Professional certificates of software engineering - Research Paper Example

Software Engineering Certification Software engineers should also face a certification ity before they get down to practicing their learnt skills. Certification processes are meant to guard and protect consumers of services, as well as the software engineers themselves from unscrupulous clients and the difficult market. This is crucial for the benefit of any economy that wishes to claim authority over its workforce and show off its ability to sustain itself. As a result, software engineers need to undergo a certification process for this to be effective and for the services provided to be considered as genuine and worth their cost.

There are a number of reason for which certification is crucial or needed for software engineers and the field of software engineering. One of the benefits of certification is that skills of the engineers become widely acceptable, which is in relation to quality of service and skills. As a result, the skills of a software engineer can be verified and deemed to meet the expected standards or even be below. In addition, it creates proper job opportunities for all interested parties with certification as organization employ people with credentials, as opposed to those without (Compucert n.d.).

This is because credentials are always verifiable and reliable as opposed to actual practice, which could be inadequate and time consuming to prove one’s worth at engineering. In addition, certification creates a benchmark for the software engineering market through which people can be gauged in terms of their skills (Tripp 2002, p.32).Certification has as many downsides as it has upsides, which affect the role of certification and its outcomes. One such is that it is an expensive process for one to undergo since it consumes numerous resources, both financially and in time.

There are also many certifications that a software engineer can receive putting the industry at loggerheads as to which is superior, or more recognized than the other. In addition, no set and regulated curriculum of software engineering program exists, which makes it difficult to discern proper qualifications against those that fall short of requirements (Wyrostek 2001). Different organizations provide certifications for software engineers in order to create a trustworthy market for software and ensure quality.

One such organization is QAI global that certifies engineers in software quality, testing, quality analysis, software project management and software business analysis among others (Software Certifications n.d.). Another organization that certifies software engineers is Microsoft, whose certificates are based on the products they produce. As a result, the certificates issued to software engineers do not meet a single standard requirement, which means it takes different people to get a common job done.

The certificates are usually vendor specific, which makes it difficult to create a single guideline for successful software engineers (Wyrostek 2001). This also makes for the neglect in software engineering, where quality is up to the user of the products and not the creator. This ruins the profession since there are numerous unqualified engineers practicing and generating malicious software ruining the reputation of genuine engineers with appropriate credentials. In conclusion, certification is crucial for software engineers since it makes software engineering similar to any other profession that has qualifications.

The above is in spite of the challenges or disadvantages that are related to it, as well as the poor reputation that certain certificates have. This is especially due to redundancies in engineering and vendor specific skills to work with code and software. ReferencesCompucert. Benefits of Computer Certification. n.d. [Online] Available at http://www.compucert.com/certification-benefits.html[Accessed on26 Jan. 2013].Software Certifications. n.d. Software Certification Overview. [Online] Available at http://www.

softwarecertifications.org/cert_overview.htm [Accessed on26 Jan. 2013].Tripp, L. 2002. Software Certification Debate: Benefits of Certification. [Online] Available at http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/SWEBOK_IEEE/papers/03%20Benefits%20of%20Certification.pdf [Accessed on26 Jan. 2013].Wyrostek, W. 2001. Now What? – A case for Certification. Informit . [Online] Available at http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24128&seqNum=3[Accessed on26 Jan. 2013].