[consulting] Drupal Certification

[Trevor Twining]

I agree with the assertion that such certifications are of suspect  
value. I think using more community training to build our capacity to  
handle projects in a competent manner would be of much greater use. I  
think this counts for both public (community supported) and private  
(commercial) training activities.

There's also the benefit of looking at a developer's community  
contributions. This is still, and will remain for some time, an  
important source of information for determining competence with  
drupal. To the extent that a developer has a portfolio, references,  
and a complete drupal profile outlining their activity within the  
community, they will be able to command a higher rate. The  
contributions also have the benefit of being peer reviewed, and are  
therefore a stronger measure of capability, IMO

Great thread, enjoying the conversation.

TT

Trevor Twining
trevor at civicactions.com
CivicActions: hook_world_alter()


On 7-Aug-09, at 9:37 AM, Bill Fitzgerald wrote:

> Hello, all,
>
> Personally, I'm of the opinion that a certification program would be  
> completely useless, and that the certifications would be worth less  
> than the paper they were printed on. I articulated some of these  
> reasons a while back; most of these reasons remain unchanged: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/consulting/2007-December/002267.html
>
> But, with that said, nothing is stopping any shop from creating and  
> managing a certification program. The catch with any credentialing  
> program, however, is that the issue body needs to have some  
> credibility. If Shop X starts issuing a "Drupal Uber-Ninja  
> Certification Program" it's not going to mean much, except that  
> maybe Shop X talked to some marketing and Biz-dev folks and came up  
> with a catchy name for a program that might make them some money.  
> The value of that credential will decrease rapidly over time (if  
> indeed it ever had any value to start with), simply because Drupal  
> development practice evolves rapidly over time.
>
> So, if there are shops out there who want to start a certification  
> program, by all means, go ahead. Nothing is stopping any shop from  
> doing this. The challenge will be in having the value of that  
> credential mean anything.
>
> Personally, I don't care about tech credentials or certifications;  
> I've met far too many * Certified people that I wouldn't trust to  
> get me coffee -- but then again, I'm pretty picky with my coffee.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
> Tom Geller wrote:
>> This subject comes up frequently. I know that Acquia was  
>> considering preparation of a certification system ("Yellow  
>> Jersey"), but it's always been low among their priorities.
>> Something on this subject became the most-commented post on my blog:
>>  http://tomgeller.com/content/market-ready-drupal-certification
>> Then in a post shortly after that, I suggested that Drupal  
>> Association would be the appropriate body to run a certification  
>> program:
>>  http://tomgeller.com/content/why-support-drupal-association
>> I wrote, "[DA could] fulfill functions best served by a non-profit  
>> authority. While I find commercial interest in Drupal exciting and  
>> encouraging, some functions -- such as certification and trademark  
>> protection -- are best served by a neutral party with interests  
>> beyond the purely financial. Drupal Association is that authority."
>> DA never expressed an interest in that -- which is fine, and their  
>> right. I'm among those who questions the value of such things...  
>> but still think it would be great to try. Alas, nobody's taking the  
>> lead. Uncertainly over the Drupal trademark IMHO also discourages  
>> anyone from claiming that leadership role.
>> ---
>>          Tom Geller  *  Oberlin, Ohio  *  415-317-1805
>>             Writer/Editor * http://www.tomgeller.com
>>    articles, marketing, training materials, user guides, books
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>
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