Foundation/ProfessionalCertification

= Professional Certification Working Group =

Mission
The OpenStack Foundation is launching its inaugural OpenStack Certification Exam Program which will offer a career-path based Certification for OpenStack professionals. The Certification exam will be performance-based and focus on basic skills required to operate an OpenStack cloud: Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA).

Initially, a sub-group of Subject Matter Experts has formed a Job Task Analysis Committee (JTAC) tasked with developing an appropriate examination blueprint to be used in the preparation of the Certification. There will be additional sub-groups for question writing and governance.

Members

 * Satoshi Konno, ASANLABS, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
 * Anil Bidari, Cloud Enabled, Bangalore, India
 * Heidi Bretz, OpenStack Foundation, USA
 * Eren Türkay, Skyatlas, Istanbul, Turkey
 * Andrew Boag, Catalyst IT, Sydney, Australia
 * Ghe Rivero, HP, Salamanca, Spain
 * Arturo Suarez, Canonical, London, UK
 * Pranav Salunke, SUSE Linux GmbH, Nuremberg, Germany
 * Amrith Kumar, Tesora, Boston, USA
 * Susan Wu, Midokura, San Francisco, USA
 * Michael Ford, Midokura, San Francisco, USA
 * Seth Fox, Solinea, Inc., Tucson, USA
 * Rick Evans, VMware, Sunnyvale, USA
 * Sean Winn, EMC, San Jose, USA
 * Phil Hopkins, Rackspace, San Antonio, USA
 * Megan Rossetti, Comcast, Reston, USA
 * Jeff Olson, Firefly, Milpitas, USA
 * Lee Xie, Mirantis, Mountain View, USA
 * Byron McCollum, Vice Chair, Rackspace, San Antonio, TX
 * Jeffrey Olsen, EMC, Austin, TX
 * Ghe Rivero, HPE, Salamanca, Spain
 * Maish Saidel-Keesing, Cisco, Israel
 * Ron Terry, SUSE, Provo, UT
 * Alessandro Vozza, Netherlands
 * Jake Girouard, Mirantis, Sunnyvale, CA

Advisory Board

 * Alan Clark, SUSE
 * Lew Tucker, Cisco
 * Lauren Sell, OpenStack
 * Tony Campbell, Rackspace
 * Heidi Bretz, OpenStack

Resources for Trainers
If you are offering OpenStack training, please refer to list of OpenStack job tasks and capabilities to help scope your level one course curriculum. The capabilities defined by this working group are expected to be covered in the Certified OpenStack Administrator exam. To learn what those capabilities are please go to https://www.openstack.org/coa/requirements

Additionally, if you are an OpenStack Foundation sponsor, please make sure your training courses are listed in the OpenStack Training Marketplace. You may inquire about sponsorship or the Marketplace listing at ecosystem@openstack.org.

Meeting Minutes

 * Meeting #1
 * Meeting #2
 * Meeting #3
 * Meeting #4
 * Meeting #5

Timeline

 * October – Deliver exam blueprint
 * Oct –Dec. – Item/question development and programming
 * Jan-Feb –Internal pilot testing
 * Feb – March – End user/volunteer pilot testing
 * April – Publicly available test for Austin Summit

How to get involved

 * Volunteer to pilot the Test – 2-3 hours in Q1, email cert@openstack.org
 * Volunteer to be an item/question writer – 20 + hours, email cert@openstack.org (training for item writing will be provided). Experience writing testing questions is helpful.