September is the month in many organizations when training opportunities are readily available with summer vacations concluding and the need to use up remaining training dollars before year end. I thought this week I would share an overview of common certifications held by tenured business analysts, that I usually share with business analysts who are new to the profession.
Questions regarding certifications are common from new business analysts, such as do I need to be certified or should I be? Which one is best for me? Which one provides the most value in terms of career growth?
There is no cookie cutter answer to any of these questions, the answers can vary significantly depending on the individuals career goals, how much time they are willing to invest and what the focus of their work primarily is or what they would rather it be. This is when it’s often helpful to learn about the various certifications available.
Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
The CBAP designation is a professional certification from the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) for individuals with extensive business analysis experience. Given the number of topics covered by the CBAP exam, it is only open to experienced business analysts, who have verifiable 7500 hours of business analysis hands-on experience recorded against individual projects and specific BA activities. More in depth details can be viewed at: http://www.iiba.org/Certification-Recognition/CBAP-Designation.aspx
Certification of Competency on Business Analysis (CCBA)
The CCBA designation is a professional certification from the IIBA for individuals who have developed the essential business analysis skills with at least 3750 hours of verifiable business analyst experience. The CCBA exam is based on the same material as the CBAP exam but with different questions that are more appropriate to the candidate’s level of experience. More in depth details can be viewed at http://www.iiba.org/Certification-Recognition/CCBA-Certification.aspx
Project Management Institute – Project Business Analyst
This is a newer designation recently launched by the Project Management Institute (PMI), the same organization that provides the PMP designation. The PMI has recognized the role that business analysts play in projects and that it is a growing profession. The PMI-PBA highlights the candidate’s expertise in business analysis by highlighting their ability to work effectively with stakeholders to define their business requirements, shape the output of projects and drive successful business outcomes. More in depth details can be viewed at http://www.pmi.org/Certification/PMI-Professional-in-Business-Analysis-PMI-PBA.aspx
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
ITIL is a set of practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. ITIL describes processes, procedures, tasks, and checklists which are not organization-specific, but can be applied by an organization for establishing integration with the organization’s strategy, delivering value, and maintaining a minimum level of competency. It allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.
The ITIL Qualifications scheme provides a modular approach to the ITIL framework, and is comprised of a series of qualifications focused on different aspects of ITIL Best Practice, to various degrees of depth and detail. These are the levels of qualifications within the scheme:
- ITIL Foundation
- ITIL Intermediate Level
- ITIL Managing Across the Lifecycle
- ITIL Expert Level
- ITIL Master Qualification
More indepth details can be viewed at http://www.itil-officialsite.com/AboutITIL/WhatisITIL.aspx