ECBA certification: An entry-level credential for business analysts

Is the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis a worthwhile cert for advancing your BA career? Here we offer training and exam info, salary data, and more.

The Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) is a credential for business analysts offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a nonprofit professional association founded in 2003 to promote the field of business analysis. According to the organization, the ECBA covers the foundational knowledge and competencies on business analysis for this in-demand field.

As its name implies, ECBA is an entry-level certification, but that doesn’t mean you should just jump into it cold. It’s also advised to supplement training with additional resources to prepare for the exam. Here, we dive into the details of the ECBA, and discuss whether an ECBA certification is worthwhile for your career. But first, let’s look at where ECBA fits into the landscape of IIBA’s credentials, and learn about the body of knowledge ECBA-certified business analysts are expected to master.

ECBA vs. CCBA vs. CBAP

ECBA is the first step in IIBA’s core sequence of credentials for business analysts. It’s succeeded by the Certification for Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) and the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP). Requirements get more extensive as you climb the ladder: CCBA and CBAP require more training, work experience, and expertise than ECBA.

Watermark Learning, a company that offers trainings for all of IIBA’s certs, breaks down the various requirements, but the important thing to know is that unlike the other certs, ECBA candidates don’t need to document professional experience in the field before they start the certification process. And while you don’t need an ECBA certification to pursue one of the higher-level certs, it definitely lays a foundation of knowledge that will be helpful if you choose to go that route.

ECBA and BABOK

Like the other IIBA certs, the ECBA draws from 2005’s A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, also known as the BABOK Guide, a continuously updated publication from IIBA that aims to serve as the ultimate reference for the business analysis industry, collecting best practices from real-world practitioners.

The BABOK Guide lays out the tasks and knowledge a business analyst should understand, and its content is divided into six sections, referred to as knowledge areas:

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

Elicitation and Collaboration

Requirements Life Cycle Management

Strategy Analysis

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition

Solution Evaluation

The Guide serves as foundational knowledge for the ECBA exam, and even if you have some experience as a business analyst, you’ll need to review the BABOK Guide before taking your exam to fully understand its perspectives and terminology.

ECBA certification training

The eligibility and processes to get the certificate have been simplified over the past year, eliminating the separate application fee and the required 21 professional development (PD) hours. As a result, there’s no specific eligibility requirements to sit the exam. What’s only required now is to just register for an IIBA account, and agree to the Code of Ethical Conduct and Professional Standards, as well as the terms and conditions. But to gain a greater foundation of knowledge, it’s recommended to explore the many training courses on the IIBA website that can help.

IIBA doesn’t offer training courses itself, and in theory, you could make a case for a wide variety of courses that might fit this description. But in practice, you’ll probably want to choose from IIBA’s list of endorsed education and training providers. Here’s also a list of nearby training courses and upcoming exam prep opportunities. All of these courses generally follow the exam syllabus and draw directly from the BABOK Guide.

ECBA exam

Once prepared, you can take the ECBA exam, which consists of 50 multiple-choice questions that must be completed in an hour.

Because ECBA is an introductory certification, it doesn’t cover the BABOK Guide knowledge areas as in-depth as higher-level IIBA certs do. The current breakdown of questions across the BABOK Guide knowledge areas are:

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring: 5%

Elicitation and Collaboration: 20%

Requirements Life Cycle Management: 20%

Requirements Analysis and Design Definition: 25%

The remaining 30% of the exam is on material drawn from across the BABOK Guide lumped together in a category IIBA labels Business Analysis Knowledge. This breaks down as:

The business analysis professional: 2.5%

Business analysis key concepts: 5%

Underlying competencies: 5%

Techniques: 17.5%

While IIBA doesn’t publicize the passing score for the CBAP exam, consensus from observers is that you’ll need to answer about 70% of questions correctly. If you fail the exam, you can retake it up to two more times in the year after your initial application for a fee.

ECBA exam fee, ECBA certification fee, and IIBA membership

As with many certifications, there are a number of fees associated with ECBA certification, but there’s no longer a separate application fee as it’s now combined with the exam fee. Candidates can purchase the new ECBA exam for $195 for members, $350 for non-members, and $150 for corporate members. If you don’t pass and want to retake it, the additional fees are $95 for members and $250 for non-members.

You may also wish to become an IIBA member, which entitles you to a number of benefits, including discounts on exam fees, access to career growth support, networking opportunities, and more. Becoming a member costs $139 in much of North America and Europe, and less in many developing nations.

ECBA exam locations

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the ECBA exam shifted to a remote proctored model, but now there are options for classroom, online, or a mixture of both. IIBA’s website also has details on some of the strict rules for taking the test online. For instance, you’re only allowed to be off-camera for a single 15-minute break, and you can only have a clear water bottle and blank paper on your desk to begin the exam. Once you’re finished, you must tear up any notes you’ve taken, to prevent you from passing on too much information about the questions to others.

ECBA study guides, sample exam questions, and practice tests

As mentioned, the primary document you’ll want to use to study for the CBAP exam is the BABOK Guide, which is available from Amazon and IIBA itself. ECBA study guides are a little thinner on the ground than those for other more prominent certifications, but the ECBA Certification Study Guide comes highly rated.

There’s a wide variety of mock exams online, and sample exam questions on the IIBA website, including:

Why is it important for a business analysis professional to know the role of stakeholders?

What type of data model is used by implementation subject matter experts to address concerns of performance, concurrency, and security?

Which element relates to documenting and maintaining requirements in accordance with the business analysis approach?

If you want to dive deeper, check out some practice tests from training companies such as TechCanvass or ProProfs.

ECBA certification salary

Possibly the biggest question anyone wants to know about a certification is if it’ll translate into more money if acquired. But this is very complex to answer, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something (a certification, probably). Nevertheless, IIBA offers some salary data that suggests a CBAP, for instance, can boost your pay. According to the IIBA’s 2023 Global State of Business Analysis Report, certified business analysts overall made more than 13% more than their noncertified peers.

Is ECBA worth it?

For those just starting out in the industry as an analyst and may not have the advantages of a high-powered college degree or Big 4 consultancy gig, an ECBA certification can be a good way to show ambitions and seriousness.

“The business analyst marketplace can be competitive,” says Diane Davidson, managing partner of Clever Fox Advisory. “When hiring a business analyst, my preference is someone from a consulting background versus an industry job. But my second criterion is to look at their certifications and project experiences. Since most certificates aren’t mandatory in the BA job field, this would show me that someone was dedicated to their career to pursue the certification.”