Scenario-Based Questions account for 100% of the CCBA examination and roughly 70% of the CBAP examination. If one does not do well in scenario-based questions, it is unlikely that the person will do well in the certification examination. So, what are scenario-based questions?

Scenario-based questions depict a situation. They are usually 3 to 5 sentences long. Often, they focus on choosing the correct technique / the input / the stakeholder for the situation or making the right decision for the situation.

Question Setters look for a thorough understanding of the Body of Knowledge. The student should be able to distinguish between superficial knowledge of a subject vs. mastery of the Body of Knowledge.

While preparing for the scenario-based questions, many tricks are played on the students. In this blog, we will learn a few.

Sample Question # 1

Business Analyst A is working with her Project manager to estimate the effort needed to complete business analysis work. The input they would need is

1. Work breakdown system (WBS)
2. Work breakdown signage (WBS)
3. Work breakdown software (WBS)
4. Work breakdown structure (WBS)

 Here, the exam is trying to confuse you with similar-sounding terms. All the terms abbreviate to WBS. The correct answer is Option D.

Sample Question # 2

Business Analyst A is working with her Project manager to estimate the effort needed to complete business analysis work. The input they would need to determine the Business Analysis approach is

1. Risk
2. Activity plan
3. Timing of analysis
4. Deliverables

Here, many students often choose Activity Plan. However, observe that Activity Plan is an output parameter for the BA approach. Therefore, the correct option is A, which is Risk.

Here, the exam tries to confuse with Input Parameter vs. Output parameter for a certain task.

Sample Question # 3

Here the correct option is Scenarios which is a specific way to complete a transaction in various ways. One use case contains many scenarios. Here the exam tries to confuse you between Parent and Child.

Sample Question # 4

Here the exam is trying to distract with Wrong Associations Between Question and Option. For example, the Rules word has been mentioned in the question and option. But there is no discussion on the rules table in BABOK. So the correct option is Option A – Decision table.

Sample Question #5

Business Analyst A is working for a large multi-country roll-out of an insurance system. A’s requirements have been approved by the Domain SMEs, Project Manager, Quality Assurance Team, and the Sponsor. Regulations regarding insurance can vary quite a bit based on the country of operation regarding what aspects can be insured and what can’t be. What is the status of A’s requirements?

1. Fully approved for development
2. Partially approved
3. Don’t require approval
4. Not approved

Here the exam tries to confuse you with a long list. Providing a long list makes it look very comprehensive. But as per BABOK, the requirements must be approved as per the project RACI matrix. We have no info about the RACI matrix; given the context, a regulator can be one of the approvers. So, the correct option is B which is partially approved.

We will be happy to review your questions and give our suggestions to them. So please comment with your questions and suggestions.