INFORMS confers first Certified Analytics Professionals

Thirty-eight individuals comprise the inaugural cohort to earn the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP™) designation conferred by INFORMS, the world’s leading association for professionals in the fields of operations research, management science and analytics.

The CAP™ designation reflects a combination of education and experience, coupled with confirmation of soft skills (i.e., communication, presentation). The certification process is capped by a rigorous, 100-question examination, which was formally administered for the first time April 7 in conjunction with the INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research in San Antonio, Texas.

The names of all of those who earn the CAP™ designation will be housed in a CAP™ registry on the INFORMS website.

Prior to April 7, the exam had been taken by pilot tester “subject matter experts” (SMEs), as well as other SMEs involved in setting the preliminary passing score. The passing rate of those who took the first exam was 77 percent.

Comments from test-takers indicate the exam covers a fair representation of the end-to-end analytics process, from business and analytics problem formation, through data challenges, to methodology and model selection, deployment of the selected model and lifecycle management.

Along with helping analytics professionals boost their careers and elevate themselves in the job market, the CAP™ program is also designed to help hiring managers such as Jim Williams, manager of advanced analytics at Land O’Lakes, Inc., identify qualified analytical talent.

“I thought certification would be a useful differentiator as I’m sifting through applicant pools looking to find talent. And the best way to validate my hunch was to go see it for myself,” Williams says when asked what motivated him to take the exam.

And his thoughts on the exam now that he’s taken it and passed it?

“I thought it was quite comprehensive,” Williams says. “I would say it reflects the end-to-end skills that a consultant would need to execute a complete consulting engagement. It also probes relatively deeply in several of those areas. I’m confident it’s going to be a very useful instrument to help hiring managers differentiate applicants.”

INFORMS will administer the exam at least four more times in 2013, including June 23 in Chicago (preceding the INFORMS Healthcare Conference),

July 13 in McLean, Va. (Booz Allen Hamilton offices), Aug. 3 in Bellevue, Wash. (University of Washington Bothell Eastside Leadership Center), Oct. 3 in Boston (following Predictive Analytics World) and Oct. 5 in Minneapolis (preceding the INFORMS Annual Meeting). INFORMS is in discussion to add more U.S. sites in 2013 and plans to migrate to computer-based testing in 2014 that will offer exams internationally.

For more information on CAP™ including sample questions, a study guide and other details, click here.

Thirty-eight earn CAP™

The following individuals comprise the first group to earn the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP™) designation from INFORMS:

Alan L. Austin (Provo, Utah)
Zahir Balaporia (Green Bay, Wis.)
Russell R. Barton (University Park, Pa.)
Donald Buckshaw (Ellicott City, Md.)
Thomas W. Chestnutt (Encinitas, Calif.)
Thomas W. Fletcher (Buford, Ga.)
Arnold Greenland (Bethesda, Md.)
Terry P. Harrison (University Park, Pa.)
Steven Harrod (Dayton, Ohio)
Christopher Michael Heiden (Columbus, Ohio)
Amanda Humbert (Grove City, Ohio)
Lisa Kart, (Austin, Texas)
Zain Khandwala (Columbus, Ohio)
Diego Klabjan (Evanston, Ill.)
Srikanth Krishnamurthy (Malden, Maine)
Russell P. Labe, Jr. (Pennington, N.J.)
Robert M. Lucas (Cary, N.C.)
Irvin J. Lustig (Short Hills, N.J.)
Paul R. Messinger (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
Rami Musa (Claymont, Del.)
Scott Nestler (Carlisle Barracks, Pa.)
Hua Ni (Chantilly, Va.)
Elizabeth Nielsen (Durham, N.C.)
Ranganath S. Nuggehalli (Timonium, Md.)
Subhashish Samaddar (Atlanta, Ga.)
Sam L. Savage (Stanford, Calif.)
Satjeet Singh (Lewisville, Texas)
Michael Anthony Smith (Arlington, Va.)
Alan Taber (Cinnaminson, N.J.)
Jonathan Taylor (Greenbelt, Md.)
Deepak Tirumalasetty (Modesto, Calif.)
Catherine Truxillo (Raleigh, N.C.)
Zachary Waltz (Arlington, Va.)
Glenn Wegryn (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Steven P. Wilcox (Rockville, Md.)
James T. Williams (St. Paul, Minn.)
Kevin Windham (Fairfax, Va.)
Gigi Yuen-Reed (Tampa, Fla.)