September, 2008

The Next Microsoft Cert Generation Takes Wing

To me, some of the most interesting things abut the recent article in Redmond Magazine entitled “IT Salaries on the Rise” appeared in the various charts that accompany the story. Today’s blog springs more or less fully-formed from the forehead of Chart 4 “Average Base Salary by Microsoft Certification.” Because of the preceding link, I’m not going to reproduce its results wholesale; rather, I’m going to reproduce the numbers from the latest crop of MS certifications–at least, where they’re available. Let me precede that data with an important level set, however: the average base salary from all respondents who lacked any Microsoft certification of any kind was $84,775, so it should be clear that the responding population is older, more senior, better educated, and more experienced than somebody right out of school looking for a first job. In fact, these numbers probably apply best to those at mid-career stages or higher.

With those caveats in mind, here are some numbers to chew on:

Certification AvgSalary
MCTS: SQL Server $88,110
MCTS: .NET Web $86,846
MCTS: .NET Windows $91,438
MCTS: .NET Dist Apps $84,567
MCTS: BizTalk 2006 $87,467
MCTS: MOSS 2007 $78,033
MCTS: Exch07 Config $84,157
MCTS: SharePoint (all) $92,585
MCTS: Vista Config $77,071
MCTS: Vista/Offc desk $82,840
MCTS: SharePoint 3.0 $92,071
MCTS: WinServ08 App $87,849
MCTS: WinServ08 AD $88,274
MCTS: WinServ08 NW $89,143

MCITP: Ent Admin $86,825
MCITP: Ent Msg Admin $79,727
MCITP: DB Developer $84,714
MCITP: Cnsmr Support $97,608
MCITP: Ent Support $72,649

MCPD: Ent App Dev $94,333
MDPD: .NET Windows $91,438
MCPD: .NET Enterprise $94,333

Let me expand the preceding initialisms, so those who may not already know them can understand the hierarchy. MCTS represents the entry-level MS certs, and stands for Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist. MCITP is the admin/application mid-level tier and stands for Microsoft Certified Information Technology (IT) Professional. MCPD is the developer mid-level tier and stands for Microsoft Certified Professional Developer. There’s even a Master tier above the MCPD on the development side and the MCITP on the admin/application side, but it’s still being rolled out (it hasn’t even earned a slot in the chart of MS certifications on their own site yet).

What does this single collection of salary numbers have to tell us? I’m not sure anything I say next should be considered Gospel, but I feel safe making the following claims anyway:

1. The new Microsoft certs are clearly on the radar. They’ve been out for almost three years now and are starting to build momentum, attain name recognition, and are acquiring definite value in the marketplace.
2. Old-line MS topics related to network and server administration, and even Exchange, appear to be taking a back seat to newer applications and technologies, especially SharePoint. I have to think that some of this reflects a way to acquire expertise in new areas quickly and directly, and guess that this balance will change over time.
3. Demand for Windows Server 2003/2008 and new-line technologies must be very strong and pretty new, or I don’t think we’d see the MCTS credentials matching (and in some cases, exceeding) MCITP and MCPD credentials in pay. I’m guessing that this balance will shift over the next couple of years as more companies and organizations jump onto the Server 2008 bandwagon, and more IT professionals draw on more experience in these areas to advance from MCTS to MCITP status.

No matter what your take on these numbers and what they mean might be, you have to admit that something interesting is going on here. I hope this helps give some impetus to read, and some interest in reading, my upcoming series of blogs on the MCTS, MCITP, and MCPD certifications that will follow soon.

–Ed–

The Other CompTIA Certifications

OK, so everybody knows about the Big Three certs from CompTIA: A+, Network+, and Security+. A+ and Network+ are more or less checkbox items for aspiring entry-level IT, help desk, and tech support workers. Security+ is fast becoming a stepping stone to other, more senior, well-recognized and -rewarded information security certs as well (see our SearchSecurity.com guide to information security certifications for more information on this topic).

