By Dr. Jon Siegel, VP, Technology Transfers, OMG
As part of OMG's effort to create comprehensive ecosystems around our standards, we began offering certification programs for practitioners of our most widely used standards starting with the Unified Modeling Language (UML). This program -- the OMG Certified UML Professional (well-known by its acronym OCUP) -- has given thousands of practitioners recognition of their knowledge of the UML language and proof of their commitment to their profession. And, from the opposite point of view, this (and other) OMG certification programs give employers a benchmark to measure job candidates against.
The original OCUP certification program, released in 2003, was OMG's first and tested only specification contents which OMG owned and was an authority on. While informative, it did not test the modeling knowledge and skills that practitioners needed to know and use in the day-to-day operations. Since that time, our experience with subsequent certifications has demonstrated that the industry respects OMG's status and standing and recognizes our ability to design programs that test and certify the knowledge and skills that accompany use of our specifications, as well as direct application of the standards themselves.
Today, OMG is pleased to announce the release of the OCUP 2 Foundation level exam and certification. As each of the OCUP 2 certification exams and levels -- Fundamental, Intermediate, and Advanced -- replaces its original version, it will extend the program's topical coverage at that level to include software modeling knowledge and skills, broadening the audience for certification. Consider this: Once a software architect completes his design and renders it into a set of UML diagrams, the life of the model should be just starting. Stakeholders can use the model to confirm that their functional requirements are met in the design, and their scalability requirements are met in its architecture. Developers need to understand the models in order to implement the application properly (unless the project is being worked in OMG's Model-Driven Architecture, of course). Technical (and non-technical) management can use the models to oversee implementation and deployment. The list goes on and on, but the point here is that the OCUP 2 program -- and especially the Foundation level -- is designed to serve model users in addition to the model builders who are more typically thought of as the certification audience. (Note that OCSMP, our SysML -- MBSE certification, has offered a Model User certification for several years already.)
As with all exams for OMG certification programs, the OCUP 2 exam is being offered worldwide in English at Pearson VUE testing centers. Pricing information as well as information on discount vouchers for those who took the original OCUP Fundamental exam can be found at www.omg.org/ocup-2.
This this opportunity to Show What You Know!
