How to get certifications
As part of the benefits offered to employees, Agile Lab offers the opportunity to get professional tech certifications, covering costs and providing support along the preparation phase.
The Consulting/Certification Coach will help you to define feasible goals and to prepare for the exam.
At the beginning of the year, the CTO will set:
- a goal regarding the number and type of new certifications that should be obtained during the year by the whole company
- a goal regarding the minimum number and type of certifications that the company as a whole must maintain among the existing ones. These goals might be modified during the year to meet specific needs as opportunities arise.
The new certifications are considered "priority 1". You can find the certification basket inside the "Big Data" SharePoint at the path Certifications/Certification Plan 202x.
The certifications that are needed to maintain a minimum number of certified people (eg to meet requirements for commercial partnerships and such) follow a slightly different process, but are treated in a similar way.
Finally, all other certifications are "priority 2".
Remember that certifications are a personal achievement and may have an impact on the company, so you are encouraged to insert them in your brag file (see Engineering Ladder).
Training portal and Reward Policy
You can find more detailed references to prepare for a certification exam under the Certifications section of the Training Portal (for the link see Training).
You will also find more about the Certification Plan of the current year, including the Reward Policy.
People that will contribute to meet the Certification Plan achievement will be rewarded, but only if the overall goal will be reached, like in a real team play.
To encourage candidates to take exam earlier, the certification coach will define and communicate a Reward Policy for the current year that rewards candidates that achieve P1 certifications earlier in the year. There is nothing inherently bad to try it later in the year, but the risk is that there is not enough time to retry a second time or that the Certification Coach can’t find some other candidate if somebody backs out too late.
Priority 1 certifications process:
For this kind of certification there is no need for an approval process, but to benefit from the dedicated working hours to prepare the exam and the second attempt, it's required to notify the Certification Coach about the exam booking.
Show Intention
- Contact the Certification Coach to define a study plan and a feasible exam date. The chosen date should be within 6 months of entry, unless there are special needs.
- Once done, update the certification plan cell with "Intention" status and the agreed approximate exam date.
Exam Booking
- Approximately a month before the expected exam date, buy the exam by asking to Finance/Purchasing Officer to pay and book your exam, or just buy it and ask for reimbursment with
<current year> Agile - Consulting - Certifications. For guidelines of how to request purchases or reimbursements, please consult Spending Company Money. - Once successfully booked, forward the Exam Registration Confirmation to the Certification Coach. If the number of (Current Booked P1 + Achieved) is less than the needed, update the certification plan with the "Booked P1" status and the definitive exam date, otherwise set the "Booked P2" status and follow the remaining "Priority 2" certification process.
- If you want to take a Booked P1 exam earlier than a current Booked P1, ask if it's possible to the Certification Coach.
Prepare for the exam
- You can spend up to 24 working hours to prepare the exam, the remaining needed time should be your responsibility. You can also use the Training Time Budget, see Training Budget section of Welfare & Benefits. In case you need a second try there will not be available working hours.
- You can reschedule the exam if really needed, please acknowledge the Certification Coach.
- Good Luck
- Take the exam
After the Exam
- Regardless if you fail or pass the exam:
- communicate the result to the Certification Coach
- update the status and date of your request in the certification plan
- for the sake of knowledge sharing, always report the exam's content (and possibly related tips and tricks) on the company's Big Data OneNote, in a dedicated section (check if are there already sections for your specific exam, in that case append in there your experience).
- If you passed the exam, drop an email to the Certification Coach, the CTO and Social Publisher (Marketing/Communications officer) attaching certificates or digital badges, providing or not the authorization to publish the achievement on socials.
- In case you fail the exam, is not a problem, we can have another try.
- In case you fail again, there will not be other paid chances unless we face specific needs.
Priority 2 certifications process:
Show Intention
- Drop an email to the Agile Lab/CTO specifying the reason and the motivation to get that specific certification.
- In case the certification you want is similar to a "priority 1" one, this will take precedence.
- In case the requested certification is congruent with the technical landscape we manage in the company and the price is reasonable, it will be approved.
- Contact the Certification Coach to notify the intention to take an exam.
Exam Booking
- Buy the exam and ask for reimbursment with your personal training budget, or ask to Finance/Purchasing Officer to pay and book your exam with your personal training budget. For guidelines about how to make/request purchases or reimbursements, please consult Spending Company Money.
