5 Business Analyst Certifications to Level Up Your Business Analyst Resume

In an age where data rules the world, companies value business analysts more than ever. Business analysts acquire information, identify trends and meaning within the data, and then work with stakeholders and other professionals to implement it to improve the company.

It can be difficult to showcase your abilities as a business analyst. Unlike professions like software engineers or graphic developers, where you may have a portfolio or a stack of hard skills to give a baseline of your abilities, business analysts may need to opt for certification for proof of their abilities on their business analyst resume.

Many large companies, especially in the tech industry, often require certification to become a business analyst or jobs adjacent to it. An investment in a business analyst certification is easily worth it, especially if you are not highly experienced.

We'll also discuss the importance of business analyst certifications, which ones are currently popular, and which ones are right for you.

Why Business Analyst Certification Matters

In many larger companies, certification is a direct way of opening up promotions. There are often many positions in your company that explicitly require a business analyst certification. This is rather obvious, as large companies need objective justifications for giving more prominent positions.

Not only this but if you are looking to change careers within your industry or company, a certification can help make up for the lack of formal experience. If you have experience as a programmer but want to go into more of a project management role, getting an analysis certification is going to help you crossover into that role.

If you lack hands-on experience with a career in business analysis, a certification shows initiative and willingness to learn. Instead of applying for a job and trying to convince potential employers that you will get the information, you would have already shown that you are invested in becoming a business analyst.

However, there is a sea of business certifications, and not all of them are equal. The ECBA (Entry Certificate in Business Analysis) is a globally recognized business certificate. Therefore, it is more likely your employer will be familiar with it and the knowledge that you have gained from it. An entry-level certificate like the ECBA can justify a 5-10% increase in pay.

Globally recognized certifications for mid-level positions can help raise salaries by 10-20%, making them an easy investment even if some of these certificates are pricey.

Not only are useful tools to climb the ranks of a company and command higher salaries, you can legitimately learn skills and strategies from certification courses.

For instance, if you want to become a Project Manager, then changing your business philosophy into an agile mindset will be invaluable. Those with work experience in slower, more traditional companies may need business certifications to know how more modern, flexible, and faster companies work. This will not only make you more efficient, but it will also make it easier to relate with your colleagues.

In general, obtaining a certification is another means of keeping up to date with the professional world. Trends in business are always changing, and gaining knowledge is the key to never becoming outdated.

5 Popular Business Analyst Certifications to Earn

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of certifications out there. To ensure you get the most bang for your buck, stick with the ones that are recognized worldwide. This not only ensures that potential employers will consider it for your application and salary, but you're more guaranteed to actually learn key skills related to your job.

Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)

• Course details: Strategy analysis, elicitation, life cycle management, business analysis planning.
• Duration: 6 months, 3 if intensive.
• Price: $2,000-$5,000.
• Who is it for: Business analyst with several thousands of hours of experience looking to advance their careers to a senior position.
• Website: IIBA CBAP Certification.

Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA)

• Course details: Design definition, strategy analysis, elicitation and collaboration.
• Duration: 2-4 months.
• Price: $2,000-$3,000.
• Who is it for: Those with 2-3 years of experience in consulting, product management who want to transition to a more dedicated business analysist role.
• Website: IIBA CCBA Certification.

Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)

• Course details: Business analysis planning and monitoring, requirements analysis and design, underlying competencies.
• Duration: 1-3 months.
• Price: $500-$1,500.
• Who is it for: Those who haven't used any business analyst and want to break into the field. Recent graduates and people who want to change careers.
• Website: IIBA ECBA Certification.

Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)

• Course details: Model deployment, data and methodology selection, business problem framing, and communicating with stakeholders.
• Duration: 6 months, 3 if intensive.
• Price: $2,000-$4,000.
• Who is it for: Data scientist, business analyst and those with analytical degrees or experience looking to cement their credentials.
• Website: CAP Certification.

PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)

• Course details: Needs assessment, solution evaluation, traceability and monitoring, business analysis planning
• Duration: 6 months, 3 if intensive.
• Price: $2,000-$4,000.
• Who is it for: System analysts, product managers, project managers and other jobs that involve business analysis as a supplementary part of their job.
• Website: PMI-PBA Certification.

Which Business Analysis Certification is Right for You?

To decide which certificate to pursue, you need to analyze your own professional development. Different business analysis certifications are useful for career growth at different points in your career, and others supplement your hard skills.

Typically speaking, the more advanced the certificate, the more dedication it will require. A certificate for a business analyst with a lot of experience will require more investment in exam fees, course fees, professional references, and duration than more entry-level certificates.

If you're fresh out of college or you have a career not related to business analysis, then you should certainly pursue an IIBA entry certificate like the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA). This is a relatively low investment certificate.

Some certifications will not even be open to you unless you've put in some serious hours. Certificates like CCBA require at least a couple of years of relevant experience and certificates for more senior positions will require more than that.

Keep a good relationship with your employers as well, as many of these certificates require references. These institutes care a lot about their reputation and thus only want serious professionals to take their courses.

For the most part, the type of bachelor's degree you have will not matter, and you usually do not require a master's degree to get something like IIBA certification. However, if you lack experience and want to get a certificate related to analysis, a bachelor's degree in statistics, data science, or something analytical can satisfy your experience requirement.

