APG Announces Rational Certification Preparation Exams

First Exam Preparation Materials for
IBM Rational Unified Process Specialist Certification

New Richmond, WI, May 9, 2005 -- Armstrong Process Group announces its "RUP Prep" certification preparation exams to assist the IT practitioner wanting to become an IBM® Certified Specialist for Rational Unified Process®. The set of four practice exams will be bundled together into an exam suite and delivered with a certification exam engine that simulates the real testing environment.

"Practitioners preparing for the RUP® certification exam (IBM Test 639) can use the practice exams to initially assess their preparedness and use the results to plan their continuing professional development. After completing an education program including self-study, classes, and project coaching, the practitioner can use the APG practice exams to measure their strengths and weaknesses," said Chris Armstrong, President of Armstrong Process Group. "Being able to offer this product to the general public and as a free add-on to our classroom training, we hope to contribute to the strengthening of capable RUP practitioners in the software development industry."

The exam software includes capabilities for customizing the exam taking experience and for tracking exam history. Exam taking can be managed through a centralized, controlled environment for organizations wishing to manage their employees certification, using an add-on module. Using APG Professional Services, the exam content can be tailored to meet organization- specific certification programs. When APG delivers its three-day RUP Fundamentals course, the practice exams are distributed to the students for free (and form the basis for most of the exercises for the course).

The APG "RUP Prep" certification preparation exams will be available for sale to the general public in June 2005. Single-user pricing has not been released yet, but APG will be offering site licenses to those organizations wishing to use the practice exams as the basis for their own certification programs.

The APG "RUP Prep" practice exams can also be supplemented with the APG Professional Development Plug-In, a new RUP plug-in validated as Ready for IBM Rational software. The APG Professional Development Plug-In includes a new discipline for RUP -- the professional development discipline. The new discipline describes a set of roles, activities, and artifacts for the process of continual professional development, especially for those seeking formal industry certifications. The process is suitable for human resources departments, IT managers, development teams, and individual practitioners.

About APG
Armstrong Process Group, Inc., (APG) focuses on helping organizations adopt more effective business management and software engineering practices through strategic planning, classroom training, and project coaching. APG is an Influencing member of the Object Management Group (OMG), is currently contributing to the UML and SPEM specifications, and is an OMG MDA FastStart Qualified Service Provider. APG is an IBM Business Partner and an IBM Independent Software Vendor (ISV). Armstrong Process Group is a privately-held corporation located in New Richmond, Wisconsin (near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota).