Information Technology Engineers Examination

and its Skill Standards

in Japan

May / 2001

・Japan Information Technology Engineers Examination Center (JITEC)

・Central Academy of Information Technology (CAIT)
are subordinate agencies of
・Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (JIPDEC)
1
Information Technology Engineers Examination
（ITEE）

2
1.History Of Information Technology Engineers Examination

1968 Establishment of CAIT (Central Academy of Information Technology)

1969 Introduction of the Examination Program
1970 Legislation of the Examinations

1984 Establishment of JITEC (Japan Information Technology Engineers Examination Center)

1994 Revamping of Examination Program in line with the recommendations of

the Industrial Structure Council’s Subcommittee on Information Technology
Personnel
1999 New recommendations on the updating of JITEC examinations by the
above-mentioned ISC Subcommittee
2000 Official announcement of rationale for the current revision of the
Information Technology Engineers Examinations
2001 April 15th NEW EXAMINATION

3
2.Basic Structure of the IT Engineers Examination Program as of April 2001

Independent Information System Development and Operation Side Information System User Side

AU AN PM AE Technical Engineer Examinations SS SD

NW DB SM ES

Application Systems Engineer

Project Manager Examination
Systems Analyst Examination

Senior Systems Administrator

Systems Auditor Examination

Information Systems Security

Administrator Examination
Systems Management

Embedded Systems
Database Systems
Network Systems
Examination

Examination
SW
Software Design & Development Engineer Examination
(comparable to ex CLASS 1 Exam.)

FE AD
Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination
Systems Administrator
(comparable to ex CLASS 2 Exam.)
Examination

4
Introductory
3.DATA -1 ( Applicants )
The number of applicants reaches almost 800,000, and it is growing.
Information Technology Engineers Examination
The Changes of the Applicants Numbers

800,000
The Total Numbers of
Applicants
700,000 (1969~2000Autumn)
SA 47,927
SU 120,133
600,000
PM 67,528
AE 492,424
SM 25,413
PE 84,245
500,000
NW 563,466
DB 71,983
ME 13,179
400,000
CLASS 1 1,616,014
CLASS 2 5,421,161
SD 40,965
300,000 AD 776,461
TOTAL 9,340,899

200,000

100,000

0
69

73

74

75

79

80

81

82

86

87

88

92

93

94

95

98

99

00
72

85

91
70

71

76

77

78

83

84

89

90

96

97
19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

20
19

19

19
19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19
5
GRAND TOTAL
3. DATA-2 ( Successful Candidates )
The number of Successful Candidates reaches 93,000 from year of 1999.
The Changes of the Successful Candidates Numbers
(up to 2000 Autumn)

100,000
The Total Number of
the Successful Candidates
(1969~2000 Autumn)
SA 1,783
80,000 SU 4,233
PM 2,462
AE 19,419
SM 940
60,000 PE 4,321
NW 16,716
DB 3,086
ME 1,130
CLASS 1 133,600
40,000 CLASS 2 553,820
SD 1,648
AD 195,639
Total 938,797
20,000

0
1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

6
SPRING TOTAL AUTUMN TOTAL GRAND TOTAL
4. Objectives Of The Examination

(1) To improve the technical competence of information technology

engineers.

(2) To ensure that competence levels established by the examinations

meet performance requirements.

(3) To ensure that objective criteria for evaluating competence are

universally applied.

(4) To provide the opportunity to gain a better understanding of

information technology systems and applications to any persons
interested.
7
5. Characteristics Of The Examination System

For the purpose of enhancing the quality of IT engineer's skill,

we provide the training system by combining instruction and qualification.
Image of ideal engineer

Qualification
METI Certification CAIT
JITEC Examiantion formulating & Updating
Examiantion Scope Skill Standard

Educational Institution
Instruction
Training n Instruction in line with
Skill Standard
Improving practical ability
8
International Development of Skill Standards and Examination
for Information Technology Engineers

Current status
Foreign
Exam certification
governmental
METI agencies

Implementing exams
that evaluate the degree
to which the exam Examination
candidate has achieved JITEC agencies
the skill standards
Mutual recognition
Cooperation

Formulating Agency that

skill standards CAIT formulates skill
standards

9
6. Organization Structure Of JITEC
METI Branch Offices & Local Offices
: All through Japan
Headquarters : Distribute Applications
President : Secure exam. Venues(286places) and
General Affairs div. : Total Management Proctors etc (17,000persons)
Technical : Conduct Exam.
Accounting div. : Accounting
Advisor
Administration div. : Receives Applications and issue Exam. tickets
: Conducts Exam. with Branch Offices & Local Offices

Technical div. : Compiles the Exam. Questions / Marking answer sheets

( Directed by Committee )
: Manages the Exam. Committee

Large human network in industry and academic world

Exam. Committee : Consists of about 400 committee members

Genaral WG : Consists of each WG leaders
Question-Preparation WGs : Each WG by exam. categories consists
of about 12 members
Question-Selection WGs : Each WG consists of about 3 members

Question-Check WGs : Each WG consists of about 10

Disabled WGs : Put questions into braille
10
Information Technology Engineers Skill Standards
(ITESS)

11
7. Objectives of ITESS

(1) In the industrial circles, to define the required level of

knowledge, skills, and capability to be equipped with by IT
personnel (engineers) who do actual jobs.

