BIAN Banking Architecture Practitioner Courseware v3

This courseware supports the accredited BIAN Banking Architecture Practitioner training and is designed for professionals preparing for the BIAN Banking Architecture Practitioner certification through the official online exam.

The Practitioner certification is issued by the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) and administered by Van Haren Learning Solutions. It validates the candidate’s understanding of the BIAN Reference Architecture for the Financial Industry and the ability to position and use BIAN to improve agility and interoperability in a fast-changing financial services ecosystem influenced by new regulations and new market players (including Third Party Providers).

By successfully completing the exam, candidates demonstrate mastery of Practitioner-level knowledge (Bloom levels 1–2: Remembering and Understanding). This includes the ability to:

• Explain BIAN’s vision, mission, goals, and benefits, and position BIAN within the broader standards landscape
• Understand BIAN’s principles and approach, including agile principles and a service-based building-block mindset
• Describe the core architectural constructs, including the BIAN Metamodel, Service Landscape, Service Domain pattern, Control Record and Information Profile, Business Object Model, Service Operations and Semantic APIs, Business Scenarios and Wireframes, Business Capabilities, and Value Streams
• Apply the standard through practical adoption concepts such as common frame of reference / ambition level, tailoring, and gradual introduction
• Understand how BIAN supports and is used across enterprise layers and transversal views (business, application, information/data, interoperability)
• Recognize the relationship between BIAN and TOGAF

The BIAN Banking Architecture Practitioner certification is suitable for professionals in or serving financial institutions, including enterprise and solution architects, consultants, tooling/software providers, integrators, and third-party service providers involved in architecture-led change and interoperability initiatives.

Key Benefits of the BIAN Banking Architecture Practitioner Certification

• Enables professionals to leverage BIAN effectively in practical banking architecture and transformation contexts
• Strengthens architecture skills to support more transparent and manageable ICT landscapes and better interoperability
• Provides individuals and organizations with a competitive advantage in BIAN-aligned initiatives and ecosystems
• Acts as a hallmark of professionalism for banking professionals and banking architects

Exam Details

• Number of questions: 60 (multiple-choice; one-to-many correct answers possible; negative questions included)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Pass mark: 70% (at least 42/60 correct)
• Open/closed book: Closed book
• Language: English
• Availability: Online
• Certification validity: 2 years

Preparation Guidance

The exam is based on the publication “BIAN 2nd Edition – a framework for the financial services industry”. In addition to the hard requirement of attending the accredited training, candidates are advised to plan approximately 16 hours of study depending on prior knowledge. A working knowledge of business and/or application architecture is recommended.