The waterfall lifecycle provides good control from a project management perspective.
e. In the waterfall approach, the solution to be delivered emerges during iterative periods of software development based upon the use of prototyping and multi-disciplinary teams.

Which of the following is correct?

A) Statements b, c and e are correct, statements a and d are incorrect

B) Statements a, c and d are correct, statement b and e are incorrect

C) Statements a, b, c and d are correct, statement e is incorrect

D) Statements a, c and e are correct, statement b and d are incorrect

 

Answer B is correct. Statements b and e apply to the agile approach of software delivery.

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36. Which of the following statements about business activity models (BAMs) is true?

A) A BAM shows who carries out activities in a business

B) A BAM shows the order that activities are executed in

C) A BAM shows how activities within a business are executed

D) A BAM shows the activities within a business and how they relate to each other

 

Answer D is correct.

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37. Which of the following is not an attribute of a value proposition according to Kaplan and Norton?

A) Return on investment

B) Customer relationship

C) Image and reputation

D) Product/service attributes such as price

 

Answer A is correct.

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38. Which of the following describes the goal of a force-field analysis?

A) To evaluate options in change management

B) To analyse the landscape of stakeholders surrounding a proposed change

C) To evaluate the attractiveness of a particular industry

D) To evaluate the difference of the current and future situation of a business system

 

Answer A is correct. Answer B describes the goal of stakeholder analysis. Answer C describes the goal of Porter’s five forces model. Answer D describes the goal of gap analysis.

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39. An organisation offering a software as a service (SaaS) solution wishes to recruit more salespeople to increase the number of sales. Under which category of business activities would this fall?

A) Planning activities

B) Controlling activities

C) Monitoring activities

D) Enabling activities

 

Answer D is correct.

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40. Which of the following statements is not true about the incremental lifecycle?

A) A full set of requirements is not needed at the start of project development

B) Every increment requires full regression testing of the previously released increments

C) The total cost of delivering the solution is likely to be higher compared to delivering everything in one release

D) It offers the possibility of delivering high-priority requirements earlier

 

Answer A is correct.