BCS Written Management case studies
BCS Written Management · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The BCS Written Management examination is a written assessment offered within the British Computer Society's certification portfolio, aimed at IT professionals who are moving into, or already hold, management responsibility. Rather than testing isolated technical knowledge, it asks candidates to reason about how technology organisations are directed: strategy and business planning, people and organisational behaviour, budgets and financial control, project and programme delivery, information systems strategy and governance, change and transformation, risk and continuity, service operations, and professional ethics with stakeholder management. The BCS Written Management case studies are 5 cases and about 3,074 words.
1The Regional Rollout That Stalled
A mid-sized logistics firm approved a five-year strategy to open four regional depots, funded by a ₤12m loan with a covenant requiring debt service cover above 1.5x from year three. Eighteen months in, only one depot is operational.
656 words, about 3 min2The Supervisor Everyone Avoids
A 240-person software services company has lost six engineers from one 14-person team in nine months; exit interviews mention 'management style' but nothing specific. The team's supervisor has delivered consistently against delivery targets and is well regarded by the client.
624 words, about 3 min3The Budget That Nobody Owns
A public-sector agency with a ₤60m annual budget has run a 7% overspend for two consecutive years, covered by year-end underspends elsewhere. The finance director reports that budget holders treat their allocations as 'ceilings to spend against' and submit variance explanations only after quarter-end.
595 words, about 3 min4The Programme With Three Truths
A government department is running a programme to replace a legacy case-management system, with a budget of ₤28m and a go-live date eighteen months away. The programme board receives a monthly report showing 'amber' status and 80% confidence of on-time delivery.
627 words, about 3 min5The Outage Nobody Planned For
A retail bank's online banking platform suffered a six-hour outage on a Saturday, affecting 400,000 customers. The root cause was a failed certificate renewal that a single engineer normally performed manually; that engineer was on leave and the handover note was out of date.
572 words, about 3 min