Exam skill standard

Information Technology Engineers Examination and its Skill Standards in Japan May / 2001 Japan Information Technology Engineers Examination Center (JITEC) Central Academy of Information Technology (CAIT) are subordinate agencies of Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (JIPDEC) Information Technology Engineers Examination ITEE 1.History Of Information Technology Engineers Examination 1968 1969 1970 Establishment of CAIT (Central Academy of Information Technology) Introduction of the Examination Program Legislation of the Examinations 1984 Establishment of JITEC (Japan Information Technology Engineers Examination Center) 1994 Revamping of Examination Program in line with the recommendations of the Industrial Structure Council’s Subcommittee on Information Technology Personnel New recommendations on the updating of JITEC examinations by the above-mentioned ISC Subcommittee Official announcement of rationale for the current revision of the Information Technology Engineers Examinations April 15th NEW EXAMINATION 1999 2000 2001 2.Basic Structure of the IT Engineers Examination Program as of April 2001 SW FE SM ES Embedded Systems SD Senior Systems Administrator Examination DB SS Information Systems Security Administrator Examination NW Systems Management Technical Engineer Examinations Database Systems AE Information System User Side Network Systems PM Application Systems Engineer Examination AN Systems Analyst Examination Systems Auditor Examination AU Information System Development and Operation Side Project Manager Examination Independent Software Design & Development Engineer Examination (comparable to ex CLASS Exam.) Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination (comparable to ex CLASS Exam.) Introductory AD Systems Administrator Examination 3.DATA -1 ( Applicants ) The number of applicants reaches almost 800,000, and it is growing Information Technology Engineers Examination The Changes of the Applicants Numbers 800,000 The Total Numbers of Applicants (1969~2000Autumn) SA 47,927 SU 120,133 PM 67,528 AE 492,424 SM 25,413 PE 84,245 NW 563,466 DB 71,983 ME 13,179 CLASS 1,616,014 CLASS 5,421,161 SD 40,965 AD 776,461 TOTAL 9,340,899 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 GRAND TOTAL 20 00 19 99 19 98 19 97 19 96 19 95 19 94 19 93 19 92 19 91 19 90 19 89 19 88 19 87 19 86 19 85 19 84 19 83 19 82 19 81 19 80 19 79 19 78 19 77 19 76 19 75 19 74 19 73 19 72 19 71 19 70 19 69 DATA-2 ( Successful Candidates ) The number of Successful Candidates reaches 93,000 from year of 1999 The Changes of the Successful Candidates Numbers (up to 2000 Autumn) 100,000 The Total Number of the Successful Candidates (1969~2000 Autumn) SA 1,783 SU 4,233 PM 2,462 AE 19,419 SM 940 PE 4,321 NW 16,716 DB 3,086 ME 1,130 CLASS 133,600 CLASS 553,820 SD 1,648 AD 195,639 Total 938,797 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 SPRING TOTAL AUTUMN TOTAL GRAND TOTAL Objectives Of The Examination (1) To improve the technical competence of information technology engineers (2) To ensure that competence levels established by the examinations meet performance requirements (3) To ensure that objective criteria for evaluating competence are universally applied (4) To provide the opportunity to gain a better understanding of information technology systems and applications to any persons interested Characteristics Of The Examination System For the purpose of enhancing the quality of IT engineer's skill, we provide the training system by combining instruction and qualification Image of ideal engineer Qualification METI Certification JITEC Examiantion Examiantion Scope CAIT formulating & Updating Skill Standard Educational Institution Instruction Training n Instruction in line with Skill Standard Improving practical ability International Development of Skill Standards and Examination for Information Technology Engineers Current status Exam certification Implementing exams that evaluate the degree to which the exam candidate has achieved the skill standards METI Foreign governmental agencies JITEC Examination agencies Mutual recognition Cooperation Formulating skill standards CAIT Agency that formulates skill standards Organization Structure Of JITEC METI Branch Offices & Local Offices Headquarters President General Affairs div : Total Management Technical Advisor Accounting div : Accounting : All through Japan : Distribute Applications : Secure exam Venues(286places) and Proctors etc (17,000persons) : Conduct Exam Administration div : Receives Applications and issue Exam tickets : Conducts Exam with Branch Offices & Local Offices Technical div : Compiles the Exam Questions / Marking answer sheets ( Directed by Committee ) : Manages the Exam Committee Large human network in industry and academic world Exam Committee Genaral WG : Consists of about 400 committee members : Consists of each WG leaders Question-Preparation WGs : Each WG by exam categories consists of about 12 members Question-Selection WGs : Each WG consists of about members Question-Check WGs Disabled WGs : Each WG consists of about 10 : Put questions into braille 10 Objectives of ITESS (1) In the industrial circles, to define the required level of knowledge, skills, and capability to be equipped with by IT personnel (engineers) who actual jobs (2) In schools and other educational institutions, to define the models of IT engineers accepted internationally, and the ways how they should conduct education & training on the basis of these models (3) In