BAPV5 Practice Questions

Business events are classified by their trigger. An external event is initiated by an actor outside the business system, such as a customer. A time-based (or temporal) event is triggered by the passage of time.

1. Shop sales assistants ordering for a customer: The ultimate trigger is the customer's request. Since the customer is external to the organization, this is an External Event.

2. Customers ordering through the website: The customer, an external actor, directly initiates this event. This is also an External Event.

3. Sending a monthly catalogue: This event is explicitly scheduled to occur "monthly," making it a Time-based Event.

Therefore, the correct classification is two external events and one time-based event.

A. This option incorrectly classifies one of the customer-initiated orders as internal. The trigger for both order types originates from the external customer, not an internal state change.

C. This option incorrectly classifies both customer-initiated orders as internal. Events triggered by customers are external to the business system by definition.

D. This option incorrectly classifies the time-based event (monthly catalogue) as an external one. A scheduled, recurring action is a distinct time-based category.

1. Paul, D., & Cadle, J. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. In Chapter 7, "Modelling Business Processes," business events are defined as triggers for processes. The text distinguishes between external triggers (e.g., a customer placing an order) and time-based triggers (e.g., the end of the month). This supports classifying both customer orders as external and the catalogue as time-based.

2. Laguna, M., & Marklund, J. (2013). Business Process Modeling, Simulation and Design (2nd ed.). CRC Press. Chapter 2, "Process Identification and Discovery," Section 2.2.1, defines event types: "An external event is an event that happens in the environment of the process... A time event is an event that is activated by time." This framework classifies customer actions as external and scheduled mailings as time events. (ISBN: 978-1466507789).

The preliminary findings describe a market where customers have significant influence. The facts that the market is saturated, customers have extensive choice, and switching costs are low are all classic determinants of high "Bargaining Power of Customers" (also known as Buyer Power) in Porter's Five Forces model. When customers can easily switch between competitors, they can exert pressure on banks to provide better services, lower fees, or higher interest rates, thereby reducing the industry's overall profitability.

A. Threat of new entrants: This force relates to barriers to entry (e.g., regulation, capital requirements), not the competitive dynamics customers create within the existing market.

C. Bargaining power of suppliers: This concerns the power of those providing inputs to the bank (e.g., technology vendors, capital providers), which is not addressed in the findings.

D. Threat of substitute products: This refers to alternative ways of meeting banking needs (e.g., fintech apps, credit unions), not the choice between similar, competing banks.

1. Porter, M. E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93.

Page 82, "The Power of Buyers": Porter states, "Powerful customers... can force down prices, demand better quality or more service... all at the expense of industry profitability." He identifies low switching costs and a wide choice of vendors as key sources of buyer power. The scenario's findings directly align with this definition.

2. MIT Sloan School of Management. (2006). 15.902 Strategic Management I, Fall 2006. Lecture Notes: Industry Analysis: The Five Forces. MIT OpenCourseWare.

Section "Bargaining Power of Buyers": The lecture notes identify "Low switching costs" and "Product is undifferentiated" (leading to more choice) as primary factors that increase the bargaining power of buyers, which is precisely what the scenario describes.

The Operations Director's concerns are about the fundamental viability of the new business proposition, specifically the market demand ("gap in the market") and financial return ("profitable"). These are strategic concerns that are addressed during the initial planning phase of a business activity.

According to the Business Activity Model (BAM) framework, activities are categorized. The director would focus on the planning activities that validate the business case.

c) Determine demand amongst existing customers: This is a core planning activity that directly investigates the "gap in the market."

f) Define bundle pricing: This is a crucial planning activity that directly impacts the revenue side of the profitability calculation.

Activities (a) 'Monitor sales' and (b) 'Sell bundles' are monitoring and doing activities, respectively, which occur after the business is launched. Activities (d) and (e) are also planning/enabling steps, but (c) and (f) most directly address the director's stated concerns about market demand and profitability.

B. a, c and f: This option is incorrect because 'Monitor flight bundle' sales' (a) is a monitoring activity, which takes place after the business is operational, not a planning activity to address initial concerns.

C. a, b, d and e: This option is incorrect as it includes 'Monitor sales' (a), a monitoring activity, and 'Sell bundles' (b), a doing activity. These are not planning activities relevant to the director's pre-launch concerns.

