I think I need to clarify my stand on Certification; I got a confused comment on this recent post about MS Certification being designed for maximum scalability. The comment was:
I'm a little confused. On one post, you humbly notify us that you did not pass the cert test (respectable). On the very next post, rip the test. What happened?
My post on the “scalability” of the Cert program is not a “rip” on the exam I just failed, it's more a critique of the entire Certification culture and program as a whole.
For the record:
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I thought the Beta Security Exam was well put together. I'm prevented from commenting on specifics by the Certification Agreement, but I can safely say the exam didn't have trick questions or ambiguous designs. I have no bone to pick with the specific exam I didn't pass. I should have prepared more because I presumed the test would be a cakewalk like some of the other exams. It's not the exam's fault I didn't score above 700!
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I do have a bone to pick with the structure of Certification and the framework the community (developers like me included) have built around MS Certification.
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People are secretive and stressed out about these kinds of certification exams
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People don't take exams because “there isn't a Transcender for the topic” -- that's a real quote I've heard, by the way
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Some clueless Employers (and some other Developers out there) value Certifications above all else, sometimes blindly hiring because of test success instead of project or life success
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We all know, however, that MS Certification is only testing a narrow set of skills and not the whole gambit necessary for successful work with a technology (again, see this post for more)
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As the book Coding Slave artfully depicts, developer Certification is not a true measure of the developer
My intention in posting about my exam experience and the shortcomings of Certification is to attempt to shift the Certification landscape away from “I'm a big shot developer because I have passed the following exams.” Let's be more open and honest about certification: it's a pain but we do it because we'll likely make more money (or land the job) with the Cert than without it. I know great programmers who aren't MS Certified; let's call them Grant Certified but not Microsoft Certified; the fact Grant Certification carries little weight in the industry is a minor glitch I'm working on.
Let me beat this horse good and dead. Exclusively using MS Certification to assess a developer would be like Consumer Reports testing cars for only 90 minutes, on a flat road, in clear weather, and without any other traffic. In reality, Consumer Reports takes months to drive cars 6000+ miles and performs all sorts of tests. Too bad Consumer Reports doesn't evaluate developers, too, because then we'd have a more realistic analysis! Of course, as I said in my earlier post, evaluations like this are hard, time consuming, and just don't scale.
Citing Coding Slave a second time, a software developer “guild” where we were responsible for certifying the quality of guild members' work would fill the current void. Of course, it would be slow to evaluate source code from a completed project; it would take time to interview a candidate about their design decisions and problem solving techniques; it would be difficult to interview customers and assess the success of the implementation. This solution wouldn't “scale“ well, but would be a much more effective measurement of ability.
Maybe the ACM wants to take this on? Hah! I'm betting their plate is pretty full, but I'll explore and see what I come up with. I've never been a fan of those who tell others what they should be doing instead of doing it themselves . . . that's why I'm involved with WeProgram.Net, HRAdventure.com, and other good stuff still to come.
So, to recap . . . pursue MS Certification to get more money or lure less sophisticated Employers into hiring you. Don't consider MS Certification an assessment of your self-worth or true developer ability. It's a feather in the cap, but not your whole head and hat! It's OK to not pass an exam; no need to tell everyone that the exam was biased, you didn't get any sleep the night before, or that your dog ate your homework. No need to tell the office you're “going to the dentist” -- that's another real quote I've heard -- instead of sitting for your test. And, as I like to do, let me start with myself: I took the Beta Security Exam and didn't pass; the questions on the exam were fair -- I didn't prepare enough.
Say it with me: I'm still a good developer because I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and dog-gonit, people like me.