Tracey Flynn

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GoCertify: What is the biggest mistake an organization can make when launching a new certification program?

Tracey Flynn: The biggest mistake is to underestimate the amount of senior management support it takes to create a winning program. "Support" includes adequate program funding but also making sure that the program has the right level of visibility within the corporation. What "visibility" translates to is that certification becomes adopted in the mission and woven into development plans for managers and employees. Managers must talk-up the certification effort, take pride in it by including it in their briefings, goals, encourage other managers to allow their staff and reward their staff for participation in development and adoption of the program.

Support also means that all the resources needed are made available to develop and deliver the program. That means the subject matter experts (SMEs) have to be available to make the competency model, the exam blueprint, the objectives, the test items, review the beta, etc. Without management "support" the program may limp along but it will not be the winner it could be and certainly not worth the investment. Management support also acknowledges the steps involved in exam development and agree that all of them are required to produce a legally defensible exam. They won't be mystified by the costs and time it takes for development.

GoCertify: How often does a certification program need to be updated?

Tracey Flynn: The short answer is that a certification program needs to be updated continuously. There will always be some component of the overall program administration that will need to be updated. If it's not the program administration it may be the exam skills, technologies or product changes.

Committing to a certification program also means committing to a recertification or maintenance program unless your program is designed to certify candidates only once in their lifetime. Few organizations, however, certify candidates for life without at least requiring some sort of skills maintenance.

Putting off defining your recertification strategy until after your initial program's launch may seem tempting, but that is really too late. Your recertification strategy must already be underway to retain audience participation in your program. In certain industries, candidates expect to have to recertify and are skeptical of any program that doesn't have recertification requirements. They may choose a competing program over yours because its sponsor appears to have made a long-term commitment to certification. Why? A certification serves as a marketing vehicle for both provider and recipients in some industries. Recertification helps a program remain visible and provides evidence that an organization is continuing to invest in the credential and helping maintain its value in the marketplace.

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