Developing the CIQPSMExam
Topics
A First-Hand Account
January 2009: IDQ Newsletter Vol 5 Issue 1
Keith Underdown
Editor's Note
Work is well underway for developing the topics of the IAIDQ's Certified Information Quality Professional (CIQPSM) exam.
In this article, Keith Underdown reports on the work accomplished thus far, and calls on IAIDQ members to contribute to the certification effort.
Step 1. Identify Domains and Tasks
The IAIDQ held a three-day workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina from the 3rd to the 5th of October 2008 to begin the work of identifying the domains, tasks, skills, and knowledge areas of a Certified Information Quality Professional (CIQPSM).
The workshop participants were:
(back row L-R) Danette McGilvray, Jeff Pettit, John Talburt, Christian Walenta, Jeff Monica, Walid el Abed, C. Lwanga Yonke, Keith Underdown;
(front row L-R) Brenda Maas, Elizabeth Pierce, and Elizabeth Davis.
Figure 1: The Working Group
The panel was a balanced mix of practitioners, consultants, and academics, all acknowledged experts in the field, representing various backgrounds and countries, including the UK, Switzerland, and the United States.
The IAIDQ contracted the services of CASTLE Worldwide, Inc., a company that specializes in the development, validation, and administration of professional certifications.
The group worked enthusiastically over the course of three days, putting in some 30 hours of effort under the guidance of Dr. Scott Bublitz, an organisational psychologist who facilitates 10 to 12 of these exercises every year.
Figure 2. Our Mantra (from Liz Davis)
We first worked as a body to develop the domains, before splitting into groups to bring each domain down to the task level.
The process of defining the domains and tasks was very structured and rigorous. The model went through several iterations before we arrived at a consensus that did not obviously favour one school of thought over any other.
Under this model, Domain Names are expressed as a Noun Phrase, while Task Names are stated in the form: <do> <something> <by or through> <some method> <in order to> <achieve> <some goal>.
By the end of the workshop, the panel had arrived at a model that consists of these six domains:
- Information Quality Strategy and Governance
- Information Quality Environment and Culture
- Information Quality Value and Business Impact
- Information Architecture Quality
- Information Quality Measurement and Improvement
- Sustaining Information Quality
Step 2. Identify Skills and Knowledge for Each Task
We next defined the associated skills and knowledge for each task. This stage of the effort was accomplished over a period of a few months. The participants worked individually, with a coordinator responsible for bringing the responses together.
Conducting this part of the process individually may not have been as effective as getting together as a group, but many of the participants could not give up more days to the process, and the IAIDQ could not afford the expense of bringing everyone together again.
Step 3. Validate Model through Practitioner Survey
The final model was then used as the basis of the survey that many, if not most, of you were asked to respond to in December 2008. Each domain and task was rated for its importance, criticality, and importance, and the survey results will be used to determine the number of exam questions for each domain and task.
Survey participants also had the opportunity to suggest domains and tasks that were overlooked by our Raleigh panel. These inputs will allow us to gauge how well the domain and task model defined by the panel measures up against the real-life experiences of IQ practitioners. Clearly, our IQ certification will be different from other certificates in the market, as it is a product for practitioners, rigorously validated, and shaped by practitioners.
Next Steps: How you can help
As previously mentioned several times in member emails and in the previous issue of the Newsletter, the Certification Program is a major step forward in the life of the Association, and in the growth of our IDQ discipline.
It is also a major opportunity for members — certified[1] professionals will have an advantage when competing for assignments. Practitioners, consultants, and academics can develop courses based on the CIQPSM to help individuals successfully prepare for certification.
The certification effort, however, is expensive, and the Association seeks to raise US$80,000 over the next few months to cover the development costs. Corporate sponsors are being sought, of course, but there is the opportunity for every member (and even non-members) to contribute online via the IAIDQ CIQPSM chip-in widget at iaidq.org (donations are tax deductible for those who pay US taxes, and may also be deductible in other countries.).
I urge you to help support IAIDQ and our profession by giving generously to this worthwhile effort!!
[1] There is a potential cultural issue here. In Europe the more normal term used in this kind of professional validation process is “chartered” and the word “certified” in British English can be used to mean “mad”—“certified insane”
Copyright © 2008 Keith Underdown
About the Author
Keith Underdown is one of the UK's most experienced Information Architects.
In a 40 year career in IT his experience ranges from programming real time psychology experiments, VME operating system design at ICL, leading the operational design of a major new banking suite and developing corporate, group-wide information architectures. He has worked in Europe, United States, Middle East and South Korea.
He has worked on several customer data cleansing projects, which has given him a good insight into the vagaries of naming conventions and the structure of postal addresses, perhaps more complex in the UK than anywhere else. He has spoken at or chaired many events and seminars: most recently the IAIDQ Seminar in Cardiff, his home city. Keith is presently the Convenor of the IAIDQ’s British Isles Community of Practice (CoP).
Keith has now retired from regular practice but remains a keen supporter of the IAIDQ and intends to contribute many more newsletter articles, and perhaps even a book.
Contact Keith via email at keith [dot] underdown [AT] iaidq [dot] org