[Proposal updated July 30th, 2010. Additional content modified Aug 2nd 2010]
An Agile Skill Badge is a way to recognize others that have demonstrated proficiency (or excellence) in a specific area, or to demonstrate your skill level to others. For now, this is just a proposal. Please let us know if this is something you would like to see (and would find helpful). If you wouldn't, let us know why not!
The available Agile Skill Badges, and the required skills to obtain each type of badge will be defined by the community. If we see a need to recognize a particular skill, then a badge will be created for it. Initially, it seems likely that a badge should be created for each of the major Agile Pillars.
Most badges will have 3 levels - Gold, Silver and Bronze where a Gold badge holder is a recognized champion (or has the skills to be a champion) of that particular skill. Some will not; For example special badges may be awarded to anyone attending a particular conference or training session.
The concept for awarding badges is along the following lines:
1) When new badges are created (and occasionally at other times when someone has clearly demonstrated that they should be recognized as an authority in a particular area) a small number of Honorary Gold Badges will be awarded. Typically the number of honorary badges for a particular type will be less than 10.
2) An active holder of a specific badge can nominate up to 5 others per calendar month for the same badge. If they are at one of the higher levels (gold / silver), then they can also indicate how "advanced" the person they are nominating appears to be.
3) The requirement to earn a badge (in addition to an ability to demonstrate the required skills defined on a badge-by-badge basis) are as follows:
4) Some badges may have dependencies on other badges. For example, to keep the "Self Improvement" badge you may be required to obtain a special badge (by attending one of the recognized agile conferences, or participate in a recognized agile dojo) at least once every 5 years. [Don't worry... If we do that we'll make sure that there is at least one "remotely accessible" mechanism, just in case you're stuck in the frozen wastes of Siberia or sweltering in the Amazon rain-forest.]
5) If a person loses the right to a badge (either through failing to keep their skills up to date, or through attempting to cheat the system), any nominations they have made for others to receive the same badge will no longer be counted. If they regain the badge, those nominations will be reinstated. [The mechanism by which a badge could be lost is not yet defined with the possible exception of the "Self Improvement" badge mentioned above. Hopefully we'll never need to define it either. :-)]
6) Members of the ADS group would be able to place an HTML snippet on their web site (for example) which would show a summary of their current badge status (probably as some form of graphic), and provide a link to a more detailed report of their agile skills (and the ADS site where people can learn more about how to gain those skills and badges for themselves).
So... what do you think? Please let us know on the mailing list if you have any comments.
In discussions on the mailing list, it was suggested that there are many reasons why people see badges as important and that some of those reasons may be mutually incompatible. Here are some of the possible reasons:
Someone hiring might use a badge/certificate to indicate competence.
Someone hiring might use a badge/certificate to indicate awareness and interest.
Someone hiring might use a badge/certificate as a filter, eliminating candidates without it.
Someone hiring might use a badge/certificate as an indicator, preferring candidates with it.
Job candidates might use a badge/certificate to demonstrate competence.
Job candidates might use a badge/certificate to qualify for a job where it is required.
Job candidates might use a badge/certificate to get through the filters of first-line resume sorters.
Job candidates might use a badge/certificate to demonstrate awareness and interest.
Job candidates might use a badge/certificate to differentiate their credentials from those lacking the badge/certificate.
People might use a badge/certificate to illustrate their competence.
People might use a badge/certificate to demonstrate their superiority over those lacking the badge/certificate.
People might use a badge/certificate to demonstrate their superiority over those with fewer badges/certificates.
People might use a badge/certificate to document their learning progress.
People might use a badge/certificate to decorate their badge sash/display case/wall.
People might use a badge/certificate to increase the size of their badge/certificate collection.
A sponsor might want a badge/certificate to be a good indicator (though not a guarantee) that the holder has a particular competence.
A sponsor might want a badge/certificate to have enough desirability/usefulness that the effort in creating it is not wasted.
A sponsor might want the badge/certificate to represent some minimum effort, which presumably would require some learning of the skill.
A sponsor might want a badge/certificate to represent only an estimation of a small portion of a person's competence, so that people will not rely too heavily on badges/certificates.
While the Agile Skills Project cannot enforce any particular interpretation, it is our recommendation that badges are only used as an indicator of awareness, interest and limited minimum competence. The fact that someone has been recognized for their work by being awarded a badge does not guarantee that they are better than someone without one. The person without may have all the skills, but has simply not had the chance to demonstrate them for anyone in a position to recommend that they be recognized for it.