[consulting] Drupal Certification and Requirements

Fri Dec 21 11:48:16 UTC 2007

Thanks for your comments, Paola.

I think, at the heart of the matter, is, that the food chain: need something
done, must hire someone, do it... is faulty.

To get quality, an organization must form a stable group working together,
or learn how to recognize one.

For small items, it is possible to find a good mentor, it is possible to
find someone to fix a bug. For projects that matter, a stable group of
people must face the challenge, or else people working under the supervision
of those capable of creating small productive units.

For projects that matter, you cannot just hire someone properly certified,
etc., and say go to it.

What I am saying is that this discussion thread doesn't address the growing
complexity of the projects the excellence of Drupal allows to be even
contemplated.

And as a card carrying memeber of the Drupal Union (I wish) I would say:
there abound good, well qualified individuals. Just take a look at the
Drupal Dojo initiative, for example. What is really lacking, and this is the
cause of many failures, is the way those individuals can be brought together
to get the job done.

So certification will not solve what is at the heart of the failure rate.

Victor

On Dec 21, 2007 8:39 AM, <paola.dimaio at gmail.com> wrote:

> HI Victor
> very quickly scanned thorough your mail
> You make some good points
>
> I am not sure that all the premises as you 'read then' were actually
> intended
> as the original meaning
>
> brief comments below
>
>
>
> > One premise I find most faulty is "Drupal is entering the corporate
> world,
> > it must shape up to standards".
> I am not sure this was a premise for this thread. More perhaps, in my
> reading
> 'drupal is more and more widely adopted, and there is an increasingly
> scarcity of
> drupal skills out there'
>
> the corporate vs social world is another issue imho which I dont enter
> into right now
>
> >
> >
> > Another premise I find faulty here is that of the emphasis upon
> individual
> > certification. In the real IT world, quality sites come out of
> collectives,
> > cooperatives, studios, companies, groups working together, and following
> > some kind of capability maturity model. ...> Excellence in treating us,
> the Drupal consultants, so as to get the best > results.
>
> sure - I dont think that any form of documentation of skills would
> contradict any of the above
>
>
> >
> > The third kind of premise I find faulty here is the "every time I hire
> > someone they fail" variety.
>
> I dont say that at all. It's that I have to work very hard and
> exchange dozens of emails with lots of strangers and do a lot of
> vetting, etc to find a suitable drupal developer, who is both
> available, willing, honest, reasoably priced, capable etc etc -  and
> the risk is high!  the costs of implementing a Drupal solution these
> days, risks of becoming higher and higher because of skills shortage
> (from my personal experience) \
> Such shortage may also be only 'perceived', as there may be maybe many
> great devs who never are listed on the drupal website. you must give
> them a chance to come out too...
> I mean when I need a drupal developer it turns like a full time job
>
>
> > , we need a bloody union.
>
> haha - why not?
>
> and maybe also a interfaith sect
>
> cheers
>
> PDM
>
>
> >
> > So, let's beware of corporate crises and hysterical forms of
> organization
> > overturning the carts in the bazaar, let's beware of crass individualism
> and
> > the hiding of the group effort and the fact that one is standing on the
> > shoulders of giants, and let's beware of corporate greed as a tool of
> > organization, and let's beware of the need to extract surplus value from
> > Drupal developers as a building block of quality and excellence.
> >
> > And let's beware of tinkering with something that is already working.
> And
> > let's beware of what is demonstrably not working in the world as a
> whole.
> >
> > More than certification we need a bloody union!!!
> >
> > Victor Kane
> > http://awebfactory.com.ar
> >
> >
> >
> > On Dec 21, 2007 7:27 AM, Liam McDermott <liam at intermedia-online.com >
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Chris Johnson wrote:
> > > > Understanding how most of Drupal works and being able to use that
> > > > knowledge are probably among the key things that a Drupal developer
> > > > would need to know.  Can the former be mapped onto the latter in
> > > >  some sort of systematic way?  Hmm.
> > > Thinking about the way other practical tests work, the driving test in
> > > the UK comes to mind (probably the same across the world). Examinees
> are
> > > given a set of tasks and if they complete them without triggering any
> > > failure conditions--such as breaking the speed limit, not indicating
> > > when turning etc.--then they pass. Drupal could have something like
> the
> > > following failure points:
> > >
> > >   * module doesn't work or doesn't implement specified functionality;
> > >   * module has been copied from the Internet (cheating);
> > >   * did not adhere to coding style;
> > >   * used database system specific PHP function call, e.g.
> mysql_query();
> > >   * generated UI elements without theme functions or forms API;
> > >   * uploaded/manipulated files without using the file interface;
> > >
> > > In the driving test examinees are allowed to make a certain number of
> > > minor mistakes too, example Drupal minor mistakes: minor errors in
> > > coding style (like forgetting a newline before an else {), not writing
> > > portable SQL, or allowing data processing into their theme functions.
> So
> > > examinees must write a module without triggering any of the failure
> > > conditions (and without making too many minor mistakes). Then the
> > > examiner just uses the check list of problems to look for.
> > >
> > > The modules coded in tests could roughly implement the topics on this
> > > page (or the important ones like FAPI, database abstraction etc.):
> > > http://api.drupal.org/api/groups this could make a good start.
> > >
> > > Kind Regards,
> > > Liam McDermott.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Paola Di Maio
> School of IT
> www.mfu.ac.th
> *********************************************
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