All this said, CompTIA offers a total of 13 certifications. What about the other 10? Here’s a list with information and commentary to help introduce them to those who haven’t come across them before, and to refamiliarize those who may have heard of them before:

CompTIA CDIA+ Certification: The CDIA+ was CompTIA’s first-ever certification and has been around for more than 10 years. It target a very specific niche market for digitizing, storing, and managing documents in digital form rather than paper form. It’s intended to demonstrate expertise in technologies and best practices involved in planning, designing, and specifying document imaging and management systems. Here again, this remains a narrowly-focused and relatively small market segment.

CompTIA Convergence+ Certification: Responding to industry requests for more skills and knowledge about communications technologies, which are said to reside where data communications, telephony and telecommunications, and video and broadcast multimedia technologies combine into a single IP-based delivery system, Convergence+ seeks to demonstrates basic skills and knowledge across all these areas. CompTIA faces stiff competition from the Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA’s) Convergence Technologies Professional (CTP) and Certified in Convergent Network Technologies (CCNT) certifications here, and has not been as widely adopted or recognized in the marketplace, either.

CompTIA CTT+ Certification: The Certified Technical Trainer, or CTT credential, predates its acquisition by CompTIA. It’s a vendor-neutral classroom training cert that is accepted as evidence of sufficient training skills in many vendor-specific training programs in lieu of their own in-house credentials (where available). Obtaining a CTT+ certification requires candidates to demonstrate their preparation, presentation, communication, and facilitation skills, and to submit a videotape for evaluation of classroom skills and behavior. It’s probably the best-known, most valuable, and most widely sought-after of all the “other” CompTIA certs.

CompTIA DHTI+ Certification: DHTI stands for Digital Home Technologies Integator, and covers a grab-bag of digital home technologies including alarm systems, control systems, entertainment systems, communications, networking, and more. The successor to the short-lived Home Technologies Integrator (HTI+) certification, the DHTI+ continues to face issues with breadth and depth of coverage in a collection of technology areas that are changing so rapidly as to defy codification and currency in coverage. Nevertheless, the DHTI+ certification seeks to demonstrate competence in configuring, integrating, maintaining, troubleshooting, and comprehending basic design concepts for electronic and digital home systems. Here again, this is a narrowly focused niche for high-end equipment vendors, installation companies, home builders, and so forth, that has yet to gain significant traction outside those organizations where hiring qualified technicians can be a real challenge.

CompTIA e-Biz+ Certification: E-business (or E-biz) is an area of technical activity that involves conducting business online. It’s kind of a combination of Web technology and e-commerce; e-Biz+ is no longer available worldside (it’s only available in Korean and Japanese languages). This is a credential whose time has largely come and gone.

CompTIA Linux+ Certification: Linux certifications are many, and their coverage is often scattered, where focus on actual distributions may be tightly focused or all over the place. Linux+ is vendor-neutral, and focuses on open source and Linux basics, including fundamentals of user administration, file permissions and access controls, and setup and software configuration, plus local storage and network management. Linux+ has not really been widely adopted and faces stiff competition from the longer-lived, multi-tiered, and more wide-ranging Linux Professional Institute credentials (LPIC levels 1 through 3), as well as well-recognized vendor Linux certs from Red Hat, Novell/Suse, and others.

CompTIA PDI+ Certification: The PDI+ certification takes printing and document imaging devices as its focus, and seeks to demonstrate knowledge and skills necessary for to support and operate high-end printing and document imaging devices. Topics covered include print and scan processes and components, basic electromechanical tools, and color theory, along with soft skills such as customer service and professionalism, safety, and environmental sensitivity. This is another niche cert that aims to supply printing and imaging service providers with qualified technical staff.

CompTIA Project+ Certification: Project+ might be described as a set of “training wheels” for the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. That is the Project+ focuses on fundamental project management skills including the whole project life cycle starting with initiation and planning, all the way through execution, acceptance, support and closure. The PMP remains “the” certification for project management professionals, while Project+ is a stepping-stone to that goal at best.