government agencies, to grasp the technical level of the entire industrial world 12 Scope Of IT Examination and IT Skill Standard The established Skill Standards describe Scope of Exam more specifically by consulting actual jobs Scope of Examination Book Skill Standard Book Defined by each exam categories Defined by each exam categories Image of IT engineer Image of IT engineer Function and Job Requirement Key Activities > Tasks > Job Outline Required Technical Levels Skill Criteria > ( Tasks, Performance Indicators, Required Knowledge, Required Skill ) Detail Scope of examination ( morning exam ) ( afternoon exam ) Body of Knowledge ( IT Common body Of Knowledge ) ( Practical and Core Body Of Knowledge ) Structure of Skill Standard FE SW Key Activities image of IT engineer Skill Criteria Practical&Core body of knowledge SD Key Activities Skill Criteria Key Activities Practical&Core body of knowledge IT Common body of knowledge Skill Criteria Practical&Core body of knowledge 13 Key Activities Key activities refer to procedural items described about functions in the job of system development, which is the major job area for XXX engineers [example XXX : S ] In Skill Standards, this job area is called a "system development process." The system development process are broken down into basic "activities." 14 example SW basic "activities.” of system development process User requirements analysis & System requests definition System development preparation System design (External design) Component design (Internal design) Detailed design (Program design) Activities performed chiefly by SW engineers Program implementation Software installation support Each basic activities are broken down into detailed jobs called "Tasks" Activities Act Act Task 1-1 Task 1-2 Task 1-3 Task 2-1 Task 2-2 Task 2-3 Task 2-4 Task 3 Job Outline Activities performed chiefly by this engineers 15 [example] extract from SW Key Activities Activity User requirement analysis and systematization requirement definition Task Job outline 1-1 Collect and analyze information to define user requirements To clarify user requirements, analyze the problems of the current system and users’ new requirements (including studying survey items, conducting a survey, classifying survey results, needs for systematization, preconditions, and restrictions, and studying solutions and the scope of systematization) 1-2 Determine the work scope Define the aims and scope of the project, and estimate and present required resources to achieve user requirements such as time, material, and ability (including aims and scope of systematization, system functions, requirements from jobs, organizations, and users, system configuration, design conditions, qualification check items, development environment, and expected effect) 1-3 Define systematization requirements Document systematization requirements and classify them (define requirements such as job processing procedures, input-output data requirements, system functions and performance requirements, execution environment requirements, peripheral interface requirements, database requirements, and system transition requirements) 1-4 Define security requirements Define security requirements according to the kind of risks and the security policy 1-5 Define operation requirements Extract and define operation requirements 1-6 Define maintenance requirements Extract and define maintenance requirements 1-7 Establish performance evaluation criteria Define the required system performance level and the key points of the performance evaluation criteria 1-8 Define test requirements Select test methodology and determine the scope of tests and persons to make the tests 1-9 Prepare and review requirements specification Document user requirements and systematization requirements, security requirements, operation requirements, maintenance requirements, performance evaluation criteria, and test requirements to achieve the user requirements Prepare requirements specification, and review them with the user 16 10 Skill Criteria Indicators of: - [Product-critical] Checking the degree of achievement of the system development process in the key activities by the defined level of competent performance - [Process-critical] Determining whether SW has done the task completely and consistently according to sound disciplines, by using exact tools & methods, and by applying specific knowledge & skills; 17 Task "Task" : Performance indicators Required knowledge Required skill Duty done in each activity "Performance indicators" : Indicators of describing more concretely what quality of outcome needs to be obtained as a result of job execution for each "task" of each activity "Required knowledge" : Knowledge required for doing the task competently "Required skill" : Skills required for doing the task competently 18 [example] extract from SW Skill Criteria User requirement analysis and systematization requirement definition No Task 1-1 Collect and analyze information to define user requirements 1-2 Determine the work scope Performance indicators Required knowledge Required skill • Details of requirements are reliable and reflect the present situation • The methodology to capture the source of information and requirements are proper • Information is correct and perfect • Information has been collected using a standard interview technique adopted by the corporation • Information is collected efficiently and continuously • User requirements have been analyzed properly, and persuasion has been performed