Capgemini Assessment Tests

Capgemini Situational Judgement Test

1. Question 1 of 10

   You are an application support analyst at Capgemini, sharing a client’s support queue with a colleague who started the same week as you. Every day the difficult tickets sit unclaimed until you take them. You said something about it yesterday and your colleague told you that you were making too much of it. The client’s users have started asking why the harder problems take so long. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Tell your team lead now that your colleague avoids the difficult tickets, without going back to your colleague a second time after yesterday's conversation.
   2. Agree with your colleague how the difficult tickets are shared from tomorrow, and if that does not hold for a week, put it to your team lead with what you have seen.
   3. Stop picking up the harder tickets after that conversation, and leave them sitting in the queue until your colleague takes them or the client's users chase.
   4. Carry on taking the difficult tickets yourself and let the matter drop, so that the client's users keep getting their answers inside the time they expect.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: B. Agree with your colleague how the difficult tickets are shared from tomorrow, and if that does not hold for a week, put it to your team lead with what you have seen.

   Least effective: C. Stop picking up the harder tickets after that conversation, and leave them sitting in the queue until your colleague takes them or the client's users chase.

   A: Escalates on one attempt: yesterday was a first try, and the person you share a queue with hears about your complaint from somebody else.

   C: Answers a disagreement by withdrawing from the queue: the point may be made eventually, and it is made through client users waiting longer for the problems they mind about most.

   D: Buys quiet at your own expense: the queue is covered, the split gets worse every week, and nobody but you knows it is happening.

   The most effective response is to agree with your colleague how the difficult tickets are shared and go to your team lead if it does not hold. It puts a workable split in front of the person who has to keep it, it gives that a week to work, and it keeps a real route open if it does not. It beats carrying on taking the difficult tickets yourself and letting the matter drop, because absorbing it quietly leaves the arrangement worse each week and nobody else able to see it. It beats telling your team lead now without going back to your colleague again, because one conversation is not enough to say the thing cannot be settled between you. The least effective response is leaving the harder tickets sitting in the queue until somebody chases: the other three all leave the client’s harder problems getting answered while the disagreement is worked out, whereas this one settles the argument by letting those tickets sit, so the users pay for a dispute that has nothing to do with them. The principle: never make a client’s queue the instrument of an argument with a colleague.

2. Question 2 of 10

   You are a delivery analyst at Capgemini, on a client site for a system going live on Friday. The client’s training lead asks you to rewrite the user guide, which would take two days. You are also working through the last set of tests, which nobody else has been asked to do and which have to be finished by Wednesday. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Tell the training lead you cannot start the guide before Wednesday, and put the clash to the manager running the delivery today so the guide can be given to somebody who has the time.
   2. Work on both, splitting each day between the guide and the tests, so that neither the training lead nor the testing is left waiting on you for an answer.
   3. Tell the training lead the user guide is not your responsibility and pass the request straight to the client's own documentation team, who have never seen the system, without mentioning it to anybody on your side.
   4. Start the user guide now because the training lead asked for it in person, and plan to catch the tests up in the evenings so that they are still finished by Wednesday.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Tell the training lead you cannot start the guide before Wednesday, and put the clash to the manager running the delivery today so the guide can be given to somebody who has the time.

   Least effective: C. Tell the training lead the user guide is not your responsibility and pass the request straight to the client's own documentation team, who have never seen the system, without mentioning it to anybody on your side.

   B: Splits effort so nothing finishes: three days of half-time work delivers neither a guide the training lead can use nor tests finished by Wednesday.

   C: Passes the problem on without owning it: the request leaves your team unrecorded, so nobody can decide who should do it, and the client is sent to find their own answer four days before go-live.

   D: Takes on more than the week holds: the tests still have to be finished by Wednesday, and the only time left for them is your own evenings.

   The most effective response is to tell the training lead you cannot start before Wednesday and put the clash to the manager today. It gives the training lead a straight answer, protects the one piece of work nobody else is covering, and puts the clash where it can actually be resolved while there is still time to reassign the guide. It beats starting the user guide now and catching the tests up in the evenings, because taking the guide on and paying for it out of your own evenings commits you to a week nobody has agreed and nobody can see. It beats splitting each day between the guide and the tests, because half a day on each for three days produces an unusable guide and unfinished tests rather than one of them done. The least effective response is passing the request straight to the client’s documentation team without telling your own side: the other three all leave somebody on your team able to decide who writes the guide, whereas this one moves the request off your desk and out of your team’s sight entirely, so a client four days from go-live is sent away to solve it themselves. The principle: when two claims on your time cannot both be met, say so and give the clash to the person who owns the priorities.

