BCS BA Found. · BCS · Making the Business Case · Bank updated 2026-11-04
BCS BA Found. practice questions: Making the Business Case
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These 5 questions come from the Making the Business Case section of our BCS BA Found. bank (12 questions on this area, which carries 5% of the real exam). Every question is original, with the correct answer explained and linked to the source it is drawn from.
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1/5 · Making the Business Case
A business case is first drafted early in a business change initiative and is then brought back for review at several points as the project proceeds. Which statement best describes how the business case is normally used at these later review points, known as decision gates?
AIt is reviewed and refined with more up-to-date cost, benefit and risk information, and used to decide whether the initiative should continue, be amended, or be stopped.
BDecision gates exist solely to confirm that the requirements catalogue is complete before design work can begin.
COnce it is approved at the first decision gate, it is archived and does not need to be looked at again until the post-implementation review.
DIt is produced only once, immediately before the solution goes live, purely to obtain final sign-off from the sponsor.
2/5 · Making the Business Case · hard
A project is being delivered using an agile approach, where requirements, priorities and understanding of value are expected to change substantially between iterations. According to the BCS approach to making the business case, how should the business case typically be treated in this context?
AIt should be replaced entirely by the product backlog, since prioritised user stories already provide sufficient justification for investment.
BIt should be written once in full detail before the first sprint begins and then left unchanged so as not to disrupt the team's velocity.
CAs a living document that is revisited and refined at regular intervals (such as after each iteration or increment) as more is learned about costs, benefits and priorities.
DIt should be abandoned entirely, since agile teams self-organise around the backlog and do not need formal justification for continued investment.
3/5 · Making the Business Case · hard
A business case compares two options. Option A recovers all of its costs within 18 months but delivers relatively modest benefits over its five-year life. Option B takes three years to recover its costs but generates much larger benefits, most of which arise in years four and five. A finance manager argues that Option A is clearly the better choice purely because it has the shorter payback period. Which of the following best explains the limitation in relying on payback period alone to reach this conclusion?
APayback period ignores the time value of money and takes no account of cash flows arising after the payback point, so it can undervalue an option like B whose larger benefits occur later, unlike discounted cash flow techniques such as NPV.
BPayback period cannot be calculated at all unless a discount rate has first been agreed for the project.
CPayback period will always identify the same preferred option as net present value, so the finance manager's conclusion must be correct.
DPayback period is a measure of technical feasibility rather than financial feasibility, so it should not be used to compare these two options.
Answer: A. Payback period is a simple, easily understood investment appraisal measure showing how quickly an investment's cost is recovered, but it ignores the time value of money and any cash flows arising after the payback point is reached. Discounted cash flow techniques, such as net present value, discount future cash flows to reflect that money received later is worth less than money received now, giving a fuller picture - which is why an option with a longer payback but much larger later benefits, like Option B, could still be the financially stronger choice.
Source: the BCS Business Analysis Foundation syllabus v4.1 + 'Business Analysis, 4th Edition' (Paul & Cadle, BCS 2020) - Making the Business Case
4/5 · Making the Business Case
A newly appointed business analyst assumes that, once the business case for a change project has been approved at initiation, it can be filed away and does not need to be looked at again until the project delivers its outputs. Which statement corrects this assumption?
AThe business case only needs to be rewritten if the original sponsor leaves the organisation before the project is completed
BThe business case is superseded by the project initiation documentation once the project begins, so no further reference to it is required
CThe business case should be treated as a living document, reviewed and updated at each key decision point in the business change lifecycle as costs, benefits and circumstances become clearer
DThe business case is fixed at initiation to prevent scope creep, and should only be revisited if the project completely fails to deliver any benefits
Answer: C. The BCS syllabus emphasises that the business case is not a one-off document produced only to secure initial approval. It should be revisited at each significant decision point across the business change lifecycle so that the investment decision can be reconfirmed, or the project stopped, as more accurate cost, benefit and risk information emerges.
Source: the BCS Business Analysis Foundation syllabus - Making the Business Case
5/5 · Making the Business Case · easy
A business case carries the risk that the packaged software selected will prove unsuitable once it is live. To address it, the analyst proposes that the vendor contract include clauses allowing the purchase to be cancelled if the package turns out to be unsuitable. What type of risk response is this?
Aan avoidance action
Ba mitigation action
Ca transference action
Dan acceptance decision
Answer: B. Technique 62 lists avoidance, mitigation, transference and acceptance. Bail-out clauses do not reduce the likelihood of choosing the wrong package but reduce the impact if it happens, which makes them mitigation. Vendor underwriting of suitability would be transference.
Source: Paul, Cadle, Turner (eds), Business Analysis Techniques, 2nd ed., BCS, Technique 62 Risk analysis (Actions and owners), p. n/a
Source: the BCS Business Analysis Foundation syllabus v4.1 + 'Business Analysis, 4th Edition' (Paul & Cadle, BCS 2020) - Investigating the Business Situation
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