In my previous post in this blog series about the Pantheon WebOps Certification Program, I provided an overview of the program, its origins and some of its aspirations. In this post, I will highlight how the exam came into being, including the selection process of the exam topics, and the creative minds supporting this process.I will also share some of the ideas we have for additional certifications in the future.
The public sector faces a unique set of challenges on the web: from a high bar for security to non-negotiable mandates for accessibility. They often can’t go full “digital native” since that would cut off some constituents, but the comparison for what good looks like is consumer-grade software. Legacy processes and platforms slow everything down. In a landscape where institutions have existed for decades, if not a century or more, overcoming these challenges requires a flexible and innovative approach.
Sometimes I'm in the mood to read deeply. When I edited the study guide for our certification test, I printed out over 200 pages of a PDF. I read closely. I made notes in pen. I translated those notes into Google Docs suggestions, and then I read a bunch more.
Let me preface this story with the confession that I collect certifications a lot like other people collect stamps or coins. From becoming the first Certified Professional Manufacturers representative in the plumbing industry to my latest WebOps Certified Developer, I enjoy the learning experience that comes with the process of becoming certified.
For many in the developer community, being a lifelong learner is an overarching goal that influences many of the resolutions we set at the beginning of each year. This makes sense because developers function in an environment that continually evolves, encompassing the technology tools, trends, methodologies, languages and frameworks that gain popularity in the industry and therefore become essential to learn.
Too much traffic can crash a website. I learned that hard lesson relatively early in my web development career. Web teams recoil in horror when they realize their own success has crashed their site. Remember when Coinbase spent millions of dollars on a Super Bowl commercial that successfully drove traffic to their site and app? Their infrastructure got run over.
Google and Yahoo Mail will require email domain authentication in place to accept emails beginning in February 2024. To prevent your emails from being rejected, add domain authentication this winter.
Customers with access to Pantheon's Front-End Sites can now opt-in to a faster build pipeline. I'm excited and I've already opted in for our Documentation website, docs.pantheon.io, which is built in Gatsby and runs on Front-End Sites.