CBAP Eligibility

CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) Certification is the third level of certification for business analysts governed by IIBA (International Institute for Business Analysis) Canada.

This certification is most suited for senior business analysts having a minimum of 5 years of experience performing the business analysis tasks.

Eligibility criteria for CBAP

The IIBA-CBAP® course requires:

• Minimum 7500 hours of work experience in the last 10 years, 900 hours of which should be in four out of the six BABOK® Guide Version 3 Knowledge areas
• A minimum of 35 hours of Professional Development in the past four years
• Two references from a career manager, client or Certified Business Analysis Professional – CBAP®
• A Signed Code of Conduct

What counts as business analysis experience

• Requirements gathering and elicitation
• Requirements management
• Requirements analysis
• Process analysis
• Requirements planning
• Solution evaluation
• Solution selection
• ERP implementation related activities

What does not count as business analysis experience

• Managing requirements engineers
• Design
• Coding
• Testing

Common Myths of CBAP

Some of the common myths associated with the experience and eligibility criteria are:

1. I can’t appear for CBAP since I am not on a job right now
   • There is no such requirement for one to be on a job to be eligible to apply for CBAP. As long as one can produce the evidence of the work experience then it will work.
2. I can’t appear for CBAP® as I had a career break.
   • CBAP requires one to have 7500 hours of business analysis experience in the last 10 years. As long as one meets the criteria prescribed by IIBA®, that’s more than enough to go for the examination. So do not worry even if you had a career break in your work history.
3. My official designation was not a business analyst that makes me ineligible to prepare for CBAP®.
   • The eligibility criteria is all about the experience and performing the tasks of a business analyst. The designation can besystems Analyst, Project Manager, Implementation Consultant, Domain SME, Business Consultant, Architect, Analyst or something else, as long as one is dealing with the tasks mentioned in BABoK^® they are perfectly eligible for CBAP^®.
4. I can’t appear for CBAP^® since I am not a graduate.
   • The education requirement for CBAP doesn’t have any such condition
5. One needs an experience letter from the employer to take the CBAP^® exam.
   • Again there is no such need from IIBA, IIBA^® has no expectation that one has to produce an experience letter from the employer. What is required is a reference for one’s BA experience from past project managers or clients.
6. I need to complete ECBA, then CCBA^® and finally can go for CBAP^®.
   • One can pursue any level of certification directly depending on his/her comfort level and the eligibility requirement.

For more myths of CBAP read the post, Top 10 CBAP Myths

Hope this gives you a good overview of the CBAP eligibility requirements, who and how can one apply for CBAP. Visit the website for more details.