Certification

Certification is a voluntary process administered by a professional society. The intent of certification is to give the public a way of knowing who is qualified to perform specific kinds of work. Certification requirements usually include both education and experience. In most cases, a written examination is used to determine the competency of the individual seeking certification. Certification usually extends beyond a limited geographic area to national or international regions. The best-known example of professional certification in the United States is Certified Public Accountants.

Some organizations have offered certification for software workers for many years. The Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals offers Associate Computing Professional and Certified Computing Professional designations. The American Society for Quality Control offers a Software Quality Engineer designation (although their usage of the term "engineer" may expose them to legal problems because that term is regulated by most states^[1] and throughout Canada).

Many companies offer certification programs related to specific technologies. Microsoft offers a "Microsoft Certified Professional" designation. Novell offers a "Certified Network Engineer," Oracle offers an "Oracle Certified Professional," and Apple Computer offers an "Apple Certified Server Engineer" designation. The focus of these certifications is limited to a single company's products, which makes them software technologist certifications rather than software engineering certifications.

Certification offers employers and customers a way to recognize software personnel who have achieved at least some minimum level of qualifications. The market is already supporting this claim. At the time I write this, Amazon.com lists 25 categories of books on various kinds of software-related and computer-related certification exams. Nearly all of these exams are related to specific technologies.

In 2002, the IEEE Computer Society launched a software engineering fundamentals-based certification called the Certified Software Development Professional.^[2] This is the first general software engineering certification sponsored by a major professional organization and is a significant step toward industry-recognized credentialing of software development professionals.