CompTIA RFID+ Certification: RFID stands for Radio Freqency Identifier, a special kind of hardware device that announces itself to inquiring transponders and provides other data as well. The RFID+ seeks to demonstrate knowledge and skills in the areas of installation, maintenance, repair, and upkeep of hardware and software functionality of RFID products. This credential is designed with a very specific audience in mind, and is relevant for those seeking work with RFID technologies. But it’s still a fairly small niche.

CompTIA Server+ Certification: Server+ was designed as a higher-level credential, which makes sense given its focus ontechnical competencies surround network server issues and technologies. Coverage includes installation, configuration, upgrading, maintenance, and environment, plus troubleshooting and disaster recovery. Server+ is accepted in some vendor-specific programs, but at most it takes the place of a single exam in programs that require passing four or more exams to earn vendor certification.

As you look over these certs, it’s wise to consider where CompTIA gets its name and mission: at its heart it’s an industry association whose mandate is to identify areas of technical competency where industry needs workers and to design certifications based on job requirements to match. For some of these credentials, there’s a happy fit between what IT professionals want and need to learn and what industry is looking for. For others, exposure, interest, and experience in specific industry niches drives the certs, and must therefore drive professionals into seeking the related certs as well.

What Makes Cert Programs Succeed?

I drop in on CertCities.com pretty regularly, to catch up on IT certification news, reviews, and opinions. Of the last variety, my old coopetitor, Emmett Dulaney, often has some pretty good ones. Today is no exception as he digs into an interesting and wistful illustration of the old principle probably best known as “wishing don’t make it so.” This occurs in a column he wrote called Certification Synergy, dated 9/17/08.

Let me restate his basic observations and assertions, and then indulge myself likewise. Basically, Emmett related that good IT certification study materials derive from a substantial and readily available body of work on the subject matter and coverage involved. What makes it easy to build some cert materials, and a slam-dunk to justify from a sales and marketing perspective, in fact, is the “killer combination” of lots of raw material, relevant research, user and trainer experience, and so forth, plus a large, motivated, and interested population of prospective certification candidates. To me, this describes the world as I knew it in the late 90s when I developed the Exam Cram series and rode that monster wave right up to the shattered remains of the World Trade Centers on 9/11, after which the already-faltering IT economy pancaked into a shuddering stop.

Dulaney goes on to relate how he and his publishers got hornswoggled into crafting a similar series of such materials for an unnamed vendor, based on that party’s argument that their certifications were as good as Novell’s and Microsoft’s except that they didn’t enjoy the level of third-party support they were seeking to “hire done” by talking to Emmett and his publisher in the first place. To make the deal work, however, the unnamed vendor had to agree to a big buy of the resulting books–an entirely typical maneuver that enables deep-pocketed outfits to foist all kinds of books on the public when simple economics isn’t inducement enough for the publisher and author to shoulder that risk on their own. Alas, however, this meant that the producers of the work ultimately couldn’t be frank with readers about BS in the certs that people would need to learn but would never actually use in the real world. Comes under the heading of “don’t bite the hand that feeds you!”

Alas, some of the best value in certification materials comes from classifying and identifying subject matter and coverage from that very standpoint. If you tell people they can memorize something and forget it afterward, they’ll often swallow such arbitrary requirements as a cost of earning the certification. But if you fail to tell them when materials are basically irrelevant, they’ll never forgive you for not telling them the whole truth about what they must study and learn. In fact, the converse is also true: when you can tell your readers “Hey! This stuff is important: you’ll use it every day at work.” you can also really count on them to pay attention. I’ve had plenty of people tell me, as I’m sure is also true for Emmett Dulaney, that they continued to use our cert prep books after earning their credentials, because of this phenomenon.

