From the Trenches
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What Does Vendor Certification Really Mean?
That’s the question being asked more and more as the marketplace becomes inundated with vendor certification programs. CNE (Certified Novell Engineer), MCSD (Microsoft Certified Systems Developer), SCJP (Sun Certified Java Programmer), OCP (Oracle Certified Professional), SCP (Sybase Certified Professional), and BCD (Borland Certified Developer) are just a few of the acronyms professional programmers can add to the end of their names.
But what do they mean? A cynic believes certification is just another profit center for vendors. The naïf accepts vendor certification as a reliable indicator that certified persons excel at the subject for which they are certified. Realistically, the answer lies somewhere in between.
As someone who’s gone down the certification road several times, I believe you need to examine your motivations for being certified. If it’s simply for the money, you will be sorely disappointed; the time spent pursuing certification is rarely fully compensated. And depending on what certification you want, there may be a considerable number of people already certified in that subject area.
So why go through with it? You may want to consider certification as a way to keep pace with your technological peers. I suppose that’s a fancy way to say “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?” In this case, jumping off the bridge isn’t self-destructive; it’s something you do just to keep up.
Becoming certified means you have a certain amount of product knowledge. It does not necessarily make you a better programmer. It does demonstrate motivation, initiative, and perseverance — all good traits for a programmer to possess. Once you’ve achieved certification, you can congratulate yourself on a job well done — many people fall by the wayside during the certification process.
Applicants must have ... However, certification is not the sole barometer of your desirability to an employer. As an employer, it’s probably best to view a certification as a bonus attribute of a candidate, rather than as a necessity. For one, many exam questions are poorly written. Microsoft especially is infamous for questions like this:
Given the following solution/code, how well does it work?
A) Perfect
B) Pretty good
C) Somewhat good
D) Not so good
E) It doesn’t work
As you can imagine, questions such as these are difficult to answer “correctly.”
There are other reasons why certification isn’t a reliable indicator of a programmer’s skills. Some people simply don’t take exams well. Also, I don’t know of a single certification program where you’re “on your own,” i.e. without the ability to consult manuals, examples, existing code, or other people while taking the test. Therefore, some exams are really testing a person’s ability to gather facts quickly and accurately.
Which isn’t a bad characteristic for a programmer to have, come to think of it. Perhaps that’s why the certification programs are designed that way (although I doubt it). In today’s fast-paced world of evolving technology, it’s much better to be able to adapt and know how and where to find answers.
Quality software development requires more than product knowledge, however. Design, planning, and implementation acumen are also important, and most certification exams do not test for such skills. For example, none of the tests I’ve seen pose the following scenario: “Here’s a specification. Please write an application that meets these requirements in a timely manner. For extra credit, design the application to allow easy maintenance and maximum flexibility for enhancements.”
It’s not enough. Being certified is rarely enough; other factors, such as college degrees, and —especially — experience must enter into the equation when evaluating a candidate. Some of the best developers have never been certified; they’re too busy delivering applications.
All this said, I think certification is valuable. The Delphi certification — Inprise currently offers the “Delphi 3 Client/Server Suite Certification Exam” — has been a historically difficult exam, but that makes the accomplishment that much more worthwhile and valuable. You can find out more about the Inprise certification options for Delphi and JBuilder at http://www.inprise.com/programs/certify.
Dan Miser is a consultant who lives in Milwaukee with his wife and daughter. He is active on the newsgroups, where he serves as a member of TeamB. He has been a Borland Certified Delphi Developer since 1996 and recently obtained his MCSD certification. Dan is a frequent contributor to Delphi Informant. You can contact him at http://www.execpc.com/~dmiser.
Mr Miser discusses the increasingly popular vendor certification programs, and why you should (or shouldn’t) enroll in them.
Mr Miser discusses vendor certification programs.