How to Prepare for ECBA Certification: Complete Preparation Strategy

In this article, we are going to discuss and explain the ECBA certification preparation strategy. You need to crack an online test to get the ECBA certification, so how do you prepare for the ECBA certification?

ECBA certification exam is based on IIBA BABOK Guide version 3. This book is big and can be intimidating for many especially if you are new to business analysis. So we decided to enable every ECBA certification aspirant. The motive was to adopt an efficient approach to the preparation.

Before we discuss the strategy for cracking the ECBA exam, let's understand the BABOK guide (This is the book on which the ECBA certification exam is based).

BABOK Guide Structure

It’s a well-structured and researched book, however a very difficult book to understand.This consensus based and community-driven guide describes the widely accepted practices used in the business analysis domain. It has undergone a number of revisions since 2005. Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM) is included in it. The good news is that from an ECBA certification preparation standpoint, you don’t need to go through the entire content.

The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Guide has multiple sections. The map of the section is shown below:

• The key concepts give you an overview of the essential topics that you need to go through to understand the BABOK Guide.
• Similarly, the Knowledge areas and tasks give you a base understanding of the different business analysis fields that cover different tasks.
• Then comes underlying competencies such as the abilities, actions, attributed, project knowledge, and personal standards.
• After that we have techniques, which sets the base for the ways that a task may be done.
• Finally, perspectives are used with the business analysis domain as it ensures the focus to different tasks.

The extended content of the BABOK Guide includes a concept model that unifies ideas and terminology, Restructured knowledge areas, five perspectives that covers the most essential business analysis disciplines, coverage of new business analysis techniques, updated and revised content for every knowledge area.

The scope for ECBA certification is limited. That makes your task easier. So, what’s the scope for you? We are going to discuss that in the next section.

ECBA Certification Syllabus

IIBA has changed the ECBA Syllabus from 2021. Three of the six knowledge areas have a 65% weightage from the certification exam perspective. Hence, The next important part is the Techniques section, which has 17.5% weightage.

As a result, The good news is that you can skip two of the knowledge areas completely as these have 0% weight. See the table below:

ECBA Essentials

The ECBA Certification does not have any eligibility criteria and everyone who wished to kickstart their business analysis journey can opt for the ECBA certification.

However, the only requirement is to earn 21 hours of professional development training. And this can be done by enrolling for a ECBA certification training program offered by IIBA Authorized Training Providers. After completing the course, you will be able to earn the minimum requirement for the 21 PDUs. For this you have to follow these steps:

1. Register with IIBA

2. Gain the 21 Professional Development (PD) hours within the last four years.

3. Agree with the Code of Conduct.

4. Agree with Terms and Conditions.

ECBA Exam Pattern

The ECBA Exam pattern is as follows:

• 50 MCQ questions
• 1 hour duration
• No negative marking
• Only one answer is correct

One must understand that the ECBA exam is not a memory based exam, rather it is more about understanding the concepts and understanding how things work together in totality for a business analyst.

What type of questions are expected?

To give you an idea, look at the question below:

Ques: Which attribute describes when a business requirement’s relative importance and value to a stakeholder is demonstrated?

A. Stability

B. Urgency

C. Complexity

D. Priority

This is the first question which is talking about which attribute describes when a business requirements relative importance and value to a stakeholder is demonstrated.

Now in this question it's about what can you connect to the relative importance and value to the stakeholders. Out of the four options as you can understand the relative importance is about priority, so the correct answer is priority. Now this is a conceptual understanding of the term priority and what does it mean.

People also look for ECBA Exam Tips

ECBA Preparation Strategy

ECBA Certification exam is a multiple-choice examination. It will have 50 questions and the time allotted is 1 hour.

The ECBA certification exam is available in multiple languages like English, Chinese, French, French Canadian, and Japanese.

You can follow the following steps to prepare for the ECBA certification examination:

Step 1: Plan for meeting eligibility criteria

Assuming you are new to business analysis. You should also try and understand What is business analysis, How does it work, What is the role of a business analyst, How does a business analyst do in Waterfall & Agile Projects, What are the formal business analysis skills.

This is important as this will help you in relating to the BABOK guide better. ECBA certification needs you to acquire 21 hrs of PDUs. You need to join an IIBA EEP. The EEPs should be able to cover these topics. Techcanvass is one such IIBA EEP.

So step one involves meeting the eligibility criteria and applying for the application. Once you successfully apply for the exam, you will receive the confirmation email.

Step 2: Get the BABOK Guide and study

The ECBA Certification exam has a well-defined focus. It also means that you must go through BABOK’s latest version. The best way to understand the BABOK is to have completed Step 1 or to do it along with Step 1.

You have to be consistent while reading the BABOK Guide. Start with a small number of pages every day which you can increase later. Start making notes if you prefer revising through notes.

Note: As mentioned in this article above, you can be selective in reading BABOK and focus on the 3 knowledge areas with the highest weightage.

Step 3: Practice chapter-wise Tests

This is also an important aspect of your preparation. Start by taking Knowledge area/chapter-wise tests. This will allow you to assess your understanding of each chapter. For instance, you can start with the key concepts chapter. Our question bank has a large number of these questions.

Reporting: Our question bank simulator also has comprehensive reporting. It helps you in order to analyze each test with detailed answers. It also allows you to know your overall performance anytime.

Step 4: Revisit chapters to improve weak areas

This step involves revisiting the chapters to check your level of preparation.You need to finish all the chapter wise tests. Once you have completed all the tests go through the performance statistics.

The performance dashboard shows all the attempted tests with less than 70 score so wherever you have scored less than 70 percent, you should go back and check it so that you know which were your weak areas so there is a detailed analysis.

Step 5: Start revision of BABOK

Now in this step, it's the step when you start revising the BABOK. If you have prepared notes, go through it or use our revision guide. You can also use the flashcards to revise the key terms and concepts.

This is an important step as it will help you self-assess your knowledge of the previously studied chapters and knowledge areas.

Step 6: Practice full-length tests

Once you are able to do well in chapter wise tests (target 70% score), go for the full-length tests. In our ECBA Question bank, we have multiple full-length tests (up to 7 tests). These are in addition to the chapter-wise tests. Overall, we have more than 1000+ questions in our question bank.

Conditioning: Take the full-length test informal environment so that you are also prepared mentally for the actual exam. Visit our ECBA Question bank page to know more about the questions.

Step 7: Schedule the exam

Finally, once you feel confident in taking the exam, you can login to the IIBA official website, and schedule the exam by paying the fees.

Conclusion

Achieving ECBA certification demonstrates a commitment to personal and professional growth in the business analysis field. Moreover, ECBA certification has a pass rate of over 50%, making it an accessible entry-level certification. Are you looking to crack it on the first attempt? If yes, then you need the right training and guidance.

The ECBA Certification Training offered by us is one of the best options to boost your capability and proficiency in the business analysis field. The training will empower you with the skill sets needed to make a career change or simply elevate your current role within the organization

On enrollment, you will have complete access to live sessions conducted by industry experts, preparation resources, mind maps, mock tests and questions, interview preparation sessions, doubt-clearing sessions, and much more.

The ECBA Certification will enable you to become a business analyst as it equips you with the right knowledge and skills of the domain.