Dulaney doesn’t say whether the unnamed vendor’s cert program took off or continued to sputter along after the materials he described were published. I don’t think he has to, because if the writers and publisher can do anything and everything possible to add value to the certification prep materials, both their value and the value of the certification they cover are diminished thereby. And believe me, there are enough bogus or questionable certs out there already, and nobody wants one that’s even tarnished, let alone diminished.

Ultimately what makes cert programs succeed is that they not only result in a piece of paper and another splotch of alphabet soup to add to business cards, resumes, and so forth. What makes them fly is that they genuinely do impart skills, knowlege and wisdom, along with exposure to tools and techniques that prove at least useful or interesting, if not downright essential to getting the job done. That leads to their recognition as possessing value, appearance in job postings and advertisements, and proud recitations of “I’m a ” when IT geeks get together to assert and celebrate their geekhood.

–Ed–

To CompTIA, or Not?

Many of the questions I get from readers and IT professionals might best be summarized as “If I earn the following cert(s), will it help my career?” More than half the time, in fact, one or more of the specific IT certifications mentioned in the query comes from the Computing Technology Industry Association or CompTIA. To be even more specific A+ is mentioned most frequently, with Network+ close behind, and Security+ in third place by the numbers.

Thus, I’d like to address the issue of what kinds of value these and other CompTIA certifications can provide, and what kinds of people are most likely to benefit from their pursuit and attainment. Both A+ and Network+ focus solidly on entry-level personnel, or as CompTIA likes to put it “individuals embarking on a career in technology.” A+ seeks to identify PC technicians with at least 6 months of experience or its functional equivalent, where Network+ ups that ante by three months and recommends its pursuers to earn the A+ as a stepping stone to this credential.

By design, both A+ and Network+ serve as steppings stones to other, more advanced CompTIA certifications, and to some extent, they’re also referenced or recognized in other vendor-specific and -neutral certification programs. But the fact remains that these credentials work best to identify those inexperienced or new-to-the-industry workers who have sufficient interest in and motivation to demonstrate some basic PC (A+) and networking (Network+) knowledge and proficiency.

By themselves, neither or both of these credentials is probably enough to land somebody a job in IT, however. Even an associate’s degree remains worth more to most organizations hiring entry-level workers, or those switching from other fields to IT. Thus, while I can (and do) recommend A+ and Network+ to aspiring IT workers in PC or network technician, help desk, tech support, operator, and other traditional first rung IT jobs, I usually have to temper that recommendation by observing that other signs of education, skill, and ability will add to one’s chances of parlaying these credentials into a job.

Security+ is a slightly different animal. It recommends earning both A+ and Network+ first, and seeks to identify individuals with two or more years of security-related job experience. Thus, it’s not quite as “entry-level” as the other two certs, though it is very much an entry-level information security certification by virtue of its depth and breadth of coverage. Here again this is a certification that while helpful and worth pursuing may not be enough by itself to parlay into an information security position. That’s partly because the phrase “entry-level security position” is something of an oxymoron, and something of a rare bird besides that. However, earning the Security+ is a useful stepping stone toward the CISSP, CISM, and other more senior infosec certs that and often do help IT professionals move into information security jobs, or up the information security component in network and systems administration positions.

Thus, to answer the question posed in the title of this blog, the answer is: “Yes, but…” The buts include “don’t expect to turn this into immediate gold, a first job, or a promotion” and “be prepared to proceed from these ’stepping-stone’ credentials to other, more substantial and serious vendor-neutral and/or -specific certifications to really boost your career and your future earning potential.”

–Ed–

Time for a sanity check: How am I doing? And yourself?

This is my 18th entry for this continuing “IT Career JumpStart” blog. I’m about six weeks into the process, and both I and my masters at TechTarget are reasonably pleased with the way things are going so far. I’ve managed to get some discussion going on over half of my posts, and have fielded at least a dozen related e-mails from others who were perhaps too shy or who didn’t want to post comments directly to the blogs.

