I was fortunate to get through the exam and no, I am not being modest.
I was careless enough to leave the preparation for last month. I registered for the exam on 6th of Nov and scheduled it for 26th of Dec. All through November, I only managed to read the BABOK Chapter 9 on Techniques. I am ‘sit for hours- finish the topic’ kind of a guy and didn’t have time at a stretch to pick other chapters for reading. ‘Techniques’ is a collection of 34 different topics which I thought was ok to begin with - lucky stroke of brilliance I should say!
As I neared the end of Techniques, the calamity struck. I started spending hours at office and didn’t touch the book for 10 days in a row. Knowing that it is a tough one to crack, I tried to reschedule the exam on 20th of Dec and was told that I would have to pay again, so I decided to give it a shot.
I think it was to my advantage that I had great guidance from Adapative’s Trainer and paid good attention during the workshop. I could read the BABOK only once before my exam. Few days before the exam, I kept BABOK aside and went through all questions from the workshop presentation and a few on modern analyst site. Fortunately, I remembered the 450 mock questions from my workshop provider and went through some of those on the site. This helped while reading the BABOK later; I read the BABOK based on how questions are formulated and not how material was presented.
Eg. Inputs and outputs to a process are sometimes asked in a different manner. Sample question:
Annette is working on an analysis that will help her convince her manager to provide her with an assistant. She has asked HR for the salary details of that designation that she can use in her analysis. She is using ___ technique to deliver __
Few confusing (may be because I wasn’t well prepared) options in the answer i.e.
· Cost benefit analysis, return on investment
· Cost benefit analysis, Business case
· Cost benefit analysis, Resource requirement
· Decision Analysis, Business case
I mentioned lucky stroke of brilliance for this reason. The technique was decision analysis which involves CB analysis. Remembered my Trainer saying ‘stick to BABOK language’ J so Technique was obvious.
Some of the other areas you need to prepare well on,
1. Maslow’s hierarchy (i.e. X expects a pat on the back and career growth from something he delivered, he is also expecting an invitation to join a clubhouse in the vicinity, what step of need hierarchy is he on?) - not in BABOK
2. BATNA (Best alternative to a negotiated agreement) – some scenario of agreement and then someone backtracked, as a negotiator what do u do? - not in BABOK
3. Stakeholders are not accepting something that you delivered based on formally approved requirements, what had gone wrong? – If formal approval was validation output then before that we must have messed up verification – ans could be ‘incorrect structure and format of requirements doc’.
4. Functional decomposition vs. WBS : you can get twisted questions on these terms i.e 4 definition combinations are given, pick correct one. It could also be reversed i.e if I am doing ‘A’ -what is it and if I had done ‘B’ what would it have been?
5. Purpose of a technique in the specific activity. i.e. why Metrics and Key Performance Indicators are used in validating requirements?
6. Questions needing diff between waterfall and agile – i.e. whether to use Use case, User story or use case diagram in particular project situation given. Study SDLC methodology and approach relevant to BA.
7. Should have clear understanding of Use case, User story, Scenario, Alternate flow, exception flow, Use case diagram, extend include etc.
8. Perfect understanding of Business, Stakeholder, and Solution requirements. No term like component requirement, project requirement or end user requirement – used to confuse in the exam. Stick to BABOK terms mentioned in the book.
9. Direct definitions from glossary i.e. Requirement is ___; Allocation of requirement; Glossary; Actor etc.. Answer choices may not be as mentioned in glossary but you need to select the best match or most relevant answer (though ‘best match’ is not mentioned in the question), which works if you have not learnt all definitions by heart but have understood the concept thoroughly. J
10. Stress on Monitoring solution, feasibility study.
11. Very confusing questions (again my bad prep I guess) on managing BA performance and techniques used – not direct but options can be all similar except minor word play. Based on Variance analysis.
12. You might get a page long scenario, about a BA doing some analysis and producing some deliverable, which can be repeated multiple times, each time with a different question. Only benefit is you don’t have to read the page every time – just check key details are same and mark all questions for review at end.
13. Input and output is easy after one reading, focus more on element and technique for each activity. I tried to create a big memory map on paper linking activities and their i/p, o/p flowing to relevant activities. Helped me a lot in getting the bigger picture. Know enough so that you can eliminate 3/4: It is difficult to remember all the inputs, output, elements and techniques related to a task.
14. You might also get exhibits (images which open when you clicked on ‘exhibit’ button). Cardinality for ER diagram, Extend/Include question, force field diagram (i.e. what is depicted in the exhibit given?), some table used for true false –possibly RTM without header.
Even though I did not study enough, I would recommend reading BABOK a good couple of times, workshop handbook- if provided, Susan Weese/Terry Wagner Study guide – for practical references. Some of the CBAP® education providers give you access to online tests/prep questions. I think at least 200-300 questions if you have reviewed (in my case) or attempted (recommended), it is sufficient.
All the best!
