Certifications I'm considering, as an experienced software engineer
Published: 2017-04-29 02:10:29

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title: Certifications I'm considering, as an experienced software engineer
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In building more and more open source projects spanning the full project lifecycle, I am appreciating the importance of structured business requirement analysis, architecture, software testing and project management.

I am already more than an engineer, with experience in all of these things but as a secondary concern without any formal knowledge. But it's precisely the secondary skill-sets that need some formal backing, and not the primary ones - because there's already a mountain of evidence of my skill in the primary ones.

I want my secondary skills to enhance my primary skills, with formal and certified method. In some environments, such formal badges are a big plus. Why?

For example, the team that I work with in Singapore (a country where authority really matters) is made up of PhDs who appreciate both formal knowledge and experience. In Scala engineering I have a lot of experience so I've no problem arguing my case, whereas in my secondary skills I have less focused experience and no formal backing. In discussions, I myself am not sure whether I'm putting the right arguments. Authority is important, and when backed by _both_ by formal method and experience, is very impactful.

Thanks to my coworkers I've learned to prepare for arguments and became better at answering the "Why?". This prepares me well for the future of developing excellent products for myself and others.

# Requirements

- No training courses required, can self-study, whenever I want and for how long I want.
- No work experience of that specific field required, with minimal bureaucracy.
- Can be taken at test centres at around the world, like Pearson VUE.
- Membership not required and renewals have a reasonable cost.
- Recognised enough but does not have to be popular.
- Entry level is enough, since they are only secondary skills.

But why not take it all the way? Well, law of diminishing returns. From experience, when people get things wrong, most of the time it is at the basic level. Like instead of acceptance criteria or tests first, they start with writing the code. Basic level is more than enough in probably a good 90% of the cases.

# Certifications I found

Here are some certifications I found that match the criteria.

## Business Analysis

I found the following sites:
- [BAtimes - Which Business Analysis Certification Is Right For Me? Five Crucial Questions To Ask Yourself](https://www.batimes.com/elizabeth-larson/which-business-analysis-certification-is-right-for-me-five-crucial-questions-to-ask-yourself.html)
- [Quora - What is the best business analyst certification?](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-business-analyst-certification)

From this,
- [IREB - CPRE - Foundation Level - CPRE FL](https://www.ireb.org/en/cpre/foundation/)
- [IIBA - Level 1 - Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA)](http://www.iiba.org/Certification-Recognition/certificationlevels/level1-ecba.aspx)

I also found:
- [QAI's Certified Associate Business Analyst: (CABA)](http://www.softwarecertifications.org/caba/)


## Software testing

- [8 Best Software Testing Certifications Based on Your Experience Level](http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-software-testing-certifications/)

From this, 
- [QAI - Certified Associate in Software Testing (CAST)](http://www.softwarecertifications.org/cast/)
- [ISTQB - Foundation Level](http://www.istqb.org/certification-path-root/foundation-level/foundation-level-in-a-nutshell.html)

## Architecture

- [Tom's IT Pro - Best Enterprise Architect Certifications For 2017](http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/enterprise-architect-certifications,2-640.html)
- [Mike The Architect - Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled](http://www.mikethearchitect.com/2011/12/enterprise-architecture-certifications-distilled.html)

From this,
- [SOA School](http://soaschool.com/certifications)

## Other

- [PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)Â®](http://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/agile-acp) - but has some practice requirement
- [AWS Certified Developer - Associate](https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/)
- [Oracle - Java SE 8 Programmer I](http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=5001&get_params=p_exam_id:1Z0-808)
- [Certified Professional Technical Communicator](http://www.apmg-international.com/en/qualifications/CPTC/CPTC.aspx) from [Society for Technical Communication](https://www.stc.org/certification/) - interesting because it covers planning, analysis and the like.

# What I'll choose

Still thinking about this. I notice they're still quite niche, and are more like components of the bigger picture, which is delivering products to users. Perhaps I need to look at something closer to the user, to product ownership and product development.