EXIN BCS Practitioner Certificate in Modelling Business Processes (MBP) Exam Syllabus

• Indicative content
  a. Benefits for customers
  b. Benefits for business staff
  c. Benefits for the organization
• Guidance
  - Candidates should be able to explain the reasons for using business process models and what value these bring to various stakeholders and the organization.

- Identify the three levels of the business process hierarchy.

• Indicative content
  a. Enterprise level
  b. Event-response level
  c. Actor-task level
• Guidance
  - Business process models provide an organized hierarchy of the value stream and the business processes and tasks. Candidates should be able to describe the activities and processes each level represents and how they relate to each other.

- Explain the importance of the process view versus the functional view of an organization.

• Indicative content
  a. Organization chart
  b. Enterprise-level process
• Guidance
  - Deconstructing organizations into functional departments and mapping the ways in which products or services are created are two approaches that enable organizations to manage business processes. Candidates should be able to explain of the advantages and disadvantages of each view.

• Indicative content
  a. Porter's value chain
  b. Value proposition
  c. SIPOC
  d. Harmon’s Organizational Model
• Guidance
  - Candidates should demonstrate understanding of activities, elements and areas of models residing at the enterprise level and explain what business processes they represent.

- Explain how the processes on the organizational model support the delivery of the value proposition.

• Indicative content
  a. Product/service attributes that define the product itself (functionality, price, quality, choice, availability, or timing)
  b. Customer relationship aspects
  c. Image and reputation aspects
• Guidance
  - A value proposition is a key concept for organizations. Its areas of focus clarify outcomes offered by an organization, demonstrate that what is delivered will meet what customers desire or need, and differentiates organizations from their competitors. An understanding of the organization’s value proposition is essential in helping analysts define the focus and objectives of the business process hierarchy.

• Indicative content
  a. Event
  b. Actor
  c. Task
  d. Swimlane
  e. Decision point
  f. Fork and join
  g. Outcome
  h. Process flow
  i. Timeline
• Guidance
  - Candidates can expect to be tested on their ability to interpret a business process model and explain the role of each element. This may include selecting the correct element.

- Explain why using a standard notation set is important.

• Indicative content
  a. UML (Unified Modelling Language)
  b. BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation)
• Guidance
  - All standards for modelling business processes have a defined notation set that includes common elements such as layout, symbols, and sequencing. Whether using UML or BPMN, it is important to have a standard way of writing process to promote a consistent understanding of operations within and across organizations, avoid ambiguity, improve communication, and enable continuous service improvement. Candidates are required to explain the benefits of standardization and be able to identify the consequences of disregarding conventions.

- Apply knowledge to distinguish between modelling business process terms and describe how they relate to each other.

• Indicative content
  a. Process
  b. Task
  c. Step
• Guidance
  - The terms ‘process’, ‘task’ and ‘step’ relate to levels within the business process hierarchy. Candidates will be expected to classify aspects of a given scenario as items to be modelled as ‘processes’, ‘tasks’ or ‘steps’.

- Demonstrate that a task typically involves one person (actor) at one place at one time, and that it is represented as a single ‘box’ on a process model.

• Indicative content
  a. OPOPOT (one person, one place, one time).
• Guidance
  - Each instance of a task is carried out by an actor in one location at a single point in time. This convention is applied to aid the clarity and readability of a process model as it avoids the need to draw each step in a task as an individual box.

- Identify the different types of business events.

• Indicative content
  a. External
  b. Internal
  c. Time-based
• Guidance
  - Business events occur outside the business process under consideration and trigger the process to begin. The events may be internal to the organization or take place outside of it. Some events are time-related where a business process is automatically initiated at a point in time. Candidates are required to describe and classify various types of events.

- Explain the purpose of process performance measures and the difference between internal performance measures and customers’ expectations of performance.

• Indicative content
  a. Financial
  b. Customer experience
  c. Process efficiency
• Guidance
  - Process measures are used to monitor the organization’s performance when delivering products and services and to identify where improvements are required. Measurements should be defined at the three levels of the process hierarchy (enterprise level, event-response level, and actor-task level). Candidates should understand issues that may arise if organizations focus on internal performance measures at the expense of customer concerns.