My objectives here are two-fold:

1. I’d like to ask for your input on how useful or otherwise the kind of content I’ve posted so far has been. Either way, please tell me what you liked best and why, and what you didn’t like (and why for that also, if you’re inclined to tell me).
2. I’m going to present some ideas on future topics for coverage and would like to get your reactions. Please, if you ask me not to cover something, do suggest an alternative topic to take its place if you can–preferably something that interests you, or where you’re currently seeking information or advice and haven’t been able to get what you need.

Here are the topics that I’m planning to cover over the next couple of months, some of which will be multi-part postings:

1. CompTIA Revisited: a look at the CompTIA cert stable, with more coverage on the most popular items, A+, Network+, and Security
2. The Next Microsoft Generation: What’s up with MCTS, MCITP, MCPD, and Microsoft Certified Master?
3. Another take on information security certifications: updating the semi-annual infosec cert survey
4. Industry-motivated academic programs: where certificates, certification, classroom education, and workforce preparation meet

That should probably get us into November, perhaps even as far as Thanksgiving. But with your help and input, I’m more than happy to add and drop items, or to refocus coverage to help address your needs and answer your questions. Ultimately, that really why I’m doing this, so please give me the benefit of your input, not to mention your insight, as we plan for some next steps in the great chain of blogging!

Best,
–Ed–

Security+: Third Time Lucky?

At the end of August, CompTIA announced that its Security+ certification had passed a significant milestone, as the total count of credentials granted topped the 50,000 mark. Over the past six years since this certification made its initial debut in December, 2002, Security+ has slowly gained increasing acceptance and adoption as one of a small number of entry-level information security certifications worth pursuing.

That said, Security+ has played to mixed reviews from information security and certification experts, including yours truly. At various times, it’s been suggested that the exam has gotten a bit stale, wandered off-topic, and failed to cover important topics. With an average three-year update cycle (do the math) most of these observations tend to occur beyond the half-way point between exam refreshes. It’s possible that the CompTIA methodology and timing is more responsible for the occasional gaffes and gripes that get reported about its exams, including Security+.

That said, there’s a lot to like about the latest upcoming version of Security+, slated for release in Q4 2008, as a quick review of its draft objectives (in PDF format) will attest. As it has always done, the latest Security+ incarnation seeks to validate that individuals have at least 2 years experience in network administration with a security focus, including day-in, day-out security activity, along with broad basic knowledge of “security concerns and implementation.”

The original 5 domains in the exam’s body of knowledge have acquired another domain: assessments and audits (4), along with Systems Security (1), Network Infrastructure (2), Access Control (3), Cryptography (5) and Organizational Security (6, formerly known as “Operational Security”). These objectives have also been completely refreshed and overhauled, and deliver reasonably complete and comprehensive coverage of the information security landscape as we know it today.

In my last blog, I provided a list of certifications that the DoD has mandated for IT professionals whose responsibilities at various levels touch on information security. As I read over that list, I’d wondered about the suitability of Security+ in the Level 2 Technical Worker category. Now that I’ve revisited the requirements and objectives for this exam, I wonder no longer: Security+ is definitely worth further investigation and possiible pursuit, especially for those looking for a stepping stone to the CISSP. Just be sure to wait for the 2008 version to go live, and use preparation materials (books, practice tests, flash cards, and so forth) to match!

DoD Directive 8570 and the OMB Follow-up

Back in 2005, the US Department of Defense aka DoD, issued Directive 8570 entitled “Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program.” In a nutshell, this document states workforce responsibilites and requirements for personnel tasked with “information assurance,” a locution that means more or less the same thing as “information security” outside military circles.

There’s a lot of interesting information in this document, but what many readers of this blog will find most interesting is a list of accepted and mandated infosec certifications required for tecnical and management level workers in this technical niche. Because many of these items come from the SANS GIAC program (all of which start with the letter “G” in the lists that follow), you’ll find a nice summary of this information on their Web site.

Here is the way things break down at a very high level.

