Holy Moly! There are a lot of Software Quality Certifications to choose from! Here are four Quality Organizations that offer certifications. Basically, my understanding is that they all have a BOK (Body of Knowledge) that you study and then take an exam in order to obtain your certification. Some of the certifications have pre-requisites (a certain number of educational courses or a certain number of years of experience.) In order to keep this post to a reasonable length, I won’t cut and paste the requirements for each of these, but refer you with the links. All the organizations and the certifications start to look a lot like alphabet soup after awhile. And this doesn’t even take into account many of the vendor-specific certifications that can be obtained for certain tools. I’d like to research each of these some more to understand the differences, the associated costs, etc. Which certifications do you think are the most respected in the industry?
IIST – International Institute for Software Testing
ASQTB – American Software Quality Testing Board (part of ISTQB – International Software Quality Testing Board)
QAI – Quality Assurance Institute
- Certified Associate in Software Quality (CASQ)
- Certified Associate in Software Testing (CAST)
- Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA)
- Certified Software Tester (CSTE)
- Certified Manager of Software Quality (CMSQ)
- Certified Manager of Software Testing (CMST)
- Certified Software Project Manager (CSPM)
- Certified Associate Business Analyst (CABA)
- Certified Software Business Analyst (CSBA)
- Certified Software Process Engineer (CSPE)
- Certified Quantitative Software Process Engineer (CQSPE)
ASQ – American Society for Quality
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To use a term from my Scuba Instructor days “Certified doesn’t necessarily mean Qualified”.
As someone who has held the CSTE twice (and now let it lapse) I can say the “credibility” of some of these “certification mills” is dubious at best. This has gotten as bad as the Microsoft MCSE’s who come out of the mills.
Now you know my opinion on it, and I’m not alone.
With Sincere Regards.
Hi!Does CQPA or any other ASQ certifications is for Software profeesionals only?Please help me to know whether a chemical engineer is able to this and if yes, what are the career paths open up on opting ASQ certification?especially in Process control or Process Automation field.
Hi poornima,
It’s probably best to check on ASQ’s website for more information. I don’t know much about certification outside of software quality, but it appears that ASQ certifications are available for more than software quality.
Good luck!
HI.. I need real help. I have 2 years of experience in s/w company and would like to proceed to be a BA.. I am quite confused as to which certification to do as there are many of them. I do not have idea about their value in market. I am quite inclined for CSBA.. Can you please throw come light on this? Your inputs will be highly appreciated as I can’t see any proper source of information even on net..
Thanks
Hi Ravish,
I’m sorry, but I’m not knowledgeable about BA certifications. My expertise is with QA. My sense overall is that certifications are more important in some countries or cultures than others. While I don’t think it can hurt to get a certification, I believe most employers are more interested in experience than certifications. However, of course, education is always good. Good luck!