OMG has now released a schedule for exam availability for the OCEB (OMG Certified Expert in BPM) Exams.  This certification is an important step to move closer to a common understanding of what BPM is, and what it means to be an expert in BPM – two topics that have, up to this point, remained stubbornly hard to define in a way that everyone will agree with! Here’s one step in the right direction (though, I’ll grant there is room for improvement, perfect is the enemy of good, right?).

I just got an email from OMB about the schedule, but as yet I don’t see it on their website (If you are reading this, and have seen it on the OMG site, send me the link or put it in a comment, please).

OCEB Fundamental Available           Now
OCEB Business Intermediate            December 22, 2008
OCEB Technology Intermediate       January 12, 2009
OCEB Business Advanced                  January 26, 2009
OCEB Technology Advanced             February 2, 2009

The beta programs have closed, with the exception I think of the Technical Advanced exam, but the official tests are coming in on  schedule, through PearsonVUE.  Also from the email:

“OMG, in partnership with the UML Technology Institute (UTI), developed the new certification exam series to support business analysts, architects and designers building and using Business Process Modeling and Business Process Management techniques to define, improve and automate business processes. Subject Matter Experts from more than 25 companies developed the exams’ coverage and questions, while extensive beta-testing and psychometric analysis validated their final forms. The exams will be available worldwide in English; in the Asia-Pacific region they will also be made available in Japanese in the near future. In India, QAI is OMG’s official OMG Certification Program representative.”

It was a long road (more than a year in the making), and it sure is nice to see it come to light.  Congrats to all the contributors to the OCEB examinations for the hard work and persistence.

Here at BP3 we were fortunate enough to participate in the creation of the OMG Certified Expert in BPM (OCEB) examinations.  This is a big step for the BPM business because it starts to standardize what it means to be an expert in BPM.  Anyone will benefit from reading some of the reference material cited on the OMG site (it isn’t a complete list, but it is a great primer), and even the test itself will teach you a fair amount about BPM (trust me, you’ll run across a question you don’t know the answer to.  If you’re like me, you hit the books afterward to find out more about that corner of BPM).

One of the criticisms I’ve heard leveled at BPM in the past is that it isn’t easy to communicate what it is – a technology, a discipline, a toolset?  This certification starts to put all the parts of BPM into a context that makes sense.  These are the technical parts that you need to understand.  These are the business parts.  These are the parts that apply equally to both.

Putting these tests together isn’t easy.  All the question-writers are volunteers, and we write a lot more questions than what shows up on the test (except for you lucky beta-testers, who get to answer ALL the questions).  All the questions go through psychometrics and tech reviews and reference reviews, as well as wordsmithing edits.  The process of writing the tests was an interesting process in and of itself.  Thanks to Jon Siegel for working with everyone throughout the whole process and keeping our band of BPM experts in the fold for over a year to get this done.

If you are thinking about taking the OCEB exams and aren’t sure where to start, feel free to ask your questions here, we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction.  Its all computer-based and very easy to schedule and take the tests through the nearest PearsonVue test center.  For another post on the exam, check out Sebastien Stein’s (of Aris) post here. Also take the time to explore OMG’s OCEB home page, linked above.  It has several useful resources, not to mention listing the 25 companies that contributed expertise to the project!  I believe the fundamental exam, and the business and technical intermediate exams, have been published.  The advanced exams are now in the beta period, so we’re very close to the finish line!

Good luck with the exams!

UPDATE: there is an update here on the schedule of exams.

Last year, OMG made some significant advances in specifications in BPM-related spaces. We now have a BPMN 1.1 spec, a beta of the BPDM (Business Process Definition Metamodel) spec for data representation of BPMN models, and two interesting business-oriented models, the BMM (Business Motivation Model), and the BPMM (Business Process Maturity Model).  We have a mix of both technical and business-oriented specifications for defining business process and improving business process.

OMG is now making public its OMG Expert Certification in BPM program (OCEB), and also published the list of 25 experts who helped put the certification exam together. BP3 Played a role in both the business and the technical aspects of the fundamental exam, and we are now writing questions for the Intermediate exams. This is probably a good time to thank OMG and specifically Jon Siegel for doing such a good job organizing this effort.

BP3 got involved with the OCEB effort (OMG Certified Expert in BPM) first, because BPM is our area of primary interest as professionals. But second, certifications prior to this one tended to be software-vendor-specific, the OCEB offered the opportunity to have a more comprehensive and collaborative examination of what it means to be fundamentally qualified as a BPM professional. We also have an interest in both perspectives of BPM – business and technical – and as a team we bring both types of expertise to the table, which we thought would be a healthy perspective to lend to the working group. In talking with Janelle Hill from Gartner last year she advised that the pool of professionals truly qualified and experienced with BPM is woefully thin, to expect that trend to worsen, and that by 2011 the industry will be in dire straights unless additional professionals come into the fold and earn their stripes. This comment certainly resonated with what we know is the current state of the union. I think OMG is doing a good thing here and I hope we see more practioners enter the fray. It’s good for all of us!