Software Quality

Chapter 23Staff Skills and Knowledge – Training and Certification

23.1 Introduction

Successful team performance is based on the staff possessing adequate skills and knowledge. Accordingly, skill and knowledge requirements are discussed with every team candidate. The organization's skill and knowledge requirements may differ from specific projects. Project-specific requirements may be included in the project contract requirements.

It goes without saying that keeping staff abreast of the latest professional advancements available is the key to achieving quality in development and maintenance. Moreover, it is generally accepted that regular professional training, retraining, and updating are mandatory, if the gap between required and current professional knowledge is to be maintained as narrow as possible.

Position certification (hereinafter “certification”) is conducted for staff members assigned to key positions, and is a way of achieving conformance of a candidate's skill and knowledge to a specific position's skill and knowledge requirements. It may be conducted for software development and maintenance positions. Certification may be considered as another complementary tool for ensuring suitable professional skill and knowledge of team members. Position certification of staff should not, however, be confused with professional certification awarded by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), IEEE Computer Society, in addition to other types of professional certification granted ...