Websphere Certification

Ok lets get a Websphere certification. I like little cheesey exams. They are meaningless but strangely seem to motivate tired, shagged out old b@stards like me.

Here are some options:

IBM Certified Associate Developer - WebSphere Studio, V5.0
Entry level, requires exam 285 which is maily aimed at getting around Websphere studio, debugging JSPs etc

IBM Certified Solution Developer - WebSphere Studio, V5.0
More involved requires you pass CIW Web Developer which is JCERT test covering basic J2EE stuff. In addtion you must pass 286 which looks pretty similar to 285. From initial looks it dosn't appear that you can stack up exams like the old Lotus/Novell electives.

An alternative to the CIW Web Developer is the Sun Java 2 Programmer. This seems odd as this is the basic J2SE exam which dosn't deal with J2EE at all. Hey Ho.

IBM Certified Enterprise Developer - WebSphere Studio, V5.0
This the biggy, For anything with enterprise in it your going to have to understand EJBs. To get this creditation you must pass:

Sun Java Programmer (1.2 or 1.4) - 310-325
Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with UML (486)
Enterprise Connectivity with J2EE V1.3 (484)
Enterprise Application Development with IBM WebSphere Studio, V5.0 (287)

IBM Certified System Administrator - WebSphere Application Server V5.0
Basic admin exam 340. Again admin without EJBs, single server.

IBM Certified Solution Developer - IBM WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms V5.0
This dosn't exist yet (only 4.1) the link points to the new exams due in 2003 ... hmm gettting a bit late. There appears to be a deplyment and development exam so it remains to be seen if this will remain one thing.

Summary
So, the associate exams look a bit pointless as they are all about remembering the menu options is WSAD. The solution developer looks a good bet for first dibs but the question is do you do the CIW exam or just the Java Programmer? The CIW content is worth knowing but the exam is not used in any of the further certifications.

So, I reckon its the solution developer with the J2SE programmer.

As Joey Ramone said, "Hey ho lets go"