All about the CDMP Certification

I recently passed the Data Management Fundamental (DMF) exam which is a pre-requisite exam for CDMP certification. For all my fellow data management professionals who are also interested to take the exam, I have provided all the details in this blog.

What is CDMP certification?

Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) is a globally recognized Data Management Certification program run by DAMA International. The takers for CDMP are quite few globally mostly because people are not aware of this exam contrary to widely known exams like TOGAF, AWS etc. As of 6^th November 2022, there are currently only 4,562 Certified Data Management Professionals (At Associate level) across 98 countries.

What is DAMA?

The Data Management Association (DAMA) is a not-for-profit, vendor-independent, global not-for-profit organization which aims to advance concepts and practices about information management and data management.

DAMA International’s primary purpose is to promote the understanding, development and practice of managing data and information as key enterprise assets to support the organization.

Why should you get CDMP certified?

The reasons below are purely mine and not provided by DAMA:

• It is good to be validated from a renowned International Organization focusing on data. The exam requires a certain experience to get a good score, so if you do well, in a way you get validated that you know your stuff
• Since technology is rapidly evolving, it is a good idea to be certified in something which is tool agnostic
• If your focus in your current job or future job are areas like Data Governance, Data Quality etc. it is beneficial to get CDMP certified. Increasingly, companies are asking for CDMP accreditation for such roles
• There is hardly any other Internationally recognized certification that focuses on Data Management areas as does CDMP. There is TOGAF which is a certification on frameworks for Enterprise Architecture (EA) level. However, TOGAF at a high level focuses on 4 levels of EA – Business, Application, Data and Technology. On the other hand, CDMP is the most reputed/recognized certification focusing on Data level of the EA.
• In recent years, I have observed that the Big Four consulting companies also often refer DAMA principles/frameworks. I have come across many presentations on Data Strategy quoting ‘Compliant with DAMA Principles/ Frameworks’. It will give you an edge to be familiar with these principles, frameworks, drivers beforehand.

Who can take this exam?

Any data management professional wishing to get certified in data management practices with an international accreditation can appear for this exam. There are 11 areas of data management on which the professional is tested. A professional can decide which level of CDMP she/he wants to certify. The levels are explained below.

Levels of CDMP:

                                                                                     Source: DAMA International website 

The above image explains all levels with requirements. To summarize:

1. To qualify for any level, you need to pass the base exam which is the Data Fundamental Exam (DMF). This exam tests you on 11 Data Management Knowledge Areas.
2. If you score minimum of 60% you become a CDMP Associate
3. If you score 70% and above you become a CDMP Associate and become eligible for CDMP Practitioner. To become a CDMP Practitioner you have to choose 2 subjects from the pool of Specialist exams and also score 70% and above in each of them
4. If you score 80% and above you become a CDMP Associate and become eligible for CDMP Master. To become a CDMP Master you have to choose 2 subjects from the pool of Specialist exams and also score 80% and above in each of them. Another requirement is to get your CV verified
5. For all the levels, Industry experience is recommended but no verification is required like submitting your CV etc. except for Masters level
6. For being Fellows there are no exams. It is a certification achieved through nomination only. There are only 3 fellows worldwide.

Cost of certification:

• The data management fundamental (DMF) exam costs $311
• All exams have integrated proctoring. The exam cost of $311 includes $11 as proctor fee
• Each Specialist exam also cost $311. You can check the entire list of Specialist exams here
• The DMBoK costs $79.95 for Print and $59.95 for PDF copy (As of May 2023)
• For Master level, CV assessment an additional $50 has to be incurred
• Point to note that all exams are non-refundable

Preparation pre-requisites:

• For all CDMP exams the pre-requisite is the DMBoK (Data Management Book of Knowledge) by DAMA and published by Technics Publication. Till date there are 2 versions of this book. One can choose between a hard or a soft copy.
• Once you book your exam you get access to a set of Practice tests. These practice tests are in line with the exam and each time a set of 40 questions is pulled out of a pool of 200 questions

How to book your exam:

• You can book your exam from CDMP website
• Once you book your exam there is no time limit as to when you sit for the exam
• As mentioned above, all exams are online proctored so there is no need to book an exam slot in advance

Exam format:

• The exam is open book
• First 14 chapters of the DMBoK v2 form the syllabus of the exam
• The exam has 100 questions which have to be completed in 90 minutes
• If you book an ESL version (explained below) then an additional 20 minutes are allotted
• The questions are mostly based on the DMBoK v2. However, your on-job experience will help you get a good score

ESL version:

Exam takers for whom English is not a primary language can opt for an ESL version which gives you an extra of 20 minutes during the exam.

CDMP Chapters and their weightage:

The 14 chapters pertain to 11 Data Management Knowledge Areas (Additional 3 chapters being – Data Management Process, Ethics, and Big Data). DAMA has assigned weightage to these chapters for exam coverage:

Hope that this blog is useful to all those data professionals who are planning to take CDMP in near future. I will be happy to address any further queries. 

I have written another blog on my preparation journey. You can access it here.

All the best!!

References:

1. CDMP Website – https://cdmp.info/about/