APPENDIX A – DISCIPLINED AGILE CERTIFICATION
The Disciplined Agile certification strategy is based on the martial arts concept of Shu-Ha-Ri, where Shu is beginner level, Ha is intermediate level, and Ri is expert level. It takes several years of experience and learning, not several days of workshops, for someone to move between levels.
Why Disciplined Agile Certification?
For individuals, there are several benefits:
1. Increase your knowledge. Disciplined Agile certification requires you to have a comprehensive understanding of Disciplined Agile Delivery, which in turn describes how all aspects of agile principles and practices fit together in an enterprise-class environment.
2. Improve your employability. Disciplined Agile certification indicates to employers that you're dedicated to improving your knowledge and skills, a clear sign of professionalism.
3. Advance your career. Disciplined Agile certification can help you gain that new position or role as the result of your increased knowledge base and desire to improve.
For organizations, there are several benefits:
1. It is meaningful. Disciplined Agile certification has to be earned. It is an indication that your people have a comprehensive understanding of enterprise-class development.
2. It forms the basis of measurable skills assessment. Because the certifications build upon each other, you can use them as a measure of how well agile skills and knowledge are spreading through your organization.
3. It is trustworthy. Because Disciplined Agile certification is externally managed, it is difficult for teams to game the numbers, unlike the self-assessment approach that is becoming all too common.
In summary, we believe that there is value in certification for both individual IT practitioners and for organizations.
The Principles Behind Disciplined Agile Certification
The following principles drove the development of this certification program:
1. Certifications must provide value. First and foremost, a certification must provide value to the person being certified. This value comes from learning new and valuable strategies during the process of earning the certification as well as greater employability resulting from the certification. Of course, there are always limits.
2. Certifications must be earned. The effort required to earn the certification must be commensurate with the value provided. For example, it is easy to earn and become a Certified Disciplined Agilist because this is an indication that someone has basic knowledge of Disciplined Agile and wishes to learn more. A Certified Disciplined Agile Practitioner is harder to earn because it is an indication of both knowledge and experience. It is very difficult to earn and become a Certified Disciplined Agile Coach because it's an indication of expertise and competence.
3. Certifications must be respectable. We believe that the Disciplined Agile certifications are respectable for several reasons. First, the fact that you have to do some work to earn them is a welcome difference from other agile certifications. Second, we're aligning with other respectable certification programs and are requesting participation in one or more of those programs as part of the Practitioner and Coach certifications.
4. Certifications must be focused. The focus of this program is on disciplined agile approaches to IT solution delivery. Disciplined agile certifications are an indication of knowledge and experience in disciplined agile methods.
5. Certification is part of your learning process. Disciplined professionals view certification as part of their learning process. Learning is not an event but instead an ongoing effort. The implication is that once you have earned your certification you must continue working to keep your skills up to date.
6. Certified professionals have a responsibility to share knowledge. Not only have we adopted the concept of earning belts from martial arts, we have also adopted the mindset that people have a responsibility to help teach and nurture people with lower belts to learn new skills and knowledge. The act of teaching and sharing information often leads one to a greater understanding and appreciation of the topic, and thus helps the teacher as well as the student to learn.
How to Learn More
You can find out more about the certification process at DisciplinedAgileConsortium.org.