Prepare for the exam
- You don't have working hours dedicated to prepare such certification, but you can still use the Personal Training Time and Cash Budget (see Training Budget section of Welfare & Benefits).
- Good Luck
- Take the exam
After the Exam
- Regardless if you fail or pass the exam:
- communicate the result to the Certification Coach
- update the status and date of your request in the certification plan
- for the sake of knowledge sharing, always report the exam's content (and possibly related tips and tricks) on the company's Big Data OneNote, in a dedicated section (check if are there already sections for your specific exam, in that case append in there your experience).
- If you passed the exam, drop an email to the Certification Coach, the CTO and Social Publisher (Marketing/Communications officer) attaching certificates or digital badges, providing or not the authorization to publish the achievement on socials.
- In case you fail, there will not be other paid chances.
How to maintain the minimum certification levels
The certification coaches continuously track the expiration dates of all the certifications and the current certification numbers.
In case of certification expiration:
- When the expiration date of a certification that must be maintained draws close (< 4 months), the certification owner will be contacted in order to organize the next steps
- Depending on the type of certification and its relevance to the current career of the certification owner, the certification can be renewed as-is, another higher-level one might be chosen in its place, or it can be dropped if no longer relevant
- Once the certification target has been defined, it is treated as a "priority 1" certification
In case a certified person leaves the company:
- The certification coaches and the CTO decide if and how to compensate for the lost certifications
- Either the "priority 1" certifications are extended to include the lost ones, or they are dropped if no longer relevant
Where to find already available training material
In order to improve and speed up the search for training material already purchased or available, in the "Big Data" Sharepoint under the Certifications folder, you can eventually find a folder containing it.
The convention is to specify the Fully Qualified Name of the exam (for example CCA 175 Spark and Hadoop Developer).
If you are aware of any previous material in another SharePoint folder, it is strongly recommended that you move it to the folder specified above.
How to buy course material
If you need to buy course material related to certifications (books, video courses) you can buy it yourself with a personal account and then log it as Personal Training Budget "Expenses" on ElapseIt.
For guidelines about how to request/make purchases or reimbursements, please consult the Training Budget section of Benefits and Spending Company Money.
Certification coaches
The current process followed by the certification coaches is hereby described.
Monitor the Bigdata/certifications teams channel
Monitor the Bigdata/certifications teams channel and provide feedback to everyone there
Begin of the year, a new goal is set by the CTO
When the CTO role sets a new certification goal for the year please create a new plan document at
sharepoint://BigData/Documents/Certifications/Certification Plan $YEAR, you can clone the document of the past year.
Announce it by sending a mail to the bigdata mailing list (associated with the sharepoint group BigData) to reach every company member
Weekly check
Once a week remember to check the document located at sharepoint://BigData/Documents/Certifications/Certification Plan 202x and perform these actions:
- contact any candidates that didn't inform you about their study plan
- If there are unclaimed certifications (no one is actively working to take it) try to find candidates and repeat the announcements
- If there are approaching estimated exams dates please contact directly the candidate and ask if there are any blockers or things you can help with, if the candidate seems to be simply unmotivated or stressed propose switching to an "easier" certification or handing over the "reservation" to another more willing agile lab employee (do not blame the person but try to find out which part of the process is not working and why)
- If there are exams that have already been taken (if you heard about it or received partial information) but no success has been recorded or you did not receive the certificate remind the candidate of the missed parts of the process.
When a new employee is being onboarded
- When showing a new employee the certification process, ask about previous certification obtained by new Agile members prior to being hired.
When a candidate contacts you
- Remind them of this document and to try to follow the process described in this document.
- Provide guidance on certifications you have taken yourself
- Facilitate the candidate by checking who already got the certification, make them talk to each other.
How to record achieved certifications
Other than the public certification plan sharepoint://BigData/Documents/Certifications/Certification Plan 202x please maintain a Training scoped document called Certification Registry located at sharepoint://Training/Documents/Certifications/AGILELAB_Certification Registry with expiration, license number and other exams details, store the certificates received via mail under sharepoint://Training/Documents/Certifications/certificates
Always remember to give a big shoutout to certification achievers on the thanks team channel to motivate everyone.
When an employee leaves
- Remove the employee from the 'Employee' sheet in the Certification Registry.