BCS Business Analysis Oral Exam Preparation Workshop

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Provide general description of the Oral exam process
• State the guidelines for candidates/test takers
• Define the rationale and set context for business analysis
• Discuss the concept of ‘business-focussed, IT-literate’
• Explain the holistic view of a business system
• Highlight the competencies of a business analyst
• Describe professionalism in business analysis
• Discuss what benefits business analysts can offer to organisations
• Elaborate on the business environment analysis
• Describe the lifecycle of business change
• Discuss how strategy differs from mission and tactics
• List the techniques for analysing organisation’s external environment
• List the techniques for analysing organisation’s internal environment
• Define SWOT analysis and discuss its purpose of usage
• Explain creating SWOT analysis from external and internal environment factors
• Define business performance measurement
• Define critical success factors(CSFs) and key performance indicators(KPIs)
• Explain how CSFs, KPIs and performance targets are linked to each other
• Define balanced business scorecard (BBS) and discuss its relationship to strategy
• Examine following business analysis techniques, give pros and cons, where and when they are applicable:
  • Mind maps
  • Rich pictures
  • RASCI matrix
  • Stakeholder wheel
  • Business perspectives (CATWOE model)
  • Business activity model (BAM)
  • Gap analysis
• Discuss where BA fits into the lifecycle of business change
• Explain approaches for investigating and documenting business situations
• Identify the techniques to conduct stakeholder analysis
• Describe the use of RASCI matrix to manage stakeholders
• Define power-interest grid and explain purpose of PI grid
• Discuss the use of PI grid for analysing and prioritising stakeholders
• State the techniques for modelling stakeholders’ perspectives
• Specify how stakeholders are categorised into different groups
• Discuss how business activities are modelled based on stakeholder perspectives
• Explain the differences between as-is and to-be models of business activities
• Define a business event
• Explore types of business events viz., external, internal and time-based
• Define business rule
• Describe how business rules are critical in business analysis
• Explain types of business tules viz., constraints, policies and procedures
• Explain the process of gap analysis
• State the rationale for making a business case
• Explore link between business case and business change lifecycle
• Describe the structure and contents of a business case
• Discuss how options (incl. ‘do nothing’ option) are stated in business case
• Elaborate on using cost-benefit analysis for investment appraisal
• Define approaches and techniques in risk analysis and risk management
• Describe the steps involved in business impact analysis
• Discuss business benefits and ways to realise the benefits
• Define requirements engineering and the key activities
• Explore definition, management and specification of requirements
• Explain how requirements act as a bridge between problem and solution
• Describe requirements engineering framework and its key components
• State the hierarchy of requirements in terms of the different types
  • Business requirements
  • Solution requirements
  • General requirements
  • Technical requirements
• Define functional requirements viz., CRUD to manage data
• Define non-functional requirements and mention the types of NFRs
• Differentiate between functional and non-functional requirements
• Highlight the techniques to elicit requirements and their purposes
  • Interviews
  • Workshops
  • Prototypes
  • Focus groups
  • Surveys/questionnaires
  • Activity sampling
• Discuss tacit knowledge and role of elicitation in exploring it
• Describe the tasks in requirements analysis
• Explain the techniques used in prioritising requirements
• Define MoSCoW technique and its purpose
• Explore the tactics used in reducing the ambiguity in requirements
• Define requirements validation
• Explain the approaches and techniques used to validate requirements
• Define requirements verification
• Explain the approaches and techniques used to verify requirements
• Discuss management of requirements and the benefits from it
• Highlight the elements and activities in requirements management
• Define change control and explain the benefits from it
• Describe the sources of changes for requirements
• Define version control and explain the benefits from it
• Explain what baselining of requirements means and its key benefits
• Define configuration management and its importance in IT
• Elaborate on configuration item (CI) and give examples for CI
• Discuss the different tools used in requirements management
• Explain the legal issues related to business analysis activities
• Describe the rationale for laws on data protection and accessibility
• State the purpose and approaches of requirements documentation
• Explore the requirements documentation styles and formats
• Define requirements catalogue and its purpose
• Give examples of requirements documentation at catalogue level
• Give examples of requirements documentation at catalogue entry level
• State the rationale for requirements modelling and expand on its benefits
• Illustrate use case models, conceptual and logical data models
• Explain the relevance of testing to requirements engineering
• Discuss the relevance of chosen specialism modules to business analyst role
• Explain the relevance of the specific module to the organisation
• Describe the module in terms of the BA concepts, approaches and techniques