his is certainly a debatable issue, whether certifications are good or bad. People have different opinion about the various certification program and the way its content are organized. In my opinion, certifications are good, because it gives you an opportunity to learn things, which you might not be using.
Doing a test certification might add some value to your profile. Certification could be important because of various reasons. You might want to do certification because
There are not many certified software test engineer and so certification can increase your value in the organization.
* It can add value to your career path.
* You stand out from your peers with your professional certification.
* You get to learn things on which you are not working.
* Certification could also mean that you are serious about software testing as a profession.
There are various certification programs available for the software testing professional. On this page we will not compare programs for their merit demerit. Purpose of this page is to provide you information and links about the certification opportunities available to you.
I am in no way claiming that this list is complete, I am sure there are more options available. If it is not present here, its mean that I am not aware of them and so there will be some more people like me. Why not share this information with all of us?
Certification Opportunity Certification options available to the Test professional can be divided in two categories.
* Subject knowledge
* Tool Knowledge
* Certification Based on the Subject Knowledge
In this category, candidates knowledge of software testing is examined and certification is awarded based on the subject knowledge. In this category, certifications are available for quality control and quality assurance, both the fields. These certifications are also divided according to the professional level and knowledge required. I have divided certifications available based on the controlling institute or organization
* Certifications from Quality Assurance Institute, QAI
Certified Software Tester (CSTE) and Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA), both the certifications are very popular in the testing community. CSTE is related to the Quality Control and CSQA is related to the Quality Assurance.
According to the QAI, " Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Tester (CSTE) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality control in the IT profession." Where as for CSQA it indicates "Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality assurance in the IT profession"
QAI, also have advance level of certification for people, who have already done CSTE or CSQA. These certifications are called CMST (Certified Manager Of Software Testing) and CMSQ (Certified Manager Of Software Quality).
More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
* Certifications from International Software Testing Qualification Board, ISTQB
ISTQB have three level of certifications, all under one brand. Certifications from ISTQB are called ISTQB Certified Tester for Foundation, Advance or Expert level. These certifications are based on a syllabus created by ISTQB.
More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
* International Institute for Software Testing, IIST
IIST offers two certification programs, CSTP (Certified Software Test Professional) and CTM (Certified Test Manager). More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
Certification Based on the Tool Knowledge
In this category, test tool usage proficiency of the candidate is examined. This is normally conducted by various tool vendors. Vendor certifications are available from vendors like Rational, Mercurry, Seague etc. Some of the vendor certifications are mentioned below.
IBM Rational
Rational, well IBM Rational is probably one of the organization to have tool for all the activities involved in SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). On this page, I will give information about certifications offered by IBM Rational, which are related to software testing. Surprisingly, IBM has two categories of certifications
* Certification For all candidates
There are two certification available, for IBM Rational Manual Tester (RMT) and IBM Rational Performance Tester (RPT)
IBM Certified Solution Designer - RMT - According to IBM website "This intermediate-level solution designer is an individual with extensive product knowledge who understands how to setup, configure and create a manual testing framework with Rational Manual Tester."
* IBM Certified Solution Designer - RPT - Again from IBM " An intermediate level solution designer is an individual with extensive product knowledge who understands how to use the IBM Rational Performance Tester tool to validate the performance, scalability and reliability of Web-based, SAP, Siebel, or Citrix hosted systems. This person is proficient in creating dynamic tests, developing workload schedules for various performance and load testing scenarios, execute tests with both small and large loads, and evaluating resulting data to measure, analyze and pinpoint factors that affect system performance and other related issues before deployment." Certification For IBM Business Partners, Educational Partners and IBM Employees
I do not think I need to give this information here. If you are not in IBM, you will not care about these certification and if you are in IBM, you already know about it. In case you do not know and would like to know, go here.
Borland Segue
Segue, Well Borland Segue has two categories of certifications.
* Test and Performance Management certifications
Under this category, there are three certifications available. These certification address different aspect of application.
o Functional Test Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on the proficiency level of SilkTest, SilkCentral Test Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. More details about the certification can be found here
o Performance Test Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on SilkPerformer, SilkCentral Test Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. More details can be found here.
o Application Performance Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on SilkPerformer, SilkCentral Performance Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. For more details visit Segue.
* Engineer Certifications
Under this category of certification, emphasis is given on only one tool, instead of complete solution. There are two certifications available under this category.
o Borland Certified SilkTest Engineer - According to the Segue website "his process will ensure that candidates demonstrate a functional knowledge of the product as well as possess the ability to create and run tests to validate accuracy within an application under test." More details here.
o Borland Certified SilkPerformer Engineer - According to the Segue website "This process will ensure that candidates will have demonstrated functionality knowledge of the product, the ability to effectively define, implement and execute load tests, generate reports, and interpret the results to provide accurate conclusions and recommendations." For more detail visit here.
Mercury
Well, HP Mercury in some time. So this should give you idea of the software testing market. All the big names of software testing tool organizations are now part of even bigger organizations. Mercury has divided its certification program in two categories.
* Certified Product Consultant - According to the website "The CPC exam certifies that candidates have demonstrated extensive knowledge and ability with Mercury Interactive products. These exams are designed for mid to senior level professionals with several years of experience in their respective fields. The CPC is a hands-on, lab-based examination using actual Mercury Interactive software. Certifications are organized by product and based on a specific release family of the software." More details about the program can be found here.
* Certified Instructor - According to the website "While the CPC focuses on product knowledge and ability, the CI certifies that a candidate is a skilled instructor with a seasoned knowledge of Mercury Interactive course materials and instructional philosophies. An individual who has achieved a CI is able to download Mercury Interactive training materials from the web site and conduct a training course for products they hold a CPC in."
