BOMI SMT study guide
BOMI SMT · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The SMT® - Systems Maintenance Technician designation is one of five professional designations offered through BOMA/BOMI, the education arm described in the source material as dedicated to improving the skills of professionals with property, facilities, and building engineer responsibilities. The SMT® sits alongside the FMA®, RPA®, SMA®, and BOMI-HP® designations on BOMI's designations menu, and it is grouped with the Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA®) curriculum in the credential family that serves building engineering and maintenance staff. Candidates who pursue it are typically building engineers, maintenance technicians, and facilities staff who want a recognized mark of distinction and a structured path toward greater responsibility in commercial real estate operations. The source does not publish the SMT® exam blueprint, item count, time limit, passing score, fee, or retake policy, so this page does not assert any of those details; confirm them directly with BOMA/BOMI before registering. Topics on this exam: Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT) designation curriculum and Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA) designation curriculum. The BOMI SMT study guide has 2 sections and about 653 words.
01Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT): Building Systems, Maintenance Practice, and Troubleshooting
The SMT designation tests the hands-on technician's grasp of how building systems work, how they fail, and how to keep them running safely and economically. Candidates should be comfortable across HVAC and refrigeration fundamentals (heat transfer, refrigerant cycle, psychrometrics), electrical systems (single- and three-phase power, motors and controls, protective devices, safe lockout/tagout), plumbing and domestic water, boilers and steam or hot-water distribution, and the controls that tie these together. Preventive maintenance is central: scheduled inspections, lubrication, belt and bearing care, filter and coil cleaning, water treatment, and recordkeeping that supports trend analysis. Know the difference between corrective, preventive, and predictive maintenance, and when vibration analysis, thermography, or oil analysis belongs in each.
331 words, about 2 min02Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA): Program Management, Budgeting, and Compliance
The SMA designation shifts from the wrench to the program. Administrators plan, budget, staff, and document maintenance operations. Candidates must understand how to build a maintenance program: asset inventories, criticality ranking, preventive task libraries, staffing models, and key performance indicators such as planned-versus-reactive work ratio, schedule compliance, and backlog in work-hours. Budgeting is heavily tested: operating versus capital budgets, life-cycle cost analysis, deferred maintenance, and the repair-versus-replace decision.
322 words, about 2 min