Certification - is it worth it?

Certificates cost time and money. And some people ask themselves whether the effort is worth it - whether for a better job or for themselves. And if you go about certification the wrong way, you may end up with little more than hot air.

In today's guest article, Andrea Herrmann explains the right way to approach certification.

The purpose of certifications using the example of the CPRE (Certified Professional Requirements Engineer)

Certification exams that test memorized knowledge and terms in multiple choice form are often underestimated. Of course, bulimia learning (i.e. the hasty gulping down of unchewed morsels of knowledge) is no fun, and as quickly as you have memorized your little phrases, you forget them again. If you only study for the exam, you don't automatically learn for life. But nobody said that.

Certifications with multiple choice are generally underestimated (Andrea Herrmann) [tweetthis]Certifications with multiple choice are generally underestimated[/tweetthis]

For example, the material in the CPRE exams consists not only of definitions that have to be learned and reproduced (or recognized) in the exam, but also of methods that have to be applied. This includes both the UML notation and selection criteria for the right method in the right situation. The exam therefore also requires you to read and understand models or select the right techniques in a case study. In professional life, you will also have to create models and apply techniques, but this is difficult to test in the multiple choice exam.

Course length

Due to the amount of material, it is unfortunately not possible to prepare for the exam and practice the practical application of the methods in a three-day crash course. In my experience, you need three days to prepare for the CPRE exam (for the CPRE Foundation Level as well as for the Advanced Levels) and can practise the requirements engineering methods recommended by the CPRE in two additional days. I offer both types of courses, usually separately, sometimes combined if someone can invest five days. In five days instead of three, there is room for discussion and application of the methods to a specific case study in addition to exam preparation. However, it is also possible to omit the definitions and only practise the practical application in two days. Participants then learn the terms along the way.

Even if the three-day crash course is the most common on the market: Nobody has ordered that you have to cram the material in a short time (Andrea Herrmann) [tweetthis]Nobody has ordered that you have to cram the material for certification in a short time[/tweetthis]

It is possible to instill the knowledge in a three-day crash course. This involves discussing the definitions and hammering them into the brain by repeating them several times. It is even more helpful for the learning effect and retention if you apply the knowledge, i.e. do something with it. However, this takes time and is therefore not possible for all the material, unless you take five days as mentioned above. Learning is even more relaxed if you first get an overview in a crash course and do not write the exam directly on the third day of the course, but two or three weeks later. As the course and exam are not conducted by the same person anyway, they can be booked and planned separately. Or you can study in advance at home and use the crash course to review and discuss the points that were not covered during your self-study. Then you can also relax and write straight afterwards because you are at the peak of your preparation.

Do certificates make you smarter?

But does this knowledge make you smarter and better at practical requirements engineering? Do you always know in advance what the best solution will be in every situation? Of course, a standard can only represent a summarizing abstraction of many real individual cases. It defines what is most likely to be the best solution according to the current state of practice and research and has proven itself time and again. The standard does not know whether this is the case in your project, which is currently on the table. No printed work can relieve you of the responsibility for what you do in practice. On the contrary, the small print usually states that the standard may, should or even must be adapted. In practice, this means that you have to enrich the knowledge you have learned with your experience or the experience of your colleagues as well as common sense, clairvoyance and a lot of luck in order to work successfully. A standard therefore does not provide ready-made answers, but above all questions. This is more helpful than you might think. Asking all the relevant questions at the right time, checking parameters and working through checklists is what professional, efficient work is all about. And this is exactly what you will find handouts for in the standard.

A standard therefore does not provide ready-made answers, but above all questions (Andrea Herrmann) [tweetthis]A standard does not provide ready-made answers, but above all questions[/tweetthis]

Finding a common language

Communication works best when everyone involved in the project speaks the same language. Certification also helps with this. In the world of technology, many interdisciplinary languages come together: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, business informatics and industrial engineering, business administration and media sciences. In specialist books that are older than the CPRE certification, you will find contradictory, non-standardized terminology. Even if you compare requirements engineering books with requirements engineering books, different terms are used for the same thing or the same term is defined differently. Before standardization, each project therefore had to define its own requirements engineering terminology to avoid talking at cross purposes. If everyone is calibrated to the same standard, they speak the same technical language right from the start. This is why companies like to send entire departments for training and CPRE exams.

Even though I earn my living with CPRE crash courses, I recommend spreading out the learning process over time for a more sustainable learning effect. Even if it is possible to go from zero to one hundred (or at least 70) in three days: What is learned quickly is also quickly forgotten. When I prepare for a certification myself, I take one to two months. Another way to make learning even more digestible is to take an e-learning course. Here you can control the timing yourself. I myself offer a CPRE preparation course that specifically trains you to answer multiple choice questions and also works on a non-trivial case study so that you can experience the techniques in action. The result is a CPRE-compliant requirements specification.

Enjoy learning

Last but not least, success is also fun. I treat myself to another certificate or two every year. What a feeling when you've passed again! You can collect the pretty certificates like stamps and even create series: Foundation, Advanced, Expert!

Dr. Andrea Herrmann is a freelance trainer and consultant for software engineering with more than 20 years of professional experience in practice, teaching and research. She is co-author of the IREB syllabus and handbook for the CPRE Advanced Level Certification in Requirements Management, as well as regional group spokesperson for the Gesellschaft für Informatik in Stuttgart/Böblingen. Her CPRE Foundation Level Course (Introduction video) is also available via e-learning.