Doing a test certification might add some value to your profile. Certification could be important because of various reasons. You might want to do certification because
There are not many certified software test engineer and so certification can increase your value in the organization.
* It can add value to your career path.
* You stand out from your peers with your professional certification.
* You get to learn things on which you are not working.
* Certification could also mean that you are serious about software testing as a profession.
There are various certification programs available for the software testing professional. On this page we will not compare programs for their merit demerit. Purpose of this page is to provide you information and links about the certification opportunities available to you.
I am in no way claiming that this list is complete, I am sure there are more options available. If it is not present here, its mean that I am not aware of them and so there will be some more people like me. Why not share this information with all of us?
Certification Opportunity Certification options available to the Test professional can be divided in two categories.
* Subject knowledge
* Tool Knowledge
* Certification Based on the Subject Knowledge
In this category, candidates knowledge of software testing is examined and certification is awarded based on the subject knowledge. In this category, certifications are available for quality control and quality assurance, both the fields. These certifications are also divided according to the professional level and knowledge required. I have divided certifications available based on the controlling institute or organization
* Certifications from Quality Assurance Institute, QAI
Certified Software Tester (CSTE) and Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA), both the certifications are very popular in the testing community. CSTE is related to the Quality Control and CSQA is related to the Quality Assurance.
According to the QAI, " Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Tester (CSTE) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality control in the IT profession." Where as for CSQA it indicates "Acquiring the designation of Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) indicates a professional level of competence in the principles and practices of quality assurance in the IT profession"
QAI, also have advance level of certification for people, who have already done CSTE or CSQA. These certifications are called CMST (Certified Manager Of Software Testing) and CMSQ (Certified Manager Of Software Quality).
More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
* Certifications from International Software Testing Qualification Board, ISTQB
ISTQB have three level of certifications, all under one brand. Certifications from ISTQB are called ISTQB Certified Tester for Foundation, Advance or Expert level. These certifications are based on a syllabus created by ISTQB.
More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
* International Institute for Software Testing, IIST
IIST offers two certification programs, CSTP (Certified Software Test Professional) and CTM (Certified Test Manager). More information about these certifications can be obtained from official website.
Certification Based on the Tool Knowledge
In this category, test tool usage proficiency of the candidate is examined. This is normally conducted by various tool vendors. Vendor certifications are available from vendors like Rational, Mercurry, Seague etc. Some of the vendor certifications are mentioned below.
IBM Rational
Rational, well IBM Rational is probably one of the organization to have tool for all the activities involved in SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). On this page, I will give information about certifications offered by IBM Rational, which are related to software testing. Surprisingly, IBM has two categories of certifications
* Certification For all candidates
There are two certification available, for IBM Rational Manual Tester (RMT) and IBM Rational Performance Tester (RPT)
IBM Certified Solution Designer - RMT - According to IBM website "This intermediate-level solution designer is an individual with extensive product knowledge who understands how to setup, configure and create a manual testing framework with Rational Manual Tester."
* IBM Certified Solution Designer - RPT - Again from IBM " An intermediate level solution designer is an individual with extensive product knowledge who understands how to use the IBM Rational Performance Tester tool to validate the performance, scalability and reliability of Web-based, SAP, Siebel, or Citrix hosted systems. This person is proficient in creating dynamic tests, developing workload schedules for various performance and load testing scenarios, execute tests with both small and large loads, and evaluating resulting data to measure, analyze and pinpoint factors that affect system performance and other related issues before deployment." Certification For IBM Business Partners, Educational Partners and IBM Employees
I do not think I need to give this information here. If you are not in IBM, you will not care about these certification and if you are in IBM, you already know about it. In case you do not know and would like to know, go here.
Borland Segue
Segue, Well Borland Segue has two categories of certifications.
* Test and Performance Management certifications
Under this category, there are three certifications available. These certification address different aspect of application.
o Functional Test Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on the proficiency level of SilkTest, SilkCentral Test Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. More details about the certification can be found here
o Performance Test Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on SilkPerformer, SilkCentral Test Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. More details can be found here.
o Application Performance Management Expert - Focus of this certification is on SilkPerformer, SilkCentral Performance Manager and SilkCentral Issue Manager. For more details visit Segue.
* Engineer Certifications
Under this category of certification, emphasis is given on only one tool, instead of complete solution. There are two certifications available under this category.
o Borland Certified SilkTest Engineer - According to the Segue website "his process will ensure that candidates demonstrate a functional knowledge of the product as well as possess the ability to create and run tests to validate accuracy within an application under test." More details here.
o Borland Certified SilkPerformer Engineer - According to the Segue website "This process will ensure that candidates will have demonstrated functionality knowledge of the product, the ability to effectively define, implement and execute load tests, generate reports, and interpret the results to provide accurate conclusions and recommendations." For more detail visit here.
Mercury
Well, HP Mercury in some time. So this should give you idea of the software testing market. All the big names of software testing tool organizations are now part of even bigger organizations. Mercury has divided its certification program in two categories.
* Certified Product Consultant - According to the website "The CPC exam certifies that candidates have demonstrated extensive knowledge and ability with Mercury Interactive products. These exams are designed for mid to senior level professionals with several years of experience in their respective fields. The CPC is a hands-on, lab-based examination using actual Mercury Interactive software. Certifications are organized by product and based on a specific release family of the software." More details about the program can be found here.
* Certified Instructor - According to the website "While the CPC focuses on product knowledge and ability, the CI certifies that a candidate is a skilled instructor with a seasoned knowledge of Mercury Interactive course materials and instructional philosophies. An individual who has achieved a CI is able to download Mercury Interactive training materials from the web site and conduct a training course for products they hold a CPC in."
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