AS/400 RPG Certification Test

Thought I'd add a couple of words on this topic since I was one of the
IBMers involved in initiating this particular test.  Also I can now offer
my "undiluted" opinions <vbg>

1) This was intended to be the _first_ of a series of tests.  Since a
simple multiple choice "what do you know" test is the easiest to establish
and mark, that was the first one.  The intent was that if there was
sufficient interest in this test then follow-on tests would be developed
which would have the more practical "what can you do" flavor that most here
seem to want.  I don't know what the plans are for this yet.

2) The questions may be "tricky" in places, but there was _never_ any
attempt to fool, only to examine knowledge in places where the test
designers felt mistakes were commonly made.

3) The tests were not designed by IBMers for the most part, but by end
users.  In fact by some of the people on this list.  I leave it to them to
decide whether to reveal themselves.

4) As we found when designing RPG IV, in-depth user involvement often
serves only to highlight the fact that two users rarely agree with one
another.  It's hardly surprising that opinions on the test vary widely.
Those who actively participated in the development of this test probably
hold different views form those who didn't - had the roles been reversed so
would the complaints have been !!

5) Emphasis on RPG IV.  You betcha.  I was _very_ much in favor of this.  I
don't think MS offer much in the way in Win 3.1. certification any more (or
other similar "old" topics) - even though _many_ people still use it.  The
test was designed to test knowledge of RPG and (for the most part) you
wouldn't need to know much more about RPG IV than what you read in
Midrange, News/400, or whatever.  In my mind certification is to do with
what you will be doing in the future, not your past.  I would not want to
hire any RPG programmer who could not answer the RPG IV questions.  To me
that would simply demonstrate that they had no interest in professional
development and were content to go on doing things the old way.  I
certainly would want to know that if I begin to switch to RPG IV that my
new hires can help along the road.  If much of your coding is still in RPG
III, that's sad - but not a reason to drag the testing down to the lowest
denominator.  Or do we want RPG II testing included?





Jon.Paris@halinfo.it


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