There are a lot of discussions around the Agile Community about certifications. Most people with a lot of Agile experience don’t give anything about a certificate for attending a two day , or longer, training course. But why? You can do a certification for Scrum, for professional communication, for different coaching techniques. But what conclusiveness has a certification when you get one just for attending a training or even after doing a test about what you have learned?
A certification is just a confirmation that you know some rules, skills, styles or techniques. But it has absolutely no significance about understanding and living the mindset which is beyond the topic. You’ve learned some basic rules, some techniques, styles or some basic knowledge and perhaps you did some novice practice. It’s like doing the driving license. You know the rules on the street, you know the meaning of traffic signs and that you are not allowed to drive faster than 50kmh in a city. It’s like having a starter kit, not more. The statistics reveal that most accidents on the streets are made by young people between 18 and 25 – in germany. All these people have a driving license but not enough experience and practice when it comes to challenging situations in traffic or they just overrate traffic situations or even themselves. They have a driving license and are allowed to drive a car on public roads. But for participating in the Formula 1 you need more than a driving license. You need lots of practice and years of experience to be a good driver.
And even people with years of experience in driving cars are still after years no safe or even good drivers.
On the other side of the coin, there are people having a lot of experience and practice in what they are doing but did never participate in a certification program. They are enthusiastic and passionate about what they are doing. They have the mindset of giving their best, do continuous learning and practicing and are just professionals in their area of responsibility.
So, what’s the value of a certification? As already mentioned, a certification is an official confirmation, a starter kit for having some knowledge about basic assumptions for a special role or practice or a confirmation of certain characteristics of an object or an organization. But it gives absolutely no information about the mindset of a person or an organization if the values, which drives the certain special topic which is certificated has really a high level importance for them. In addition, it depends on what you are doing with the knowledge you’ve gained or confirmed by doing a certification.
I think certifications are important, I did several! But if they are only used for making money with certification programs, which is not unusual, than a certification is a waste of money and probably a waste of time as it is the mindset which drives people and organizations. And a mindset can not be certified but you can live it and that’s what is more important than having a certification!
What is your opinion? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about certifications, I’m highly interested to gather some opinions about that topic.
vinylbaustein 
Nov 07, 2011 @ 08:02:10
Awesome, your new blog:-)
And a very important post.
Certifications in my opinion have one single important purpose: organisations want to introduce new stuff in an easy way, avoiding risks. People hiring want to be able to sieve through a large number of applicants quickly, and there certifications come in useful. And they give you the added benefit of of putting responsiblity (or blame) on others:
“It was not my fault agile does not work here, I hired certified people.”
This is, of course, highly dysfunctional…
Certifications might add value to your CV, but my honest opinion is that if you still rely on a CV to become successful, you’re playing the wrong game.
There is obviously value in training—I’m only talking about the certificates … And then there are some cases where standards help to assure that a person has standardised skills: I guess we all like the fact that when we go into hospital, that someone had checked that the staff is able to help you.
Nov 06, 2011 @ 19:10:25
I mean journey of change not chance 🙂
Nov 06, 2011 @ 17:30:21
I agree that most certifications are just starting point (as are most courses in anything). There are also some certification where you really need to prove what you can do and in more ways than just a simple test; but I have only seen a few of these,
So for much certifications I believe it is true that you get your licence and then you go out in the real world, get experience and really learn how to drive. They serve a purpose, as they teach us some basic rules that hopefully makes it easier and safer to drive.
However I disagree that certifications do not teach you about the mindset; I know that not all certification courses do, but the good ones should at talk about the mindset and values – at least in certifications about organizations and people like for instance agile.
I don’t believe that you can learn a mindset in any course. It is like the matrix: “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself” like Morpheus says. And it is the same for a mindset.. No one can really tell you want a mindset is; you can talk about ideas and values, you can play serious games to make him experience it, but until that person see it for himself; he will not know what it is.
I don’t teach certification classes, but have a two day class on “Introduction to agile” in the organization where I am an agile coach. I talk of values and mindset and hope that some of it stick to their minds and creates seed so they will become more open to an agile mindset.. But I cannot teach them; only hope that I can guide them to start on a journey of chance 🙂