Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®)

Congratulations Rami, I would like to Express my admiration for your unlimited ambition.
Go ahead

Posted: May 12, 2019 9:44 PM

Congratulations,
One more, you will have a job just manage to maintain all those certifications.
What is your perception of the difference between CPAB and PMI-PBA?
any gain from cumulating both?

Posted: May 13, 2019 9:19 AM

@Mohammad: Thank you, appreciate it.

@Vincent: Managing and maintaining the certifications is not an issue. Most of my certificates are valid for the next 6 years so I am good on this front.

There is a huge difference between both the CBAP and PBA. I will write and article on this when time allows as there are lots of major differences and minor similarities.

As for obtaining both, yes, I learned a lot from both because PBA concentrates more on BA working in a project environment while CBAP have more emphasis Enterprise wise.

Posted: May 13, 2019 3:28 PM

Congratulations Rami, thank you for sharing your journey

Posted: May 14, 2019 5:06 AM

@Julie: Thank You

Posted: May 14, 2019 1:54 PM

Hi Rami - it's great to see your passion for business analysis. I would like to provide an opposing but constructive view about your statement regarding the difference between CBAP and PBA. I do not agree with your statement about the PBA being more for project environment only. The entire Needs Assessment domain is focused solely on the pre project activities as well as Solution Evaluation being on post project. What specifically makes you state that the PBA is not enterprise-wide? Disclaimer - I chaired the development of both the BABOK Guide v3 and PMI's 2 standards in business analysis. It was very important to me that we defined business analysis consistently - because its a competency and profession which doesn't change based on which organization talks about it. I am very interested in your feedback. For anyone holding a PMP or PgMP the PMI-PBA is a no brainer if you are looking for business analysis certification. For one - the PDUs you earn can apply to both credentials. I hold both as you do, but would love to hear you expand upon your statement. If we have missed our objective in building the standards to support the PBA - I would love to learn from you. Thank you.

Posted: Nov 14, 2019 8:44 PM

Laura

Thanks for your constructive feedback. Below are my comments:

- You are right: The needs assessment and solution evaluation domains tackles pre and post project activities but they both revolve around projects and very lightly extends to tackle the Business Analysis on an enterprise level while the BABOK does.

I am not the only one who concluded this. The below article might be of interest to you as it tackles some of the points you raised. Andrea has the same opinion (PBA Project Based vs. CBAP Enterprise Based):

https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/539651/PMI-PBA-sup----sup---From-What-It-Is--to-I-Did-It--Q-A

- I did my PBA exam in March 2019 and less that two months after than, I sat for my CBAP Exam. While I understand and agree with you that both standards should be consistent as this is a competency that is not organization based, I can tell you with complete confidence that there is a significant difference between both standards which was surprising to me. I was under the impression that CBAP will be a no brainer for someone with experience who just sat for the PBA exam but I came to a realization at some point that I need to forget what I studied for the PBA (For the most part) and start from scratch for my studies to the CBAP (Yes, the difference was that much significant - I can't recall specific details now, but if I surf both standards again I might be able to point out some specifics). If I based my studies for the CBAP on what I’ve learned from the PBA, I would have either scored very low or probably failed the exam which in a perfect world should not be the case if both standards were consistent enough. Correct me if I am wrong ?

Even the terminology is both standards has some differences.

On a side note, I spoke with many of my fellow colleagues who have both the PBA & CBAP and they have the same exact opinion about the above two points. I was going to write an article about the major differences between both the PBA & CBAP at that time but then I changed my mind due to work load.

On a last note, and that's my personal opinion: While BABOK existed way before the PMI-PBA practice standard, and regardless of the content of both, the PMI-PBA Practice standard is way more well structured that the BABOK V3. It is a very comprehensive standard and you guys did a very good job at putting this standard together.

I suggest that a committee be formed between PMI and IIBA to review both standards again and ensure more consistency as this will best serve the profession in my opinion. It is all about inspecting and adapting and I will be happy to take part in this project.

I hope the above feedback helps - I always strive to learn from professionals like you Laura. We live and learn everyday !

Thank you again for your input.

