PC-BA-RE BCS Practitioner Certificate in Requirements Engineering Practice Questions
Prepare for PC-BA-RE with more than an answer.
- Time limit
- 60 minutes
- Questions on the exam
- 40
- Passing score
- 26/40 (65%)
- Level
- Practitioner
- Valid for
- No expiry (certificate valid indefinitely)
Domains covered on the exam 6
- Requirements Definition as a Service5%
- Eliciting Requirements20%
- Documenting Requirements25%
- Analysing Requirements25%
- Validating Requirements10%
- Managing Requirements15%
- 1
A business analyst is considering the use of prototyping. Which TWO of the following statements correctly describe the characteristics of 'throwaway' versus 'evolutionary' prototypes? (Select TWO)
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Correct answer: A, C
Throwaway prototypes (often low-fidelity wireframes or mock-ups) are used to elicit and validate requirements and are not used in the final build. Evolutionary prototypes are built using production tools with the intent of continuously iterating upon them until they become the final working solution.
- 2
When planning an elicitation strategy, a business analyst must account for both explicit and tacit knowledge. Which of the following is the BEST example of tacit knowledge?
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Correct answer: B
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is deeply rooted in an individual's experiences, habits, and intuition. It is the 'know-how' that people use automatically, making it difficult to articulate or write down. Workarounds and undocumented shortcuts are prime examples. Explicit knowledge is easily documented and shared (e.g., handbooks, flowcharts, regulatory rules).
- 3
A requirement states: 'The system must be able to process 10,000 transactions per minute during peak trading hours without failing.'
How should this requirement be categorised?
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Correct answer: C
This is a non-functional solution requirement. It specifies a performance and capacity constraint (how well the system must perform) rather than a specific business behavior or feature (what the system should do).
- 4
According to the Business Analysis Service Framework (BASF), what is the primary value proposition of the Requirements Definition service?
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Correct answer: C
According to the BCS Business Analysis 4th Edition, the primary value proposition of the Requirements Definition service within the BASF is to elicit, analyse, and define the requirements that are to be fulfilled by a new or enhanced business or IT system. It is not responsible for technical architecture or strictly limited to process modelling.
- 5
A business analyst joins a large digital transformation project midway through its execution. The project follows an iterative Agile approach. Upon reviewing the project repository, the analyst discovers that while a high-level vision exists, there is no structured product backlog, and developers are building features based on informal verbal requests from various department heads.
To establish a robust Requirements Engineering (RE) framework approach, what should be the analyst's immediate planning consideration?
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Correct answer: C
When joining a project mid-way, a BA must understand the ongoing project context (Agile) and act accordingly. The lack of a backlog means the BA must plan to identify stakeholders, elicit the actual requirements behind the verbal requests, and document them appropriately (e.g., as user stories in a product backlog) to bring discipline to the Agile delivery without halting the project unnecessarily.
- 6
A business analyst is planning to use 'Observation' as a primary elicitation technique to understand a complex, repetitive manual data entry process. Which TWO of the following statements accurately describe the strengths or limitations of this technique? (Select TWO)
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Correct answer: A, C
Observation is excellent for uncovering tacit knowledge (things people do automatically without thinking to articulate them). However, a key limitation is the Hawthorne effect, where individuals modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed. It does not eliminate the need for other techniques, as observations often prompt questions that require subsequent investigation.
