Couldn't the "Trolls" communicate (even) more?
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I took and passed the "Qt Essentials" exam a month ago and haven't received ANYTHING from Qt/Nokia yet - not even an email.
On the exam print out page it says that I will receive "an official certification document approximately 4-6 weeks after the exam" and that is kind of all right.
I hate automatic emails like anybody but, I have to say that, they are better than being in the dark.
It would be great to get an automatic email with credentials so you could go to a web site and check the status of whatever you are involved and waiting for Nokia/Qt to take action.
It was a great surprise when I saw my Ambassador package seating on my door steps but I feel like I spent the last few months always anxiously waiting for some update from Nokia.
My request to join the linkedin "specialists" group was approved so I imagine someone already knows more than I do! :)
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I would be very happy to help you in your concerns, and try to understand better what exactly we should do. First of all, I'm not very sure if it is a general impression by all people that we do not communicate enough. If it is so, I'm more than sure, that we will be willing to improve this too. Generally, we do not respond to all postings/requests/emails immediately, rather in batches. This is because we have to be able to make progress in the projects we work on as well.
We plan to start sending automated emails after each exam soon, possibly from April on. Overall it is very tricky, since people make mistakes in their own email and postal addresses. Lets see how it works.
If there are any other concrete suggestions what else we should do. please let us know.
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Vladimir,
After getting your message I realized that my original title for this thread was unfair to the Trolls - I just changed it.I have already said many times that I think the access we have to the Trolls (including developers) in the DevNet/Events is unbelievably great and has no match in the industry. It is great to see that the Trolls can and will jump into a forum and clarify some information for the community and/or just give their opinions on a subject. And did I mention DevNet is FREE OF CHARGE?
My experience with the "bug hunting" Trolls has been out of this world. Most of the time I get feedback in day(s).
I don't need to comment on Alexandra and Marius: they are always on top of things.
Maybe because of all this I have such high expectations for everything Qt related.
The few communication issues I think can be improved:
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It was probably a matter of setting the expectations right but I think anybody that participated on the "advanced beta certification" felt lost at some point. I took the test during dev days and since then I have received one or two emails on the subject and found some information on devnet forums. The emails came a little too late and not as often as necessary. A simple web site to check the status and any information updates would have helped a lot. For most people the printed certificate is not nearly as important as having some way to validate electronically that you passed the certification (simple image to be used on resumes, web sites, a web page with your name and status, ...)
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The "Qt Essentials" certification. Again, probably all that is/was needed is a simple "qt" web site that you could login using the information you provided when you scheduled the test and check that Nokia knows about you, knows you took the test, knows you passed the test and will send you a printed document in 4-6 weeks to THIS address. One email from Nokia couple days after taking the test couldn't hurt either.
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The Qt Ambassador process probably could also use some web site and/or email updates. You submit the project, receive one automatic email and then: wait... hope... and wait...
I know getting things done is never quite THAT simple but, for me, all could/should be handled here!!!! After all this is The Developer Portal and it is great!
Your certification information should be connected to your devnet profile and your submissions to Qt ambassador would also be available on your profile page. Wouldn't hurt having public links to your projects approved into the ambassador program available to the community in your profile page.
Something simple as having the nice "qt certified" badge showing under my avatar couple days after me taking the test would take the certification into another level. Having a very simple web page that I could check the status of my ambassador submission(s) and what/when to expect would transform worrying into excitement.
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Thanks for the details! It helps a lot! I'm glad you feel DevNet helps you! I see following points to consider for us.
a) better information about advanced exams. The point is taken. It also contains a known puzzle: how to balance between people feeling overflowed with emails, those feeling they get too much information, those not reading emails they get, those not reading infos on the website, etc, etc. We need to find a solution for this. I do not know which yet...
b) an automatic check of your status and progress in different activities, possibly connected to your DevNet account. This is a good proposal which we have to consider and verify how does it balance with other things we have on the todo list. As mentioned, we plan to start sending notification emails, after we receive information about new exams. The back-end for this is ready, we just need to test it again.
Thanks for the feedback!
@others: tell us what YOU need, how YOU feel!
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BTW, you may want to check "this posting":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/forums/viewthread/4189/ too
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At the time when I passed Qt Essentials Exam (December 2009) Qt DevNet didn't exist so I didn't expect any badge at that time, on the other hand right after I passed the exam I got a paper stating that I passed the exam and immediately my PearsonVue account was updated. But taking the exam on Qt Developer Days is something different and of course it is understandable to wait until the results will be published.
This brings us to the Qt Advanced Exams which I took during Qt Developer Days 2010 in Munich, the information for the advanced exams was clear from the beginning by stating they were in beta and it needs time because it's beta, I received an email that I passed two of the exams and it was pretty clear the my account on Pearson Vue got updated, then I checked and I have all three exam marked as "Pass" and that is the information I need that I passed all three exams, we all have information on the same place and it is organized pretty well.
And waiting for printed certificates, of course we want good looking certificates (which Nokia is changing the design I guess) and of course Nokia will take care for the certificates not being damaged on its way to us, which is fairly understandable.
As for the badges on DevNet, they can be created pretty fast as were the Qt Certified Developer badges created, for this one I agree that all who passed the Qt Advanced Exams would love to show other people that they are masters of Qt and will be honored to have such badge in their profile, along with Qt Ambassador.
