Monday, February 27, 2006
Thoughts on Industry Certification
Philip Hartman is blogging on IT Architect Certification. Figured I should share my own thoughts on this issue...
As an individual whom throughout his career has obtained over seventeen different certifications, I have formed the opinion that some were highly credible while others were meaningless. The best certification process by far as Cisco (I achieved CCNP) while the worst was CISSP.
The following things need to happen in order for certification to be meaningful:
| | View blog reactionsAs an individual whom throughout his career has obtained over seventeen different certifications, I have formed the opinion that some were highly credible while others were meaningless. The best certification process by far as Cisco (I achieved CCNP) while the worst was CISSP.
The following things need to happen in order for certification to be meaningful:
- Vendors alone cannot create certifications. They must enlist the participation of large Fortune enterprises at inception
- Certification exams simply cost too much relative to the benefit. They shouldn't be made into profit centers by vendors to boost training revenue.
- All certifications should only be sponsored by non-profit consortiums and should cost no more than $100 and consist of no more than 100 questions
- The folks who created the exams should have their names and biography displayed publicly. Transparency increases credibility.
- Get a few industry folks especially from the agile community to take these exams. Don't let them make up excuses about the value of them
- Publish the failure rate. If the failure rate is too low then it will lose credibility. Shoot for a 50% failure on first shot.
- Allow for the option of individuals to be published in a central place as being certified. Include some demographic information about them such as country, education and type of employer
