TM1 Certifications

[LiamLawrence]

General question on TM1 certification exams, for anyone who has done them.

I completed the TM1 Developer certification about 2years ago, it was a paid for exam but I see now this certification is going to expire at the end of March 2019. There does not appear to be a direct replacement for this certification other than doing the new IBM Badges. Does anyone have a view on this or can confirm if the badges are the way to go?

It looks like they are free to do , which is good news but doesn't this make them less valuable? eg. its technically possible to attempt them multiple times without a financial outlay and get a result from trial and error. Obviously the proof of TM1 experience is in the delivery, but to an independent contractor the certification is a selling point!

[jim wood]

I don't think IBM have completely sorted this out yet. For partners the requirement still is certification but as you said for TM1 there aren't any. I would just make sure you get all your badges and see where IBM go from there. Hopefully with us and other partners asking the question it'll force them to get their house in order,

Jim.

[lotsaram]

My understanding is that the badges replace the old certifications. Or to be more precise the "badge of badges" replaces the certification.
E.g. the new badge "IBM Planning Analytics - Modeler" replaces the old (paid for PearsonVue) certification. This badge is awarded the following month after you complete the tested badges "IBM Planning Analytics - Dimensions and Cubes", "IBM Planning Analytics - Rules and Feeders", "IBM Planning Analytics - TurboIntegrator".

Yes the badges are now free (this is good). So people can take / re-take them as often as they like (perhaps not so good). Really passing these badges is not so much proof of competence in a technology but rather proof of being able to google the correct answer. In any case the degree of difficulty is more or less exactly the same as the old a certifications which were also in no way a mark of competence. I have interviewed many a candidate who claimed to have 100% certification score but wouldn't have known a rule from a feeder or dimension from an element. In terms of proof of competence in the marketplace the certifications/badges were/are a necessary evil for IBM partners for various partner accreditation status but of no use for sorting the grain from the chaff for either partners or freelancers.

If you are interested in a credential proving real ability to build a model as opposed to ability to take a test, the only one I am aware of is described here.

[jim wood]

That was my understanding as well, however there are no sales badges to replace the partner sales certifications. Also to obtain the needed level to be an IBM partner of the right level has not been updated (yet) to include the badges, hence the reason I am not ready to commit to the badges fully replacing the certs yet,

Jim.

[gtonkin]

Also trying to see what is required to remain compliant from a BP point of view found this link to the Sales Foundation Badge for Planning Analytics:
http://www.ibm.com/services/weblectures ... ions_Badge

The other badges (or at least those I can find) look to be here:
https://www.youracclaim.com/skills/planning-analytics

Edit: Possibly a good entry point:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/comm ... ics%202017

Will post back if I find anything further

[LiamLawrence]

Thanks all, for your feedback. I will keep investigating, while working through the new badge system then!

[Alan Kirk]

I should mention one other relatively recent development in this field too given my great admiration and esteem for the official IBM certifications.

Cubewise has partnered with Deakin University in Australia to create a credential that might, well, actually mean something. It's not free but as I understand it the intent is to test the user's real world knowledge so that an employer interviewing a candidate will know that the candidate knows more than how to guess a blindingly obvious multiple choice answer.

[jim wood]

I should mention one other relatively recent development in this field too given my great admiration and esteem for the official IBM certifications.

Cubewise has partnered with Deakin University in Australia to create a credential that might, well, actually mean something. It's not free but as I understand it the intent is to test the user's real world knowledge so that an employer interviewing a candidate will know that the candidate knows more than how to guess a blindingly obvious multiple choice answer.

I'd not heard of that one. I guess it's probably only available in the land down under? Even still, I doubt at this stage that IBM will pay much attention. Cubewise will have to keep pushing it if it's to mean anything outside the Cubewise client base.

[lotsaram]

It's an online test Jim and therefore available to anyone worldwide. Would you, good sir, be interested in testing your mettle?

[jim wood]

It's an online test Jim and therefore available to anyone worldwide. Would you, good sir, be interested in testing your mettle?

For free??? Only kidding. If it's full of PA questions I'd be done for. The client I'm on has been stuck on version 10 for a while, heck we only upgraded to 10.2.2 as support for 10.1 ran out.

