Professional Certifications & Training/eLearning

Introduction:

Professional certifications ARE OFTEN more business focused, training/elearning MAY be more generalist

Professional certifications are chosen based on the needs PragmaCert staff may have in their various jobs: Functional Safety, Process Improvement, Quality Assurance, Management, Security, Accountancy etc.

The training/elearning courses are sometimes (but not always) further away from purely quality/safety/security/management themes and may sometimes allow us to dive back into more technical areas such as programming in C language, on PC or on embedded target STM32, object-oriented programming and UML, SCRUM, electronics, radio frequency theory and radio frequency systems receivers, transmitters, transceivers, Matlab/Simulink, LabView, SAP, Excel Macros, etc...

There are several reasons for this: first, we like to stay hands-on and keep good technological knowledge, and Antoine, our Managing Director, is also preparing for the INSA Lyon Generalist Engineer's degree (with a Major in Electrical Engineering), so he needs to refresh many theoretical skills in order to successfully obtain the degree by late 2025 or more probably early 2026 (but there is no deadline, he can take the time he needs to). Below, there's a section dedicated to the INSA Lyon, ranked 1st Generalist Engineer Post High School Diploma in France and whose founder wanted to teach "HUMANIST" Engineers, which is totally in line with the dedication to World Citizen Security and Wellness we referenced in the home page.

Reasons why PragmaCert self-financed the PMP and ISO26262 certifications when Antoine was freelance lead engineer:

Regarding PMP:

• As stated above, based on the great Sherlock Holmes, he needs to continuously sharpened his mind, learning new technologies and processes, improves and validates his skills

• when he used to work at SITA, all PMs were certified PMP (90%), and/or MSP, Prince2, Scrum PO, and all Test Managers were certified ISTQB... they used to be very challenging during his audits, he needed to bring the same level of skills to be credible. Therefore, he prepared and successfully passed the PMP exam where he's been above average level of knowledge in the "Initiating Phase" among all professionals who passed the exam (That's totally in line with his profile, initiating !)

• The PMP certification is accessible to everybody (cheap #2keuros in total), it's just very difficult both theoretically and practically while MBAs are very expensive (100-200keuros)

• Data suggests that PMP-certified managers tend to achieve their objectives more successfully than managers without PMP certification. A study found that projects led by PMP are 89% on time, compared to 61% of projects managed by non-certified individuals. This suggests that PMP certification provides a structured approach to project management, leading to better outcomes.

• Independent Research has shown that a PMP certified manager earns 25% more salary than a regular manager (This is mostly valid in the US and UK).

• Many organizations are equipping their executive-level staff with project management knowledge and requiring project managers to be skilled and eventually Project Management Professional (PMP®) certified (like SITA). The importance of qualified project managers is now mandatory for major projects in the U.S. federal government. As Antoine often says, replace the Enarques with Engineers and Master Scientists in the Parliament, and only hire certified PMP in both private and public companies at Manager roles, and France will return to the Top 3 of international foreign trade competing with Germany and Japan as before the 1980s.

• His background as CMMI ATM (see below) assigned to Project Management process area helped him a lot to "digest" the PMBoK (PM Book of Knowledge), basis of the PMP exam. A lot of people with several years of PM experience prepare the PMP exam for months while he spent only 80 hours on the PMBok to produce "summary sheets" and he performed 3 "trial" exams which he all passed, including the one at the end of the mandatory approved training course

• he used to have only organizational certification (CMMI L2 and L3) but no individual certification, so PMP and ISO26262 were perfect at this moment of his career

Regarding ISO 26262 and Safety in general:

• At Renesas Electronics Europe, in 2015, he spontaneously took the responsibility to carry out the Safety ISO 26262 audit that was requested by the Japanese headquarters, even though he was the only one in the team who had not had the official ISO 26262 training, as he was an external freelancer. he only relied on his CMMI skills and an e-learning Functional Safety course on the Renesas intranet. Nevertheless, his FuSa ISO 26262 audit was highlighted as the main strength of the project during the ASPICE/ISO26262 assessment by the German client HELLA (1 external Lead Assessor + 2 Quality Managers from Hella).

• In 2019, he performed the EN50126/8 SW Safety Assessment on the CROSSRAIL Communication & Control Systems (Elizabeth Line), including offline rating of the standard clauses, reviews of the available evidence, onsite interviews/demo, interim conclusion meeting, post-rating of missing evidence, final presentation of the results to Senior Management, support to corrective action plan.

