PMI-PBA® tests whether you can do business analysis in a way that is decision-ready: frame the real need, plan the work, elicit and model requirements, manage change with traceability, and evaluate outcomes against value and success criteria.
For the latest official exam details and requirements, see:
https://www.pmi.org/certifications/business-analysis-pba
Official exam snapshot (PMI)
Source: PMI-PBA Handbook — revised 24 May 2022.
- Items: 200 multiple-choice questions
- Scored vs pretest: 175 scored + 25 unscored pretest items (randomly placed throughout the exam)
- Exam time: 4 hours (240 minutes)
- Breaks: no scheduled breaks (unscheduled breaks are allowed, but the timer continues)
- Tutorial + survey: optional; up to 15 minutes each; not included in exam time
- Delivery: computer-based testing (CBT) is standard; paper-based testing (PBT) is available under limited circumstances
Eligibility (from the PMI-PBA handbook)
You need 35 contact hours of training in business analysis practices, plus business analysis experience earned within the last 8 years:
| Education | Business analysis experience required |
|---|
| Secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or global equivalent) | 60 months |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher (or global equivalent) | 36 months |
| Bachelor’s or post‑graduate degree from a GAC accredited program | 24 months (unique, non-overlapping) |
Always confirm details in the official PMI certification page and handbook.
Official domain weights (PMI-PBA)
The PMI-PBA blueprint specifies the proportion of scored content by domain (they sum to 100%):
| Domain | Weight | Target scored items (out of 175) |
|---|
| Needs Assessment | 18% | 32 |
| Planning | 22% | 39 |
| Analysis | 35% | 61 |
| Traceability and Monitoring | 15% | 26 |
| Evaluation | 10% | 17 |
Note: Target item counts are an allocation of the 175 scored questions (rounded to sum to 175).
What questions tend to reward
- Correct technique selection: choosing an elicitation/modeling approach that fits constraints and stakeholder dynamics.
- Clarity and testability: requirements that are unambiguous, verifiable, and tied to outcomes.
- Value framing: benefits, costs, and risks stated in decision-ready terms (not feature lists).
- Traceability thinking: impact analysis and “what breaks if we change this?” reasoning.
- Governance realism: approvals, decision rights, and change control that prevent churn and surprises.
Common pitfalls
- Starting with a solution (“build X”) instead of clarifying the business need and success criteria.
- Writing requirements that are not testable (vague adjectives, missing thresholds, unclear actors/conditions).
- Ignoring nonfunctional requirements (security, privacy, performance, usability) until late.
- Losing traceability, then being unable to explain scope, impacts, or benefit links.
- Treating stakeholder conflict as noise instead of a core BA problem to resolve.
A practical prep loop
- Use the Syllabus as your checklist.
- After each task set, review the matching part of the Cheatsheet and write a short miss log.
- Do focused drills in Practice, then re-drill the objectives behind every miss.
- Finish with mixed sets that force you to combine needs assessment + planning + analysis + traceability + evaluation in realistic scenarios.
Official references used for this syllabus
The learning objectives are derived from the PMI-PBA exam blueprint (PMI-PBA Handbook) and business analysis practice guidance.
PMI standards portal:
https://www.pmi.org/standards