A Dissenting Opinion On Testing’s “To Cert Or Not To Cert” Debate
Earlier this week, we published our three-part interview with Michael Bolton. This was the latest installment in our monthly Testing The Limits series, in which we sit down with luminaries from the worlds of testing, development, crowdsourcing or startup life. As part of this discussion, we asked Michael for his take on the issue of testing certifications (as we’ve done with Matt Heusser and James Bach in previous months).
In response to what she felt was “cert-bashing,” Charity Stoner of ProtoTest has written a post defending test certifications. Since we always encourage civil discourse and open-minded debate — and since the purpose of the Testing The Limits series is to offer up different perspectives from around the world of software — I wanted to shine a light on this post.
What do you think about test certifications? Do they provide testers with a toolkit that complements their experience and adds real value? Are they a marketing mechanism that limits what it means to be a professional software tester? Or is it somewhere in the middle? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Charity makes a valid point that the fact that a tester bothered to get a certification may be an indication that the person is motivated to grow her skills and career. If I’m a hiring manager looking at that stack of resumes, it might catch my eye also. However, I would put more value on the candidate’s responses to questions such as “What do you do for your own professional development?”
Certification may also give some managers who don’t know anything about testing a certain comfort level. So it probably can’t hurt to get a certification.
I count myself in the anti-certification camp, because the things you can measure with multiple-choice questions really don’t reflect the person’s skills and abilities to do a good job of testing. Mindset and attitude are much more important to me than whether a person knows the “official” definitions of different kinds of testing.
I’ve been in the software business for 28 years, and in the testing business for 15+ years, and I don’t know how well I’d do on a certification exam, because I don’t know all the “lingo”. Do I know something about testing? I sure think so, though there are others who disagree!
I admit I am cynical – most testing certification programs I see are designed to make money for the organization offering the certification or for “training” organizations that prepare people for the exam.
I appreciate that Charity has engaged the conversation. I’ve responded to Charity’s comments, and I also appreciate that she’s afforded me the opportunity to do so.
—Michael B.
Thanks for sharing your note, Michael.
I’ve read your comments on Charity’s post and I applaud you for advancing the discussion in such a constructive manner.
Matt, thank you for the soapbox! I appreciate your willingness to publish both sides of this debate.
Michael, thank you for your reply and your willingness to continue the debate. I replied on the ProtoTest blog site.
Lisa, thank you for your response! Like I mentioned, I do not believe that certifications are for everyone and you definitely don’t need one. As I say in my response on the blog experience trumps certification, always. Looking at it from your own point of view for yourself I can understand why you would not want to take a certification class/exam. My question to you is, do you agree that there is value to the younger generation of testers just coming into the workforce to take a certification test?