Maintaining your certifications
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As of 11 December 2019, a lot of the numbers in this article became out of date due to the fantastic improvements to the Atlassian Certification program outlined here. An updated version is here.
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This is the third and final part of this series.
In Part 1, Atlassian training is not one-size-fits-all, I provided details of the long-list of training available from Atlassian.
In Part 2, Atlassian Training learning paths and their destinations, I provided details of the Atlassian learning paths and certifications.
How do I extend my certifications?
You can keep your Atlassian Certifications active the following ways:
- completing a relevant Atlassian Certified badge by following a recommended training course and passing an online proctored exam from your home or office,
- completing a relevant Atlassian Skills badge by watching recorded technical webinars and passing an online quiz, or
- meet special requirements particular to Atlassian Certified in Agile Development with Jira Software and Atlassian Certified in Jira Project Administration
Atlassian Certified in Agile Development with Jira Software can be extended using your active third party Scrum or Agile certification from the following list:
- Active Scrum Alliance,
- PMI-ACP,
- Scaled Agile,
- ICAgile,
- Scrum@Scale,
- Scrum.org, and
- IBM (IBM Agile Advocate and IBM Agile Achiever badges only)
Atlassian Certified in Jira Project Administration can be extended in the same way as the other certifications by earning badges or you can earn Atlassian Certified Jira Administrator which not only extends your AC-JPA, it also removed the need to maintain this certification separately as keeping ACP-JA active will also keep AC-JPA active!
Atlassian continue to add new badges and extension methods so you do not have to worry about reaching the maximum lifespan of your certifications. At the time this article was written the certification lifespans are as follows:
What do I need to know before choosing what badge to earn?
Some badges can extend up to four Atlassian Certifications while others extend only one Atlassian Certification. If you have, or plan on having, more than one Atlassian Certification you need to keep this in mind. Atlassian provides the following advice:
Plan your Badge activities carefully with these considerations:
Your Badge will extend only Certifications you already hold.
Your Badge extends your related Certifications by 18 months from the Badge earned date, providing you earn it before the Suspension Date of your Certifications.
You can still earn a Badge during the 90-day Suspension period. If you earn a badge during Suspension period, your Badge will extend your Certification by 18 months from the Suspension Date.
After your Certification expires, you can no longer extend it with a Badge. You will have to retake the Certification exam.
Your Badge will be active as long as you hold a related Certification.
What are the differences between a Certification's suspension and expiry date?
Earning badges can be done at any time and will extend the suspension and expiry dates of any active Certifications by 18 months. If a Certification is suspended, the badge will only extend the suspension and expiry dates 18 months from the suspension date. Once a Certification has expired, you need to re-sit the Certification Exam to regain this qualification.
If you work for an Atlassian Solution Partner, the term inactive date is used instead of suspension date. Your Atlassian Certifications will no longer count towards your Atlassian Technical Sales Professional Accreditation requirement to have 2 active Atlassian Certifications once they are inactive/suspended or expired.
Decisions decisions ... a personal anecdote
I knew the time to renew my first Certification was approaching so I took action ... I started writing this article.
This was not completely an exercise in procrastination. I hoped gathering all this information in one place would help me make my decision of what to do next, help my team plan how they will maintain their Certifications, and help you Dear Reader maintain your Certifications and perhaps influence the order you choose to earn your Certifications.
Here are my Certifications:
My Atlassian Technical Sales Professional Accreditation review dates are in April and October.
To keep my Accreditation and Certifications active I have the following options:
- Earn the badge ASB-616 Customizing Jira Workflows on or before 11 March 2020. This will extend AC-JPA's inactive date until 11 June 2021, and ACP-JSW's inactive date to 11 September 2021 or sooner depending on when I earn the badge,
- The challenging option
- Earn ACP-JA on or before 11 March 2020. This will extend AC-JPA's inactive date until 11 June 2021 and AC-JPA will remain active as long as I maintain ACP-JA, and
- Earn ACB-312 Jira Reporting and Dashboards on or before 4 April 2020. This will extend ACP-JSW's inactive date until 4 October 2021 or sooner depending on when I earn the badge, or
- The extremely challenging option
- Earn ACP-JA on or before 11 March 2020. This will extend AC-JPA's inactive date until 11 June 2021 and AC-JPA will remain active as long as I maintain ACP-JA, and
- Earn a third party Scrum or Agile certification on or before 4 April 2020. This will extend ACP-JSW's inactive date until 4 October 2021 or sooner depending on when I earn the submit the verification URL to the Certification Portal.
Option 1 is looking good to me right now!
Over to you
- What Atlassian Certifications do you have now and how many do you plan to have?
- Have you earned any Atlassian Certified or Atlassian Skills badges yet?
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Kat Warner
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Project Coordinator
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Wellington, New Zealand
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