11/5/2003 -- Jim DiIanni helped develop Oracle’s first set of certification exams back in 1997, when he was head of Oracle University’s database curriculum. During his career at Oracle, he has managed curriculum development and deployment for the global database administrator curriculum, and managed the design and development of content to support the initial launch for Oracle's online learning product. Now director of Oracle's certification program, DiIanni is in charge of the programs operations and future. We recently talked with DiIanni to find out more about some of the changes the program’s undergone in the past year, how the program is currently doing and what we might see in the future. Here’s what he told us:

CertCities.com: You've been involved with the program since it's beginning. What do you think are the most significant changes or milestones the program’s undergone since its launch?

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Jim DiIanni: From my perspective there are two of them -- both happened this year.

One was we achieved over 200,000...certifications.

The second most significant thing was our launch of our first performance-based live application test, which is the Oracle Certified Master. For many years now, professionals who have come to Oracle University and professionals who have taken certification have always wanted some advanced opportunity. Certified Master provides that for them.

So you're continuing to see good growth in the program? I remember when it was 30,000 and then 80,000, and then last I heard it was around 130,000, and now its 200,000...

DiIanni: In fact, I was just looking at the numbers yesterday...we have about 203,000 certifications right now, which is good because if I look at about the end of fiscal 2002 [May], we were about a 160,000, and end of 2003, we are at 187,000.

You mentioned the Master certification. How is that title doing so far?

DiIanni: It’s actually going quite well. By the end of this calendar year, we will have rolled it out in five countries globally. We will be conducting events in Dusseldorf, Germany; Redding in the U.K, and Chicago. We have been conducting events in Chicago now for over a year. [And] Hong Kong and Seoul are now live.

Are you looking at adding any other locations in the future?

DiIanni: Yes. We are [currently] adding Japan. And then I am considering the March-April-May timeframe to look at some other sites. We haven’t defined them yet.

How many people have become Oracle Certified Masters so far?

DiIanni: Right now we have about 62 Oracle Certified Masters.

Is that the growth rate you were looking for?

DiIanni: Yes. I am looking at having 150 OCMs by the end of this fiscal year, which will be May 31, 2004.

Back to the program's growth -- the last time that we talked with the Oracle Certification program, we were told that the program was seeing about 20 percent growth Europe and North America, but up to 300 percent growth in interest in China and the rest of Asia. Is that still the trend?

DiIanni: Yes. Actually, the big emerging markets are India and China. So, really Asia-Pacific is where we are seeing the majority of the growth. The decline in the IT industry has really hit a lot of certification programs pretty hard in the last couple of years. That is so particularly in developed countries -- certification programs have seen either a flat or negative growth. We have experienced a decline in 2003, although, I am glad to say that our decline was not as steep as [some] programs. And right now we are looking at pretty much flat growth in the U.S. and EMEA, with the most significant growth right now being India and China.

Do you think that the training requirement that was placed on the OCP DBA 9i track last year depressed response to that track in any way?

DiIanni: It’s been a very difficult thing to track. It’s hard to correlate it just to the one class requirement. Here again, because there has been a decline in the certification market, part of it’s attributable to that. But we are also finding that there are still a lot of people coming into 8i certification. So, we had a lot of people in the 8i certification pipeline and they are finishing that certification before moving on to 9i.

And they are taking the upgrade exam?

DiIanni: Yes. We are tracking it very closely because in the Oracle 9i certification path, we have an Oracle Certified Associate Level, Oracle Certified Professional Level, and so far have no indication that we are getting a back-up at the OCA level. If I see an incredible backlog at the OCA level, that might be an indicator that people are not pursuing their certification because of the one-class requirement.

Are you seeing more people that you expected take the 9i upgrade exam, perhaps indicating some are doing so to avoid the training requirement?

DiIanni: No. [There] hasn’t been anything significant…

For the class requirement, are you seeing like an even split between taking in-person instruction versus online, or is it leaning one way or another?

DiIanni: If they take it online it has to be an instructor-led online…it is probably a 90 percent to 10 percent split with people taking it in-class versus instructor-led online.

Is the program still happy with the decision to add a training requirement to the OCP DBA 9i track? Do you want to keep moving forward with that?

DiIanni: There are various [issues still out] on that one. I’d actually rather not comment on it.

