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Exam Information
Official specifications published by ASQ
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Skills this practice test covers
- Align improvement projects with a strategic plan using Hoshin Kanri and the X Matrix.
- Build and prioritize a pipeline of projects that supports strategic goals.
- Pick a change management model, such as Kotter's 8 Steps or ADKAR, for a deployment.
- Judge a project portfolio with NPV, ROI and the cost of poor quality.
- Design training from a gap analysis and measure whether it worked.
- Analyze measurement systems, regression models and designed experiments at an advanced level.
Explore related topics
CMBB exam content
6 domains · 25 topics · 90 questions
Enterprise-wide Planning20%18 questions
This domain starts at the top of the organization. Candidates develop and align a strategic plan, set up the infrastructure of an improvement system, compare improvement methods, and build a prioritized pipeline of projects.
Skills tested
- Use planning tools such as Hoshin Kanri, the X Matrix, SWOT and Porter's Five Forces.
- Align projects with the strategic plan and with business objectives.
- Compare DMAIC, DMADV, Lean and the Theory of Constraints for a given problem.
- Run working sessions that identify and qualify new project opportunities.
- Create and manage a project pipeline, including its risks and regulatory impact.
Questions by topic
- Strategic Plan Development6
- Improvement Methodologies3
- Pipeline Management3
- Infrastructure Elements of Improvement Systems2
- Opportunities for Improvement3
- Strategic Plan Alignment1
Organizational Competencies for Deployment20%18 questions
This domain is about the people, structure and culture that a deployment depends on. Candidates apply systems thinking, define leadership roles, manage change and organizational barriers, and track performance with financial and business measures.
Skills tested
- Apply systems thinking to foresee side effects, including emergent properties.
- Write action plans for executives, champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts.
- Apply change models such as Kotter's 8 Steps, ADKAR and the Competing Values Framework.
- Collect and assess Voice of the Customer and Voice of the Process data.
- Measure results with COQ, NPV, ROI, the Balanced Scorecard and KPIs.
Questions by topic
- Organizational Design3
- Organizational Change Management5
- Organizational Performance Metrics4
- Organizational Challenges3
- Organizational Feedback2
- Executive and Team Leadership Roles1
Project Portfolio Management15%14 questions
This domain moves from single projects to the whole portfolio. Candidates oversee critical projects through their life cycle, build governance and tracking tools, rank projects by criticality, and weigh budgets and savings.
Skills tested
- Apply the project life cycle from initiation through planning, execution, control and closure.
- Develop governance documents and tracking tools for a set of projects.
- Spot scope overlap between related projects and rank them by criticality.
- Separate hard and soft savings, and compare projects with COPQ and activity-based costing.
Questions by topic
- Project Portfolio Financial Tools4
- Project Portfolio Infrastructure and Management7
- Project Management Principles and Life Cycle3
Training Design and Delivery10%8 questions
A Master Black Belt designs the training that builds new Belts. Candidates assess skill gaps, plan training to close them, choose or build materials based on adult learning theory, and check whether the training worked.
Skills tested
- Use gap analysis to compare actual and desired performance in each target group.
- Decide between in-house and outsourced training by cost, SME availability and timing.
- Choose training methods that follow adult learning theory.
- Write an evaluation plan that checks what learners gained.
Questions by topic
- Training Materials and Curriculum Development4
- Training Needs Analysis2
- Training Program Effectiveness2
Coaching and Mentoring Responsibilities10%8 questions
This domain covers coaching at two levels. Candidates work with executives and champions on project scoping, reviews and consistent messaging, and they coach Belts, teams and staff who hold no Belt.
Skills tested
- Help executives and champions scope projects and choose the people for them.
- Coach executives on constancy of purpose and consistent messaging.
- Build career progression ladders for Belts and give constructive feedback.
- Write project review guidelines and keep team meetings on track.
Questions by topic
- Teams and Individuals5
- Executives and Champions3
Advanced Data Management and Analytic Methods25%24 questions
The largest domain goes well beyond Black Belt statistics. Candidates analyze attribute, variable and destructive measurement systems, model data with multiple and logistic regression, recognize advanced experiment designs, and apply data management and DFSS tools.
Skills tested
- Evaluate measurement systems with propagation of errors, Kappa, Kendall and ICC.
- Detect collinearity with VIF and model autocorrelated data with ARIMA.
- Recognize when to use screening designs, RSM, mixture experiments, EVOP or Taguchi designs.
- Explain data governance, master data, metadata and predictive analytics such as decision trees.
- Apply DFSS tools such as QFD, TRIZ and axiomatic design to new concepts.
