Value of Software Certification for the Software Engineer

Technology and its innovations have made a mark in today’s business world. With both small and medium enterprises and large corporate house so dependent on the technology and computers for a networked environment, the need for skilled, competent, software engineering professionals is greater than ever. 

The Software Engineering field though relatively new as far as technological advancements go, has today advanced with scientific approaches.  As  programming languages  evolved  from assembly languages to a more methodical object oriented language, the proliferation of  application software in the late 70’s to early 80’s, software development has come a long way.  ‘Software engineering’ was first used in the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference, to provoke thought regarding "software crisis" prevalent at the time. Software engineering (SE) can be defined as a systematic approach to the analysis, design, assessment, implementation, testing, and maintenance and reengineering of software.

Nevertheless, to become a software engineer, the knowledge of programming is a pre-requisite. Further, computer societies expect strict adherence to the ISO/IEC technical reports 19759:2004 which categorically states that to be a professional in the field of software engineering requires the mastering of the knowledge through a four year graduate software engineering experience.  With a number of universities offering the graduate engineering program and information technology training, the computer societies have laid down an international standard curriculum to be followed by the universities.

However in a technologically enhanced world, with an increasing need for skilled, competent, and ardent software development professionals software certification has some major advantages. For the graduates, this helps to bridges the gap between your education and work requirements, whereas for the professionals, this confirms proficiency standards of established software development practices. For the employers too, this helps to make up a proficient workforce.

Globalization has resulted in migration of software development activities from the developed to the developing countries and has also brought in challenges of  time zone differences and the quality of  products developed. The advent of software development life cycles and other developments have helped experts in the field of software engineering to enhance their reliability and quality of products and services. However, with the changing technological trends, more software development platforms became accessible to the software engineer. Under such circumstances of increased competition and global markets, software certifications are very valuable.

Various professional societies offer certification courses on general software engineering skills for a certified software development professional or even an entry–level certification program for a development associate. Further, institutions also offer software certifications on specific technologies such as security, process improvement, software architecture which are in great demand. Such software certifications oriented towards specific technologies are also at times sponsored by leading IT giants.

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