Candidates who have completed their two core and two specialist modules and want to fully prepare for their BCS Solution Development Diploma Oral examination.

Passing the BCS Oral Examination is your final step towards gaining the BCS International Diploma in Solution Development. This Oral Preparation Workshop has been designed to help you prepare thoroughly for your oral exam and identify gaps in your knowledge.

The workshop leader will explain the structure of the oral exam, offering practical hints and tips for preparation. 

During the workshop you will have the opportunity to revise the core and specialist modules you have taken and prepare for what the examiners might ask you by practising sample oral questions.

During the oral exam you will be interviewed by BCS oral examiners who will evaluate whether you can put all the techniques you have learned into an overall context and demonstrate the requisite skills needed to be awarded the Diploma.  

Hosted by one of our senior trainers shown below, all of whom are BCS oral examiners. 

Upon the completion of this workshop, candidates will: 

1. Understand the structure and process followed in the oral exam. 
2. Have a refresher on key topics in the syllabus. 
3. Learn strategies to improve their performance in the oral exam.
4. Identify gaps in their knowledge so that they can focus their preparations for the exam. 
    

To give you more of an idea of what you’ll learn and how the course will help you, here’s a quick guide.

You will also be given a comprehensive revision pack which explains what examiners are looking for, how to prepare for the exam and some sample questions and tips on the topics that might be covered as part of the practitioner specialist modules. N.B. You are not examined on the Knowledge-based specialist module.

For virtual workshops the revision pack will be sent to your home address in good time for the start of your workshop. Our delegates tell us that having access to a physical document is beneficial as both a reference document and for taking notes during the workshop.

In addition, a link will be emailed to you to enable you to access an electronic copy of the same comprehensive manual for convenient future reference.

No. Not at the end of this day. But we recommend that candidates schedule their BCS Oral exam to take place at least three weeks after the workshop to give them enough time to revise.

We also offer a mock exam which is an ideal practice run for the SD Oral Exam.
 

The next and final step is the BCS Solution Development Diploma is the Oral examination. Once you have passed this exam you will have gained your BCS International Diploma in Solution Development.

BCS Solution Development Diploma Oral Examination Preparation Workshop (a one-day course)
Course Content

Solution development principles

• The rationale for solution development – the reasons for initiating a solution development project and typical inputs to it
• Relationship between solution development and other disciplines
• Solution development approaches – bespoke, COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf), MOTS (Modified Off-The-Shelf) and component based
• Solution development lifecycles – Waterfall, V-model and Iterative
• Roles and responsibilities
• Professionalism and solution development

Solution development practices

• Requirements Engineering – system investigation techniques, requirement types and defining requirements
• Prioritisation
• Prototyping

Systems modelling techniques

• Use of models within systems development
• Modelling different views of a system - three view approach
• Modelling system data
• Modelling system functionality
• Modelling dynamic system behaviour
• Cross-checking of models

Design and quality assurance

• Elements of system design – input and output design, data design and process design
• System controls and security
• Quality assurance – software testing, quality reviews, solution evaluation and service level agreements

Deployment and maintenance

• Release management – planning and communication, data take-on and migration, packaging the release, backout plans, post-implmentation reviews
• Deployment approaches – distributing and deploying software artefacts and changeover strategies
• Managing changes to the solution – types of software maintenance, change control process, configuration management and version control
• Software tools to support solution development

Selected practitioner specialist module

• Relevance of the selected module to solution development
• Description of the chosen approach and techniques
• Application of the chosen approach and techniques

Practice questions
In this part of the workshop, the trainer, who is always an experienced oral examiner, provides participants with practice in handling the types of questions that they will face in the oral examination and gives feedback on the participants’ answers and presentation.

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