The Chartered Civil Engineer

Copyright © 2020 Zulk Shamsuddin, PhD / GAFM ACADEMY

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781312596580

INTRODUCTION

The Chartered Civil Engineer ™ (ChCE) is a professional gold-standard skills certification for individuals with skills and experience in requirements engineering, project management, risk management, leadership management, problem-solving, and executive communication skills.

It forms the basis of the assessment that applicants must pass to gain the Chartered Civil Engineer status and inclusion in the Directory of Certified Professionals of The Global Academy of Finance and Management ®.

Stand out from the crowd with the GAFM® Chartered Civil Engineer certification and carry the title ChCE after your name.

Benefits of Becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer

A Civil Engineer design, maintain, implement, and improve electrical instruments for facilities, for industrial, commercial, or domestic purposes. They ensure that installation and operations conform to the regulatory standards and safety requirements.

Engineers use mathematics, scientific principles, and technology to analyze problems and provide solutions to increase an organization’s efficiency, build new products, create technological advancements, and design newer, safer, more innovative, and cost-efficient solutions. They aim to make sense of complex systems and improve existing processes.

Get this certification and enjoy these benefits:

Get noticed by Top Recruiters

This credential will boost your career toward Civil Engineering positions. 

International recognition.

Assurance for clients of high standards and ethical practice.

Use of the post-nominal ChCE or Chartered Civil Engineer after your name on business cards, CVs, personal portfolios.

Introduce yourself with this exclusive certification card during networking, business events, conference, training, and anywhere. Certification has its privileges.

Importance of Certification

Certificates and Certifications, the names for these credentials sound confusingly similar. But there are important differences. Here’s what you need to know about these resume-enhancing options and how they might advance your career.

WHAT IS A CERTIFICATE?

Earning a certificate is about education. Certificates are academic credentials awarded by colleges, universities, or other educational institutions. Students in certificate programs learn new knowledge in a specific subject or discipline and earn a certificate by successfully completing the coursework. An ideal student for a certificate program is someone who is willing to go through the experience of growing their own skillset, being real about what they want to learn, and working with others, says Jennifer Diamond, an instructor for the UW Certificate in Project Management. Many certificate programs have few, if any, admission requirements, making them an excellent option if you want to move forward in your career. The programs are usually noncredit and take less time to complete than a degree. Certificates are commonly listed on resumes as education, and some meet education requirements for first-time or renewed certifications.

WHAT IS A CERTIFICATION?

When you have the professional knowledge you need, a certification allows you to prove it.  Certifications indicate mastery of skills or standards. Professional certifications are granted by industry groups or career-related organizations. These groups assess your qualifications, usually through an exam or application process. Many certifications include the privilege to use a related designation following your professional title. Certification differs from a license, which permits you to work in a certain profession and is usually issued by a government or regulatory agencies.

BENEFITS OF CERTIFICATION

Certification helps in learning new technologies, skills, and abilities for a specific promotion. Earning a new certification or an advanced certification in a particular area of expertise can help in advancing your career.

Professional certification shows consumers and potential employers that you are committed to your profession and are well-trained. It gives them confidence in your abilities and knowledge. Certification makes you more valuable to employers, so you can expect to earn more than someone without certification.

Certifications can give you the chance to learn needed skills, and be a quick way to show employers you have those skills. On the other hand, certifications can require studying or coursework, and cost up to several hundred dollars to take.

CIVIL ENGINEER RESPONSIBILITIES

Making plans using detailed drawings.

Preparing estimates and budgets.

Creating accurate project specifications.

Designing engineering experiments.

Creating technical reports for customers.

Completing regulatory documents concerning safety issues.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SKILLS STAND OUT

Add Relevant Skills to Your Resume

Emphasize the required job skills in your resume, especially in the description of your work history.

Highlight Skills in Your Cover Letter

You can incorporate soft skills into your cover letter. Include one or two of the skills mentioned in this article and give specific examples of instances when you demonstrated these traits at work.

Use Skill Words During Job Interviews

Keep the top skills listed here in mind during your interview, and be prepared to give examples of how you've used each skill.

Skills Certification

This Chartered Civil Engineer skills certification program focuses on the following skills and competencies.

Requirements Engineering

Problem-Solving Skills

Project Management

Leadership Management

Risk Management

Executive Communication

What is Requirements Engineering?

