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The CBIP Certification (Certified Business Intelligence Professional) is a general business intelligence and data warehousing certification offered by the widely respected The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) http://tdwi.org/cbip. This is the industry’s only independent professional certification program and builds upon your core Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing knowledge.
Certification exams
The certification is based on three exams. Two exams are mandatory:
- Information Systems Core exam
- Data Warehousing exam
The third exam can be chosen from a list of four specialty areas:
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- Leadership and management exam
This exam “…requires deep process knowledge, including development methodology, program and project management, as well as organizational and team-building skills. An understanding of business topics such as BPM, CRM and SCM is also needed”
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- Business Analytics
This exam requires an “…understanding of both business and technical topics: concepts of performance management, business metrics definition and delivery, data visualisation, deployment and use of technology solutions such as OLAP, dashboards, scorecard, analytic applications and data mining.”
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- Data Analysis and Design
This exam “…concentrates on understanding business needs… Skills include analysis, business metrics specification, relational and dimensional modelling, as well as an understanding of data warehousing concepts, architetures and processes.”
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- Data Integration
This exam aims to demonstrate your “…proficiency in acquiring, transforming and cleansing data. Mastery of concepts and skills for source data analysis and source qualification, data profiling, source/target mapping, data cleansing and transformation, and ETL development”
The CBIP exam format
Each exam consists of 110 multiple choice questions that need to be answered in 90 minutes. Those who successfully complete the three exams will receive their certificates within 8 weeks. However, your exam score is notified to you as soon as you finish the exam. Once you pass your first CBIP exam, you have 12 months to pass the remaining two exams.
CBIP Certification Levels
There are two certification level outcomes, dependent on your exam scores: Practitioner level and Mastery level. A score of 50% or more on each of the three exams will result in you attaining Practitioner level certification. A score of 70% or more on each of the three exams will result in you attaining Mastery level certification.
CBIP Certification Fees
The cost of each exam is $325 for TDWI Premium Members / $350 for free Members. The cost of each proctored exam is $400 (for both TDWI Premium Members and Free Members). After your first year of certification, an annual fee of $125 is payable.
CBIP Preparation
The exams do not require that you attend any specific courses or learn specific material. It is based on the depth of your knowledge and experience in the chosen areas. However, the TDWI offers exam guides and exam preparation courses covering all the tested areas, suggested reading materials, sample exam questions and answers/explanations for these exams. This material may help you identify and address any gaps in your knowledge.
How can you take the CBIP exams?
The exam can be taken in three ways:
- At TDWI world conferences (tdwi.org/conferences)
- Via TDWI Onsite Education (tdwi.org/onsite)
- Via proctored method (cbip@tdwi.org).
CBIP Re-certification
Your certification is valid for four years. After this, you should renew your certification every three years. To renew, you need to demonstrate 120 credit hours of continuing education earned since your last renewal. (tdwi.org/cbip/recertification)
CBIP Books
The following books may help you with the Information Systems (IS) Core exam:
Management Information Systems for the Information Age
The following books may help you with the Data Warehousing exam:
The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 3rd Edition
Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications
The following books may help you with the Business Analytics exam:
Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business
Quantitative Methods for Business (with Printed Access Card)
The following books may help you with the Management exam:
Good luck!