D. b, d and e: This option is incorrect because 'Sell "flight bundles"' (b) is a doing (operational) activity. The director's concerns must be addressed during the planning phase, before selling begins.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Yeates, D. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Chapter 10, Section 10.4.2, 'The Business Activity Model (BAM)': This section details the five types of business activities. It defines planning activities as those concerned with setting the scope, targets, and resource requirements. It defines monitoring activities as checking performance against plans and doing activities as the core operational tasks. The director's concerns fall squarely within the scope of planning activities. Activities (c) and (f) are clearly planning activities that address market and financial viability, whereas (a) is monitoring and (b) is doing.

2. BCS. (2021). Practitioner Certificate in Business Process Modelling Syllabus, Version 6.1.

Section 3.2, 'Business Activity Models': The syllabus requires candidates to be able to "describe the components of a business activity model (planning, enabling, doing, monitoring, controlling activities)." The scenario requires applying this knowledge to identify which activities are 'planning' and relevant to a stakeholder's specific concerns about business viability before launch. This confirms that activities addressing demand and pricing are fundamental planning steps, while selling and monitoring sales are not.

The scenario describes a multifaceted business change impacting four distinct areas: People (skills assessment), Organisation (team structure split), Process (procedural changes), and Information Technology (new software). The POPIT model is a holistic framework specifically designed to analyze and communicate changes across these four interconnected dimensions. Using POPIT would allow for a clear and comprehensive presentation to the scheduling team, showing how the new technology, revised processes, and new organisational structure fit together, ensuring all aspects of the change are understood. It is the most suitable tool for presenting this complete picture.

A. Business Process Model: This focuses primarily on process flows and would not effectively communicate the crucial organisational restructuring or people-related aspects.

B. Business Activity Model: This is a high-level, conceptual model used for analysis, not for communicating specific, concrete changes to operational staff.

D. Prototype: This would only demonstrate the new software, failing to convey the vital context of the process and organisational changes.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Yeates, D. (Eds.). (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. In Chapter 4, Section 4.4.3, "The business system: POPIT," the text explains that the model is used to "ensure that all the internal business aspects have been considered when investigating a business area and considering any changes." It emphasizes the interrelationship between People, Organisation, Processes, and IT, making it the ideal framework for communicating the holistic changes described in the scenario.

Changing a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) from 'gross profit margin' to 'Return on Capital Employed' (ROCE) represents a fundamental shift in how business performance is measured and managed. This event affects several related activities in the Business Activity Model (BAM):

1. b) Monitor performance targets: The process for monitoring performance must be updated. Data collection, calculation, and reporting will now focus on ROCE instead of gross profit margin.

2. a) Take control action: Control actions are triggered by the results of monitoring. Since the metric being monitored has changed, the corresponding control actions will also change. For example, a low ROCE might trigger actions to improve asset utilization, which is different from actions to improve a low gross profit margin.

3. d) Define target customers: This change is strategic. A focus on ROCE emphasizes capital efficiency. This may lead the business to re-evaluate its customer segments, prioritizing those that yield higher returns on the capital required to serve them, thus affecting how target customers are defined.

Activity 'c) Define performance targets' is the event itself, rather than an activity affected by the event. The question asks what the event would affect, implying consequential changes to other activities.

A. c only.

This is incorrect because changing a KPI definition has direct consequences for how performance is monitored and managed, affecting other linked activities.

B. a only.

This is incorrect as control actions (a) are dependent on monitoring (b). The monitoring activity must be affected before the control activity can be.

C. b, c and d.

This option incorrectly omits 'Take control action' (a). In any performance management system, monitoring (b) and control (a) are intrinsically linked activities.

1. Paul, D., Yeates, D., & Cadle, J. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

In Chapter 7, on Business Activity Modelling, the text describes the standard set of activity types: Planning, Enabling, Doing, Monitoring, and Controlling. It explicitly states, "The ‘control’ activities are those that take action as a result of the information received from the ‘monitor’ activities." (p. 149). This establishes the unbreakable logical dependency between monitoring (b) and control (a), meaning if monitoring is affected, control must also be affected.

2. Checkland, P. (1999). Soft Systems Methodology in Action. John Wiley & Sons.

This foundational text explains that a conceptual model (BAM) is a system of logically dependent activities. A key part of any such system is a monitor and control subsystem. The definition of performance measures (the KPI) dictates the nature of both the monitoring and the control activities. A change to the definition necessarily forces changes in the other two parts of the subsystem. (See Chapter 2, The Basic Shape of the Methodology).

3. Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Harvard Business Press.

