Many Business professionals, business analysts, and aspiring business analysts always wonder if they should become a Certified Business Analysis Professional or not. They wonder if it would ever help their career in any way or not. If you are a business professional, you should know that your job titles on work history are not counted as experience. You might spend years and years doing business analysis. Still, you fail to obtain secondary education, and you realize that there’s nothing in your resume, which can attract the other companies. In this case, having the “Certified Business Analysis Professional” title on your resume will give you an edge, and things will get different when you apply for a position in a new company. To know more about this, let us dive directly into the details of CBAP.
What is CBAP?
CBAP stands for Certified Business Analysis Professional. This designation is a registered trademark and professional certification from the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and granted to aspirants who have extensive Business Analysis experience. It is a situational analysis case study exam based on the BABOK – Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. The business analysis practitioner sits for three-and-a-half-hour to appear for this exam. The “Certified Business Analysis Professional” designation is awarded to the individuals who qualify for this exam.
What is the Eligibility Criteria or Prerequisite?
CBAP is one of the most sought-after and respected certificates in the industry. An individual who is a professional with experience in the Business Analysis field, non-BA consultants, analysts who are already holding CCBA, transformation managers, product managers, QA professionals, testers, designers, and trainers is the potential candidate CBAP certified.
To get CBAP Certified:
- The individual should have at least 7,500 verifiable hours of experience working in the business analysis for at least five years.
- The individual should have 900 hours of experience in each of the 4 out of 6 BABOK knowledge areas. It sums around 3600 out of the required 7500 hours.
- The individual should have 35 hours of professional development (in the last four years) and provide at least two references. The references can be from the career manager or a client.
Why Should an Individual Invest in Certification?
Depending upon the institution’s credibility providing the certification and the certificate’s scope, the fee amount may vary significantly. It is advised that the money spent on certifications should not be counted as the money spent but should instead be counted as the money invested in yourself and your career. It is not to be mentioned that your job security and value in the market increase by default. Choosing Business Analysis as a career is not only because of an attractive salary but also because it cannot be denied that it is a large part. BAs, on average, earn $67,000, and it goes on rising with experience. The experience and your expertise can only be proved and acquired with the help of certifications.
Along with financial perks, there are some other perks for becoming a CBAP. While you take up a CBAP certification course, you are trained and prepared under industry-level experts; you get to work on industry-level projects and acquire appropriate skills required to become CBAP certified. Becoming certified lets you discover the market’s potential since a whole new world of opportunities opens up for you. Above that, business analysis is required in literally every field, and hence investing upon yourself to improve and secure your future will only be useful to you.
What is the importance of CBAP?
- It provides global recognition: IIBA continuously works on advancing and promoting the BA profession, and they have international recognition. Since CBAP is an IIBA certification, it gets the same credit.
- Being tough makes it reputed: It is the most challenging exam among the business analysis certification exams. It takes a lot to prepare to solve the tricky questions asked in the exam. The questions are application-based, and this complexity of the exam is the reason behind this certification’s reputation.
- Career Progression: CBAP is a level 3 certification (it is a multi-level certification), and it comes with a specific weight based on experience. Your career is boosted with the title, and you have no coming back.
- Performance Improvement: The certification covers various aspects of BA space work. Preparing for CBAP will give you higher expertise in your work, and parallelly, your performance will be improved.
- Opportunities: Since this certification is globally recognized, it opens the doors to other companies that accept accreditation as a benchmark for the BA role. The certificate is the only crucial factor for some of the organizations. Hence you are always on the edge if you are already qualified.
Benefits of CBAP
- You get a broader perspective: When you prepare for the CBAP examination, you realize that there are different ways to solve a single problem and help to improve your problem solving and critical thinking skills and hence give you a broader perspective of everything.
- Shows commitment: As mentioned earlier, it is one of the most challenging exams to crack among all the other business analysis certifications. Being CBAP certified will prove that you are a dedicated and committed person. Anyhow, this certification speaks for itself, and you need not convince others about your skills.
- Monetary benefits and exceptional assignments: Being CBAP certified accelerates your career, and your salary is boosted. You start getting a better project to work on since you are a trusted person with a real skill required for the tasks.
Conclusion
CBAP certification does not only help you to secure your job but also ensures that you earn a fair amount. It’s a one-time investment of your energy, time, and money to prepare and crack this exam. The life after getting qualified is something worth experiencing!