A requirement is a necessary attribute in a system, a statement that identifies a capability, characteristic, or quality factor of a system in order for it to have value and utility to a customer or user. Requirements are important because they provide the basis for all of the development work that follows. Once the requirements are set, developers initiate the other technical work: system design, development, testing, implementation, and operation. Too often, there is a tendency to want to start what is often referred to as the real work (developing, or programming, the software) too quickly. Many customers and project managers (PMs) seem to believe that actual programming work (coding) indicates that progress is being made. According to industry experience, insufficient time and effort are spent on the requirements-related activities associated with system development. Industry experience confirms that a better approach is to invest more time in requirements gathering, analysis, and management activities. The reason is that, typically, coding work is started much sooner than it should be because additional time is needed to identify the real requirements and to plan for requirements-related activities.

There is a significant difference between stated requirements and real requirements. Stated requirements are those provided by a customer at the beginning of a system or software development effort, for example, in a request for information, proposal, or quote or in a statement of work (SOW). Real requirements are those that reflect the verified needs of users for a particular system or capability. There is often a huge difference between the stated requirements and the real requirements. Analysis of the stated requirements is required to determine and refine real customer and user needs and expectations of the delivered system. The requirements need to be filtered by a process of clarification of their meaning and identification of other aspects that need to be considered. To cite a simple example, requirements analysts (RAs) are more familiar with the need to state requirements clearly. There are many ways in which the capability, understanding, and communication of the meaning of each and every requirement may be different to a user than to a developer. Therefore, it is vital (and time saving) that all requirements be clarified through the mechanism of a joint customer/user and RA effort. Customers and users need the support of technically trained and experienced professionals, and vice versa, to ensure effective communication. Developers need to have that same understanding so that the solution they define addresses the needs in the way everyone expects. Misunderstandings of requirements result in wasted effort and rework. Another important insight is that sometimes the requirements are unknowable at the outset of a development effort because they are affected by the new capabilities to be provided in the new system. This suggests the need to plan for new and changed requirements to provide a degree of flexibility.

An Engineering Requirements Document (ERD) is a statement describing the goal and purpose of a new component. Unlike a Product Requirements Document (PRD), which tells engineers what they need to build, an Engineering Requirements Document specifies why a part is being built and how its design fuels its purpose. By following the engineering requirements outlined in an Engineering Requirements Document, engineers can ensure that the part they build will satisfy customer needs. Using an Engineering Requirements Document also helps streamline production in various ways:

Engineering Requirements Document use defined and consistent communication to promote collaboration, reduce miscommunication, and keep everyone on the same page.

Engineering Requirements Document help break down large projects into smaller tasks, making them easier to delegate or outsource.

Engineering Requirements Document can be checked against PRDs to ensure all design intentions are correctly implemented and all product goals are achieved.

A well-written Engineering Requirements Document allows engineers and manufacturers to answer critical questions about part design and purpose without going back and forth. This results in a faster, more efficient building process that saves you time and money. Here’s everything you need to know to write a clear and effective engineering requirements document. Standard criteria for an engineering requirements document. To start, all effective engineering requirements documents have the following six elements in common:

Clarity

All engineering requirements should be clear, short, and unambiguous in order to avoid confusion. Less is more often, a one-sentence description will suffice.

Necessity

To avoid confusion or contradictions, only put the absolutely essential requirements in your Engineering Requirements Document. Determine the worst-case scenario for each requirement and if there aren’t any consequences, there’s no need for it to be in your Engineering Requirements Document.

Coordination

Engineering requirements should be correct throughout product design. An Engineering Requirements Document should describe all product requirements, goals, conditions, and capabilities. Whenever possible, explain what the product does in a numerical manner for the most precision.

Testability

Whenever you write a new engineering requirement, you must be able to verify a successful implementation. There are many different kinds of testing methods to ensure verifiability, including inspection, user testing, software testing, and system integration testing. Choose the testing method that makes the most sense for your project.

Feasibility

Stay within the limits of what can be achieved technically, as well as what is legally, organizationally, and financially possible. Be reasonable and honest, since creating non-feasible requirements will cause complications down the line. If feasibility can’t be reached, you can state a design detail as a goal rather than a requirement.

Traceability

Any engineer looking at your Engineering Requirements Document should be able to trace each requirement back to the original product’s purpose. Linking implementations back to product goals helps explain why an element is important, where it’s coming from, and how it makes sense with the overall part design.