Certification Application Appeal

Process

October 2010

1. Purpose:
This document is intended to document the process that the International Institute of
Business Analysis (IIBA) Certification Program will follow to process all declined
Certification applications that are appealed for any reason. It will document the entire
process beginning with the receipt of the decline notice by the applicant through the sending
of the result of the appeal review process to the applicant. The result of the appeal must be
sent back to the applicant within 2 weeks of the date the Certification team received the
completed appeal form.
There is a separate process to cover the appeal/review process for a failed certification exam.

2. The Certification Appeal Committee:

The Reviewers will be appointed by the Certification Body. Each Reviewer and the Chair
must be a CBAP recipient.
The process and length of the appointments will be determined by the Certification Body. It
is expected that a Reviewer will disqualify themselves (and be replaced for the particular
appeal by the Certification Body) from an appeal if they anticipate any conflict for a
particular application.
There will be three active Reviewers appointed to consider appeals. There will also be a nonvoting Appeal Committee Chair appointed by the Certification Body.

3. The Appeal Process:

Following is the step by step process for processing appeals of declined applications:
1.

The applicant receives an email that his/her application to take the certification exam has
been declined. The exact reason(s) will be described in the email.

2.

An applicant who wants to appeal the decline of their application must fill out the
Application Appeal Form found at the end of this document.
a.

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The completed appeal form must reference the actual decline email to allow the
Reviewers to tie the decline email, the appeal form and the applicants original
application together.

b.

NOTE: Only clarification of the information provided in the original application

will be considered in the appeal. Therefore, applicants may not include additional
Work Experience hours in order to meet either the Work Experience or
Knowledge Area requirements, and/or include additional Professional
Development hours as these will not be considered by the Appeal Committee.
In addition, declined applications that had hours deducted from the Total BA
Hours field because the work experience selected was not aligned with the
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) will not be considered for
appeal. Applicants are encouraged throughout the application process to ensure
that all work experience provided aligns with the Business Analysis Body of
Knowledge (BABOK). Furthermore, the instructions in the application form
and in the CBAP Handbook or CCBA Handbook (as applicable) explicitly state
that hours may be deducted from the Total BA Hours submitted for tasks that are
selected which do not align with the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
(BABOK). The instructions also explicitly state that this could result in the
Total BA Hours falling below the required amount, and thus the application being
declined.

c.

The completed appeal form must be sent, preferably via e-mail, to the
Certification team at certification@theiiba.org or via mail to the address listed on
the IIBA website.

3.

The appeal form is received and checked by the Certification team. The receipt time/date
is recorded and copies sent to the Certification Appeal Committee. The Appeal
Committee will also receive copies of the decline notice and the application. It is
anticipated that the Certification Manager or Administrator will send an acknowledgment
of receipt of the appeal form to the applicant within 2 business days from the date of
receiving it.

4.

Each Reviewer will review the original application along with the appeal form from the
applicant and the decline notice. The Reviewer will have up to one week from the date of
their receipt of the application to review and analyze the application, and the reason(s)
for the decline decision to determine if they agree with it. If a Reviewer believes that they
will not be able to meet this deadline, they must inform the Certification Appeal
Committee Chair immediately.

5.

During the review process, the Reviewer will consider and use sources of information
such as the BABOK and their own knowledge and experience.

6.

All active Reviewers for a particular application decline must discuss the application
among themselves prior to sending their decision to the Chair. If a Reviewer has
questions for the applicant, these will be consolidated. One Reviewer will be chosen to
contact the applicant via email and/or telephone. Any information gathered by the
Reviewers from the applicant must be completely documented on the Application Appeal
Result form. Each Reviewer will decide to support or deny the appeal and document their

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result in their copy of the Application Appeal Result form. These completed forms will
be sent to the Chair who will determine the result on a majority vote of the Reviewers.

7.

The Chair will create a Letter of Appeal Result with the decision and will send it to the
applicant via e-mail. The result will also be sent to the Certification Manager at
certification@theiiba.org.

8.

The decision of the Certification Appeal Committee is final and cannot be appealed or
overridden.

9.

If the appeal is granted, the applicant can take the exam exactly as they could have if
their application had passed in the original assessment.

10.

If the appeal is denied, the applicant can update the application and reapply according to
the regular procedure defined in the CBAP Handbook or CCBA Handbook (as
applicable).

11.

The supporting documentation for this entire process for each appeal will be filed by the
Certification team on the IIBA server and maintained for 7 years. The Certification
Appeal Committee Chair will send all appeal documentation (i.e., appeal result forms,
letter of appeal result and other supporting documentation) to the Certification team at
certification@theiiba.org.

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Certification Application Appeal Form

Please complete this form and submit it as an attachment via e-mail to certification@theiiba.org.
It must be sent within seven business days of the date of our e-mail notice that your application
to take a certification Exam has been declined.
Receipt of this appeal form will be acknowledged within two (2) business days by the
Certification team. The appeal will be reviewed by the Certification Appeal Committee, and the
results provided within two weeks of the date of receipt. You may be contacted during that twoweek period by a member of the Committee for clarification of information provided either on
this form or on your original application.
Please fill in the information below:
Name:

_______________________________

E-mail Address:

_______________________________

Mailing Address:

_______________________________
_______________________________

IIBA Membership Number:

(If applicable)

_______________________________

Date of Application:

_______________________________

Date Application Declined:

_______________________________

Reason Application Declined:

_______________________________

Rebuttal: Please provide as much information as you can to support your arguments. Supporting documentation
should be attached to your e-mail.

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