9/30/2009 -- On the topic of how to improve the value of certifications, two ideas come to my mind. The first is something I've written about before: Allow exams to be open-book.

In the early days of IT certification, one of the Unix-variant vendors went the open-book route. You could bring whatever study materials you wanted into the testing room, but the exams were difficult and the time was short. I'd like to see that model brought back (but maybe instead of reference books, it's test-takers' laptops or cell phones of choice that are permitted).

In my opinion, this more closely mimics the real world. After all, very rarely will you need to fix a system while locked in a room without access to any sort of reference Web site or material. And as an employer, shouldn't I be more interested in whether you can find a solution to a problem than in your ability to memorize the switches for an arcane utility that will be replaced with the next release?

My second idea is to award different certifications based on how well test-takers did on the exam. For example, suppose that the ABC certification currently has a passing score of 700. If you score 700 or higher, you're ABC-certified; less than that, you fail. Again, from an employer's standpoint, instead of knowing whether you simply passed, I'd rather know that you passed with a score of 995 instead of 701.

My proposed solution: a good, old-fashioned, elementary school-style grading system. If you score 90 percent or higher, you pass and are granted an Expert designation. If you score between 80 to 89 percent, you pass and are granted an Engineer certification. And anything between 70 to 79 percent makes you a Professional.

Additionally, those designated as Professional should have the option to take the exam again (of course, the questions would be randomly selected from the pool) if they want to try for a higher designation.

What do you think -- are these good proposals or not? Let me know at .

Windows 7 Exams in Beta
Starting last Monday and lasting through Oct. 16, the betas for Microsoft's Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Administrator (71-686) exam and Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (71-685) exam are available through Prometric testing centers.

These two exams lead to Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certifications. While no official date has been announced, the expected live date for each exam is in the middle of November.

SPSS Cert Now Available Through Vue
It's been a busy time for SPSS. First, the popular statistics package was renamed from SPSS Statistics to PASW Statistics with the release of Version 18 (PAWS stands for Predictive Analytics Software).

Second, starting in November, the PAWS certification will be available through Pearson VUE testing centers.

And finally, the company is being purchased by IBM. What makes this buy even more interesting is that IBM certifications are available through only one testing company -- and that company is not VUE.

Book of the Week: 'The Trusted Advisor'
Someone recently recommended to me The Trusted Advisor after finding out that Stephen Covey's The Speed of Trust had me convinced of the economic return directly associated with trust.

Here's the trust equation according to The Trusted Advisor, where T is trustworthiness, C is credibility, R is reliability, I is intimacy and S is self-orientation:

T = (C + R + I) / S

Before you dismiss this as a self-help book suitable only for short plane flights, ask yourself this: When's the last time you were in a meeting in which the issue of trust did not come into play somehow? (When budgets were being discussed? When hiring and termination decisions were on the table? When someone suggested that all desktops migrate to Windows 7?)

Rob Preston recently wrote an excellent article in InformationWeek that can be summed up by its opening paragraph:

"Gone are the days when most IT pros could succeed without a deep understanding of boardroom priorities. Profit and loss, cash flow, customer acquisition and retention, governance and regulatory compliance, productivity, and return on investment aren't just CEO, CFO, and COO considerations. Every CIO and business technology team must breathe the boardroom air."

The Trusted Advisor, with its short 22 chapters, is a great place to find out how to start filling in some of the gaps in your business thinking.