Re: Certification and SRA

Robert Bernier wrote:

>On August 26, 2005 01:00 pm, Chris Travers wrote:
>
>
>>>The second fact that I want to bring up concerns PostgreSQL certification
>>>itself. The challenge we face is that at this time there is no community
>>>derived certification for PostgreSQL..... how we develop a standard that will be of high quality and accepted by the community?
>>>
>>>
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>
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>>How many people are interested in participating? How do we get people
>>to participate?
>>
>>
>
>STEP ONE: debate the merits of creating a standards organization on this mail list
>
>This I think is job 1. There's going to be respectful disagreement and I'd like to hear from everybody on this. I'm pro standards group, especially after seeing how well the BSD Certification Group have done their work.
>
>
Ok. I see where you are going. I am pro-standards-group too, in case
nobody had guessed :-) However, my question (especially since you work
for SRA) is what the perspective is likely to be from the main player in
this area? After all we would be lowering the barrier to entry
substantially.

The second corrolary question is what the scope of such a standards
group should be? Should it be limited to certification? Or should it
cover curriculum development as well? Personally I think curriculum
development is even more important than certification for such a group,
but I have no real objection to a group solely focused on
certification. I do wonder if it is putting the cart before the horse
however.

>>Will bsdcertification.org actually prepare their own certification
>>exams? Or will they have other companies do it?
>>
>>
>
>Companies are being encouraged to run their own testing/certification infra-structure. The BSD Certification Group has taken the position that competition is good. What they want is to create a set of standards that others will use. Maybe CompTIA would be a valid example here.
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CompTIA manages their own certification tests, though. I.e. I am not
aware of any spinnoffs of the A+ that they endorse. FWIW, I have liked
the CompTIA exams I have taken (and the A+ is generally a useful exam,
though I have never had need to know how to use an ammeter). So the
question is whether we are looking at certifications managed by this
group or whether the group will endorse programs by other companies (or
both, but I am not sure that it is feasible to pursue both avenues).

>If you can, I encourage to glance through the survey results but read the roadmap thoroughly. Every idea or issue that you can imagine regarding certification standards was covered (at least it sure seems that way).
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Will do that this weekend. Thanks :-)

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
Metatron Technology Consulting