Re: Certification - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 5:44 AM Jaime Casanova <jaime.casanova@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:

Yes, I get similar request whenever we take up a new project. Because they think certified professionals can deliver a project very well. I don't blame them. Here in ASEAN (specially in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) I have seen botched-up implementation by self-claimed experts/freelancer for PostgreSQL. Or cases where application team has taken up the task of PostgreSQL deployment as well (for few extra $$) and ended up screwing it up. As PostgreSQL is open source and 'free' it is quite 'open-ended' and 'free' for someone to claim themselves as an expert. I have seen implementations which were tuned reading some blog-post or a list of "10 parameters to tune in PostgreSQL" (example - on a 16GB server max_connections set to 200 and work_mem set to 1GB). This is where certification can streamline a bit but any certification has to be backed by a training. This where I see a value add by EDB. That is why I see that EDB certifications are picking up in ASEAN and people take proud on saying that they are certified on PostgreSQL. All this involves cost and effort (which I believe was pointed out by few others).

Earlier someone mentioned about the non-popularity of EDB certification in ASEAN.  I am not sure of history, but in recent past (24-30months time) we have seen a lot of people taking up EDB's PostgreSQL training and certification. This has gone hand-in-hand with higher adoption of PostgreSQL and EDB in ASEAN. And as more organisation take up PosgreSQL more people will take up certification exams. Even professional look up to certification as a value add in their resume and so certification authority should really check their merit before awarding it.

Also I have seen cases of large BFSI and telecom segment customers where they want to make sure that they have certified staff before promoting a new technology to be used for critical system. This is again where I have seen learning path/training and certification plays an important role.

I feel while certifications are really important both to back the adoption and also to promote more adoption, it has to be backed by a proper training or learning path. At the same time a lot of effort has to be spent in maintaining the level of scrutiny of skills.

Disclaimer: My employer is a training partner and master partner to EDB and I am myself a certified trainer. My opinion is my own but is based on the experience of delivering training to about 150-200 candidates during more than 15 training sessions in last 2-2.5 years of time.