The value of independent IT qualifications has been
underlined by a systems designer at BT Global Solutions who gained
several certificates from the BCS Information Systems Examinations
Board (ISEB).
"We are rather cynical about certificates that simply say someone
sat in a classroom for eight hours," said Bill Walker, who recently
gained the ISEB practitioner certificate in software testing. "An
exam focuses the mind wonderfully and also makes training much more
effective."
Walker said his department's policy at BT Global Solutions is to
choose courses accredited by the BCS, partly because they are
subject to independent assessment and also because the training
leads to a qualification, which provides an assurance that it has
been effective.
"I am a strong advocate of professional qualifications. They are
not a substitute for hands-on experience, but where they involve an
independent assessment they are a useful complement to it, and a
set syllabus can help to give goals and structure to a personal
development plan," said Walker.
"Qualifications are a way to validate experience and put it into a
recognised context, so taking the practitioner certificate is a way
of complementing my experience with a more formal, structured
approach. My colleagues and I prefer training courses that lead to
independently assessed qualifications because it is easier to
justify the expenditure."
BT Global Solutions is part of a business that designs and builds
complex systems, and it encourages its IT staff to study for
professional qualifications. Walker, for example, was building on
earlier work for the foundation certificate in software testing.
The training also complemented his studies for the ISEB diploma in
business systems development.
He was previously a software testing team leader and in that job he
put his team through the ISEB foundation certificate in software
testing.
Holding the software testing qualifications will help him in his
new job as a systems designer. "There is more to assuring quality
than running tests on software, and the parts of the qualifications
that are relevant to the whole of the lifecycle are directly
relevant to my job," said Walker.
"I am in a better position to understand what is going to happen to
the system I design and specify up-front at the end of its
lifecycle, so I am less likely to design things that are
untestable.
"The ISEB qualifications have given me a broader perspective of
techniques, a richer vocabulary to communicate those techniques
with others, and the confidence to speak and act with
authority."
Last year almost 19,000 people took courses leading to ISEB
qualifications, which are run by training providers accredited by
the BCS.
Walker took a course run by training company SIM, which uses tutors
who teach from their own experience in testing rather than just
from theory.
Details of ISEB qualifications
www.bcs.org/isebSubjects covered by ISEB courses
Business and management skills
Business systems development
Data protection
Dynamic Systems Development Method
Information communication technology
Information security management
IS consultancy practice
IT service management
Programme and project support office
Project management
Software testing.