Tracking change and innovation in the enterprise software development community
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Whitepaper
A relatively longstanding topic of debate within the agile community has been that of "agile certification", namely the question of how, if at all, it could be done reliably and effectively. The "We Vouch For..." initiative represents a unique approach to answering this question.
S.M. Kripanidhi has proposed a "Community Certified Agile Practitioner", driven by the needs of practitioners, potential employers and the community. He suggests that we use local communities to judge if the practitioner is worthy of certification.
A new certification for software developers that is neither about in depth knowledge of programming languages, nor any modelling and design techniques, was suggested by Reginald Braithwaite. Only one subject would be on the examination list - "Testing and quality control". Safety has to be the prerequisite to any software development job. For the rest marketplace will decide.
Scott Ambler delves once again into the subject of Agile Certification, airing the pros and cons of current certifications (namely the CSM), discusses potential elements of future qualifications. Is the ground swell of opinion growing for a wholesale change in Agile Certification, or is the CSM evolving enough to maintain community integrity?
The Agile Project Leadership Network, unlike the Agile Alliance, has decided to wade into the certification waters. The APLN has decided to take input from the community as it embarks on defining two different levels of Agile Leadership certification.
The discussions that have been happening in distributed pockets of the community regarding certification of Agile processes has prompted the Agile Alliance to take a stance. Their position is employers should have confidence only in certifications that are skill-based and difficult to achieve. That means that certifications such as Certified Scrum Master and DSDM Foundation do not pass muster.
The debate over agile certification rages on, with a recent entry in the Agile Chronicles taking aim specifically at Scrum certification.
Pete Behrens, trainer and organizational Agility consultant, recently blogged about the contentious topic of certification. He noted that both Scrum and FDD have 2-day basic certification programs, while "XP has remained silent on the topic," and called on the Agile community to begin looking at a true Agile Certification Process.
