[Sigia-l] IA Certification

[Stephen Collins]

I'll delurk and respond at the same time...

On 22/06/2007, at 7:44 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:
>> then professionalization can only lead to, well, professionals,  
>> who are more
>> and more effective and discover more and more exciting, beautiful,  
>> useful
>> things.
>
> Or not.
>
> A principal goal of certification is conformance, an anathema to  
> innovation.
> You do the math.

And I'll agree here (and imagine Donna will do the same at some  
point, although she's big enough to speak for herself).

I'm certainly from the non-certified pool of IAs having worked in  
apps development, consulting, IA, usability and the rest with the  
benefit of a degree in journalism.  Having said that, I don't  
consider myself any less qualified to do the work I do.  In fact,  
where I do most of my work currently, I'm considered one of the most  
experienced and strategically-minded people in the organisation when  
it comes to IA and UX work.

While I recognise that the professionalisation of a field of practice  
has a level of value, I tend to agree with the notion that at times  
it's about conformance.  Let's take a personal example as a case in  
point.

The Australian Computer Society is a nationally recognised  
professional organisation for those working across IT.  It does a lot  
of good work (and some stuff I scratch my head over).  The fee is  
around AU$320/year, but for me as a person who doesn't have a  
recognised IT qualification, I need the written support of two  
existing members in good standing to support my application as well  
as the form strongly suggesting I write a mini-essay in my own  
support.  Bollocks to that!

Certification and professional recognition can have its benefits, but  
where it becomes box-ticking, i.e. you can be a professionally  
recognised IA because you have qualification X or have done IA work  
for Y years, it has little value to my mind.

What IS of value is the quality of people's work.  At the end of the  
day, good work is what's going to get you reputation and community of  
practice recognition.  That's more important to me than having a  
piece of paper that says I'm a qualified IA.

Steve
--
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