Also what I suggest for Qt Ambassador program is to have a web page that lists all Qt Ambassadors by name, then when you click on their name see the projects, this would be better I think, and of course on each user profile it is a good idea to have room for at least two badges (Certification badge and Ambassador badge), if the user has passed the Qt Essentials exam, Nokia Certified Qt Developer badge to appear if the user passed three exams (Essentials and 2 Advanced), Qt Developer badge can be replaced by Nokia Certified Qt Specialist badge.
So these are my bits to this conversation :)
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Thanks! Just a small correction. People reach "Nokia Certified Qt Specialist" by passing Qt Essentials and one of the specialized (former "advanced") exams. We have changed this compared to the conditions said at DevDays. It turn, your certificate will show all exams you've passed. So people can still differentiate. BTW, all this info, plus almost completely reworked current pages will be published on the web by the end of this month.
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[quote author="Vladimir" date="1299586403"]Thanks! Just a small correction. People reach "Nokia Certified Qt Specialist" by passing Qt Essentials and one of the specialized (former "advanced") exams. We have changed this compared to the conditions said at DevDays. It turn, your certificate will show all exams you've passed. So people can still differentiate. BTW, all this info, plus almost completely reworked current pages will be published on the web by the end of this month.[/quote]
Perfect! Good to hear, although I passed all three exams I am happy to hear that we will have them stated on the certificate :)
BTW do we have an approximate estimate when our new certificates will be finished, I saw on some posts that the certificates will start shipping on March, is this true?
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Yes, they are almost ready. The print shop started to create pre-prints. It is not a normal "print" and costs more work. I guess, it is clear why... I assume that you also think that it would be good to make certificates not easy to fake ;-) As mentioned, the plan is to get them sent out latest by the end of this month. See the link in my post above for some other details.
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[quote author="Vladimir" date="1299587931"]Yes, they are almost ready. The print shop started to create pre-prints. It is not a normal "print" and costs more work. I guess, it is clear why... I assume that you also think that it would be good to make certificates not easy to fake ;-) As mentioned, the plan is to get them sent out latest by the end of this month. See the link in my post above for some other details.[/quote]
Yeah I can imagine and I really appreciate your effort on this and everything is understandable of course :D
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So... I think I distilled the main points from this thread now.
a better way to check the certification status
a better way to check the status of the ambassador project
a list of all Ambassadors to check the projects from there
Is that correct?
I was under the impression that developers taking the exams would be able to check the status on the Pearson Vue site. Maybe we can work out something there but that needs some serious thinking.
The Ambassador applications are processed much faster these days. We have a done some changes on the whole set-up and currently, approval is down to approximately 4 weeks. Katherine is working through her backlog and she hinted that it will probably speed up even more. You guys were just a bit unlucky to have to queue for so long while the process was improved.
The list sounds like a good idea. I will bounce some ideas back and forth with Katherine and then we will see what we can come up with. For now, all we have is the group...
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[quote author="Alexandra" date="1299847345"]Oh, and I forgot to mention that the badges will come very soon and you can select your favorite two for display in the forums. :)
{color:grey}(Yes, there will be more badges coming, so you can choose!)[/quote]
Nice!
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[quote author="Alexandra" date="1299846560"]
I was under the impression that developers taking the exams would be able to check the status on the Pearson Vue site. Maybe we can work out something there but that needs some serious thinking.
[/quote]It is correct. However, it doesn't tell you your "certification number" (I haven't received it yet, for instance).
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Indeed, Alexandra is right. The Qt Ambassador applications are being processed much faster now. We ran into some bottlenecks at the end of last year, but we are seeing the light. Sorry for the delay! If you wonder the status of your application, please send me a mail with your name and project name.
As for the Ambassador name list - great idea. We will see how this can be implemented. Thanks for that.
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[quote author="Alexandra" date="1299847345"]Oh, and I forgot to mention that the badges will come very soon and you can select your favorite two for display in the forums. :)
{color:grey}(Yes, there will be more badges coming, so you can choose!)[/quote]
Locking forward to it.... :-)
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[quote author="Kbarrios" date="1299848260"]Indeed, Alexandra is right. The Qt Ambassador applications are being processed much faster now. We ran into some bottlenecks at the end of last year, but we are seeing the light. Sorry for the delay! If you wonder the status of your application, please send me a mail with your name and project name.
As for the Ambassador name list - great idea. We will see how this can be implemented. Thanks for that.[/quote]
What's the expected processing time at the moment for an application that was accepted, and for which you had to upload some screenshots? Just so I know when to expect my app (Saint) to be processed...
André
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The certification process is very good I think with Pearson Vue. I see from tweets Qt Ambassador program is better now, although it wasn't that bad when I first applied, also badges are on their way, and only thing for this is the idea of the Qt Ambassador names listed on the Qt Ambassador page :D
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[quote author="Andre" date="1299848566"]
[quote author="Kbarrios" date="1299848260"]Indeed, Alexandra is right. The Qt Ambassador applications are being processed much faster now. We ran into some bottlenecks at the end of last year, but we are seeing the light. Sorry for the delay! If you wonder the status of your application, please send me a mail with your name and project name.As for the Ambassador name list - great idea. We will see how this can be implemented. Thanks for that.[/quote]
What's the expected processing time at the moment for an application that was accepted, and for which you had to upload some screenshots? Just so I know when to expect my app (Saint) to be processed...
André[/quote]
No time flat, it seems. The application is already processed and up on the website :-)