The UPDATED Certified Information Professional (CIP) Exam - Answers to All of your Questions

Good news - we’ve updated Certified Information Professional (CIP) exam! For the last six months, a group of very experienced subject matter experts has been revising the CIP exam, program, and training. With any change comes questions, so I thought I would take some time to answer some of the ones I’m sure you’re asking.

Why did you update the CIP?

Every certification needs to be reviewed and updated every few years as technologies, processes, and best practices are introduced, changed, or retired, and CIP is no exception. We want to make sure that CIP continues to remain relevant and valuable to the individuals that hold it and to their colleagues and organizations that benefit from their knowledge and expertise.

How did you go about updating the CIP?

The overall approach to this update was to reemphasize the importance of business issues and business outcomes. We wanted to ensure that we treat each topic in the overall context of the business, rather than doing a deep dive into a particular process or technology. This means that while the coverage of the CIP topics may be similar in a given domain, the exam questions from that domain will focus on those business issues and outcomes.

Who is the target audience for the updated CIP?

In addition to being more focused on business issues and outcomes, the topics are covered a bit more strategically; for this and other reasons we also believe that the target audience for the updated CIP is a bit more experienced, with 5+ years of experience in at least one domain and some exposure to some or all of the other domains.

What changes can I expect from the exam coverage?

When we started planning the update, we did so through the prism of our Intelligent Information Management story. We believe and have been sharing for a while now, that organizations today need more than ECM, or Gartner's replacement, Content Services. These are important considerations, but insufficient, because they create the impression that these are technology issues. The Intelligent Information Management story has a technology chapter, but it's not the most important chapter. Rather, technology supports the other things that organizations need to do to meet today's information management challenges:

• Modernizing the information toolkit
• Digitalizing core organizational processes
• Automating compliance & governance
• Leveraging analytics & machine learning

We also wanted to keep implementation planning on the updated exam. So with a little tweaking from our subject matter experts, here's what the final updated exam blueprint looks like:

• Domain 1 - Creating and Capturing Information
• Domain 2 - Extracting Intelligence from Information
• Domain 3 - Digitalizing Core Business Processes
• Domain 4 - Automating Governance and Compliance
• Domain 5 - Implementing an Information Management Solution

What's the best way to prepare for the CIP?

AIIM has a number of resources available to help professionals at all levels prepare to become a Certified Information Professional:

• Take the free 100-question CIP Practice Exam to assess your strengths and weaknesses.
• Review the CIP Study Guide (free to AIIM+ members).
• Join AIIM+ Pro, which is loaded with training courses that cover the entire body of knowledge that makes up the CIP exam ($490/year or just $49/month). 

What if I’m already a CIP?

1. If you are a CIP in good standing, you do NOT need to retake the updated exam. As long as you complete your continuing education units and pay your renewal fee, your CIP status will be unchanged. I'll talk about some updates to the renewal and reinstatement processes in another blog post soon.
2. We are again affirming our commitment to the CIP as the premier information management certification and one that all information professionals should aspire to attain. If you have attained it, you should continue to be proud of that accomplishment.
3. We hope that you'll continue to share the value of the CIP, and AIIM's commitment to it, with your colleagues, customers, suppliers, and fellow information professionals. We love you for it!