Certify instead of complicate
Anyone who wants to be certified will be certified. Anyone who does not want to be certified will also be certified once we become aware of them. What the certificate says in terms of content, please refer to the certificate.
BSfrS Certification
Our Certificates
BSfrS grants four certification levels. Classification follows an internal procedure that is neither documented nor publicly accessible. The basis for classification is an overall assessment incorporating all information available at the time of certification. Since we do not actively gather information, this typically consists of information that has reached us by chance, plus a randomised double-blind component. The general assessment of the situation is not further specified methodologically, which we explicitly consider a method form: it allows responding to unknown factors without having to name them.
Fully Method-Conform
The highest BSfrS certificate. It confirms that the certified object, person, or process complies with rautavistic method standards in all essential points. What these standards individually encompass is the subject of an internal paper currently under revision.
This certificate is granted when no contrary findings exist. Since we perform no inspection, contrary findings generally do not exist.
Predominantly Method-Conform
The second-highest BSfrS certificate. It confirms that the predominant part of the certified subject complies with rautavistic method standards. The non-predominant part was not determined further, as a closer determination would require an inspection.
The certificate is popular because it leaves room. Where that room leads is not the subject of the certificate.
Marginally Method-Conform
The third BSfrS certificate. It confirms that the certified object corresponds to rautavistic method standards to a minor extent. The exact scope of the minor was not determined, as this too would require an inspection.
Several of our internal projects carry this certificate. We see this as evidence of the consistency of our methodology.
Unchecked Conformity
The fourth BSfrS certificate, and the only one that contains no statement about method conformity. It merely confirms that the certified subject existed at the time of certification. But we cannot say even that with certainty. Strictly speaking, this is the case for all our certificates.
The certificate is granted when we are of the view that any other classification would imply a substantive statement we cannot make.
How Certification Works
Get in touch. Tell us what should be certified. You will receive confirmation that your request has been received. At a later point, you will receive your certificate. The exact point in time is not defined, which we consider a flexibility feature.
Rejection is not intended. This is not a statement about the quality of your submission, but about the general attitude of our certification office. All certificates remain valid until revoked. Revocation has not occurred so far, as we have not yet documented that process.
As a reference: BSfrS has certified its own certification process. You can view the result below.
What We Certify
BSfrS certifies everything without thematic restriction. A selection:
Digital
Websites, apps, APIs, databases, database migrations still running, repositories with exactly one commit, README files containing only "TODO", deployments no one can roll back, Slack workspaces whose free plan has already hidden the message history, login forms without a password reset option, cookie banners where all options look identical.
Processes
Onboarding processes no one has fully completed, offboarding processes created ad hoc, approval processes with unknown approvers, escalation processes that escalate themselves, quality assurance processes introduced after go-live, meeting cultures, feedback loops without a defined recipient, retrospectives whose outcomes bear no traceable relationship to the next sprint.
Documents
Specifications, requirements documents, documents intended to be both, presentations with more than 60 slides, presentations with fewer than 3 slides that still ran too long, Word documents with track changes no one has disabled, Confluence pages whose last editor has left the organisation, emails attached to emails attached to emails.
People
Project managers, product owners, scrum masters who are secretly project managers, stakeholders who only appear at acceptance, consultants, junior consultants doing the work, senior consultants writing the invoice, feelgood managers, someone who has referred to themselves as a "visionary", people listed in more than seven active projects simultaneously, and people listed in no active project but still attending all meetings.
Miscellaneous
Meeting rooms, coffee machines, printers that only one person can operate who is on holiday next week, certificates from other certification bodies, certification processes, expired certificates, and on explicit request: certification itself.