3. Question 3 of 10

   You are an operations analyst at Capgemini, three weeks into a process review at a food producer, Marden Foods. In a meeting with the client’s site team on Friday you said you would send your colleague the shift observation notes by Monday, so that they could start the staff interviews. You forgot. It is now Tuesday morning, your colleague has done the first day of interviews without them, and the client’s site manager has just asked you in passing whether the notes were useful. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Send the observations to your colleague this morning with an apology, and leave the site manager out of it, since what passes between the two of you is not the client's concern.
   2. Write the notes up tonight and send them, hiding the fact that they were never sent on Monday, and leave your colleague and the site manager both assuming they arrived.
   3. Tell the site manager straight away that the notes were a day late, and let your colleague hear about it from the client rather than from you.
   4. Tell your colleague now that the notes never went, send them today, and tell the site manager that the first day of interviews ran without them so that those answers can be checked again.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Tell your colleague now that the notes never went, send them today, and tell the site manager that the first day of interviews ran without them so that those answers can be checked again.

   Least effective: B. Write the notes up tonight and send them, hiding the fact that they were never sent on Monday, and leave your colleague and the site manager both assuming they arrived.

   A: Leaves the client holding a wrong answer: the site manager asked a direct question and walks away believing the interviews were run from notes that never arrived.

   B: Hides your own slip: your colleague carries on believing the first day of interviews was run from the notes, and the site manager is left with the same wrong picture.

   C: Tells the client before the colleague: the person the promise was made to hears about it second, from the client's own site manager.

   The most effective response is to tell your colleague now that the notes never went and to tell the site manager the interviews ran without them. It repairs the practical damage first, and it gives both the person you let down and the person who asked the question the same true account on the same morning. It beats sending the observations with an apology and leaving the site manager out of it, because the site manager asked a direct question and would be left believing the interviews were run from notes that never arrived. It beats telling the site manager straight away and letting your colleague hear it from the client, because your colleague is the person the promise was made to, and hearing it first from the client is the one route that makes it worse for them. The least effective response is hiding that the notes were never sent and letting both of them assume they arrived: the other three all leave somebody able to check the first day’s answers, whereas this one covers the gap over so that nobody ever knows the interviews ran without the notes. The principle: when you drop something you committed to in front of the client, tell the colleague and the client the same thing on the same day.

4. Question 4 of 10

   You are a bid support analyst at Capgemini, on a call with a prospective client while the manager leading the proposal is travelling. The client asks which people would be doing the work from October and whether those people are free then. You do not know, and the proposal goes in on Friday. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Write the question down and answer it inside the proposal document on Friday, so that the client gets a considered answer in writing rather than an off the cuff one on a call.
   2. Assure the client that the people they met last week will be on the work from October, and move the call on to the rest of their questions.
   3. Say that you cannot answer questions about who would be on the work, and leave the client to raise it with the manager leading the proposal next week.
   4. Tell the client you will confirm the names and dates rather than guess at them, then ask the manager leading the proposal today and send the client the answer before Friday.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Tell the client you will confirm the names and dates rather than guess at them, then ask the manager leading the proposal today and send the client the answer before Friday.

   Least effective: B. Assure the client that the people they met last week will be on the work from October, and move the call on to the rest of their questions.

   A: Answers in the wrong place and at the wrong time: the client asked on the call, and the answer reaches them only when the whole document lands.

   B: States as fact something you have not checked: the client hears a settled answer on the call, and the proposal on Friday now has to either match it or contradict it.

   C: Closes a question the client needs settled: they asked because it changes how they read the proposal, and nothing you have said helps them before Friday.

   The most effective response is to say you will confirm the names rather than guess, then ask the manager today and answer before Friday. It tells the client exactly what you do and do not know, it commits you to a real answer, and it gets that answer to them while the proposal can still reflect it. It beats saying you cannot answer and leaving the client to raise it with the manager next week, because the client asked a question they need settled before Friday and is sent away with nothing. It beats writing the question down and answering it inside the proposal document on Friday, because a question asked on a call is answered on the call or shortly after, not buried in a document that arrives at the same moment as everything else. The least effective response is assuring the client that the people they met last week will be on the work: the other three all leave the client’s question genuinely open until somebody who knows can close it, whereas this one closes it with a fact you have not checked, so the client plans around names that may not be in the proposal at all. The principle: an unchecked answer given to sound helpful is worse than no answer, because it is the one nobody goes back to correct.

