Adobe ColdFusion Certification and Training
I've been considering a post like this for a while, and for one reason or another I've just never got around to it. However considering the recent Connect meeting given to the Adobe User Group Managers and Community Experts, in addition to Ray Camden's blog posts [1][2], I thought it was time I finally hit submit on the post.
As a Certified Instructor for CF it pains me to teach the official courses. They suck just as much as the whole certification process.
I'll explain why in the next couple of paragraphs. Just to answer a few questions first. Why do the certification? Because I need it to be a Certified Instructor. Why be a Certified Instructor? We (Fuzzy Orange) write our own ColdFusion courses, so when teaching them it's nice to be able to say that although the courses aren't certified by Adobe, I am.
I don't need to repeat what Ray has already said about the certification process, other than it seriously does suck. Unless you're going after Certified Instructor status I tell all clients, developers and any one else who asks NOT to do the exam.
As for the two main official courses; Fast Track to CF and Advanced ColdFusion ... boy, where do I start.
First, if you decide to go after your certification, neither of these courses will actually help you. The courses are lame, only cover certain aspects of CF... in the exam you can get asked on anything. Even the parts the courses cover won't help you. Honestly.
As for the Fast Track course... to accurately describe it, it's an Introduction to Dreamweaver. You really learn sod all about ColdFusion, and any coding you do is done via Dreamweaver's wizards. You come out of the Fast Track in no way better prepared to do any ColdFusion coding.
I'll be honest, when I'm teaching the Fast Track course I tend to ignore most of the official course material. If the course material says you need to click on the Query Wizard tab, and then point and click on database columns you want returned, etc ... I ignore it. I make you type the code in manually.
If you want to know how to use Dreamweaver, go on a Dreamweaver course (though they probably suck too). I want folks to come out of the CF courses to be better prepared to handle CF code that is thrown at them. I want them to be that bit more knowledgeable about CFML and to have a better understanding of exactly what they are doing. Using wizards does NOT do that. Using Dreamweaver typically does not assist with that.
The Advanced course is ... anything but Advanced. It introduces CFC, covers Lists, Arrays and Structs, does a bit more on CFCs, looks at Custom Tags, Web Services and the .NET integration, PDF stuff, <cfimage> and <cffeed> and finishes with a crappy chapter on supposedly scaling applications.
Most of this so called advanced stuff should belong in an introductory class; lists, arrays, structs and CFCs all belong there. They are the bread and butter of any ColdFusion application. These topics are anything but Advanced. The other stuff, is just fluff. I don't mean that it isn't useful material, but I could buy the ColdFusion 8 special edition of the FAQU and save myself a fortune.
Seriously, go buy yourself a subscription to the FAQU, it's so much better value than the official Adobe ColdFusion training
Now, don't get me wrong, a lot of hard work has went into preparing these courses, good or otherwise. I'm in a better position that most to appreciate the amount of work. Aside from teaching courses, I also write them. Fuzzy Orange offer two courses based on ColdFusion Administration and we spend a lot of time re-evaluating these after every course and every bit of feedback. However, the official ColdFusion courses really haven't changed since version 6. It's obviously Adobe aren't listening to feedback. From anyone. Which leads onto ...
... In regards the official Adobe certification process, and not just for ColdFusion, it's obvious Adobe really don't give a damn. They've pretty much stated it in the Connect presentation. It's got to the stage whereby I'm wondering if being a Certified Instructor is worse all the hassle. When your Instructors are questioning the entire process, c'mon Adobe, you really need to take notice!
I could also go to town on the whole Adobe Partner set up; Solution Partner, Training, etc, but that's for another blog post. Actually, I could write a book about how bad the entire Partner program is. And I'm not alone in this opinion.
Back to the point at hand though; certification.
The ColdFusion certification is NOT worth it. It won't make you a better developer, the vast majority of people in the know will not put you before another candidate just because you have it. If you absolutely have to do it, then you have my sympathy. If you happen to fail the exam, or don't get the Advanced status, simply shrug it off. By no means does passing the ColdFusion exam accurately qualify your skills as a ColdFusion developer.
