Impressions, Tips, and Tricks | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Today, I am going to share my know-how, tips, and tricks, and advice related to the coveted Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Certification from PMI institute.
It has been close to 5000 days (i.e. 13 years!) since I was recruited as a campus hire after my MBA in Marketing and Systems. I still remember those MBA days replete with innocuous jargons, Kotler, Bottom of the Pyramid, Drucker, Bottleneck Theory, and Placement Day. And a million misadventures in between!
Over the years I’ve traversed the whole nine yards as a Business Analyst, Product Owner, Analytics and Strategy Consultant – with experience in e-commerce, Retail & CPG. This fascinating journey has taken me to places like Bangalore, Pune and a stint in Norway, the USA, and even in Poland. Since the last 9 years I have called the USA as my home. I have loved working in a global delivery model, partnering with multi-faceted teams, and learning and using new tools and technologies along the way.
Make no mistakes, this certification is for the experienced BA. Someone who has really internalized the domain areas in their everyday work life. It is relevant for Business Analysts, Hybrid PM/BA roles, or Project Managers who handles requirement or product developments. Let’s see how this certification can help you-
Let me outline my study and preparation routine and key takeaways:
1. Check your eligibility for the exam and check out useful resources-
PMI-PBA Handbook | PMI-PBA Examination Content Outline
2. Strategy & Game Plan: Make a Study strategy with clear timelines- a 12 months’ plan is called procrastination! 🙂
3. Training & Contact Hours: Make sure you have 35 hours of Business Analysis contact hours. Else, make plans to take training either from PMI or through a reputed training provider. I opted for an external training provider in order to complete my 35 hours quota.
4. Self Realization is the key: Appear for Mock Tests and evaluate your preparation. You are ready when you consistently score more than 80%. Rework study plan to improve areas
5. Take notes – either in notepad or digitally. This really helped me to quickly work on my problem areas
ProTip:
As far as I know, there are no sectional cutoffs for the domain areas. And this is an important aspect to consider while you prepare for the certification.
As was in my case, you can expect to score AboveAverage in two of these areas and BelowTarget in a couple of the segments and still cross the Overall Qualifying marks.
If you do very well (95 percentile) in one or two areas, it can compensate for another segment where you might get sub-par scores. So do not get rattled if you find a component challenging to crack. Minimize your losses and gain in your strong areas. There is no clear-cut pass percentage/tile, but it would be very close to the 70-75% mark from what I could sense.
CONCLUSION:
It took me around 60 days of dedicated learning (even late nights and weekends) to prepare for my tests. And on the 3rd month I appeared for my exams.
Just like there are no free lunches, the PMI-PBA exam is not a cakewalk. It is intense, high stakes exam and is based on experiential rather than rote learning. I can totally vouch that more than 50% of the questions are scenario-based/use case-type questions, requiring understanding of the linkages between various business processes and real-life practicality. And those insights can come only with real project experience.
Be prepared to answer questions which invariably starts with –
- A mini case study on business analysis
- the Day-in-the-life of a PM/BA
- “… You are the BA of XYZ, situation ‘x’ happened, what would be your approach…” etc.
I hope you found this summary useful. And here’s my coveted certificate for cracking PMI PBA! 🙂
Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment. Good luck.
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