… a new idea is a delicate thing. It can be killed by a sneer or worried to death with a frown. Treat your own ideas like children – coddle them, keep them away from the chill of adverse criticism, have faith in them …
E Joseph Cossman
What follows is a small selection of my predictions for this year…
In 2016 expect things to change. This won’t happen for everything, but for the things that do change…expect it.
This year there is a very good chance that some things will become less popular. You’ll see a movement of the crowd away from these things and there will be less conversation about them in the various channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc).
A lot of movement is expected this year. Growth will be observed in many different areas (with some surprises).
Something that will most likely affect big companies, small companies, and individual consumers alike. Expenses will continue to occur, with no sign of a turn-down in this area.
At some point in the year, something will be discovered. The item discovered, or the person making the discovery, might, or might not, be publicly announced.
Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ
AIIM have announced that the CIP certification won’t be going away.
When AIIM originally (and quietly) announced the end of the AIIM Certified Information Professional (CIP) on the 11th of December 2015, there was a strong reaction.
Possibly stronger than AIIM had expected.
Here’s a small list of some of the feedback that was given:
(If I have missed any, let me know.)
If you read all those, you’ll see that most people are upset that the CIP was “deactivated”. They feel cheated, and you can see other Info Management organisations circling. There’s even discussion about setting up an alternative certification.
At the same time, there was a small number that said “didn’t really need it”, and a couple of inputs from AIIM Board members that said (more, or less) “stop crying”.
Noticing the unrest, early on, among the CIP natives, AIIM CEO John Mancini wrote an “justification post” on the 14th of December 2015. (This was alluded to in Dan Antion’s post).
John explains gives some reasonable reasons for stopping the certification. You can more here.
4 days later (18 December 2016), John publishes a well-worded announcement in which he states that they will be continuing the CIP, and improving it. This really excites me … for two reasons.
The alignment of the CIP and the training material is absolutely brilliant and something that really needs to be done. The IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) offer the CBAP certification. This certification is based on an understanding of the BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge). All training materials exist to reinforce the/focus on the BABOK. That is, the BABOK came first, and then the certification after it. This is where there was a lack of alignment with the CIP. The training material, and the certification did not, actually, reinforce each other directly.
I’m really keen to see how this will go. It’s been made clear that there are a lot of supporters of both CIP, and AIIM in the community. And I’m really glad that AIIM is going to be overhauling the CIP certification.
I fee, however, like I’ve been watching a TV series, where you’ve seen watching the main protagonist fighting challenges. Will he survive? Can he do it? The hero has many long-term supporters that have come to assist him, and yet, at the same time, a few of these have shown their true colors. We, the viewers know it. The main hero, however, doesn’t…
Let’s wait for the next season….
John Mancini, president and CEO of AIIM, has published a post with a few more details on why the decision was made to get rid of the CIP…
You can read more below.
Some background on integrating the CIP program into the AIIM Masters program.
Source: Some thoughts on the AIIM CIP Program
Since writing this post, AIIM has responded to this, and many other comments, that CIP holders (and others) made. AIIM announced that they were not abandoning the CIP certification, but were actually going to upgrade it. (You can read more here)
It’s been 4 years since I attained AIIM’s Certified Information Professional (CIP) certification. At the time it seemed like a good idea. Below is an extract from AIIM’s “CIP Examination Objectives”
The certification is dedicated too enhancing and promoting the profession of information management by providing the premier credential in the industry.
Note the word “premier“.
Last week, AIIM announced an exciting development. They described how they were “consolidating” their CIP and their Master designation. (You can read the announcement here). In other words, the premier credential is going to be worthless.
The CIP was something that you qualified for, after sitting a rather rigorous exam that covered a vast range of areas within Information Management. And then, because things are continuously changing, there was the requirement to re- qualify every X years, by accumulating X continual training units.
.The Master designation that they refer to is something that one can get after doing a course (in either Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM), or Electronic Records Management (ERM)) , pass an exam, write a case study. and that’s it. No further “keeping up-to-date”
… there is a difference in a training institute’s “certificates” and an industry “certification.”
Kevin Parker (Information Management Consultant & AIIM Trainer)
I’ve been a big supporter of AIIM. I was even an “ambassador”. I’ve written several blog posts about them, and was one of their “expert bloggers”. I saw value in the CIP. It created a “standard” (I wrote about this in an earlier post), so I was disappointed to see that it was, essentially, being killed off.
I don’t feel that the “Master” designation is quite the same as the CIP, but then, it appears that the CIP certification was not quite as popular as AIIM had anticipated. Apparently over the 4 years there were only 1000 Certified Information Professionals.