Technical Track
Level 1: A+, Network+, ISC² SSCP
Level 2: GSEC, Security+, SCNP, SSCP
Level 3: GSE, CISSP, SCNA, CISA

Management Track
Level 1: GSLC, GISF
Level 2: GSLC, CISSP, CISM
Level 3: GSLC, CISSP, CISM

What’s interesting about this list is that nearly all of these certifications are well-recognized outside the DoD, and that many of them have considerable cachet on the current job market as well. What’s even more interesting is this recent story at CertCities.com, which indicates that the Office of Management and Budget (OMMB) is working on a similar set of requirments for professional certification for IT workers in civilian agencies inside the US Government (and hence also, any contractors that do business with same).

This certainly creates rampant opportunities for individuals who hold one or more of these credentials, and makes the already-valuable CISSP, CISA, CISM, and SANS GIAC certs into a sort of “gold standard” for doing infosec business with the feds.

Need I say more, to those looking for more and better ways to feather their nests?

“Why Certifications Matter…”

In my previous blog, I started digging into a recent article from Redmondmag.com entitled “IT Salaries on the Rise.” Here, I’m going to continue that excavation by exploring and commenting on the section in the story whose title is the same as the title for this blog.

Let me start by saying that I agree with the basic premise that certification does indeed matter. This leads naturally to the first point in the article, which which I also agree–namely, that “…certification hasn’t had the cachet it used to have with readers in years past…” I’d extend this to note that certification doesn’t have the cachet it once enjoyed with employers and hiring managers, either, and note that all of these phenomena are tightly related.

The next points about certification are more substantive and potentially more interesting:

• that certifications help to prepare IT professionals for many of the tasks and activities they’ll encounter on the job
• that certifications provide a substantial indicator of intellectual curiosity, an interest in learning, and a drive toward accomplishment
• that certification does provide indirect benefits, in the form of better annual reviews, higher raises, possible promotions, and even occasional job offers
• That some certifications offer much more substantial earnings opportunities than others (the authors of the story don’t connect the dots, but my own experience and time in the industry convinces me that relative scarcity, degree of difficulty, perceived value, and outright demand for skills and knowledge related to specific certs all have roles to play in this phenomenon)

Beyond the content of the article, I’m still inclined to believe that for many IT professionals, certification is in itself rewarding because it also provides a mental (and sometimes even physical) break from the daily grind, lets them dig into new areas and technologies they might not otherwise have the time and opportunity to explore, and helps them broaden their horizons as well.

Though I also remain convinced that calculating ROI on any IT certification is an important step toward committing to pursue one, it’s perfectly OK for that return to be intangible and based on personal development, professional satisfaction, and outright enjoyment of the learning process that occurs on the way to more letters in your personal bowl of alphabet soup.

–Ed–

New IT Salary Survey Available

In the latest issue of Redmondmag.com, you’ll find a story entitled “IT Salaries on the Rise.” It begins by observing that in times of recession, as goes the economy, so also go salaries–namely, down, down, down. But according to this latest study recent global macroeconomic events “…haven’t made any such visible impact on IT compensation–at least, so far…” Of course, it’s not clear if this is genuinely good news for IT Professionals or just a function of the lag between when the survey was conducted and when its results are published. Only time will tell. But according to this latest report “for a fourth year in a row salaries have risen, as have raises, bonuses, and job stability, sidestepping any rising recessionary tide.”

Industry observers and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics attribute this phenomenon to a function of supply and demand. That is, salaries continue to go up because there are more jobs looking for IT professionals than there are IT professionals looking for jobs. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But alas, the picture isn’t completely rosy, though the situation is improving across the board for IT professionals, so that even entry level positions should be starting to open up. That said, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics also forecasts losses of 13,000 IT jobs for June (which gives you a good idea of when the survey was conducted) with total IT job losses for 2008 at 44,000. With the latest report from the same agency in early September raising unemployment to a higher-than-expected 6.1 percent, these number may also be on their way up as well.