Are you considering adding the course requirement to any of the other tracks ?
DiIanni: We are going to just keep it in the DBA track for now. No other plans.

With the introduction of the 9i DBA Associate (DBA OCA), you introduced an option to take an exam online [#1Z0-007 Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL]. How is that working out?

DiIanni: It’s actually working very well. We’ve had a lot of real positive responses around that exam, and there’s no indication that it has negatively impacted the integrity of the exam or impacted the integrity of the certification program. And it provides an opportunity for more people to take the exam, [offering} a low barrier to entry to come into the certification program.

Right now, the exam only counts toward the OCA DBA, and those pursuing the OCP must take the proctored version, correct? Are you considering allowing the online version to count toward the OCP as well?

DiIanni: No, it does count toward the OCP, so [OCP candidates]can take that either online or they can take it at an approved Prometric Test Center). Either medium in which they take it, it still applies to their certification.

That one exam is also the first exam in the Application Developer 9i Form certification. And we have also since changed it to where it counts in the 8i certification track.

How does that work?

DiIanni: Well, in the existing 8i DBA certification track, we had an introduction to Oracle SQL PL/SQL exam. And then we launched this new exam, which is the only 9i SQL exam, but it doesn’t have PL/SQL on it. We just thought that with the DBA job role, DBAs really don’t need to know a lot about PL/SQL. So we incorporated that Oracle 9i exam [into the 8i track] – you can take one or the other now.

We looked at it and wondered are we really are going to compromise the exam by putting it out there, or do anything to diminish the value of the credential because it’s for all practical purposes now a low stakes exam?…But the reality is that a lot of people who are coming in for certification have probably had exposure to SQL, so we feel like it’s not compromising the integrity of the program.

What about the 8i track as a whole, how much life do you think that still has in it?

DiIanni: I think we will probably look at announcing our retirement for the 8i certification somewhere in the January to March timeframe of 2004. When we announced the retirement, we’ll give people a year to complete the track…We have to give people the opportunity to migrate. Then it will be fairly well aligned with our product releases as well…obviously then will see greater adoption in 9i and then also with the release of 10g.

Do you have any idea yet when we might start seeing betas for the 10g exams?

DiIanni: Most likely in the March/April 2004 timeframe.

And when will these go live?

DiIanni: Well, depending on the adoption [rate of the betas]. If we launch in for beta in the March-April timeframe, you probably will see them go live in production in August and September.

What about the new certification track you announced last September: Application Server? At the time it looked like you would be adding more levels, but I haven’t seen anything else come out. What’s the status right now?

DiIanni: Up to evaluation right now. We actually haven’t had a very good uptake on that certification….I can tell you that you won’t see another level for Oracle 9i. If we do anything on that certification, it won’t be until 10g.

Why do you think that maybe there wasn’t as much interest in this track as you were expecting?

DiIanni: I quite honestly think that there was never really a need for a specific job role around Application Server Administrator because I think a lot of existing DBAs ended up inheriting that responsibility. And so if you have these existing DBAs, there really isn’t a lot of value in obtaining an OCA-level certification for Web administrator.

Sometimes, the launch of a product doesn’t necessarily create a job role, and certifications are really associated with job roles. This was one certification that was pushed very hard by the product groups as a way of putting it out there and hopefully evangelizing the product, and [certification] just doesn’t work that way.

Are there any other tracks that you are considering adding, or any other areas?

DiIanni: [We’ve] been going back and forth with respect to the e-business suite applications…Do we launch a certification for that? It’s all about positioning and what the appropriate market is.If we were to launch an e-business suite certification, it would be geared toward the partner community as opposed to the broad general IT population.

So that’s one certification. Some other certifications that we’re thinking about are specialty certifications. Let’s say somebody comes in and get their OCP. What’s the next step if they don’t want to go all the way to the Oracle Certified Master and actually sit through the (practicum)?

One specialty certification I’m working on right now is Linux. This certification is not meant to compete in any way shape or form with what is currently out there with Red Hat or through LPI, it is actually meant to compliment that, but it would be based on curriculum that we have. We have a class called Managing Oracle on Linux. If somebody were to take that class, then we would have an associated exam and by passing that exam they could then say, "I am OCP with a an Oracle-Linux specialty."

Another key business initiative for me is looking at how I can partner with other certification programs [through] specialties such as this. I could perhaps work with either Red Hat or LPI [on this]. If you had somebody who was an OCP with a managing Oracle on Linux specialty, but was also a Redhat Certified Engineer, now that actually provides them with some very, very good professional credentials.

