Professional certification: Encyclopedia II - Professional certification - Certification in the computer industry

Professional certification - Certification in the computer industry

Certification is often used in the professions of software engineering and information technology; however, it is a contentious issue. Some see it as a tool to improve professional practice; others point out that very few traditional engineers bother with any form of certification.

The most successful certification programs are oriented toward specific technologies, and are managed by the vendors of these technologies. These certification programs are tailored to the institutions that would employ people who use these technologies.

• Microsoft Corporation sponsors the Microsoft Certified Professional program
• Sun Microsystems sponsors the Sun Certified Professional program
• IBM sponsors certifications [1]
• Cisco Systems sponsors the Cisco Career Certifications program
• Red Hat sponsors the Red Hat Certification Program
• Object Management Group sponsors the Certified UML Professional program
• MySQL sponsors a certification program [2]
• Novell sponsors a certification program
• Oracle Corporation sponsers the Oracle Certification Program
• Citrix Systems sponsors the Citrix Certified Administrator program

Third-party commercial organizations that sponser certifications include:

• CompTIA
• Linux Professional Institute
• European Computer Driving Licence (also called International Computer Driving Licence)
• Brainbench
• SAGE (organization) sponsers the cSAGE program

General certification of software practitioners has struggled. The ACM had a professional certification program in the early 1980s, which was discontinued due to lack of interest. Today, the IEEE is certifying software professionals, but only about 500 people have passed the exam by March 2005.

• The IEEE Computer Society sponsors the Certified Software Development Professional
• The Institute for the Certification of Computing Professionals sponsors the Certified Computing Professional (CCP) and Associate Computing Professional (ACP) certifications

Professional certification - Information Systems Security Certification

In an information systems environment that requires formal security accreditation. Certification refers to the comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system. Certification is formally defined by Krutz and Vines as:

The comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system and the other safeguards, with are created in support of the accreditation proces to establish the extent to which a particular design and implementation meets the set of specified security requirments.

Professional certification - Criticisms

The exponential growth in the number of computer-related certifications coupled with the relative ease of their acquisition has led to their devaluation in the eyes of many people in the technology field. Exam content is sometimes available on the Internet allowing them to gain certification without knowing or understanding the content. Certifying agencies have responded in various ways. Some certification tests have incorporated hands-on testing, although there is no evidence that this reduces cheating or improves reliability or validity. Many have explored anti-cheating methodologies or expanded their exam content. Others have simply raised the price of certification, in a bid to reduce exam resits (and increase the profit margin per head).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Certification in the computer industry", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki