PMI-PBA Exam
200-question business analysis exam focused on business analysis practices, requirements, stakeholders, and solution evaluation.
- Type
- Written
- Delivery
- Both
- Duration
- 240 min
- Questions
- 200
Exam sections
Needs Assessment
The Needs Assessment section covers needs assessment, elicitation, requirements analysis, traceability, solution evaluation, stakeholder validation, and the connection between business problems and measurable outcomes. For PMI Professional in Business Analysis, this domain emphasizes the decisions a practitioner makes when translating objectives into delivery work, coordinating people, managing uncertainty, and producing outcomes that stakeholders can recognize as valuable.
Question notes
Weight: about 18% of the exam content for this certification. PMI questions are often task- and scenario-oriented, so expect wording that asks what the practitioner should do next, which action best supports the objective, or how to handle competing constraints. For Needs Assessment, expect business analysis, requirements, traceability, and solution evaluation scenarios, with questions that may blend this objective with neighboring exam areas instead of isolating it as a standalone topic.
Preparation tips
When preparing for Needs Assessment, use PMI terminology carefully, but also practice applying it to predictive, agile, hybrid, governance, stakeholder, risk, and value-delivery situations rather than memorizing definitions alone. Work from a business need to elicitation, requirements models, acceptance criteria, traceability, change impact, validation, and post-delivery evaluation. Spend extra time on applied scenarios, because higher-level questions usually reward judgment, sequencing, and tradeoff analysis.
Planning
The Planning section covers planning logic, scope decomposition, sequencing, estimation, baselines, dependencies, constraints, progress analysis, and the management decisions needed to keep delivery predictable. For PMI Professional in Business Analysis, this domain emphasizes the decisions a practitioner makes when translating objectives into delivery work, coordinating people, managing uncertainty, and producing outcomes that stakeholders can recognize as valuable.
Question notes
Weight: about 22% of the exam content for this certification. PMI questions are often task- and scenario-oriented, so expect wording that asks what the practitioner should do next, which action best supports the objective, or how to handle competing constraints. For Planning, expect planning, scheduling, predictive delivery, and control scenarios, with questions that may blend this objective with neighboring exam areas instead of isolating it as a standalone topic.
Preparation tips
When preparing for Planning, use PMI terminology carefully, but also practice applying it to predictive, agile, hybrid, governance, stakeholder, risk, and value-delivery situations rather than memorizing definitions alone. Practice translating objectives into plans, schedules, baselines, milestones, dependencies, change impacts, and status reports that support realistic decisions. Spend extra time on applied scenarios, because higher-level questions usually reward judgment, sequencing, and tradeoff analysis.
Analysis
The Analysis section covers needs assessment, elicitation, requirements analysis, traceability, solution evaluation, stakeholder validation, and the connection between business problems and measurable outcomes. For PMI Professional in Business Analysis, this domain emphasizes the decisions a practitioner makes when translating objectives into delivery work, coordinating people, managing uncertainty, and producing outcomes that stakeholders can recognize as valuable.
Question notes
Weight: about 35% of the exam content for this certification. PMI questions are often task- and scenario-oriented, so expect wording that asks what the practitioner should do next, which action best supports the objective, or how to handle competing constraints. For Analysis, expect business analysis, requirements, traceability, and solution evaluation scenarios, with questions that may blend this objective with neighboring exam areas instead of isolating it as a standalone topic.
Preparation tips
When preparing for Analysis, use PMI terminology carefully, but also practice applying it to predictive, agile, hybrid, governance, stakeholder, risk, and value-delivery situations rather than memorizing definitions alone. Work from a business need to elicitation, requirements models, acceptance criteria, traceability, change impact, validation, and post-delivery evaluation. Spend extra time on applied scenarios, because higher-level questions usually reward judgment, sequencing, and tradeoff analysis.
Traceability and Monitoring
The Traceability and Monitoring section covers operational monitoring, event interpretation, reliability practices, service health indicators, automation, escalation paths, improvement loops, and the controls needed to keep services stable and secure. For PMI Professional in Business Analysis, this domain emphasizes the decisions a practitioner makes when translating objectives into delivery work, coordinating people, managing uncertainty, and producing outcomes that stakeholders can recognize as valuable.
Question notes
Weight: about 15% of the exam content for this certification. PMI questions are often task- and scenario-oriented, so expect wording that asks what the practitioner should do next, which action best supports the objective, or how to handle competing constraints. For Traceability and Monitoring, expect operations, monitoring, reliability, and service-health scenarios, with questions that may blend this objective with neighboring exam areas instead of isolating it as a standalone topic.
Preparation tips
When preparing for Traceability and Monitoring, use PMI terminology carefully, but also practice applying it to predictive, agile, hybrid, governance, stakeholder, risk, and value-delivery situations rather than memorizing definitions alone. Study how metrics, logs, traces, alerts, runbooks, service targets, and retrospectives connect daily operations with reliability, security, and continual improvement. Spend extra time on applied scenarios, because higher-level questions usually reward judgment, sequencing, and tradeoff analysis.
Evaluation
The Evaluation section covers needs assessment, elicitation, requirements analysis, traceability, solution evaluation, stakeholder validation, and the connection between business problems and measurable outcomes. For PMI Professional in Business Analysis, this domain emphasizes the decisions a practitioner makes when translating objectives into delivery work, coordinating people, managing uncertainty, and producing outcomes that stakeholders can recognize as valuable.
Question notes
Weight: about 10% of the exam content for this certification. PMI questions are often task- and scenario-oriented, so expect wording that asks what the practitioner should do next, which action best supports the objective, or how to handle competing constraints. For Evaluation, expect business analysis, requirements, traceability, and solution evaluation scenarios, with questions that may blend this objective with neighboring exam areas instead of isolating it as a standalone topic.
Preparation tips
When preparing for Evaluation, use PMI terminology carefully, but also practice applying it to predictive, agile, hybrid, governance, stakeholder, risk, and value-delivery situations rather than memorizing definitions alone. Work from a business need to elicitation, requirements models, acceptance criteria, traceability, change impact, validation, and post-delivery evaluation. Spend extra time on applied scenarios, because higher-level questions usually reward judgment, sequencing, and tradeoff analysis.