I think certification now is a lot about having breadth of knowledge and skills as opposed to being very focused on just one particular area.

Are you planning any changes to the way these exams are presented? Any new question types, new technologies that we might see in future exams?

DiIanni: We have been looking at …other methodologies. such as performance-based testing…where you have high stakes, but you also have broad distribution.

Such as simulation questions?

DiIanni: Yes, simulations, and more advanced scenario-based item types that would provide more free-form kind of answers where you could really simulate somebody performing an actual task. We are looking at that and in fact, the whole industry is looking at doing that.

It is kind of interesting, because while conceptually everybody is brought into this, technically, it is a very difficult thing to do right now, because nobody is really being aggressive about stepping up to the plate to provide the technical environments to do this.
If you take a look at some of the predominant test delivery providers like Prometric and Pearson VUE, they have also bought into the concept of performance based testing and would love to be able to support that. It is significant investment on their part, because then they have to upgrade their entire infrastructure…And they are not that willing to put forth the R&D dollars to provide it.

I’m a little surprised to see that Oracle considering doing this for security reasons. Maybe my perception is wrong, but even though you have a popular program, it doesn’t seem like there’s much braindump material out there for Oracle exams…

DiIanni: Surprisingly enough, when an exam is released in the market, it is only a matter of two to three months before that exam has been compromised in someway, shape or form regardless of the security that you have around it. Now in our Prometric test centers we have great physical security and our test delivery and our test drivers ensure security around our test, but you would be surprised that sites that out there that have exact exam questions.

So your program is getting it just as much as everyone else?

DiIanni: Yes. Test security is a significant problem in the industry for everybody.

Your program doesn’t seem to have a paper stigma, as far as I’ve seen…

DiIanni: No we don’t, which is a good thing, but moving into performance based testing is … really more about boosting the value and the credibility of certification, because you have the ability to test people for a certain level of competency. The fact that [candidates] actually performs a task is really where performance based testing provides the most value -- you have raised the bar...

In our standardized knowledge-based test, you can put in a very complex scenario for somebody to regroup and when it comes right down to it, they have five answers to give and they can still guess and get it 20 percent correct….That does not mean that somebody could actually type in the sequel statement or go back to their job environment and actually diagnose the problem.

Do you think you will eventually get to scenario-based questions?

DiIanni: We are hoping for technology advances and [that] some exam delivery provider is will actually realize the fact that there is great ROI potential here and then put forth the money to help companies like Oracle develop these exams, because everybody wants them.

Any other changes to the program you’re considering? Re-certification or anything like that?

DiIanni: No. We always drive peoples to upgrade path to go to the next level. We don’t decertify people, [so] if you are 7.3. OCP, always an OCP.

What do you think will happen with the certification industry over the next two years? Do you think it’s going to continue to be depressed? Do you think it’s going to come back? What factors do you think might influence one way or another?

DiIanni: Well, certainly the recovery of the IT industry is going to be a key factor in recovery and certification. I am seeing where technology is going, I think that’s going to affect growth rates and other types of certifications.

It’s hard to say what’s going to happen with DBA-level certifications [when] Oracle comes out with its product announcement on 10g. This is a self-managing database, it’s easy to install and it tunes itself. [Some people might think they] don’t need the expensive DBAs to run 10g. So I think some of the messaging and some of the functionality and products might have a negative impact on those certifications but it will also create other job roles.

Another thing that’s actually going to affect certification is, of course, moving jobs offshore. It’s going to shift the certifications, so you will see probably either a flat growth rate or continued decline in developed countries and a significant increase in emerging countries.

Anything you’d like to see happen over the next two years?

DiIanni: I would like to see would be significant growth in certification…finding out what certifications really are the ones that have the greatest potential and being in position to do that. And I would like to see a very strong move into performance-based testing. We’ve talked for long time in the industry about, “Are really testing for competence here or are we just testing for memory?” So far the standard-based exams basically have been testing for memory and not doing a really good job of testing people for their analytical abilities, their ability to synthesize problems, to solve problems, and actually perform tasks.

And that would raise certification’s credibility as a whole, correct?

DiIanni: Yes, significantly.

Thank you so much for talking to us.

DiIanni: Thank you.

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