[consulting] Fwd: Drupal Certification and Requirements

[Kieran Lal]

From: paola  who's email is bouncing <paola.dimaio at gmail.com>
To: "A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting
providers" <consulting at drupal.org>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:26:39 +0700
Subject: Fwd: [consulting] Drupal Certification and Requirements
HI Evan

after writing 'excellent business idea' I realised it was an overstatement

But my problem is that there are loadsa good who have some level of
Drupal knowledge and claim to have years of Drupal experience but too
many that do no deliver, and in fact, that mess things up at my
expense.

Admittedly, I am taking a bet each time I hire someone, and on top of
that, I have to give me acesss to my server, database, and the lot

I think a basic drupal certification can be' version independent' as
the basic principles are not likely to change with each version, and
can be set up (I am an IT trainer) - One could also have a 'modular'
certification, to show
that one has familiarity and understanding of some modules, not
necessarilty with everythng

That does not mean that someone who does not take the certification is
no good, maybe rther the contrary, and hopefully can demostrate so

cheers
PDM

On 12/19/07, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
> paola.dimaio at gmail.com wrote:
> > sounds like an excellent business idea
> >
> Actually, it's not. The cost of developing a respected exam, as well as
> the logistics of accessible delivery, makes the business proposition
> very very difficult. Compounding the problem are a number of
> Drupal-specific obstacles.
>
> Just some of the issues involve:
>
> - What should a certification test? Forms? PHP programming? Views?
> categories? Non-standard modules? Look-and-feel issues?
>
> - Usually people get certified as a way to help them get employed. Right
> now demand for Drupal developers appears to exceed supply, so people
> don't need certifications to help them get work and the actual numbers
> of people willing to pay to be certified will be fairly small.
>
> - There's no obvious corporate backers to sponsor such an effort, in the
> way Sun sponsors Java certification or Zend sponsors the PHP one.
>
> - Is the certification for developers or administrators? If it's for
> developers, how do you test the creative component of programming?
>
> - Drupal is still evolving, and backwards compatibility is not a
> priority. That means that the "life" of any specific Drupal
> certification exam could be very short before the things it tests are
> obsolete. By the time you're ready to deliver an exam, the APIs it tests
> will probably not be in use anymore.
>
> - Also consider that by some industry analysis, the demand for IT
> certification in general is dropping
>
>
> I helped create the LPI certification for Linux. Each of the three skill
> levels it tests cost more than $400,000 to develop properly. Less
> ambitious, more community-driven efforts such as the BSD
> certification, can be many years in the making before a single exam is
> delivered -- and STILL be without a usable business model.
>
> It's probably best to -- at least for now -- avoid a specific Drupal
> certification. If someone is looking to prove approriate skills, they
> should consider the existing Zend certification for PHP.
> http://www.zend.com/en/services/certification/
>
> - Evan
> _______________________________________________
> consulting mailing list
> consulting at drupal.org
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
>


--
Paola Di Maio
School of IT
www.mfu.ac.th
*********************************************


--
Paola Di Maio
School of IT
www.mfu.ac.th
*********************************************



--
Paola Di Maio
School of IT
www.mfu.ac.th
*********************************************



-- 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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