5. Question 5 of 10

   You are a project analyst at Capgemini. In a meeting this morning the client rejected the dates you had presented and the session ended early. The plan has to be reworked around new dates today, because the client’s own team meets tomorrow morning to confirm them. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Leave the replanning until tomorrow and avoid the manager for the rest of the day, assuming somebody else will have picked the new dates up by then.
   2. Rework the plan straight away using the dates the client named in the room, and send it to the client this afternoon so they have it before their meeting tomorrow.
   3. Take twenty minutes to write down what the client objected to, then rework the plan with the new dates this afternoon and send it to the manager running the engagement so that they can check it tonight.
   4. Ask the manager running the engagement to rework the plan themselves, on the ground that the dates you produced this morning were the ones the client rejected.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: C. Take twenty minutes to write down what the client objected to, then rework the plan with the new dates this afternoon and send it to the manager running the engagement so that they can check it tonight.

   Least effective: A. Leave the replanning until tomorrow and avoid the manager for the rest of the day, assuming somebody else will have picked the new dates up by then.

   A: Declines to do the work in front of you: the client's team confirms dates tomorrow morning, and the one person who could rework the plan in time has decided to sit the day out.

   B: Substitutes your own judgement for the manager's: the dates reach the client with nobody having checked that the reworked plan holds together.

   D: Hands your own task to somebody else: the plan is yours to write, and the manager gains a job this afternoon instead of a reworked plan to look at.

   The most effective response is to write down what the client objected to and rework the plan with the new dates this afternoon. Twenty minutes on what the client actually objected to is what makes the second version different from the first, and the plan still reaches the manager tonight, before the client’s team meets. It beats reworking the plan straight away and sending it to the client yourself this afternoon, because a plan reworked in an hour and sent straight out has been checked by nobody, and the client’s team will treat it tomorrow as settled. It beats asking the manager to rework the plan themselves, because the replanning is your task, and handing it back gives the manager a job rather than a plan to look at. The least effective response is leaving the replanning until tomorrow and avoiding the manager for the rest of the day: the other three all put something in front of somebody before the client’s team meets tomorrow morning, whereas this one lets the one day the work had to be done in go by, so the client confirms dates nobody has reworked. The principle: a meeting that went badly is a reason to do the work sooner, not later.

6. Question 6 of 10

   You are a systems analyst at Capgemini, setting up a client’s new booking system. Your testing shows that a report the client’s finance team uses every month will not be ready at go-live, and will be missing for about six weeks. The client’s project sponsor presents the go-live plan to their board on Thursday. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Raise it at the weekly project meeting next Tuesday, so that the whole team hears about it at the same time and can work out together what ought to be done about it before go-live.
   2. Put the gap in writing to the manager running the engagement today, setting out what finance loses and for how long, so that the sponsor has it before Thursday.
   3. Tell the client's finance team directly, since they are the people who will be without the report, and let them take it up before the board meeting.
   4. Say nothing until after Thursday, on the basis that the report may still be ready by go-live and there is no point worrying the sponsor before the board has approved the plan.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: B. Put the gap in writing to the manager running the engagement today, setting out what finance loses and for how long, so that the sponsor has it before Thursday.

   Least effective: D. Say nothing until after Thursday, on the basis that the report may still be ready by go-live and there is no point worrying the sponsor before the board has approved the plan.

   A: Delays the decision: Tuesday is after Thursday, so the sponsor has already taken the plan to their board by the time the team first discusses it.

   C: Substitutes your own judgement for the sponsor's: the right people learn it in the wrong order, and the sponsor can be contradicted at their own board by their own colleagues.

   D: Withholds something the sponsor needed: they commit to a plan in front of their board without the one fact that changes it, and they find out afterwards that you already knew.

   The most effective response is to put the gap in writing to the manager today, with what finance loses and for how long. It is in writing, it is today, it says what the loss actually is, and it reaches the sponsor through the person who owns the relationship with them, while Thursday can still be changed. It beats raising it at the weekly project meeting next Tuesday, because Tuesday is after Thursday, so the sponsor stands in front of their board without a fact you were already holding. It beats telling the client’s finance team directly and leaving them to take it up, because finance hearing it first can put the sponsor in the position of being corrected at their own board by their own people. The least effective response is saying nothing until after Thursday in case the report is ready anyway: the other three all get the fact to somebody before Thursday, and this one keeps it back on a hope, so the sponsor commits publicly to a plan you know to be wrong and later learns you knew. The principle: get a fact to the person who is about to rely on it, through the route that does not undercut them.

