The International Institute of Business Analysis™ announced changes to the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis™ exam. The IIBA® created the ECBA™ certificate for people new to business analysis: school graduates, people at the beginning of their business analysis carrier, and professionals who consider a carrier switch. When we look at the current exam, it covers all six knowledge areas of BABOK®, but some of these knowledge areas are rarely in the scope of activity for a starting professional. Therefore the IIBA® decided to remove Strategy Analysis and Solution Evaluation knowledge areas from the ECBA™ curriculum. This decision lowers the percentage of the exam based on BABOK® from 75% to 70%.

At the same time, IIBA® decided to put more emphasis on business analysis tools and techniques. A starting professional must indeed invest in his toolbox. He should know a wide range of techniques, their advantages, and disadvantages to ensure he selects the best tool for the task he has to perform. As a consequence, the non-BABOK® related part of the exam curriculum increased from 25% to 30% and the techniques got the whole increase (from 12,5% to 17,5%).

The exam changes will be effective starting from March 1, 2021. The IIBA website is not yet updated (15-02-2021), but this website will shortly provide you with more details about the change. IIBA released the note about the new exam, that you can read here.

We updated our video on the ECBA™ exam to reflect these changes and ensure you have up-to-date information on certifications. We strongly believe that these changes to the ECBA™ exam bring this exam closer to its audience and result in a smoother application of the learnings to the project practice.