RK

Posted: Nov 15, 2019 3:10 AM

Thanks again Rami for your response. I think you bring up some great points, but there is a mix of points being made - so let me try to untangle.
1. You are comparing the standards AND the certifications. I was speaking about the standards being consistent. If the exams have a look and feel that are different - that is a different discussion and one for simplicity I will take off the table for now.
2. For clarity - I chaired and served as a core writer for the BABOK Guide too - so I'll still stand by my original statement that the concepts are the same. Business analysis is not different based on who speaks to it. Do we call it strategy analysis in one and needs assessment in another - absolutely - but its the same activities.
3. The BABOK Guide v3 did not get published years prior to The PMI Guide - both published in 2018. It just took much longer to publish BABOK (meaning I started that project in 2013 where the PMI project was started in 2017). What the community received above and beyond with The PMI Guide was a deeper look at how business analysis is performed on agile projects - check out the tailoring tables. With BABOK Guide there is an agile extension - so the agile context is outside the BABOK Guide for the most part.
4. I don't doubt at all, that there aren't others that are confused about the breadth of business analysis as defined by PMI. If there is confusion (and you point out that there is) that is something that should be addressed in the next version of The PMI Guide BUT do make sure you check out the early chapters of The PMI Guide - because we speak of how business analysis aligns to Portfolio and Product Management. We speaking to the Defining and Aligning process group (that is from portfolio management). With PMI having standards in the larger enterprise space - it would have made no sense for us to have narrowly focused business analysis on the project space. If people are speaking before reading - that could be a big problem. If people are reading and then speaking - and they are walking away thinking we didn't speak from an enterprise perspective - then we need to keep repeating that message.


I sat in on many harmonization meetings between the authors of the portfolio and program standards - so I can tell you - intent was there! What I have seen in most cases - people are speaking before reading (but not saying that is the case with this post). Just a pattern I have seen. Maybe we still have more work to do.
5. Regarding harmonization between organizations - I would say I haven't seen Apple working with Google on a next version of a phone - so I wouldn't expect that to occur here. :-) As anyone interested in business analysis - value the resources you have at your disposal. Competition provides options - that us as consumers can compare/contrast and benefit from.

I do appreciate your feedback.

By the way...thanks for the link to Andrea's article...she's a great professional~ and BA advocate.

Posted: Nov 15, 2019 1:47 PM

Laura,

Thanks for your feedback. It will difficult to reflect our opinion and point of view clearly and fully via a comment or even a message but I will try. Please note my comments below:

1- I am definitely not comparing exams and won’t touch on this subject because every organization has its own way of testing candidates and that’s something you can’t compare. I am purely comparing standards but what I am trying to say here is if standards were consistent enough, you should be able to pass either exams but reading either standards. As an example, Scrum, many organizations provide different scrum certifications, but if you study any of scrum guides, you will be able to pass the exam for Scrum for any of the organizations because it is consistent and scrum is a framework, not a competency so one would suspect, that since BA is a competency, it should be consistent as well.

2- I do not fully disagree with you on this but do not fully agree either. It might be the same activities but the sequence and structure of those activities is a bit different and I stand by my statement too although I am sure you know much better than I do and you are way more versed than I am in the business analysis world but I have to be honest with you about what I personally noticed.

3- I am aware of this as I am IIBA-AAC certified and one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and obtain this credential is because it is outside of the BABOK like you mentioned.

How both projects were running is news to me (Thanks for sharing this) and I guess what I was trying to say here goes beyond publishing guides and I meant to indicate is that IIBA existed from 2003 and the CBAP I believe was introduced in 2005 while the PMI-PBA was launched in 2014 and despite this, I really find the recently launched Practice Standard for PBA way more structured than BABOK.

4- As I mentioned, the people who share the same opinion as mine are both PBA and CBAP certified so I trust they did read both standards in details and that’s how they came to their conclusion. I, for one, can speak about myself, I did read both standards extremely well cover to cover because my intent behind doing the certifications is not adding letters after my name but to learn and improve myself in order to help grow the profession so I take this very seriously and never speak before I read, analyze and evaluate so my comments were not based on what others said but on my own personal experience that is a result of an in-depth Analysis.

I think part of inspecting and adapting, there are many things that needs to be addressed in the next versions of both PBA guide and BABOK. I will be happy to take part in this exercise when it is launched (should my time allow) for either standards as I know that every few year, there is a new edition for those standards.

5- You can’t compare Google and Apple working on a phone product to PMI and IIBA working on a standard for a competency like BA. That’s not comparable at all. No one would expect Apple and Google to have the same phones as this is a product, it is a business and each organization is competitive in its own way but how is this the same for Business Analysis ? :-) Come on Laura.

I appreciate all resources and organizations. My intent is always to help grow others and help grow the profession regardless of the organization and my intent goes beyond any standards.

Not sure if I was able to reflect my points of view properly but I sure tired and please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions. Constructive disagreements always lead to Productive Results :-)

I appreciate your input, always.

Posted: Nov 15, 2019 5:27 PM

Congrats Rami - You are an Inspiration!

Posted: Jan 7, 2020 10:52 AM

Alberto

Thank you so much for your kind compliment.

RK

Posted: Jan 7, 2020 11:56 AM