• He realized that he really needed to validate/qualify his safety skills with a recognized certification from an accredited organization like TÜV SÜD.

• This has been well-seen since he worked both on both Quality & Safety for over 3 years since he obtained his Functional Safety certificate in 2020 (AED, LEM, QEV).

Certified Project Management Professional

That is to certify that Antoine Roy has been formally evaluated for demonstrated experience, knowledge and performance in achieving organizational objective through defining and overseeing projects and resources.

Granted in 2016 with three-year renewals.
Requires a Master's degree, at least 3000 hours of management experience, and 35 hours of approved training.

The PMP exam is widely considered to be a challenging certification exam in the project management field. Its difficulty stems from a combination of factors, including a broad syllabus, application-based questions, and a significant failure rate. The exam tests not only theoretical knowledge but also practical skills in applying project management principles to real-world scenarios.

Certified ISO26262 Functional Safety Engineer

28 hours of intensive training course provided by TÜV SÜD followed by an exam which confirms strong knowledge of Functional Safety of EE systems, software & hardware.

After just one year of safety experience, the score of 63 points was 13 points higher than the necessary 50 points for CFSE level and only 12 points lower than CFSP level. With my six years of safety experience, my goal is to become a CFSP by 2025 or 2026.

On top of that, I performed 80% of the training course on Udemy website:

Advanced Functional Safety: ISO 26262 Part 3 Concept Phase

Training Documentation available here

Certificate that allows the owner to be part of an ASPICE Assessment team;

Confirm excellent knowledge of the ASPICE standard related to the improvement of the Management, Supporting and Engineering practices within Automotive organizations/projects;

35 hours of intensive ASPICE training approved by German VDA/QMC;

2 hours exam successfully passed in 45 minutes in 2018 with a score of 57/60, lost 3 points due to a modified answer not considered.

Just renewed for 3 more years until June 2028.

Certified ASPICE Provisional Assessor

Former Certified CMMI Appraisal Team Member

Intensive 3-day training provided by the company ALL4TEC and accredited instructor Antoine Nardeze to gain a deep understanding of the CMMI model and to be able to be part of a CMMI appraisal team.

Planned Quality/Safety/Security Professional Certifications

Will be financed by PragmaCert Ltd (we are in the process of establishing a business case to obtain a loan from a bank or crowdfunding or a business angel) or by an client/employer (or state subsidies)

ISO9001 Lead Auditor: https://www.3foldtraining.com/iso-9001-quality-management-qms/ IRCA accredited training course and exam booked on 16th June 2025 until 3rd July - will be able to lead official ISO9001:2015 Audits from Mid-July 2025! Already passed the 7 pre-lessons and quizzes!

UNECE Regulations on Cybersecurity & Software Updates Training (R155/156, ISO21434): https://www.secura.com/services/people/training-courses/unece-regulations-on-cybersecurity-and-software-updates-training

AS/EN9100 Auditor: https://www.bureauveritas.ch/en/our-services/training/system-auditor-as-en-9100

ISO 26262 Functional Safety Lead Auditor: https://ukqam-cert.com/iso-26262-functional-safety-lead-auditor/

ISO26262 Functional Safety Professional Exam: https://www.tuvsud.com/en-us/store/academy-us/transportation-industry/safety/36-34-20-0009

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 - ISMS Certified Lead Auditor: https://gaqm.org/certifications/iso_certifications/iso-cla-22

ISO 21434:2021 - Certified Cybersecurity Lead Auditor: https://gaqm.org/certifications/iso_certifications/iso-21434-cla

Completed and On-going Training/Learning Courses

Antoine, our Managing Director, encourages all partners of PragmaCert team to spend at least 2 hours a week using the Udemy subscription provided to them for free by the company in order to maintain or improve their skills in areas they find relevant: the Udemy platform offers thousands of PMI certified courses in many fields that are directly useful to us either in our activities as auditors/experts (ISO9001, ISO26262, ISO21434, R155/6, ACCA, UK GAAP, ISO27001, PMP, Electronics, MBSE/MBD, SysML/UML, C/C++/Python, Simulink, etc. or to refresh skills acquired during our studies or early in our careers.