for opposite requirements • Knowledge about details of user jobs and terms • Knowledge about information collection methods • Knowledge about problem analysis methods • The aims and scope of the systematization project have been established and agreed on • The criteria for the achieved aims of the systematization project have been defined • The work scope that satisfies the budget, quality, and delivery date requested by the user has been identified • Resources that satisfy requested details have been identified • Resources can be assured and have been estimated • Risk has been analyzed, and proper measures against emergency have been planned • The work scope has been documented • Knowledge about system environment • Knowledge about system architecture, hardware, and software • Knowledge about availability of system resources and the project delivery date • Knowledge about calculating man-hours • Knowledge about technical restrictions • Knowledge about risk analysis technology • Ability to identify the major information source of the user’s needs • Ability to implement information collection techniques and sequence • Ability to determine the required amount of information to be collected • Ability to analyze replies from individuals and groups • Ability to select and obtain collected information and to identify needs • Ability to put together and to summarize requirement information items • Ability to let other people discuss important issues freely and to derive various solutions • Ability to collect and present cost data • Ability to document the work scope for user requirements clearly • Ability to negotiate with requesting persons about the achievement criteria for the systematization project • Ability to calculate man-hours for each work items of the systematization project • Ability to estimate the completion status of system development • Ability to survey, analyze, and compare marketed products and to determine applicability for systematization • Ability to create document on technical restrictions • Ability to think nonsequentially and globally 19 11 Body of Knowledge Knowledge which is needed to perform the key activities successfully and to solve various critical problems happened frequently Knowledge is divided into groups according to technical and problem = solving concepts, and is classified in a hierarchical structure Here, the various critical problems may include quality degradation, cost overrun, development delay (or schedule overrun), effort overexpenditure, and avoidable rework The body of knowledge which XXX engineers must have consists of the following two kinds : [1] IT common body of knowledge (IT-BOK) [2] Practical & core bodies of knowledge (P-BOK & C-BOK) 20 12 IT Common Body of Knowledge IT-BOK shows structurally the knowledge which is commonly evaluated in all categories(applicable persons) in ITEE Reflecting the knowledge shown in the "ITEE : Scope of Examinations," this IT-BOK has been produced by extracting and arranging these elements which are often made use of on the actual jobs in the development of IS, and which are effective to be taken up as study items in information processing education & training Knowledge field(area) Major classification Intermediate classification Major technical item 21 Table 1: “Examination in the morning: Table of questions classified by examination categories” Examination category Field Software design Application systems engineer Project manager developSystems analyst ment engineer Computer science fundamentals Computer system Technical engineer Network Information Fundament Senior systems Systems al systems Systems security administ information Systems administ auditor Embedded administ-rator technology Database manage-rator systems rator engineer ment ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ System development and operation ¡ Network technology ¡ ¡ Database technology ¡ ¡ Security and standardization ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Computerization and management ¡ Audit ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Notes: • A field marked with a circle “¡ ” is included in the scope of the examination in the particular category, and a field marked with a double circle “ ” is an important field in the scope of the examination • Technical levels are marked with and level covers level , and Level is the most advanced and covers level and 22 , [example] extract from SW IT-BOK IT Common Body of Knowledge Knowledg e field Major classification (MVS, UNIX, LINUX, Windows, MacOS, and Java are the trademarks of their manufacturers, vendors or organizations.) Intermediate classification Major technical item I Computer science fundamentals Basic theories of information 1.1 Numeric conversion and data representation Radix conversion, numeric representation (including complement representation and fractional number representation), non-numeric value representation (character representation, voice representation, and image representation), operation and precision (single precision, double precision, fixed point precision, floating point precision, shift operation, overflow and underflow) 1.2 Information and logic Logical operation (true, false, logical product, logical sum, negation, exclusive OR, negative AND, and De Morgan theorem), proposition logic, logic function, information logic and coding theory (channel coding, source coding, encryption, decoding, Humming code, Huffman code, CRC, parity check), predicate logic (deduction and