Certification has recently become a dirty word in the world of software application development; fuelled in part, by the rising popularity of the Scrum Master certification (which appears to be escalating at a varied and alarming rate). While I am not disputing that the associated education undoubtedly adds value, the declaration that an individual (no matter how intelligent), could be a ‘certified’ master of anything after spending a couple of days listening to someone in a classroom, is completely absurd.
A simple commodity
I believe, as many others do, that this ‘badge’ has to all intents and purposes, become a bit of a scam. Surely no one in their right mind would truly believe that such a certification is somehow equal to an official ‘qualification’? Sure, it is a nice tag and one that is cost-effective and relatively easy to obtain, but the idea that many HR professionals are citing it as a ‘must-have’ requirement in job applications/criteria has left me quite bewildered. It is not a qualification and it doesn’t prove anything; it is a commodity and labelling the title as a ‘must-have’ has simply fuelled an industry that is focused on supplying, promoting and primarily making money from its existence.
That said, I’m not suggesting that certification doesn’t have its place generally, but I believe it’s deceptive to those who are led to believe it is far more significant than it actually is. A certification scheme that insists on demonstrable experience and includes the skills for successful project delivery would be a good step forward. But the potential issue also includes the credibility of the assessors themselves, who are they? How are they assessing and on what benchmark? That combined with more confusion caused by yet another certification scheme doesn’t really fill me with much confidence or enthusiasm.
While I don’t claim to know all of the assessors for certifications of proven capability personally, I would imagine that they are highly credible, upstanding members of the software community; however, not all certification schemes have the same level of maturity, and as such it will be incredibly tough for this certification type to stand apart from mediocrity.
Keeping it in perspective
In an era where many in the IT industry feel compelled to attach a ‘certified’ badge to their name at every opportunity, we have to ask ourselves why people feel they have a need for certification. Is it purely about differentiation in a difficult market? Is it to meet a certain criteria set out by their HR department or boss? Or, do they truly believe they won’t be considered for the job without it? Either way, people with any kind of certification would do well to keep such titles in perspective – I recently saw a job applicant with a PhD in computer science who listed his ‘Certified Scrum Master’ tag above his PhD credentials!
Consider certification ‘claims’ with caution
Some of this nonsensical behaviour unfortunately comes from how the recruitment process is conducted and how training budgets are spent (or wasted). All too often, and sadly for most, job applications are ranked by a certification as opposed to making the relevant checks to uncover the real experience and success demonstrated by a potential candidate. What also concerns me is that so many learning and development departments are setting targets for attendance at commodity training sessions where certification is immediately achieved – but is this really achieving anything worthwhile? I don’t believe so, but how you measure people, will ultimately determine how they behave.
While I do agree with evidence-based certification where sensibly governed, I also believe that these worthier schemes will soon get lost in the haze of other less-credible ‘certification options’ if the rising popularity in commoditised training sessions is anything to go by. Until such a time where a new evidence-based certification has gained momentum and has proven with some gravitas, to be worth its weight, I believe we must continue to consider any certification ‘claims’ with extreme caution.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 11:22 am and is filed under Press Material. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
