LabVIEW Certifications

In 1999, near the height of the internet bubble, Microsoft Press published a book called titled After the Gold Rush, with the more descriptive subtitle, “Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering.” I started writing this post as a diatribe against National Instruments (NI), but ended up writing about how they are supporting what this book proposed.

The Book

Steve McConnell wrote the book. If you don’t know who McConnell is, then you don’t spend much time working on major software projects (or you do it in isolation). Several of the books he’s written over the years (Code Complete and Software Project Survival Guide to name a couple) I recommend as required reading for serious programmers. I don’t know if I would label him a genius – I’ve only talked with him at a couple of seminars about 7 years ago, so I hardly know him – but he has a unique knack for gathering the best practices of a particular subject and positioning them in an organized fashion under one tidy roof.

In other words, he knows his stuff. And his thesis in this particular book was that software engineering needs to be licensed like other engineering professions or like dentists, doctors, attorneys, nurses, etc. There are too many programmers that learned how to code here and there, follow no standard software conventions, write mediocre (or worse) code, and yet still consider themselves professionals. This makes good sense.

NI Certification Gripe

NI has a fairly elaborate certification process that has evolved over the past decade or so. Exams cost ~$200 and are valid for only two years - after that, you have to take the test again. My first impression was that this was a real scam. Get companies to buy into the idea that they have to have NI-certified programmers, forcing programmers to cough up money every couple of years or risk job stagnation, which leads to a nice revenue stream for NI.

I have a MS in PHYSICS that I completed over a dozen years ago – do I have to go back to my alma mater every couple of years and re-certify myself? No, because getting that degree implies a certain level of competency. If someone wants to gauge me on those matters, they can talk with me or look at my body of work since school. I have a driver’s license that I renew every few years, but I don’t have to prove I can parallel park when I show up at the DMV. It is assumed that I drive on a regular basis and as such keep my skills up to date.

Once I’ve taken the LV certification test & proven my skills, why should I pay to take it again every two years? Prospective employers can talk with me about various LV topics, or look at my resume. Furthermore, my resume can prove that I’ve been regularly employed and have kept my skills current. To take the argument further, Microsoft certifications for server admins (MCSA) or system engineers (MCSE) do not require re-certifications. Yes, they roll out new systems every few years, but people with an existing certification can upgrade via a subset of the full test suite.

Counterview

But then I started relating NI’s certification efforts to McConnell’s thesis of licensing software engineers. Certification adds some legitimacy to programming in LV. It weeds out some people who write substandard code yet try to pass themselves off as experienced users. It allows those engineers with the certification to (maybe) command a better salary.

So I’ve modified my view. I still think National Instruments is exploiting the certification process, but they’re also doing a good thing for the LV development community. And since LabVIEW belongs to them, that’s how it works.