Sounds like we have enough good ideas in this thread to just do the thing better than any other certification program ever has. I just don't understand what you'd grade anyway. Module familiarity? Theme dev? Module Dev? I honestly question the possibility of even being able to grade a person's coding skills. There are a lot of intangibles involved. Variables too. Intangibles and Variables. Even some intangible variables.<br>
<br>Maybe a better idea would be a site specific validator type service? Using developers as judges of other developers sites? That's taking drupal dev to a whole new level.<br><br>=P<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 8:08 AM, Sheryl <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gubydala@his.com">gubydala@his.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">Jeff Greenberg wrote:<br>
<br>
> So with development, even though I give a nod to the fact that sooner or<br>
> later there will be Drupal certification, I again question the value.<br>
> You can assure a minimal amount of knowledge. Unlike being in the middle<br>
> of a nursing day, a developer could easily look up the information, if<br>
> ever needed, from the exam.<br>
<br>
</div>My objection to the sysadmin-oriented certification exams is much the same.<br>
<br>
A few years ago I had a technical interview which IMO was much better than<br>
anything I have seen in certification sample tests. It was all about<br>
problem solving. Over an hour or two I was given some of the usual trivia<br>
questions (which ports do SMTP, ssh and ftp run on, that sort of thing)<br>
but the interesting part was being presented a number of scenarios and<br>
asked about how I would go about tracking down the problem. Some were<br>
chosen specifically to put me unfamiliar situations. For example, the<br>
interviewer knew that I had MySQL experience but not Oracle. He gave me a<br>
long Oracle log from one of their real-life incidents that showed a<br>
cascade of error messages and asked me where I'd start problem-solving. I<br>
speculated correctly that most of the errors were fallout from an apparent<br>
login problem in the first page of output.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> I guess I'm saying that the difference between a low score and a high<br>
> score on a certification exam for a software person is academic, and<br>
> really doesn't speak to whether they can deal with clients, their specs,<br>
> digesting their business need, or turning out a function let alone an<br>
> app or site.<br>
<br>
</div>I agree. It also doesn't speak to how long it took them to pick up the<br>
skills you're testing them for or how long it would take them to learn<br>
something new if there's a business need for that.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Sheryl<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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