Steps to Apply for the PMI-PBA® Certification Exam

Step 1 – Complete Certification Prerequisites

All Project Management Institute (PMI) certifications have prerequisites before you are eligible to apply for the certification. You may find below the credentials required for the PMI-PBA® exam.

PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® Certification Exam

  • Secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree or
  • 7,500 hours of business analysis experience
  • 2,000 hours working on project teams*
  • 35 contact hours of education in business analysis

OR

  • Bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent
  • 4,500 hours of business analysis experience
  • 2,000 hours working on project teams*
  • 35 contact hours of education in business analysis

According to PMI, Project experience can include your business analysis experience. Moreover, a current PMP® or PgMP® will satisfy the 2000 hours project team experience requirement but is not required for the PMI-PBA.

The 35 hours of project management education may be accomplished by joining our PMI-PBA® Exam Prep Courses.

We find it best that you prepare all documents pertaining to the prerequisites for each certification before starting the application process.

Step 2 – Complete Online Application

As it is an online application, you will need to register for MyPMI account at the PMI website. According to PMI, you will need the following information:

  • Contact information — email, address, phone number
  • Education attained — school attended, level of education attained, degree date
  • Domain experience — details of the projects, programs, portfolios you’ve worked on including qualifying hours, dates of employment, role, organization details, reference, and experience summary
  • Domain education — names of courses completed, institutions attended, dates, qualifying hours

You may also indicate preferred exam language in the online registration which may be an advantage for you if English is not your native language.

Once you have all the details above and the documents needed, you can start with filling out the online application form. Please note that the account will only be active for 90 days once you’ve started on the application process.

If you have taken our PMI-PBA® Exam Prep Course, we will fully assist you with your application.

Step 3 – Application Review

Upon submission, PMI will review your application to verify if you are eligible to take the certification exam. Afterwards, an email will be sent to you once they have completed their review within 5-10 days from the date of submission. To ensure the credibility of the certification program and its holders, PMI also conducts audits for a specified percentage of applications that are randomly chosen per certification.

Should you be chosen for the random audit and you have taken our PMI-PBA® Exam Prep Course, we will also extend you our assistance in completing the audit process.

Step 4 – Payment and Scheduling

Payment comes after receiving the email of approval from PMI. The best way to make your payment is through their online certification system. After paying, you will then receive an eligibility number that you will use to schedule your appointment.

All PMI certifications except CAPM are scheduled at any one of Prometric’s worldwide testing sites.

For CAPM, appointment can be scheduled through a testing site or in an online proctored environment via Pearson VUE by logging-in to your MyPMI account and following the instructions.

You may refer below to the exam fees for the PMI-PBA® certification.

CertificationExam Fee
PMI MemberNon-Member
PMI – PBA®$405$555

You may visit PMI.org (PMI link) and download the certification handbooks for further details for PMI-PBA® and other PMI certifications

References:

PMI.org

Applying for PMI-PBA and Registering for the Exam