I can only really speak from my own perspective here. Jesse Wilkins has tried to give some explanations to the angry mob of CIP holders that gathered at his doorstep (and by “doorstep” I mean “on Twitter”), and it seems to boil down to “a lack of interest”.
it seems to boil down to “a lack of interest”
When the CIP appeared on the landscape I saw it as a great way of defining what I knew (with regards the field of Information Management), as well as creating a roadmap of other areas that I needed to explore to become a well-rounded Information Professional. (In an earlier post I referred to it as an Island). I found the idea of continual learning valuable. It was something that I did anyway, but now it was something that was being recognised.
The other professional institutions (PMI, IIBA) have done it. Their certifications are internationally recognised (and career definning), but even those started out with just a handful of certification holders.
So now that the CIP is gone. I ask “was it really necessary”. The fact that there wasn’t a great uptake shows that, maybe, it wasn’t. Information Professionals have carried on being Information Professionals, and companies have carried on hiring them based on their experience and knowledge.
Having CIP certification wasn’t really a deal-breaker. Back in 2012, before I embraced the CIP, I asked whether it would be JAC (Just Another Certification). The reason that I decided that it wasn’t was because of the reasons I described above.
Look at the PMI (Project Management Institute) certification, or the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) certification. They are standards for professionals working in those fields. And having the certification does make a difference.
And these certifications are based on a BOK (Body of knowledge) that provides a framework for the way these professional perform. That’s what helped the certification to be seen as something professional. And that was something that the CIP lacked.
That’s the question that I’m trying to answer. Some have even suggested that AIIM has no more value. I’m curious what you think? Does AIIM really make a difference?
My Earlier CIP posts
I recently attended three conferences here in the Netherlands. In the previous post I described the Dream conference.
This is post #2
Location: De Landgoederij, Bunnik, Netherlands
First things first – a “lustrum” is a period of 5 years or the celebration of the end of a period of five years.
In this case, it was the fifth annual general conference of the IIBA chapter in the Netherlands. The theme was ‘Managing Change of Change Management’.
It was something that I was looking forward to.
This is simple to answer, and applies to all the conferences I go to:
There were some interesting sessions in the line-up.
First off, Mike Green‘s “Change Management: how to influence without authority“. Due to fog, Mike’s flight had been cancelled so he was doing the presentation using Skype. Talk about managing change!
Mike is the author of “Change Management Masterclass”, and co-author of “Making Sense of Change Management and making Sense of Leadership“. His presentation, even via Skype, was fascinating. I have a copy of his book which I’ll be reading soon.
One interesting observation, was that in the beginning Mike was sitting facing the webcam. And the presentation was…OK. A bit later, he stood up, and then the presentation became quite animated, and engaging.
Next up was Dr Erwin Metselaar, who’s presentation was titled “Managing Change: an evidence based model“. Erwin talked about the measuri
ng resistance to change through use of a survey-based technique. This is referred to as the DINIMO model.
Then there were two parallel sessions. I’m never a fan of parallel sessions…only because it means that whichever session I choose, I will miss out on the other session(s). The one I went to, was titled “Agile: Business & IT as one!” It’s something that I’ve always maintained – that the “business” and IT are not separate entities!
Then Dr Jan Hoogervorst, an organisational theorist from the University of Antwerp gave an amusing talk on the subject “Managing change or change management?”. It had everyone laughing, and was a good close for the conference.
This is also one of the most valuable things for me. Getting a chance to meet like-minded people. Luckily, because the conference was being run by the Dutch Chapter of IIBA, there were a lot of like-minded people.
I got to meet people that I had spoken with at the Dream conference (see earlier post), and some people who I hadn’t spoken with, but who had been at my presentation. (Always nice to hear what they thought of it),
As well, during the dinner, I was able to keep on learning. The two gentlemen that I was sitting near educated me on the intricacies of working as a freelancer in the Netherlands. Really valuable to be able to get some first-hand advice!
Further to that, I was able to get to know, in person, the committee members, who, until then, I had only interacted with online.
It’s this “making connections” that I really enjoy.
Good conference. Educational, Inspiratonal, Informative, and great food!