7. Question 7 of 10

   You are a client services associate at Capgemini. A client, Penrose Timber, emails asking when the revised proposal document will reach them. The two people writing it are running a workshop for another client until Thursday and have not said how much is left to do. The client’s finance director wants a date this morning to put into a board pack that goes out this afternoon. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Reply that no date can be given until Thursday, and leave it there, so that nothing is promised that the two writing it have not agreed to.
   2. Ring into the workshop and interrupt the two writing it for a date now, so that the client has an answer in time for the board pack that goes out to them this afternoon.
   3. Tell the client the document will be ready on Friday for the board pack, and ask the two writing it to work to that date.
   4. Reply now that you cannot give a date until you have spoken to the two writing it, since only they know what is left, and say what time today you will come back.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Reply now that you cannot give a date until you have spoken to the two writing it, since only they know what is left, and say what time today you will come back.

   Least effective: C. Tell the client the document will be ready on Friday for the board pack, and ask the two writing it to work to that date.

   A: Leaves the client with nothing to plan with: a refusal with no time attached reads to them exactly like silence until Thursday.

   B: Buys a date by breaking into a workshop: the question is small, and the interruption lands in front of the people they are with.

   C: States a date as fact when nobody has checked it: the board pack carries Friday, and the two writing the document first hear of the commitment when they come back.

   The most effective response is to reply that you cannot give a date until you have spoken to the two writing it, and say what time today you will come back. It answers the client inside their morning, it commits you to a time rather than to a guess, and the date they eventually put in the board pack comes from the people doing the work. It beats replying that no date can be given until Thursday, because a refusal with no time attached leaves the finance director exactly where they started. It beats interrupting the workshop for a date now, because the question is small enough to hold for a few hours and the interruption lands in front of other people. The least effective response is telling the client the document will be ready on Friday: the other three all leave the date resting on somebody who knows how much work is left, whereas this one puts a figure you invented into a document the client’s board will act on. The principle: give the client a time for the answer rather than an answer you have not got.

8. Question 8 of 10

   You are a strategy analyst at Capgemini, six weeks into a review for a client. Three emails arrive this morning from the client’s finance team, discussing which sites they intend to close and asking you to comment. Site closures are nothing to do with your review, and you appear to have been added to the list in error. The three emails have also gone into the engagement’s shared record of correspondence. The manager running the engagement is with the client all day. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Leave the three emails unopened until the manager is back this evening, and ask them then what ought to be done about your being on the list.
   2. Answer the parts of the emails that touch your own review, and leave the site closures to the finance team without raising how you came to be included.
   3. Remove the three emails from the engagement's shared record, and carry on with the review as though the finance team had never included you at all.
   4. Reply to the finance team saying you think you were included in error and asking them to check, then message the manager with what has arrived.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: D. Reply to the finance team saying you think you were included in error and asking them to check, then message the manager with what has arrived.

   Least effective: C. Remove the three emails from the engagement's shared record, and carry on with the review as though the finance team had never included you at all.

   A: Waits while the list keeps sending: the finance team believe you are reading and expect comments, and a day goes by with more arriving.

   B: Treats the symptom as the whole problem: replying confirms you as a recipient, and the list carries on sending you a discussion you were never meant to be in.

   C: Alters a record of what the client sent: the correspondence file stops matching what happened, and if the client asks next month who saw the site plans there is nothing to answer with.

   The most effective response is to reply to the finance team that you think you were included in error, then message the manager. It stops the emails arriving, it does so through the people who control the list, and it puts your own account of what reached you in front of your manager the same day rather than after somebody notices. It beats leaving the emails unopened until the manager is back this evening, because a day of leaving them unopened is a day in which the finance team expect comments and keep sending. It beats answering the parts that touch your review and leaving the closures alone, because answering some of it confirms you as a reader of all of it and leaves the underlying mistake in place. The least effective response is removing the three emails from the engagement’s shared record: the other three all leave a true account of what arrived, whereas this one takes the client’s own emails out of the file that records them, so the one document that could later show exactly what you received and when has been made to say something that is not true. The principle: when something reaches you that should not have, fix the route and keep the record; never the other way round.