This seminal work on performance measurement argues that strategic objectives are translated into a set of performance measures (KPIs). A change in a high-level financial KPI, such as from gross margin to ROCE, reflects a change in strategy. This strategic change must cascade down to influence operational activities and choices, including which customer segments to target. (See Chapter 5, "The Financial Perspective"). This supports the inclusion of 'd) Define target customers' as an affected activity.

The business rule originates from an external source—a legal or regulatory authority—not from within EuroCoach. This rule imposes a mandatory limitation on the company's operations, compelling them to verify passenger documentation. It is not a guideline or an internal choice; it is a restriction that must be obeyed. Therefore, it is classified as an external constraint, as it is a rule imposed from outside the organization that limits its freedom of action and dictates how a part of its business must be conducted.

A. Internal policy: This is incorrect because the rule is mandated by law, an external source, not created by the company's own management.

B. Internal process: This is incorrect because the rule is a directive that will necessitate a change to an internal process, but it is not the process itself.

C. External requirement: While the rule comes from an external source, 'constraint' is more precise. A legal obligation is a non-negotiable boundary, which is best defined as a constraint.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Yeates, D. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Chapter 5, Section 5.5, 'Analysing the business rules': This section distinguishes between rules from external sources, such as legislation and regulation, and internal sources like business policies. It clarifies that external rules act as constraints on the organization, which it must adhere to. The scenario provided is a classic example of a legislative rule acting as an external constraint.

2. The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide) v3, International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), 2015.

Section 6.4.4.3, 'Business Rules Analysis: Elements': This section defines business rules as statements that define or constrain some aspect of the business. It further explains that constraints can be imposed by external regulations, which aligns directly with the scenario where a legal responsibility is placed upon the company.

The business analyst's activities map directly to specific stages of the BCS Business Change Lifecycle.

Leading requirements elicitation and clarification (b) is a fundamental activity within the Design stage, where the future state solution is detailed.

Delivering coaching, training, and support (c) is part of the Implementation stage, focusing on preparing the business for the change and deploying the solution.

Assisting in the evaluation of benefits (a) is the core purpose of the Realisation stage, which measures the outcomes of the change against the initial business case.

Therefore, the analyst has supported the Realisation, Design, and Implementation stages.

A. This option incorrectly includes 'Alignment' and omits 'Realisation', which is a key activity described in the scenario (evaluating benefits).

B. This option incorrectly includes 'Alignment' and 'Definition' while omitting the 'Design' and 'Realisation' stages that the analyst clearly supported.

C. This option is incomplete as it omits the 'Implementation' stage, which is clearly represented by the coaching and training activities.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Yeates, D. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Design Stage: "During this stage, the business analyst is likely to be involved in detailed requirements work... and in designing the new business processes." (Chapter 2, Section 2.4.3, p. 31). This supports activity (b).

Implementation Stage: This stage covers "the activities to prepare for the business change and the deployment of the new business and IT systems." Activities include "planning and conducting the business acceptance testing... and preparing the business for the deployment." This encompasses training and support. (Chapter 2, Section 2.4.4, p. 32). This supports activity (c).

Realisation Stage: "This stage is concerned with reviewing the business case to find out if the benefits have been realised... The business analyst may be asked to help with the benefits review." (Chapter 2, Section 2.4.5, p. 32). This supports activity (a).

The scenario explicitly identifies three key stakeholder groups besides customers. The two individuals who set up the business and own 50% each represent the Owner group. WalkNation, which has a collaborative agreement with AlpineTrails for marketing and booking, fits the definition of a Partner. The hotels, transport, and equipment companies that AlpineTrails books to create the holidays are its Suppliers. These three groups have a direct interest and influence in the business operations described. The question asks to identify three stakeholder groups, and these are the most clearly represented in the text.

D. Manager.

The scenario does not explicitly mention managers as a separate group; while the owners may also be managers, their role as 'Owner' is the one specified.

E. Competitor.

The provided text does not contain any information about competing organisations, so this stakeholder group is not represented in the scenario.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Yeates, D. (Eds.). (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

Reference for A, B, C: Chapter 2, Section 2.4, "Identifying the stakeholders," provides a generic stakeholder list that includes Owners, Partners, and Suppliers as distinct and common categories for analysis. The descriptions in the scenario directly map to these standard definitions.

Reference for D, E: The same section implicitly supports the exclusion of Manager and Competitor, as these roles must be explicitly identified in a scenario to be considered present. The text provides no basis for their inclusion.