induction, inference), automaton (finite automaton, Turing machine, state transition), formal language (definition, operation, type and grammar, Chomsky’s production rule, BNF, Polish notation, regular expression , syntax-directed transfer method, attribute context-free grammar, context-free language), graph theory (directed/non-directed graph, Eulerian graph), computational c omplexity (large O notation), information content (entropy), correctness theory (partial correctness, termination, full correctness) 1.3 Mathematical applications Numeric calculation (matrix and determinant, approximate solution, and interpolation), probability and statistics (permutation, combination, probability, addition and multiplication theorem, probability distribution, expectation, Markov process, estimation, testing, regression analysis), optimization problem (linear programming method, PERT, shortest path problem, and queuing theory) Data structures and algorithm s 2.1 Data structures Arrays (dimension, static arrays and dynamic arrays), lists (linear list, uni-directional list, bi-directional list, ring list, linked list), stacks (LIFO, push and pop), queue (FIFO, enqueue and dequeue), trees (binary tree, balanced tree, ordered tree, multiway tree, search tree, heap), hash (calculation of storage location, and collision handling) 2.2 Algorithms Various algorithms (searching, sorting, recursive algorithm, genetic algorithm, approximate algorithm, probability algorithm, natural language processing algorithm, language processor, linkage editor, memory management, data compression algorithm, collation, file processing, character string processing, graph, numeric calculation, and algorithm s related to diagrams), 23 relationships between algorithm and data structure, algorithm efficiency, algorithm design method, flowchart, and decision table 13 Practical and Core Body of Knowledge ( P-BOK ),( C-BOK ) Practical Body of Knowledge ( P-BOK ) A External design : Have sufficient knowledge on requirements for external design, artifacts to be produced, and activities to be performed ; correctly understand contents of external-design documents B Internal design & C Program design : SW should show their competency most in areas B and C Core Body of Knowledge ( C-BOK ) D Software engineering : The knowledge area is where SW need to have the most technical excellence E Object-oriented development (OOD) : The adoption of OOD is expected to expand comprehensively in the near future, with the consequence that the radical paradigm may be shifted to object orientation 24 [example] extract from SW IT-PBOK A [Practical body of knowledge and core body of knowledge for design and development engineers] Knowledge field A External design Major classification Intermediate classification Minor classification External design process 1.1 Preparing for system development 1.1.1 Determining a life cycle model for development work 1.1.2 Preparing the development environment 1.1.3 Preparing a plan for executing the development process 1.2 External design activities 1.2.1 Understanding system requirements definitions 1.2.2 Designing system functions 1.2.3 Designing data models 1.2.4 Preparing external design documents 1.2.5 Design review Designing system functions 2.1 Selecting a system structure (architecture) 2.1.1 Hardware configuration 2.1.2 Software configuration 2.1.3 Application packages 2.1.4 Scope of systematization 2.1.5 Architecture candidates 2.2 Designing subsystem functional specifications and interfaces 2.2.1 Decomposition into subsystems 2.2.2 Defining subsystem functional of specifications 2.2.3 Defining subsystem interfaces 2.3 Designing security 2.3.1 Security policy 2.3.2 Security requirements 2.3.3 Security implementation method 2.4 Designing job models 2.4.1 Preparing detailed job flow 2.4.2 Preparing detailed data flow 25 [example] extract from SW IT-CBOK D Knowledge field Major classification Intermediate classification Minor classification D Software engineering Outline of software engineering 1.1 Origin of software engineering 1.1.1 Software crisis 1.2 Definition of software engineering 1.2.1 Software production 1.2.2 Industrializing management process 1.3 Outcome of software engineering 1.3.1 Methodologies 1.3.2 Techniques 1.3.3 Logic-oriented paradigm 1.3.4 Function-oriented paradigm 1.3.5 Object-oriented paradigms 1.3.6 Agent-oriented Software process and cost models 2.1 Software process models 2.1.1 Waterfall model 2.1.2 Spiral model 2.1.3 Prototyping model 2.2 Software cost models 2.2.1 Halstead model 2.2.2 Function point (FP) model 2.2.3 Constructive cost model (COCOMO) Defining software requirements 3.1 Software requirements 3.1.1 Aims of systematization 3.1.2 Configuration 3.1.3 Functions 3.1.4 Performance 3.1.5 Restrictions 3.2 Analyzing software requirements 3.2.1 Kawakita Jiro (KJ) method 3.2.2 Analyzing functions 3.2.3 Analyzing responses to events 3.2.4 Analyzing structure 26 ... 12 Scope Of IT Examination and IT Skill Standard The established Skill Standards describe Scope of Exam more specifically by consulting actual jobs Scope of Examination Book Skill Standard Book... achieved the skill standards METI Foreign governmental agencies JITEC Examination agencies Mutual recognition Cooperation Formulating skill standards CAIT Agency that formulates skill standards... Certification JITEC Examiantion Examiantion Scope CAIT formulating & Updating Skill Standard Educational Institution Instruction Training n Instruction in line with Skill Standard Improving practical