To me one of the most interesting data points from this survey is that average age and number of years in IT has increased by more than one year since the previous survey in 2007, which indicates that the population being surveyed is pretty static. By extension this means that very few, if any, newcomers at the entry level are feeding into this population. As the survey’s analyst/reporter observes “That’s disconcerting if it provides some evidence that…fewer college graduates will fill IT roles as older workers retire.” An aging demographic poses all kinds of interesting problems, particularly as a cohort (demographics talk for a group of people about the same age, or within 5 years to either side of some midpoint) ages toward the retirement. With the average age of IT professionals surveyed at 42.7, figuring on a retirement age of 67 (by the time we get to 2033, it may be even higher than that!), that means we could be facing serious staffing issues in about 25 years.

Also, quite interestingly, the mean salary for individuals with MCP certification or better is about $7,500 less than that for individuals with no certifications (which I have to believe vindicates my recent blogs and contentions that soft skills play an important role in job success and pay, perhaps more so than do certifications nowadays). That said, I also see very interesting and sometimes surprising numbers for those who’ve already earned some of the new MS credentials: $82,420 for the new MCTS on Vista/Office Desktops, $92,017 for MCTS on SharePoint Services 3.0 Configuration, and an astounding $97,608 for an MCITP on Computer Support Technician. Those interested in MS credentials, particularly the new ones, will want to dig into Chart 4 (link below).

Of the charts in this story, readers are likely to find the following of great interest:

1. Chart 3: Average Base Salary by Job Title
2. Chart 4: Average Base Salary by Microsoft Certification
3. Chart 5: Average Salary by Microsoft Product Expertise
4. Chart 6: Average Salary by Technology Expertise

The section on “Why Certification Matters” is probably also worth a quick read. I’ll be discussing some of these points, and my own perspective on same, in my next blog, in fact.

Thanks, and enjoy!

–Ed–

Soft Skills (Part 4 of 4): Project Management

When it comes to getting any kind of serious IT work done in businesses and organizations, nearly all such efforts fall under some kind of project heading. I’m not talking about routine maintenance, provisioning upgrades, and other ongoing day-to-day efforts. I’m talking about implementing or deploying new software and hardware systems, upgrading or replacing network infrastructures, adding new services or applications, and other efforts that change the IT landscape in some form or fashion, sometimes barely and sometimes in quite revolutionary ways.

If you’re going to work in IT, you will find yourself involved in all kinds of projects throughout your working life. This is what spurs my recommendation that IT professionals consider acquiring and developing a project management skillset. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to run a project, but it does mean that you’ll understand much better what’s involved in planning, budgeting, scheduling, reporting, and of course, working on or otherwise contributing to project activities and completion.

There are lots of options for IT professionals to develop project management skills. I’m going to stress one particular approach here in this blog–namely, pursuit and acquisition of the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute  www.pmi.org). The PMP is a pretty highly-regarded credential, and rightly so, because it has been built and maintained based on input and guidance from academia, government, and industry.

There are also lots of great avenues through which to pursue PMP certification with PMP courses available from community colleges, undergraduate colleges and universities, and even in graduate institutions of all kinds. Commercial training companies also offer PMP courses, sometimes in compressed “boot camp” formats, sometimes on lengthier schedules. You can spend as little as $250 to $555 for the examination, and as little as $150 for self-study materials and practice tests to earn the PMP, or as much as $2,000-3,000 for a intensive commercial course designed to prepare practicing professionals to take and pass the PMP exam.

Ultimately, I believe the soft skill known as project management has great value for IT professionals in and of itself. But those IT professionals who take the time, expend the effort, and spend the money necessary to acquire PMP certification may also find that it opens doors to more promotion and new job opportunities than they’ve enjoyed before. Be aware that the PMP qualification process also includes documenting 30 hours of classroom contact training time for project management related activities, and 4,500 hours of project management related work experience. This involves some substantial effort in pulling all this information together and in completing the necessary application forms and such.

But for those inclined to add project management to their arsenal of documented, proven soft skills, the PMP is a great career enhancer.

–Ed–