Knowing Your Opportunity Cost

Some of the investment required for a business analysis certification may seem intimidating. However, in order to make money, you often have to spend money (or at least time).

Many mid-career business analysis certifications require a couple of thousand dollars and 3-6 months of work. While not cheap, this is nowhere near the same commitment it would take to acquire a college degree.

When you consider that certifications often lead to 10% increases in pay as well as the ability to jump to a higher level position, it should be easy to calculate if it is worth it for you to take this job.

To make the math simple, let's pretend that a business analyst makes $100,000 dollars. It will cost them roughly $2,500 for their certificate. A ten per cent increase of $100,000 is $10,000 dollars more. So you can already see that in year one, your certificate will pay for itself, and you will make several thousands of dollars in profit.

You will have to dedicate time to gain the certificate, but if you aspire to have more job opportunities or better job security, you will need to dedicate time to learning new skills regardless.

Check the Demand for your Business Analysis Certification

While certified professionals usually have an advantage, it would still benefit you to research how a certificate can progress your career in business analysis.

To get an understanding of the market, you can simply look at job listings for business analysts on sites like LinkedIn, Cake, or Indeed. Keep note of what credentials are often listed in the job openings. You'll likely get a feel for which certificates are appropriate with what level of experience or responsibility.

IIBA and PMI regularly have statistics related to certifications relevant to the business world.

You should also explore your network or venture to expand your network to learn more about your industry and the value of a business analysis certificate.

Platforms like Slack, Discord, Reddit, and message boards can be gold mines of information for the business. Business analysis professionals and business leaders frequently visit these places, and you can gain insight on what it takes to be competitive for the position you want.

Having a relevant network will also let you know which certificates are still trending and which ones may be going out of vogue. Today, an agile analysis certification is quite valuable, but maybe 10 years from now, a new philosophy will come in and devalue it. Keeping up with the latest industry practices will ensure that you know which certificates are useful for your career in business analysis.

How to Study for Your Certification Exam

The exam fees for certification exams are not cheap, so you'll want to take your test prep seriously. Luckily, there are a lot of resources you can dive into to prepare yourself for your certification exam.

Vising communities where business analysts can frequently supply you with long references for relevant certificate exam resources. StackExchange, Discord, Slack, and even following business leaders on Twitter can lead to more certificate exam resources than you need.

You can learn key concepts from most major online platforms. Coursera and Udemy have business courses for the certification exam. These courses are often discounted, so you can get them for cheap if you keep an eye out.

The IIBA also sells books that prepare you for their certification exams. They're rather straightforward, so if you read them and use flashcard apps like Anki, you can get well acquainted with the certification's philosophy and definitions.

Consistency is the key to studying any topic. You'll want to create a consistent schedule. Becoming a certified business analyst will require an understanding of business analysis planning, so organizing a schedule for improvement is something you'll need to do anyway.

Ideally, you should study about every day. You will usually want to review what you have gone over in the past, learn a new topic, apply the new knowledge, and occasionally plan mock tests.

The amount of time you put into your study sessions is obviously up to you. You should identify the weaknesses in your study material and dedicate more time to fixing them. Even asking an AI program to create a study schedule for you can be a good starting point, and you simply modify the times based on your experience.

For those who haven't taken a test in a long time, here are some simple ways to tackle different types of questions.

Essay Questions

• Write a short outline. You'll have a better idea of how to attack the essay when your thoughts are written in front of you.
• If possible, you'll want to cite real-life examples to support your answers to essay questions. This shows a clear understanding that not only have you learned the material, but you also have the potential to apply business analysis in real life.

Multiple Choice

• Normally, there will be answers that are easily eliminated. Mark the answers that you know are incorrect so your eyes know to look over them and concentrate more on the more practical choices.
• Don't spend too much time on multiple-choice questions. You can always go back when your brain has cleared up and answer the ones you were stuck on. If you have no idea what the answer is, then it's better to mark your best guess than to leave it blank.

Case Study

• Mark key information in the case study so you can quickly reference it for future questions.
• Use frameworks to organize the information and break down the case study for well-thought-out answers.

Short Answers

• The safest way to make a good short answer is to keep the answer brief simply. By definition, short answers are not looking for a lot of detail. Simplicity and conciseness are key.
• Most business analyst certifications are not attached heavily to particular industries. This means that if you're citing from a real-life business case, you should avoid using jargon and use more universal terms that people can understand.

There is no better way to see where you stand than to take mock tests. Both IIBA and PMI have exam prep books that will give you plenty of business problems to work with.

Alternatively, you can look at learning platforms like Udemy for practice exams.

Lastly, IIBA offers a subscription that includes mock tests, quizzes, and access to study groups, where you can meet like-minded professionals.

Conclusion

Business analysis is a growing position, and if you're interested in it, you should certainly pursue it. Obtaining a globally recognized analysis certification is a powerful way to climb up the ranks in your company, switch careers, or land an entry-level position. We also recommend you to prepare for some common interview questions for the business analyst role.

A business analysis certification can give you foundational skills to open up more job opportunities, but you can also learn how to further your career by simply reading more on Cake. Follow us to know more!