• Indicative content
  a. The name of the task
  b. The actor (or role) carrying out the task
  c. The trigger or business event that initiates the task
  d. Any inputs to the task
  e. The outputs expected from the task
  f. The costs associated with the task
  g. The measures that are applicable to the task
  h. The standards that constrain the task
  i. A detailed breakdown of the steps within the task
  j. The business rules that are to be followed in performing the task
• Guidance
  - The actor-task level of the process hierarchy is concerned with the work conducted within each individual task. While an ‘as is’ business process model provides insights into some issues, further investigation is required to understand improvements needed. Each task within the business process model needs to be analyzed, with consideration given to each aspect. To clarify the steps involved in completing a task, candidates should identify and describe the appropriate method of modelling (Structured English, UML activity diagrams, use case descriptions).

- Demonstrate an ability to document the steps and business rules within a task.

• Indicative content
  a. UML activity diagram notation
  b. Structured English
  c. Use case descriptions
• Guidance
  - Candidates need to be able to interpret the following standard ways of modelling at the task level: UML activity diagram notation, Structured English, and use case descriptions. Candidates may be asked to identify inconsistencies and mistakes that are presented to them in accordance with a scenario.
  - Candidates need to be able to interpret the following Structured English constructs:
  1. Sequence: DO...ENDO
  2. Selection: IF...ENDIF, IF...THEN...ELSE...ENDIF
  3. Iteration: DOWHILE...ENDWHILE, DOUNTIL...ENDUNTIL

• Indicative content
  a. Simplification
  b. Redesign
  c. Bottleneck removal
  d. Change task sequence
  e. Redefine boundary
  f. Automate processing
  g. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
• Guidance
  - Generic business process improvement strategies may be applied individually or in combination and candidates are expected to identify suitable improvement strategies for given processes or scenarios. RPA is the building, deployment and management of software robots that emulate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. Candidates are expected to identify that RPA should be used for simple repetitive tasks performed by humans on singular or across multiple IT systems. Candidates should also identify RPA’s advantages such as increased consistency, accuracy, and quality of data entry, as well as increased time and cost effectiveness.

- Show understanding of the need to challenge business rules and assumptions when improving or automating business processes.

• Indicative content
  a. Internal procedures
  b. External constraints
  c. Policies
• Guidance
  - Business analysts should avoid making assumptions and should be prepared to challenge existing process models. Candidates should be examined on their ability to evaluate given processes and identify aspects that should be challenged.

- Identify the areas of a business process that may contribute to unsatisfactory performance.

• Indicative content
  a. Lack of required skills
  b. Insufficient resources
  c. Lack of ownership
  d. Lack of supporting systems
  e. Constraints posed by out-of-date business rules
• Guidance
  - Candidates should show understanding of the reason business initiative improvements may fail to be adopted by an organization.

- Explain the need to test processes through use of business scenario analysis.

• Indicative content
  a. Strengths of scenario analysis
• Guidance
  - Scenario analysis involves telling the story of a task or transaction. Scenarios are useful when analyzing or redesigning business processes as they help both the staff member and the analyst to think through the steps followed to carry out a piece of work. This enables them to visualize the steps more clearly and to identify where the standard approach may need to deviate.

- Prepare a gap analysis on a ‘to-be’ business process model in order to identify the functional requirements that could be supported by an IT solution.

• Indicative content
  a. Functional requirements
• Guidance
  IT solutions can be used as an enabler to support business process. Candidates will be given a scenario and asked to identify functional requirements within a process that could be supported by an IT system.

• Indicative content
  a. POPIT (People, Organization, Process, Information, Technology)
  b. The value of POPIT in impact assessment
• Guidance
  - The POPIT model shows the different aspects to be considered when analyzing business improvements and identifying required business changes. All areas of the model should be analyzed to uncover where problems lie and what improvements might be necessary if the business is to become more effective and efficient. Candidates should be able to explain the importance of considering all elements when introducing a new process design.

- Discuss the use of implementation strategies for implementing business change.

• Indicative content
  a. Direct changeover
  b. Parallel running
  c. Pilot running
  d. Phased implementation
• Guidance
  - For change implementation to be successful, the strategy most appropriate in the given context must be selected. Candidates need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of available strategies and choose the one most suitable.