Questions by topic
- Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA), Process Capability, and Control6
- Measuring and Modeling Relationships Between Variables9
- Design of Experiments (DOE)4
- Data Management and Analytics4
- DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) Tools1
Requirements
- Required: a current ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
- Required: either ten completed Six Sigma Black Belt projects or at least five years in a Black Belt or Master Black Belt role.
- Required: approval in ASQ's portfolio review, where expert Master Black Belts score the candidate's work before booking.
About the CMBB exam
The CMBB exam tests whether an experienced Black Belt can plan, staff, teach and measure a Six Sigma program across a whole organization. ASQ accepts candidates only after they hold a current Certified Six Sigma Black Belt certification, meet an experience requirement and pass a portfolio review. The exam has two parts: a multiple-choice section, then a performance-based assessment built on an organization's improvement scenario. Passing earns the ASQ Certified Master Black Belt certification.
Advanced Data Management and Analytic Methods is the largest domain, and it also has the most questions in the PlanetCert practice test. Those questions cover measurement systems analysis, regression, design of experiments and DFSS tools. The explanations walk through the reasoning, for example why a destructive test needs its own measurement systems analysis. Flashcard mode suits the planning tools and change models. Brainy AI Assistant can solve a capability or regression problem step by step, or compare ADKAR with Kotter's 8 Steps.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- Certified Master Black Belt (CMBB)Expert / Master
CMBB is valid for three years and renews through recertification units or a retake of the exam.
- Before
- CSSBB Certified Six Sigma Black Belt
Required. Candidates must hold a current ASQ Black Belt certification before they apply.
- CSSBB Certified Six Sigma Black Belt
How to prepare for CMBB
- 1
Confirm eligibility and the testing window
Check the Black Belt certification, the experience requirement and the portfolio review first. ASQ offers the exam only in set testing windows, so plan the application early.
- 2
Assemble the portfolio evidence
The review scores three areas: teaching, coaching and mentoring; occupational experience and responsibility; and technical experience and innovation. Collect project evidence for each area before applying.
- 3
Rebuild the advanced statistics
The largest domain covers destructive MSA, logistic regression, ARIMA and designs such as split-plot and D-optimal. Work examples in statistical software until each output is easy to read.
- 4
Rehearse the scenario section
The second part presents an organization weighing several improvement projects and asks open-ended questions about it. Practise by writing short answers to case studies, such as which project to fund first and why.
- 5
Drill the multiple-choice part
Take the CMBB practice test domain by domain in Study Mode, then in Timed Mode. Both parts are open-book, so learn where each topic sits in the reference books while reviewing the explanations.
Start a timed CMBBrun
Who CMBB is for
- Certified Black Belts who already coach other Belts and lead several projects at once.
- Deployment leaders who run a Six Sigma program across sites or business units.
- Quality and operational excellence managers who choose which improvement projects get funded.
Typical job titles: Master Black Belt · Deployment leader · Continuous improvement manager · Operational excellence director · Quality director
CMBB glossary
18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Activity-based costing
- A costing method that assigns overhead to products or projects by the activities they actually use.
- ADKAR model
- A change model built on five stages a person moves through: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.
- ARIMA
- Autoregressive integrated moving average: a time-series model for forecasting data in which each value depends on earlier values.
- Balanced Incomplete Block Design (BIBD)
- An experiment design in which each block holds only some of the treatments, but every pair of treatments appears together equally often.
- Balanced Scorecard
- A performance framework that tracks financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth measures side by side.
- Competing Values Framework
- A model that places an organization's culture on two axes, flexibility versus control and internal versus external focus, giving four culture types.
- Cost of poor quality (COPQ)
- The costs that come from defects and failures, such as scrap, rework, returns and warranty claims.
- DMADV
- Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify: the Design for Six Sigma cycle for building a new product or process.
- Emergent properties
- Behaviors of a system as a whole that none of its parts shows on its own.
- EVOP
- Evolutionary operation: making small, planned changes to a running production process to find better settings without stopping output.
- Hoshin Kanri
- A strategic planning method that picks a few breakthrough goals and cascades them through every level of the organization.
- Propagation of Errors
- A method for working out how the measurement errors in several inputs combine in a value calculated from those inputs.
- QFD
- Quality function deployment: a method that turns customer requirements into design requirements, often in a house of quality matrix.
- Theory of Constraints
- A management approach that finds the single constraint limiting a system's output and improves the whole system around it.
- TRIZ
- A problem-solving method, built from patterns found in patents, that resolves design contradictions with inventive principles.
- VIF
- Variance inflation factor: a measure of how much collinearity among predictors inflates the variance of a regression coefficient.
- Voice of the Process
- The data a process itself produces, such as control chart readings, which shows what the process actually delivers.
- X Matrix
- A one-page Hoshin Kanri chart that links long-term goals, annual objectives, improvement priorities, measures and owners.