9. Question 9 of 10

   You are a reporting analyst at Capgemini, presenting a monthly performance report to a client’s managers. When you show a decline in one measure, the client’s finance lead says in front of the whole meeting that the report is amateur and that whoever produced it plainly does not understand the business. Your figures came straight from the client’s own system and you have checked them twice. You send the finance lead the same report every week. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

   1. Ask the finance lead for twenty minutes after the meeting, take them through where each figure comes from, and ask what would make the report more useful to them.
   2. Tell the manager running the engagement what was said and ask them to speak to the finance lead, and carry on sending the weekly report as before.
   3. Stop sending the finance lead the weekly figures after that, and let them ask for the report each week if they still want to see it at all.
   4. Answer there and then that the figures come from the client's own system, and ask the finance lead in the meeting to say which number they think is wrong.
   Show the answer

   Most effective: A. Ask the finance lead for twenty minutes after the meeting, take them through where each figure comes from, and ask what would make the report more useful to them.

   Least effective: C. Stop sending the finance lead the weekly figures after that, and let them ask for the report each week if they still want to see it at all.

   B: Sends somebody else into a conversation that is yours: the objection was about your work, and the finance lead never hears the answer from the person who has it.

   C: Withdraws help after a personal remark: the weekly figures are how the finance lead runs their own week, and taking them away punishes the work rather than answering the criticism.

   D: Settles a public challenge in public: the point is fair, and asking the finance lead to defend it in front of their own managers turns a report into a contest.

   The most effective response is to ask the finance lead for twenty minutes after the meeting and take them through where each figure comes from. The remark was unpleasant and the underlying question is still worth answering, and twenty minutes in private both shows where the figures come from and finds out what the finance lead actually wants from the report. It beats answering in the meeting that the figures come from the client’s own system, because making the finance lead justify a public remark in front of their own managers turns a disagreement about numbers into a contest neither of you can win. It beats asking the manager running the engagement to speak to the finance lead, because the work is yours and the person who doubts it never hears from the person who did it. The least effective response is stopping the weekly figures to the finance lead and leaving them to ask for the report: the other three all leave the weekly report going out and the question open, whereas this one answers a remark by taking away something the finance lead needs each week, so the cost lands on their work and on your team rather than on the person who said it. The principle: answer the challenge and keep supplying the person who made it.

10. Question 10 of 10

    You are a systems analyst at Capgemini, on a client’s order system that went live last week. Yesterday you changed a setting to clear a slow screen. This morning the client’s team has reported that orders taken by phone are being saved twice, and you can see that your change is what caused it. The client’s project sponsor is collecting the week’s problems for a note that goes out this afternoon. Which response below would be most effective, and which would be least effective?

    1. Fix the setting quietly before the sponsor's note is drafted, and keep it to yourself, so nobody joins this morning's duplicate orders to yesterday's change.
    2. Tell the client's team who reported it that the cause is found and it will be fixed today, and leave the sponsor to pick it up from them before the note is written.
    3. Tell the sponsor and your team lead this morning that your change caused the duplicate orders, and say what you are doing to put it right today.
    4. Put the setting back the way it was, and raise the duplicate orders at the project meeting on Thursday, once you have worked out how many of them there were and which ones went out.
    Show the answer

    Most effective: C. Tell the sponsor and your team lead this morning that your change caused the duplicate orders, and say what you are doing to put it right today.

    Least effective: A. Fix the setting quietly before the sponsor's note is drafted, and keep it to yourself, so nobody joins this morning's duplicate orders to yesterday's change.

    A: Hides your own fault: the sponsor writes up the week's problems without the one cause that is already known, and the client's team spends the afternoon hunting for something you have found.

    B: Sends the news the long way round: the sponsor is writing this afternoon and learns from their own staff that you had the answer all along.

    D: Delays the decision past the point of use: the note goes out this afternoon, so the one problem whose cause is known is the one missing from it.

    The most effective response is to tell the sponsor and your team lead this morning that your change caused the duplicate orders. The cause is known, the sponsor is writing this afternoon, and the quickest way to stop the client hunting is to hear it from the person who already has the answer. It beats putting the setting back and raising the duplicate orders at Thursday’s project meeting, because Thursday is after the note, so the one problem with a settled cause is the one the sponsor cannot explain. It beats telling the team who reported it that the cause is found and leaving the sponsor to pick it up, because the sponsor hearing from their own staff that you knew costs you the standing you will need the next time something breaks. The least effective response is fixing the setting quietly before the note is drafted and keeping it to yourself: the other three all put the cause in front of somebody who needs it, whereas this one takes it off the record altogether, so the client’s team keeps looking for a fault that has already been found and mended. The principle: when your own work caused the fault, say so to the people who have to explain it.