2. The Open University. (2019). B207: Shaping business opportunities. Block 1, Section 5.2, "Stakeholder groups".

Reference for A, B, C: This courseware defines stakeholders and provides examples. It categorises stakeholders into internal (e.g., owners) and external (e.g., suppliers, partners). The scenario's description of the business owners, the collaborative arrangement with WalkNation (partner), and the booking of services (suppliers) aligns with these standard academic classifications.

The scenario presents a discussion about two distinct elements of the CATWOE framework. The debate over the target market—George's proposal for people over 50 versus Laura's for the 30-60 age group—directly concerns the 'Customers' of the marketing strategy, i.e., the beneficiaries or targets of the activity. The second point of contention, whether to outsource the marketing (George's view) or keep it in-house (Laura's view), is a discussion about the 'Actors'—the individuals or groups who will perform the transformation (the marketing work).

A. Customer and Owner: The 'Owner' of the process, the person with the authority to stop the activity, is not mentioned or discussed in the scenario.

B. Actor and Transformation: The core 'Transformation' (the process of turning an unmarketed product into a marketed one) is assumed, not debated.

C. Transformation and Environment: Neither the 'Transformation' process nor the external 'Environmental' constraints (like regulations or competition) are the focus of their discussion.

1. Paul, D., Yeates, D., & Cadle, J. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. In Chapter 5, Section 5.4.3, 'Customers' are defined as "the beneficiaries of the output of the system or... the victims of the system," which aligns with the target market. 'Actors' are defined as "the people who carry out the activities within the system," which aligns with the discussion of an in-house vs. outsourced team.

2. Checkland, P., & Poulter, J. (2006). Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology and its use for Practitioners, Teachers and Students. Wiley. In Chapter 2, page 16, the CATWOE mnemonic is defined. 'C' (customers) are "the victims or beneficiaries of T," and 'A' (actors) are "those who would do T." This foundational text supports identifying the target market as Customers and the marketing team as Actors.

3. The Open University. (n.d.). T215B: Communication and information technologies - Block 2: Information and systems. In Section 3.3, "Soft systems methodology," CATWOE is explained. It defines 'Customers' as "clients or beneficiaries/victims of the system" and 'Actors' as "those who would do T [the transformation]". This university courseware corroborates the application of 'Customer' to the target audience and 'Actor' to the party performing the work.

A Business Activity Model (BAM) is a conceptual model used within Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to represent the activities required to fulfill a specific business perspective, as defined in a root definition. It is common practice to develop multiple BAMs, each reflecting a different stakeholder's worldview or perspective (Weltanschauung). This allows for a structured debate about the business system. The ultimate goal of this process is not to select one perspective as "correct" but to facilitate a discussion that leads to an agreed-upon, or consensus, model. This consensus BAM represents a shared understanding that stakeholders can use for further analysis and to identify desirable and feasible changes.

B. The owner's perspective is important, but the final BAM is a product of negotiation and consensus among all key stakeholders, not a unilateral decision by the owner.

D. The standard convention for drawing BAMs, as illustrated in core business analysis texts, is to represent activities using ovals or rounded rectangles (lozenges), not boxes.

E. A primary purpose of a BAM is to illustrate the logical dependencies between activities. Arrows are explicitly used to connect the activities and show this flow.

1. Paul, D., Cadle, J., & Turner,P. (2020). Business Analysis (4th ed.). BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

For A & C: Chapter 7, Section 7.5.3, "Building the conceptual models," explains, "It is possible to have several root definitions and conceptual models, each reflecting a different perspective... The purpose of building the conceptual models is to provide a sound basis for thinking about the business situation and to enable a debate that will, hopefully, lead to a consensus about the changes required." (p. 132).

For D: Figure 7.10, "A conceptual model/business activity model," clearly depicts all activities within ovals (p. 133).

For E: The same Figure 7.10 shows arrows connecting the ovals, representing the logical dependencies between the activities.

2. Checkland, P. (1999). Soft Systems Methodology: A 30-Year Retrospective. In Systems Approaches to Management (pp. 65-115). Springer US. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4733-74)

For A & C: Section 4, "The Developed Form of SSM," describes the process of creating "purposeful activity models" based on different Weltanschauungen (worldviews). Stage 4 of the methodology is the "Comparison of models and real world," which involves a debate among stakeholders to find "accommodations" (i.e., a consensus) on change. This supports creating multiple models to reach a consensus.