Delivery of training and certification programs

16.9 Delivery of training and certification programs

Training and updating can cover topics such as software engineering, soft- ware quality assurance and management skills (within the framework of certification or for general information), all of which are coordinated with the organization’s or firm’s needs. How training and updating are carried out varies accordingly. Courses can be transmitted in formats that range from short lectures and demonstrations, often lasting only half a day, to lengthy courses held over several weeks or months. These may be conduct-

ed in-house, by the organization’s training unit, or externally, by vocational or academic institutions that prepare programs attuned to the organiza- tion’s requirements.

More about organizing and delivering training and certification pro- grams can be found in the human resources management literature.

Frame 16.2 SKF Advanced Software – position certification

document (example)

16.9 Deliver

SKF Advanced Software

Position Certification Document

Position 11.3 – Programmer team leader

Version 5 Valid as from 1.4.2002

training and c

Approved by C. Haley Position: Chief software engineer Date of approval: 3 March 2002

Certification requirements

■ Professional education. Two options – (a) BA or BSc in software engineering or an equivalent degree, or (b) Technician or equivalent degree

rtific

in software engineering granted by a recognized school.

■ Internal training courses. Two required courses – (1) Project management:

ation progr

5-day course. (2) Advanced project management: 5-day course. ■

Professional experience in the organization. For candidates holding a technician’s degree – three years of experience as a programmer in SKF. For candidates holding an academic degree – two years of experience as a

ams

programmer in SKF. For candidates having over five years of recognized experience as a programmer or programming team leader in another organization – half the respective period of experience in SKF.

■ Periodic performance appraisal. The average score of each of the last two semi-annual performance appraisals will not fall below 3.8 (out of a maximum of 5).

■ Targeted evaluation by candidate’s direct superior. The score of each of the eight items in the questionnaire will be no less than 3 (out of 5), with an average score of all items of at least 3.8.

■ Demonstration of knowledge and skill by means of a test or project. Eight- hour test of programming skills according to a specially selected software design document. Minimum grade: 80.

■ Mentor’s supervision for a designated period. Mentor supervision and on-the-job instruction by a senior programming team leader for a period of

6 months.

Responsibility for certification

■ Overall responsibility. Chief software engineer. ■

Responsibility for skill demonstration test. Manager of the relevant software development or software maintenance department (preparation of the candidate’s test/task and its evaluation).

16.10 Follow-up subsequent to training and certification

Managers and software professionals often express doubts about the effec-

St

tiveness of training and certification in general or of one of the associated

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activities. They question whether the substantial resources and efforts invest-

tr

ed in training are really worthwhile. To assuage these doubts, systematic

aining and c

follow-up is necessary to provide feedback to the professional units. Such feedback indicates whether the training efforts were justified at the same time that it assures continuous improvement of training and certification activities. The information provided by follow-up relates to:

e ■ All training activities and certification procedures conducted – records of rtific

the performance of the participants in the program.

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Information about special cases of training activities that proved to be either highly successful or clearly unsuccessful in improving staff performance.

Information about proven cases of failures of certified staff in the per- formance that point to clearly inadequate certification requirements.

Analysis of the data accumulated following a training course provides the information necessary to revise programs by guiding the modification, addi- tion and deletion of identified activities and materials. Meaningful follow-up of training requires performance information collected prior as well as sub- sequent to training. As for certification follow-up, comparisons of the performance of non-certified with certified staff holding the same principle of information collection is impossible because non-certified staff are not expected to hold positions that require certification. Instead, we can base our follow-up on performance comparisons of certified staff whose achievements in the certification process were high with certified staff whose achievements were substantially lower. Given these constraints, the units responsible for training and certification should regularly perform follow-up using instru- ments such as the following.

Collection of regular performance metrics – such as errors and productivity statistics, corrective maintenance statistics and resources invested – prepared by the respective units. For a discussion of software quality metrics in gener- al and the specific issue of performance metrics, see Chapter 21.

Questionnaires completed by staff members who received training, their superiors, customers and others.

Analysis of outstanding achievements as well as failures.

Specialized review of software products (documents and code) prepared by certified and trained employees.

The Corrective Action Board (CAB), based on follow-up subsequent to train- ing and certification and other sources of information, may initiate training and/or updating activities subsequent to analysis of the cases presented to it.

For more about corrective and preventive actions in the context of training 345 and other issues, see Chapter 17.

Summ Summary

ar y

(1) Explain the main objectives of training and certification.

To develop the knowledge and skills needed by new employees and to update the knowledge and skills of veteran employees so as to assure efficient and effective task performance.

To impart knowledge of style and structure procedures and work instructions to assure conformity of software products to the organization’s standards.

■ To impart knowledge of SQA procedures. ■

To assure that the qualifications of candidates for key professional positions conform to the position’s requirements.

(2) Discuss what is needed to prepare a training and updating program.

The three activities to be performed prior to planning a program are as follows. ■

Determine the knowledge requirements for each position. These include knowl- edge obtained while acquiring a general professional education with the addition of the internally generated knowledge and skills required within the organization.

Determine training and professional updating needs. These needs are ascer- tained through comparisons of the staff’s knowledge with the state of the art. These should be specified for three populations: – New employees (training) – Employees assigned to new position (retraining) – Other staff (professional updating).

Training and updating needs should also be determined by performance require- ments, based on feedback transmitted by the organization’s various units. ■

Plan training and updating programs. These programs will respond to the fol- lowing issues: – The use of in-house training teams and facilities or outsourcing – The timing of the training and updating activities (whenever possible) – The use of e-learning programs.

(3) List the main components of a certification program.

A certification program defines position requirements and responsibilities for carrying out the program and its revision. Certification requirements may include some or even all of the following components, depending on their relevance to the task or position: ■

Professional education ■

Internal training courses ■

Professional experience in the current organization or another organization ■

Evaluation of the candidate’s achievements and ability as found in periodic per- formance assessments

■ Evaluation by the candidate’s direct superior ■

Demonstration of knowledge and skills by means of a test or a project

16 ■ Mentor’s supervision for a specified period. St

Certification responsibilities include:

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Response to requests made by applications or the organization

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■ Conduct of follow-up

aining and c

■ Revision of certification requirements according to technological developments ■

Revision of the list of positions requiring certification.

(4) Explain the objectives of follow-up of trained and certified staff performance and main sources of the follow-up data.

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Follow-up is meant to provide the information necessary to initiate revisions of the training and certification programs based on performance data. Sources for per-

ation

formance data include: ■

Regular performance metrics – such as errors and productivity statistics – pre- pared by the individual units

■ Questionnaires completed by trainees, their superiors and others ■

Analysis of outstanding achievements as well as failures ■

Specialized review of software products (documents and code) produced by cer- tified and trained employees.