Previous post: Conference 1: DREAM15
Below are a collection of the tweets that were tweeted by participants of the DREAM conference held in Vianen, on the 8th of October 2015.
https://twitter.com/ebuise/status/652073938642685952/photo/1
https://twitter.com/GeertjeAppel/status/652060078401552386/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DREAMexperts/status/652078529660608512/photo/1
https://twitter.com/natasjaelewout/status/652084765202489344/photo/1
https://twitter.com/GeertjeAppel/status/652088381241999360/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Jud_IT_zakelijk/status/652089676346576901/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Drago978/status/652091058243928064/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Drago978/status/652100879475191808/photo/1
https://twitter.com/GeertjeAppel/status/652101005660811264/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Drago978/status/652100879475191808/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DREAMexperts/status/652145207996100609/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Mirjam_vd_Berg/status/652176332407898113/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Jud_IT_zakelijk/status/652089676346576901/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Jud_IT_zakelijk/status/652409159909023744/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DREAMexperts/status/654963757047676930/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DREAMexperts/status/656050933424455680/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DREAMexperts/status/656413318819647488/photo/1
I recently attended three conferences here in the Netherlands. In this, and the following two posts, I’m going to describe my experiences at them.
This is post #1
Location: Hotel Vianen, Utrecht, Netherlands
In my earlier post “22 reasons why I’m Attending the DREAM15 event“ I described a conference that DREAM (Dutch Requirements Engineering And Management) were holding.
In it I had mentioned that one session didn’t have a speaker yet. I was ecstatic when the organisers asked me to fill that spot. While you can read my slidedeck from that session here, today I’d like to describe the conference itself.
“Buzzing” is the word I would use to describe the atmosphere at the conference when I arrived. I was taken aback at the number of people that were attending. The place was packed. And this became even more evident during the opening keynote.
The opening keynote speaker was Paul Turner. As I’ve mentioned (in the above-mentioned post), Paul Turner is one of the co-authors of the excellent book “Business Analysis Techniques (99 Essentials Tools for Success)“. Paul was entertaining while being informative, and while Paul presented in English, and the audience was Dutch, everyone enjoyed his presentation. In fact, what he had spoken about was repeated at several times during the day by other speakers. (However, Arjen Uittenbogaard, one of the speakers, commented in his (dutch) blog that Paul had given a bit of a mixed message at one stage.)
This was where it was difficult. And the organisers, in the introduction in the morning, acknowledged that it would be . There were just so many great sessions running in parallel. It really meant that you had to make a choice.
I had intended to write a little bit about them all. I even tried this, in the morning, by watching a little bit of each presentation, running from one conference room to another, Unfortunately this was not very effective.
In the afternoon, there was one session that I wanted to attend: “Brainwriting“.
Like brainstorming this technique also allows for the generation of ideas. However, unlike brainstorming that relies on the quick, and “public” shouting out of ideas, brainwriting involves lists. Blank ones. The main problem, or goal, is written at the top of the lists. Participants are divided into groups of 6, and then each person is given a list. They write their idea down on the list and, after a given time, each participant hands their list to the person to the right of them. A new idea is written down. And so on. At the end there are a large number of ideas, and these can be discussed.
As mentioned, the aim of this technique is similar to brainstorming, but let’s everyone come up with an idea, rather than just the loudest people in the room.
This was a practical session and very effective. As well as being a lot of fun. I recommenced searching for more on this.
It was a honour (and a surprise) when the organiser’s asked me to present. (You can read my presentation here).
There were more people in the audience than I had expected, and my presentation was well received. (Even considering that I presented in English – just goes to show how easily the Dutch can speak a language that isn’t their own.)
The closing keynote, by Theo Severein, took the opposite angle from the opening keynote, and looked at organizational improvement from a holistic viewpoint. This was also a crowd-pleaser.
This is one of the big draw-cards for me. A chance to mix and mingle with other like-minded people. It also was a chance to meet, in person, people that I have been interacting with online.
During one of the breaks I was doing the rounds of the vendor standsand had a chance to meet Jan Willem Knop, one of the committee members of the IIBA NL chapter. it was really great to finally meet him in person, and learn more about the IINA in the Netherlands.
Carrying on around, I also got to meet Stefan Sturm, the Managing Director of IREB (International Requirements Engineering Board). Through some of my blog posts, and posts on LinkedIn, I been “conversing” with Stefan for awhile. Also a really great chance to meet him in person.
Just before the end of the break, I was able to introduce myself to Paul Turner (the keynote speaker). This was an honour, and I have an very, very interesting chat with him.
In fact, it was a great chance to learn more from Jan Willem, Stefan, and Paul, how the IIBA, IREB and BCS will be playing together in the new alliance/partnership that the IIBA had announced.
All-in-all, a great day. Great sessions combined with an excellent chance to meet, and talk with, others in the industry.