Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Suretification
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Organizations face a real challenge to qualify people to engage in project work, and the almost universally accepted solution is certification. But certification doesn’t guarantee ability. In fact, it doesn’t even certify knowledge when so many of the “right” answers on these exams are actually wrong in the context of real-world project management.
"Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma. Therefore. I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Th. D...that's Doctor of Thinkology."
— The Wizard of Oz, bestowing certification on the brainless Scarecrow. (Agile consultant Mary Poppendieck's take on certification, posted on leandevelopment@yahoogroups)
I can’t read the trades or open my in-box without being sideswiped by some promotion for another project management certification program claiming to provide validation of fundamental project management skills. How these vendors accomplish this isn’t at all clear, but the centerpiece of their offerings appears to be some variant on a certification exam.
Looking back on my own long exam-taking history, I can honestly report that no exam…
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"Why is it that people rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the people involved." - Mark Twain |