CBAP® application requirements

The CBAP® designation is ideal for experienced business analysts with more than five years of practical experience. In the context of a general business analysis career, this certification is the most advanced level that you can achieve in terms of professional certifications offered by the IIBA®.

Applicants who want to take the CBAP® certification exam must meet specific experience and education requirements. During the application process, you must demonstrate your competencies across the breadth of business analysis knowledge and practical skills. After your application has been reviewed and accepted, you will be eligible to take the exam.

The CBAP® certification exam is 3.5 hours in duration and consists of 120 multiple-choice questions.

You need to complete an online application process in which you are required to provide documented proof of the following requirements listed:

A minimum of 7,500 hours of business analysis work experience aligned with the Business Analysis Book of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide v3) in the last 10 years of your career.

This requirement equates to 5 years of full-time business analysis work done within the last 10 years of your career, or you could potentially have done 50% of business analysis work during the last 10 years of your career. It is key to know that your practical experience must align with the BABOK® Guide's knowledge areas, with a minimum of 900 hours in 4 of the 6 knowledge areas.

Your job title doesn't have to be 'business analyst' in order for you to be able to claim work experience that directly aligns with the BABOK® Guide v3 knowledge areas.

The more practical and directly aligned to the BABOK® Guide v3 your experience is, the better you will be able to document it as part of your application!

A minimum of 35 hours of professional development in the past 4 years.

This requirement can be met by attending an IIBA®-endorsed training course, either in person or online. If you are unable to attend an IIBA®-endorsed training course, you can also include nonendorsed courses or workshops as part of your professional development, as long as they are directly relevant to the topic of business analysis training. If you choose to include non-endorsed training (an example could be an internal training workshop you attended at work that relates to business analysis), you will need to ensure that you have at least 70 hours of nonendorsed training mentioned in your application.