Professional qualifications in "Business Information Technology"

Hello friends,

A friend of mine needs advice on what professional qualifications or certifications can be taken to advance in the field of "Business Information Technology".

Your candid opinion(s) or suggestion(s) will be appreciated.

Sam

 

There are many certifications within the IT field. If your friend wants to advance within a specific company I would suggest certifications based on products that company uses. If he wants to advance simply in the field then he should look at the popular certifications (Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, PMP, and so on) or look at the certs specific to his job desires be they programming, networking, hardware, software, project management, or something else.

 

What is your friends current responsibilities and in what direction do they want to advance e.g., management, technical leadership, architecture , project management, others?

 

Adding to what others have said, I would also have your friend look into any certifications that involve data and data mining, such as with SAS or SPSS. A GIS certification wouldn't hurt either.

 

I want to thank everyone wo has contributed their views.
Dlady: Well, my friend is looking at a management-oriented IT career.
edowave: Datamining and BI he says are classified under Business Analytics.

But the real question seems to be this:
What are the various career options available under "Business Information Technology"?


Your replies are always appreciated.

Sam

 

Job Options

There are career opportunities for BIT graduates. If you decide work in the area of decision support systems, "job titles include consultant, technical consultant, systems analyst, systems developer, network administrator, management analyst, programmer analyst, project analyst, database developer, software developer, programming consultant, information manager, applications developer, and information management consultant, among many others"
(http://www.bit.vt.edu/careers/career_opportunities.html). The Virginia Tech BIT career opportunities page lists Operations Management as a viable area of specialization. "OM option graduates are sometimes hired directly into management positions but most frequently they are hired into management or staff training positions"
( http://www.bit.vt.edu/careers/career_opportunities.html).

 

There are so many out there. You should get a "hot" one in order to get into the IT market. Some of hot ones are:

CISSP
CICA
PMP

Some vendor ones are:

MCSE
CCNP

Degrees have almost no use in the IT market. You should have a BS degree but even the field is not important. Most IT professionals have a BS with certifications.

The only problem is that a hot a certification today might not be in the future. CNE were in high demand 15 years ago but today are almost obsolete. Oracle certifications are also in low demand. The trick here is to get a hot one and cash it as soon as you can while you get another one.

 

Has anyone, in either IT or healthcare, ever heard of the Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) certification? It's offered by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (www.HIMSS.org). The organization is respected and well known, but the certification I had not heard of until recently.

Before I write it off as obscure and useless, I wanted to ask for your thoughts.

 

One has to be careful as many IT certifications have little value to business. I normally use monster.com to evaluate business value of IT certifications. If you are able to locate a good number of jobs requiring this qualification then you can say that has some value. So far, I couldn't find a single job requiring this certification so this says little about this certification.

 

Again, thanks to all who have shared their views.

I have done some information digging myself on the certifications available to a Business Analyst or IT Business Analyst. But it seems there are so many of them.

But, what really will be the most recognized certification or professional qualification a Business Analyst or IT Business Analyst can have?

Your replies are always appreciated.

Sam

 

I had not heard of this cert. I work in healthcare at a Hospital. The only Healthcare IT certifications I have are one for HIPAA and one specific to our clinical system. My other certs aren't related to healthcare. The HIPAA one isn't widely known but the acronym is buzz worthy if I were to use it for future advancement or other employment. Our department reimburses for certification costs so I often take them even if they aren't worth a great deal.

 

The IIBA offers the Certified Business Analyst Professional Certification. It is also beneficial for a BSA to have experience in project management. Therefore the PMP would be a plus.

 

Citp, Cgeit, Itil

If your friend have experience in IT, then BCS offers its flagship CITP designation. Worth checking out.

ISACA has recently announced a new certification for people who work in IT Management.

Another option is ITIL certification.

Slightly off tangent but worth a look is the architecture certifications offered by Opengroup. Enterprise architects are supposed to be well versed in business and IT, so in case your friend is into that here is the link

 

Thanks to all contributors...

Well, the IIBA certification i.e. CBAP seems to have some high end criteria to be met before being allowed to take the certification.

ITIL and CITP seem to have less stringent pre-certification requirements but are not exactly considered certifications for IT Business Analysts.

Any other opinions about recognised industry certifications for IT Business Analysts?

Replies are always appreciated.

Sam

 

As a professional that worked many years as an IT business analyst, I must say that I don't recall any specific analyst certification being a differentiator factor when hiring analysts. Most analysts have business and IT backgrounds, some have an IT related degree and an MBA while some are business graduates with IT background based on IT certifications or IT related graduate degrees.

I would say that if you are a business graduate, you should get some IT certifications to back you up. If you are an IT graduate, a MIS graduate degree might give you the edge.

Experience is the main differentiator for this profession as it requires a lot of communication, presentation and general people skills that cannot be learned by reading a book.

 

Your friend may want to look into the following program. They could become a CBA and earn credit toward the CBAP.

http://www.esi-intl.com/public/businessanalysis/index.asp

 

Well, i found this out
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.1
They seems to have quality certifications on offer.

I know there are many universities offering professional certificates in Business Analysis.
Does anyone have ideas of such universities whether in the US or outside(least cost option)?

Replies anticipated.
Sam