Guide to Salesforce Business Analyst Certification
The Salesforce Business Analyst Certification is crafted for those who have practical experience and are adept at following Salesforce best practices. This includes leveraging their skills to facilitate project discovery, conduct process mapping, and write comprehensive user stories.
This guide covers key topics and the best strategy for studying and taking the exam. Don’t forget to review the Trailhead exam guide, as you should be prepared for both feature-based technical questions and scenario-based ones.
Ideal Candidate Profile
This exam is targeted at Salesforce Administrators or Business Analysts who understand Salesforce’s capabilities and can grasp business needs and challenges. This is particularly important for collaborating with stakeholders and the project team for successful delivery.
Introduced in July 2022, the Business Analyst credential is relatively new. Although it might seem straightforward initially, Salesforce recommends having a couple of years of hands-on experience before attempting the exam. Previously, the Salesforce Administrator certification was a prerequisite, but this requirement was removed on May 2nd, 2023. Starting with the Summer’23 release, this certification will have its own maintenance module on Trailhead.
For those looking to transition into a Business Analyst role within the Salesforce ecosystem, enhance their skills in requirements gathering and stakeholder management, or validate their existing knowledge, this certification is an excellent step toward achieving those goals.
Key Topics
Salesforce exams cover various topics, each with different weightings. The Business Analyst certification will test your knowledge in six key areas.
- Collaboration with Stakeholders (24%) This section focuses on understanding and gathering requirements, identifying stakeholders, and facilitating agreement on next steps. It includes both simple and complex scenario-based questions. Key skills include acting as a liaison between business and technical teams and being comfortable with how Salesforce features integrate into business processes. Prioritization and negotiation skills are also essential.
- Customer Discovery (17%) and Requirements (17%) Together, these sections account for 34% of the exam. The Customer Discovery section tests your ability to map the current state of a customer’s system and identify areas for improvement. The Requirements section focuses on consolidating ideas from stakeholder discussions into documented, prioritized future state requirements.
- Business Process Mapping (16%) This section addresses best practices for documenting processes, defining scope and resources, and breaking down complex processes into manageable parts.
- User Stories (18%) and User Acceptance (8%) These sections, comprising 26% of the exam, focus on documenting User Stories and conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Questions will cover where and how to create User Stories, defining acceptance criteria, and preparing Test Plans for UAT.
Study Strategy
Scheduling the exam soon after its launch can confirm your understanding of processes, best practices, and the role of a Business Analyst within a project. Study time will vary based on prior experience and projects.
Salesforce provides a dedicated Trailmix for the certification, which includes necessary information and modules to prepare for each section. Trailhead offers scenario-based experiences to help you gain consulting skills, such as correctly interpreting requirements. Completing Superbadges, particularly the Admin Super Set and the Business Administration Specialist badge, can provide additional, practical experience.
To make studying more engaging, create a fictional business with its own requirements and challenges. Use a Salesforce Developer edition Org to test and implement everything from the inside out.
Exam Strategy
Here are some tips to maximize your chances of passing the exam:
- Cheat Sheet: Memorize a cheat sheet of difficult concepts before the exam.
- Pay Attention: Read each question carefully, especially scenario-based ones, to catch clues in the answer options.
- Process of Elimination: Eliminate obviously incorrect answers to narrow down your choices.
- Mark for Review: Use the “Mark for review” checkbox for questions you’re unsure about, and review them at the end if time permits.
If you don’t pass on your first attempt, note the challenging topics for further study. Schedule the retake soon to keep the information fresh. Salesforce allows up to three attempts per release, with a half-price fee for retakes.
Useful Tips and Resources
- Bookmark the official Trailhead Exam Guide for revision.
- Test features and concepts in a Developer Org or Trailhead Playground to prepare for detailed questions.
- Book your exam once you feel confident to set a target date for focused study.
- Download eBooks with tips for Salesforce certification.
Final Thoughts
The Business Analyst certification emphasizes stakeholder interaction and collaboration throughout a project’s lifecycle, making it a valuable credential for those in the Salesforce ecosystem.