Financed by PragmaCert or free (please note that most of them are performed in the scope of the preparation of the INSA Lyon diploma):

Industrial Engineering Tools for Failure Analysis: Pareto & Fishbone Diagrams, FMEA, FTA – Ansys Innovation (6 hours): comprehensive understanding of failure analysis and prevention in various systems using Pareto/Fishbone Diagrams, FMEA and FTA => 100% Completed, successful - Quiz score = 8/8

SCRUM, The basics (certificate)

C programming - Openclassrooms Training course (10 hours planned, 20 hours for debug and more practice) to refresh Antoine's skills acquired during his studies and job at Valeo : Know how to use an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) such as Code::Blocks including GCC compiler and GDB debugger; use basic concepts to organize code; manipulate pointers and arrays; use pointers to program like a pro; structure data => 86% completed

Cybersecurity - Automotive - AES -128, AUTOSAR Crypto stack, R155/156, ISO21434, TARA, Cyber Attacks , Automotive penetration testing, PKI, IDS, secure flash, boot

Develop in C for Embedded Software (INSA project on Openclassrooms) Acquired real target μC STM32F103 (click to see picture) => 16% done

The Complete LabVIEW Essentials - Code & Acquire Data Now – Just got started with LabView Community version

Object Oriented Analysis, Design & Programming with UML (& C++/Java/Python) => #30% done

Docker & Kubernetes: The Practical Guide [2025 Edition] /=> 5% done

Radiofrequency training courses on Udemy website to refresh his skills in RF ICs from University and Motorola, RF Fundamentals, Basic Concepts Components RAHRF101 (#30% done) and 8 other RF courses (RAHRF152/201/209.)

Master MBD using MATLAB, Simulink & Stateflow => Just started to refresh his skills in MBD with this specific tool (trial version installed)

On-going INSA Lyon Generalist Engineer's & Master's Degrees

Already documented a 50 pages registration document in order to validate Antoine's integration into the NUMBER #1 Generalist Engineer School in France

- Pre-registration interview successfully passed in January 2024

- Registration document almost completed to be presented online this summer

- If accepted, Thesis to be written and presented in INSA Lyon EOF 2025 / BOF 2026

- But NO DEADLINE, Antoine can take the time he needs to write the thesis, so there is NO IMPACT ON HIS PROFESSIONAL DUTIES

- Rejection, Partial Validation, Full Validation

Completed Professional Certifications

Financed by our clients/employers:

Electronics foundations (certificate) on LinkedIn Learning

IBM Rational Rhapsody in SysML/UML/C/C++ + DOORS 5 days + 0.5 day for debug – Official Training course

INSA Lyon is ranked the top post-high school diploma engineer's degree in France. The Institute is located on the Lyon-Villeurbanne campus, just a few steps from the hospital where Antoine was born and the neighborhood where he lived.

The first INSA was created in 1957 in Lyon based on the model of the humanist engineer, developed by Gaston Berger, founder of the school, as well as an industrialist, philosopher, and father of foresight.

PMP (PMI): Above average level of knowledge in "Initiating" Phase - all 4 trial exams successfully passed

ISO 26262 CFSP - Level 1 (TÜV SÜD): to which you add more than 7 years of management and expertise in Functional Safety industrial projects, allowing him to be an ISO26262 Functional Safety Assessor. Also, due to his expertise in SW Tools Qualification in the field on several projects (SW Toolchain for CROSSRAIL C660 project, SW Toolchain for MAN-SCANIA Battery Sensor, ALM for SafetyCritical mechatronics developments), Antoine can ensure SW Tools Qualification Assessments up to TCL3 / ASILD-SIL3.

ASPICE/ISO155504 Provisional Assessor (VDA-QMC): he obtained 57 points out of 60 possible by passing the exam in 40 minutes instead of 1h30, with the 3 points lost from a question where he changed his answer but it was not taken into account. At the end of the 35-hour training, the instructor proposed an exercise to do in pairs or trios which consisted of mapping interview findings with the practices of the ASPICE/ISO15504 model. he took 15 minutes to complete the exercise based on keywords present in the interview findings, while the other teams spent nearly 2 hours on it. His partner thanked him when the instructor checked their exercise and confirmed that they had done the complete correct mapping.

CMMI Introduction Training Course (SEI-CMMI Institute): There was no exam at the end of the training, but the instructor very visibly distributed the CMMI ATM (Appraisal Team Member) certificates in the order of the most active participants to the least motivated ones. Antoine received the certificate first, then the Director of Continuous Improvement at SNCF second, who himself said during the training that the country needed more engineers like Antoineto move forward.