But he who dares.... (I'll have to swat up first mind. Being a dinosaur the mind isn't what it used to be!!)

[Alan Kirk]

It's an online test Jim and therefore available to anyone worldwide. Would you, good sir, be interested in testing your mettle?

For free??? Only kidding. If it's full of PA questions I'd be done for. The client I'm on has been stuck on version 10 for a while, heck we only upgraded to 10.2.2 as support for 10.1 ran out.

But he who dares.... (I'll have to swat up first mind. Being a dinosaur the mind isn't what it used to be!!)

Don't forget... you can go to PA2 without inflicting PAW and Docker on yourself. The classic clients work fine and dandy, aside from the absence of the new alternative hierarchies thingie. This is an important fact for those who are nervy about the impending end of 10.2.2 support but are not prepared to become Linux software engineers.

It may not help you pass a test on PAW / PAx of course, though in my case I may get a pass because my answers would be likely to melt the web server.

I don't see this as "being a dinosaur", I see it as either:
(a) "If you're going to sell Windows based software, then WRITE. FRICKING. WINDOWS. SOFTWARE", or alternatively
(b) "You see how all these other software houses have bought into this whole 'One click and run' installation paradigm? If you haven't, and you have people fishing around obscure web sites downloading bits and pieces which then may or may not work, or may or may not connect to anything, then you're doing it wrong".

[Bakkone]

Hi,

I was in contact with IBM maybe 6 months ago. They said that the badges was the thing going forward, and that there were no plans of updating the certifications.

The plan seems to be to have badges that expire more quickly. This would force us developers to update them more frequently. IBM can then test us on all the new functionality making us learn new stuff.



As for Alans rant... I couldn't agree more. I have had some nasty calls with IBMs in regards to their really stupid choice to go this weird docker route. I don't think they like me now.

Its just absurdly stupid. The #1 complaint against cognos products is always that the back-end stuff is just more complex than it has to be. And now they made it even worse. It is also very obvious what happened. IBM started developing a new front end for their analytics products. Sometime during the development process they decided they needed to rush this for TM1. So they forked it from the Cognos Analytics and tried to finish it quickly. Which never even happened. So they could have just took a chill pill and worked on a proper solution.

Now during an iterative agile development process using containers might be a good thing. But not for a final product. But since the TM1 people forked away from the Analytics people, the devs had to stick with it for final release. And now we are stuck with something really crappy that requires you to be a linux admin to install. Not even IBM are able to install the thing. The amount of separate components if a friggin' nightmare if you have a larger enterprise installation that you want to keep secure.

[LiamLawrence]

Have just come back to this and glad to see I have sparked some healthy debate
Good to see all your opinons and feedback thanks

[Derezed]

Now during an iterative agile development process using containers might be a good thing. But not for a final product. But since the TM1 people forked away from the Analytics people, the devs had to stick with it for final release. And now we are stuck with something really crappy that requires you to be a linux admin to install. Not even IBM are able to install the thing. The amount of separate components if a friggin' nightmare if you have a larger enterprise installation that you want to keep secure.

Just to kick the wasps' nest here, I have installed PAW exclusively on Windows Server 2016...and it works fine. As clients go, it's not a bad dashboard type development tool...clearly no replacement for Architect despite the roadmap. I have fortunately not had to install it on Linux. I more resent needing a degree in networks to get PAW up and running properly (adjust this metric here, ensure the NAT configuration is all good there...), but it isn't anywhere near as bad as getting single sign on to work in a multi forest environment...or configuring SSL for web facing installations.

On topic, the new badges are just like the old exams...since the answers are all available online, they are beyond worthless but required to be an IBM partner. They aren't even a money spinner for IBM so I am not sure what their function is...a test on who can download a word document packed full of multiple choice answers fastest? If so, anyone claiming 10 years of PAW experience wins!

[Bakkone]

But you still need profiency with Docker to run it properly in an enterprise environment. If you just want to do it on a small dev-server its no problems. But in an enterprise environment full of subnets, firewalls, AD, Antivirus and other security... it becomes a lot tougher.

As for the certificates I kind of like it. Even if it is just a google away, it still means the threshold for people is lowered so that they can look into TM1 for their CV.