The Salesforce Business Analyst is a great way to show that you have a specific skill set within salesforce. This skill set includes investigating needs and requirements.
Then turning those needs and requirements into solutions delivered on time to the customer!
This certification is filled with lots of vocabulary however once you are familiar with the vocab then this certification is a lot of common sense/logic!
Also, this certification does have a prerequisite of the Administrator Certification.
Lastly, a quick plug for our course. We just soft-released a course that covers the material on the Salesforce Business Analyst Exam.
We currently have a glossary and practice exam and will be adding video lectures to the course in the coming weeks.
So chances are if you are viewing this in 2023 and beyond are that we have the video lectures done!
The Salesforce Business Analyst Exam
As previously mentioned this exam is a lot of vocabulary with some common sense and logic applied.
Once you know the vocabulary and the context of when to use each tool this certification will be a breeze!
Let’s dive into the details of this exam. Most of the certifications I have taken from Salesforce have had a choose 1 out of 4 options or a choose 2 out of 5 options question structure.
This exam is different but is similar to the associate exam question structure. You will be asked to choose 1 out of 3 options.
Also this certification has either 60 or 65 questions depending on if you are given the 5 extra non-scored questions (I did).
Finally, this exam is the same time and cost as the Admin exam which is $200 for first attempts $100 for retakes and the exam must be completed in one hour and forty-five minutes.
The Business Analyst Exam Sections
There are 6 sections of the exam each one is around 20% with some weighted more and some weighted less.
While most topics covered on the exam are under the umbrella of these sections. A portion of the topics are not listed or are listed under the duties and skills of a business analyst rather than the exam sections.
These sections are as follows.
First, Customer Discover at 17% of the exam. This section deals a lot with the different ways and techniques you can understand the clients business processes and guide the implementation process into the desired future state.
The next section is Collaboration with Stakeholders at 24% which makes this the largest section on the exam. Simply put this section is all about understanking the different people on all sides of a project and bringing them together to create a great product. This includes executives, users, developers, middle managers, etc.
The third section is Business Process Mapping at 16%. This section largely covers the different types of maps you will need to use in the process of an implementation. If you are able to learn the different maps and understand the scenarios for which they are used, then this section will be a breeze!
Next is the Requirements section at 17%. You will mostly run into two types of questions. Ones that ask you to distinquish if new requirements fit into the scope and other questions that ask you to distinquish users stories from requirements.
Then you will run into the User Stories section at 18%. This section will give you a lot of user story samples and determine which portion of the user story is wrong or could be written better.
Finally you have User Acceptance at 8% making it the smallest section on the exam. You will likely see some questions about how to keep the user acceptance testing on track!
Studying for the Certification
There are so many ways to study for this certification. If you have some expereince in delivering projects in salesforce using an agile methodoligy then this shouldn’t take too long to study for and pass!
There are a few resources I would recommend using when preparing for this.
You should go through the trailmix on this certification and pay particular attention to the terms that are on this trailmix. Here
While this will prepare you a fair amount, not everthing on the exam was covered on the trailmix. You’ll need to do additional research especially when it comes to the specific business maps.
We have a course that covers these topics in a glossary, video lectures, and a practice exam. Here
If you are looking for additional practice exams you can find some on focus on force. Here
There are currently 2 practice exam on there. They are slightly more difficult than the actual exam and are written with less detail in the question.
Also, the first exam is roughly 7% easier than the second. So keep that in mind!
What this means in Salesforce Circles
Finally let’s talk about what this certificaiton means to the greater salesforce community.
From the first 6 months of this certification being live in the ecosystem I have noticed that this exam helps recruiters and hiring managers understand that you know how to work with stakeholders.
While this one might not give you a business analyst job, it will help you work towards a postion where you are working with stakeholders and performing salesforce business analyst functionalities!
Conclusion
A big congrats to you for making it through this blog post! We hope you found it useful!
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