I think I underestimated what AIIM’s “Certified Information Professional” is

Recently Laurence Hart wrote a blog post about the new AIIM “Certified Information Professional” certification.

In response to this I made a comment  that I needed to be convinced that the CIP wouldn’t be just another of the many certifications that are available. (I refereed to it as JAC – Just Another Certification)

Laurence posted a second blog post where he discussed, further, the type of content that he encountered in the exam. This assuaged some of my concerns, but also prompted me to do something that I should have actually done in the beginning, and that is, read the CIP information that AIIM has on its site! If I had I would have seen that a lot of thought, and work, had been put into it.

As Laurence pointed out, the exam is not an easy one. I looked at the sample exam that is available, and got nervous just looking at that. The real exam has 100 questions, and is not the sort of thing that you can just do while sitting in the comfort of your own chair, while flicking back and forth between the exam, and Google. No, for this, you need to go to a Prometric test centre. The guys there are professionals, and you can expect to be under video surveillance while you do the exam.

When AIIM were putting the whole “certification” thing together, they went and asked the industry, what “stuff” was actually important to know. This was all scribbled down in a large notebook, and then scrutinized by subject matter experts. The SME’s then created the monster known as the CIP exam. Very broad, but also very deep in each of the various areas. Fortunately AIIM have made a large number of “preparatory” videos available.

AIIM also recognize that the industry is not a static thing. Technology changes, business processes change, ways of working change. As a result, if you pass the exam, it’s only valid for three years. After that, it’s necessary to either re-sit the exam, or to prove that you have attained a necessary level of continuing education credits ((in this case, 45). And what does that mean? Initially, this was something else that bothered me. “Hey, my company just paid $500 for an on-line training course. It was easy – didn’t have to do anything, and voila, I’m recertified.” No – earning continued education credits is not so easy. You earn credits by attending conferences, formal university-level courses, chapter meetings, giving presentations. And you don’t earn that many credits for each of these items. Even if you re-sat the exam after three years, AIIM will be continuously updating it reflect changes in the industry, so you can’t just “use the same answers as last time”. (For more details, check out the AIIM CIP Certification Maintenance Form)

This is what really impressed me. In the Netherlands, medical doctors need to keep up a certain level of training. Each course or conference they attend delivers them a certain number of points. To stay registered they need to attain a certain level each year. (It is most likely the same in other countries, it’s just my wife’s a doctor, and I get to hear about this all the time.) I realize that there is a world of difference between a Certified Information Professional, and a Medical Doctor, but this one factor drove home to me how serious AIIM’s CIP certification is.

Based on what I have read, I’m putting the CIP high on my list of goals for this year.
(And, even though I’ve been working in the industry now for over 13 years, I’m not going to do the exam “cold” as Laurence did. I’ll be making damn good use of those training videos.)

Relevant links:

• CIP Examination Objective & Content
• AIIM’s Certified Information Professional site
• Certified Information Professional (CIP) Sample Exam
• CIP FAQs
• CIP Certification Maintenance Form
• CIP Preparatory Videos

Related articles

• Becoming a Certified Information Professional (wordofpie.com)
• Certified Information Professional, A Valid Measure (wordofpie.com)
• My Next Life as AIIM’s CIO (wordofpie.com)

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