OMG is building a certification program in BPM

The OCEB™ program - OMG-Certified Expert in BPM - will consist of five examinations, granting five Certifications. Above the single Fundamental level, the program splits into two tracks - one Business-oriented , the other Technically oriented, as shown in the diagram below. We will launch the OCEB program, making all examinations available in their final forms, during the fourth quarter of this year. For an overview of the program, read this page. For details, follow the links for each topic. 

Registration for OCEB Beta Testing has Closed

Twenty-five BPM experts, from prominent companies and independent consultants, are writing the examinations now. The first group of candidates to take each examination take it in a Beta format, after completing a questionnaire about their knowledge and experience with BPM. We are using  their results to validate the questions, construct the final forms of each examination, and set cut-off scores. When our statistical analysis is complete, beta candidates who pass receive the same certification that later candidates will receive when they take the examination in its final form. Registration for the OCEB Beta Program has closed. Everyone who received a voucher and took the OCEB Fundamental Beta examination is still enrolled in the program, and will receive vouchers for both Intermediate OCEB Beta examinations. 

OCEB Program Overview

OCEB is a rigorous, comprehensive, and fair test of a candidate's knowledge and skills in the areas of Business Process Management and Business Process Modeling. The twenty-five experts from prominent BPM companies and well-known independent consultants who designed the OCEB topical coverage and wrote the questions for the set of OCEB examinations want peers and prospective employers to feel confident about a certified candidate’s ability to participate in or lead real-world initiatives in enterprise BPM. To accomplish this, we test not only a candidate's knowledge of the domain's standards (including OMG's Business Process Modeling Language™ - BPMN™), but  also aspects of the application of those standards in the field, and of industry best practices over a wide range of business process related topics. . 

The OCEB Fundamental level examination covers knowledge and skills required by most job descriptions in BPM. Above the Fundamental level, recognizing the two different areas of practice of BPM, OCEB splits into a Business track and a Technical track, each concentrated on the knowledge and skills used in its practice. Every OCEB Certification requires the certifications below it (for Advanced, only in its track) as prerequisites. Here is a diagram of the five levels. For a description of each one, go to our Program and Examination Information Page. 

If you're a BPM practitioner, an OCEB certification at a suitable level will benefit you by giving you an important credential to present to employers and clients. Should you certify in only one track, or both tracks? For a discussion, look here.  If you're a senior executive hiring a consultant, or a  manager making a hiring decision, or awarding a promotion or a raise, you know that the OCEB-certified candidate stands out from the crowd - he or she has studied the material and practiced the skills required for his level, and not only knows how to model and analyze business processes, but also is familiar with the many concepts and frameworks that underlie Business Process Management. For a more detailed listing of the material covered, and descriptions of positions and tasks suitable for each level, see this page. 

About the Examinations: All OMG certification examinations - for OCEB, and our programs OCUP™ for UML, and OCRES™ for Real-time and Embedded - will be administered by Pearson VUE at their world-wide network of secure testing centers starting June 16, 2008. [For information about our switch to Pearson VUE, look here.]  All OCEB exam questions are multiple choice, and require choosing one out of at least four possible answers. While most questions test knowledge, some questions test skills - especially modeling skills - by presenting a scenario as either a small BPMN diagram or a few sentences of text, and asking something about it. Answer options may be presented as either text or small BPMN diagrams as well. Each examination consists of 90 questions. In English-speaking countries, candidates are allowed 90 minutes to take the test; in most countries where English is not the native language, some additional time is allowed. For more information, check the OCEB FAQ page. 

The Companies Behind the OCEB Program 

The OCEB Program was developed and is run as a joint program of OMG and the UML Technology Institute (UTI). OMG will spread and promote the OCEB Program in the Americas, EMEA, and India, while UTI will promote and administer the program in the Asia-Pacific region. OCEB is the third Certification Program jointly produced by OMG and UTI; the others are the UML Practitioner certification OCUP, and the Real-time and Embedded Systems developer certification OCRES.   Pearson VUE provides testing sites and services for the OCEB Program. 

About OMG  

The Object Management Group™ is an open membership, not-for-profit consortium that produces and maintains computer industry and, more recently, business domain specifications for interoperable enterprise applications. Our membership includes virtually every large company in the IT industry, and hundreds of smaller ones. Most of the companies that shape enterprise and Internet computing today are represented on our Board of Directors. Our primary specification in the business domain is the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), supported by the Business Motivation Model (BMM), Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM), and additional business domain specifications including SBVR and BPDM. Our Unified Modeling Language™ (UML^®) dominates IT modeling, and the MOF™ provides a foundation that makes models useful, by allowing them to be transformed by software, and so used in the Model Driven Architecture^® (MDA^®). Founded in 1989, the OMG's first well-known (and still widely-used) specification was CORBA^®. 

About UTI 

The UML Technology Institute Co., LTD. was founded to promote the use of open, standards-based modeling technologies through the development of international certification programs that provide formal recognition of modeling expertise. With headquarters in Tokyo, UML Technology Institute was established in November 2002 by PA Co., Ltd. 

OCEB is a joint program of the OMG and the UML Technology Institute (UTI)

http://www.omg.org/oceb/index.htm


SOURCE: OMG