Certifications in ITO

How the Industry’s Leap of Faith Turned Sour and Why the Industry Should Take it Easy on Advanced Certifications

Executive Summary

The quality of code is important in application development and maintenance (ADM). It drives client satisfaction and helps avoid costly maintenance.

The ADM industry long ago made a huge leap of faith by associating the quality of the code with the quality of the development process. This argument worked in the manufacturing business, where controlling the process ensures complete adherence to the specifications which, in turn, guarantees a high level of quality for the end product. This leap of faith created a decade-long love affair with advanced certifications like SEI-CMM.

The abundance of various certifications on the market increasingly forces buyers of outsourcing services to decide on several important factors:

• Do certifications really matter in the buyers’ situations?
• Which certifications they should pay attention to, and what is the right level of the certification to target?
• Should minimal certification requirement be a part of the supplier-selection process?

This white paper will be most useful for buyers for whom quality is especially important due to non-standard requirements or specific application needs. The paper discusses:

• Kano model of quality and its implications for the ADM industry
• Overview of the certifications that exist on the market today
• Understanding of the underlying value levers in major certifications
• Hypothesis as to the practicality of certifications for buyers and use of certifications in the supplier-selection process