CBAP or Certified Business Analysis Professional is a renowned business analysis certification organized by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). It is designed for professionals who have significant working experience in the field of Business Analysis. This certification validates your mastery of effective planning, advanced documentation, and creating business solutions. There are six knowledge areas defined in the BABOK® Guide. Those knowledge areas are requirements management & communication, requirements analysis, business analysis planning & monitoring, solution assessment & validation, elicitation, and enterprise analysis.
This is the world’s most recognized certification in the world. For professionals having over 5 years of industry experience, CBAP is the best certification. It is regarded very highly in the circuit of Systems Analysis, Requirement Analysis, Business Consulting & of course Business Analysis.
For attempting the exam, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria
The CBAP certification is for:
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The Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) offers members of the BA community a variety of benefits, including:
CBAP recognizes your expertise in multiple business domains and your ability to tackle more complex projects, work with stakeholders to define and manage their business requirements, drive business processes, lead the BA effort, and identify opportunities to achieve better business results. The IIBA® Annual Business Analysis Salary Survey(1) reports that the average salary of respondents with CBAP® certification holders is 13% higher on average in earnings in comparison to non-certification holders.
To summarize, the benefits also include
Companies have hired more CBAP recipients in recent years owing to their skill sets and expertise in business analysis. Also a CBAP designation holder earns more salary than a non-credential business analyst. Thus, with a CBAP designation, you earn better job opportunities, better income and global recognition. According to Indeed.com, a CBAP earns an average salary of $90,000 every year.
As per the latest salary survey of IIBA.
The median salary of a CBAP is in the range of $90–92,000 and IIBA asserts that certified CBAPs earn around 15% more than non-certified Business Analysts.
Business analysis planning and monitoring | 14% |
Elicitation and collaboration | 12% |
Requirements life cycle management | 15% |
Strategy analysis | 15% |
Requirements analysis and design definition | 30% |
Solution evaluation | 14% |
The validity of CBAP certification from IIBA is 3 years and it needs to be renewed. The application fee is $125 USD and is not refundable, regardless of whether your application is approved or declined. The exam fee is $325 USD for IIBA members and $450 USD for non-members. IIBA does not disclose the passing score or the percentage. All we know is that it is based on BABOK v3. However, given past passing percentages, it is safe to assume that the score is around 70%.
The purpose of renewing CBAP certification/ recertification is to:
The process of getting re-certified requires the candidate to earn at least 60 CDUS (Continuing Development Units) in the three years’ time. These CDUs need to be logged into the reporting form which then needs to be attached to the Recertification Application, which can be found at the official site of IIBA. Finally, a recertification fee needs to be paid to complete the process.
You should fill the CBAP CDU Reporting Form. Then, fill the CBAP Recertification Application form, attaching your completed CDU reporting form to it. You need to pay $85 for members / $120 non-members towards recertification. IIBA must receive the CBAP recipient’s re-certification application package including payment by their certification expiration date. If recertification is declined for any reason, IIBA shall send a decline notice.
IIBA’s portal offers the relevant training materials and practice exams for the main exam. Apart from that, providers like PluralSight, Adaptive US, Simpli Learn, Udemy all offer relevant coursework and other resources to prepare for the exam.