Embedded systems support the Japanese electronics industry, but there is a shortage of software development engineers. According to "2009 Report on the Actual Status of Embedded Software Industry," the number of engineers engaged in the embedded software development throughout Japan is estimated to be 258,000. However, it is estimated that approximately 69,000 engineers are still in short supply. In order to compensate for this shortage of engineers, the companies developing the embedded software are forced to outsource the development to various sub-contractors. We often hear of trouble that the delivered software does not meet the expected quality due to the inadequate technical skill of the engineers at sub-contractors. We often find those troubles especially when outsourcing to overseas companies.
In order to understand embedded software, we need to have a high-level knowledge, technical skill, and rich experience because it is necessary to have the knowledge of both hardware and software to implement realtimeliness, high-reliability, and energy-saving function, etc, within the limited resources. However, there are no methods and standards at the moment to measure the knowledge, the technical skill, and the experience of embedded software engineers. Those who outsource the work do not have the objective criteria to determine the technical skill of their counterparts.
Therefore, in 2008 T-Engine Forum and TRON Association started conducting the TRON Engineer Certification Examination to gauge the knowledge and technical skill of engineers for embedded systems development using TRON architecture with the focus on T-Kernel and ITRON specification OS and the ability for general embedded systems development.
While the examination was held four times in 2008, it was held in June and September in 2009 so far. In 2010, the examination is scheduled for January and March.
Today, people from human resources departments of companies, and temporary staffing firms are interested in the TRON Engineer Certification Examination as an exam to check the practical skill of engineers who develop embedded systems. We plan to extend the TRON Engineer Certification Examination to the world in the future so that it can be held in many countries.
An outline of the TRON Engineer Certification Examination is as shown in Table 1. Examination results are indicated by a score like the English proficiency tests TOEIC and TOEFL, and not by a pass-fail grading. Since the examinees can objectively understand the level of their own skill and knowledge, they can take the examination as many times as they like, to obtain higher score as they continue to hone their skill.

 

 

 

■Examination Coverage

The examination covers eight main categories consisting of sub-categories covering each of the main categories in more detail as shown in Table 2.
The first two main categories ("Embedded Real-time Basics" and "Embedded Software Development Basics") question knowledge and skill common to embedded development in general as well as TRON specification OS. Both categories are essential knowledge for embedded developers.

 

Table 2: The TRON Engineer Certification Examination Questions

 

On the other hand, the six other main categories question TRON-specific technological skill. The level of the questions is considerably high, and it is quite difficult to answer the details correctly without previous software development experience using real-time operating systems even though the questions are multiple-choice. Trends in the industry have been promptly reflected and questions on multi-core processors are included in the coverage of the examination.
Moreover, a significant feature of the examination is that the strategic items such as licenses, standardization, business models, and education, which can not be found in other certification examinations, are included in "Others" in the Main Categories.
Table 3 is a mapping example of the coverage of this examination in the skills framework of ETSS (Embedded Technology Skill Standards) provided by the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA).

 

Table 3: Coverage of the TRON Engineer Certification Examination (In Comparison to ETSS)

 

TRONWARE, a magazine, published by Personal Media Corporation has a series of articles called "Challenge! the TRON Engineer Certification Examination." In these articles, actual questions used in the past examination are explained, therefore, if you are interested in applying for the examination, please use these articles together with materials published in "Preparation for the Exam" on the TRON Engineer Certification Examination official website.

 

 

■Implementation Results

Some data samples of results from the past examination are introduced here. (Table 4, 5 and Figure 1-3)
Since the average score is 41.8 points and the highest point is 77 points out of 100 points as a perfect score, it can be said that the level of difficulty is considerably high. Moreover, according to a survey on the career profile of examinees held from the second to the fifth examination, it was found that many of the examinees are middle class technical personnel. It is interesting that 10% or more of the examinees are a veteran with 20 or more years of software development experience and aged 46 years old or older.

 

Table 5: Percentile Rank