CAPM - Business Analysis Frameworks (27% of the exam) - Section 4.4

Validate and evaluate solutions against acceptance criteria and verify that delivered value meets the defined business need.

Validate that a solution meets its acceptance criteria and verify that it satisfies the business need it was built to address, distinguishing validation (building the right thing) from verification (building it right). Recognise that solution evaluation measures realised value against the business case and informs the decision to accept, adjust, or retire the solution.

Solution evaluationAcceptance criteriaValidation and verificationRealised value

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleBusiness Analysis Frameworksmedium

Three months after the Meridian expenses app went live, the business case predicted a 20 percent drop in processing time, but measured performance shows only a 4 percent drop while support tickets have risen. The sponsor asks the business analyst what solution evaluation is chiefly meant to determine at this point. Which answer is correct?

AWhether the project was delivered within its approved schedule, budget, and agreed scope baselines
BWhether the deployed solution is delivering the value and benefits defined in the business need Correct
CWhether every requirement in the approved backlog was built and traced through to a passing test
DWhether the stakeholders were engaged and satisfied with communication throughout the delivery effort

Solution evaluation measures a deployed solution's realised value and performance against the defined business need. Solution evaluation assesses how well the operating solution performs against the value and benefits the business need called for, using measures such as processing time and defect or ticket volumes. A gap between predicted and realised benefit is the core signal it exists to surface.

Why A is wrong: Staying within schedule, budget, and scope measures project delivery success, which is tempting to conflate, but solution evaluation looks at post-delivery value, not baseline conformance.

Why B is correct: Solution evaluation measures the live solution's performance against the business need and expected value, so the shortfall between predicted and realised benefit is precisely what it assesses.

Why C is wrong: Confirming requirements were built and tested is verification and traceability, which matters earlier, but it does not tell you whether the live solution is producing the intended benefit.

Why D is wrong: Stakeholder engagement and satisfaction are worth tracking, and dissatisfaction may be a symptom, but solution evaluation centres on realised value against the business need, not communication quality.

See more CAPM practice questions, answers explained.

Exam traps in Business Analysis Frameworks

Answers that look right on this material and are not. Each one is a distractor from a different question in the CAPM bank for this domain.

Verification, because the team must confirm the portal was built to the documented specification before release
Why it is wrong: Verification confirms the solution was built right against its spec, which the team has already completed here. It is tempting because the stem mentions test cases, but the sponsor is now asking about meeting the business need, not conformance to spec.
Verification, because the analyst is confirming the feature was built to match its documented specification and design
Why it is wrong: Verification does check the build against the specification, which is tempting here, but the analyst has moved past that and is confirming the feature meets the real business need, which is validation.
Verification has revealed it, and the problem is that the code contains a defect against the written specification.
Why it is wrong: This is tempting because a failed check sounds like verification, but verification confirms the solution was built to specification, which here it was; the specification itself did not capture the real need.

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