(2) In schools and other educational institutions, to define the

models of IT engineers accepted internationally, and the ways
how they should conduct education & training on the basis of
these models.

(3) In government agencies, to grasp the technical level of the entire

industrial world.

12
8. Scope Of IT Examination and IT Skill Standard
The established Skill Standards describe Scope of Exam. more specifically by consulting actual jobs.
Scope of Examination Book Skill Standard Book
Defined by each exam. categories Defined by each exam. categories

Image of IT engineer Image of IT engineer

①Function and Job Requirement ①Key Activities > Tasks > Job Outline

②Required Technical Levels ②Skill Criteria > ( Tasks, Performance Indicators,

Required Knowledge, Required Skill )

Detail Scope of examination Body of Knowledge

( ③ morning exam. ) ( ③ IT Common body Of Knowledge )
( ④ afternoon exam. ) ( ④ Practical and Core Body Of Knowledge )

Structure of Skill
Standard
FE SW SD
①Key Activities ①Key Activities ①Key Activities
image of IT
engineer ②Skill Criteria ... ②Skill Criteria
... ②Skill Criteria
④Practical&Core ④Practical&Core ④Practical&Core
body of knowledge body of knowledge body of knowledge

③IT Common body of knowledge 13

9. ① Key Activities

◆Key activities refer to procedural items described about functions

in the job of system development, which is the major job area for
XXX engineers. [example XXX : SＷ ]

◆In Skill Standards, this job area is called a "system development

process."

◆The system development process are broken down into 7 basic

"activities."

14
<Structure of Activities - Activities> example SW
  7 basic "activities.” of system development process
User requirements analysis & System requests definition

System development preparation

System design (External design)

Component design (Internal design)

Detailed design (Program design)

Activities performed chiefly
by SW engineers
Program implementation

Software installation support

<Structure of Activities - Tasks >

  Each 7 basic activities are broken down into detailed jobs called "Tasks".
Activities Task Job Outline
1. Act 1 1-1 Task 1 ...
1-2 Task 2 ...
1-3 Task 3 ...
2. Act 2 2-1 Task 1 ...
2-2 Task 2 ... Activities performed chiefly by
2-3 Task 3 ... this engineers
2-4 Task 4 ...
15
[example] extract from SW Key Activities

Activity Task Job outline

1. User requirement 1-1 Collect and analyze information to define To clarify user requirements, analyze the problems of the current system and
analysis and user requirements users’ new requirements (including studying survey items, conducting a survey,
systematization classifying survey results, needs for systematization, preconditions, and
requirement restrictions, and studying solutions and the scope of systematization).
definition
1-2 Determine the work scope Define the aims and scope of the project, and estimate and present required
resources to achieve user requirements such as time, material, and ability
(including aims and scope of systematization, system functions, requirements
from jobs, organizations, and users, system configuration, design conditions,
qualification check items, development environment, and expected effect).
1-3 Define systematization requirements Document systematization requirements and classify them (define requirements
such as job processing procedures, input-output data requirements, system
functions and performance requirements, execution environment requirements,
peripheral interface requirements, database requirements, and system transition
requirements).
1-4 Define security requirements Define security requirements according to the kind of risks and the security policy.
1-5 Define operation requirements Extract and define operation requirements.
1-6 Define maintenance requirements Extract and define maintenance requirements.
1-7 Establish performance evaluation criteria Define the required system performance level and the key points of the
performance evaluation criteria.
1-8 Define test requirements Select test methodology and determine the scope of tests and persons to make
the tests.
1-9 Prepare and review requirements Document user requirements and systematization requirements, security
specification requirements, operation requirements, maintenance requirements, performance
evaluation criteria, and test requirements to achieve the user requirements.
Prepare requirements specification, and review them with the user.

16
10. ② Skill Criteria

<What are Skill Criteria?>

◆Indicators of:

◎- [Product-critical]
Checking the degree of achievement of the system development
process in the key activities by the defined level of competent
performance

○- [Process-critical]
Determining whether SW has done the task completely and
consistently according to sound disciplines, by using exact tools &
methods, and by applying specific knowledge & skills;

17
<Structure of Skill Criteria>
Performance Required
Task Required skill
indicators knowledge
⋮

⋮
◆"Task" : Duty done in each activity

◆"Performance indicators" : Indicators of describing more concretely

what quality of outcome needs to be obtained as a result of job execution for each
"task" of each activity

◆"Required knowledge" : Knowledge required for doing the task

competently

◆"Required skill" : Skills required for doing the task competently

18
[example] extract from SW Skill Criteria
1. User requirement analysis and systematization requirement definition
No. Task Performance indicators
1-1 Collect and • Details of requirements are reliable and
analyze reflect the present situation.
information to • The methodology to capture the source of
define user information and requirements are proper.
requirements • Information is correct and perfect.
• Information has been collected using a
standard interview technique adopted by
the corporation.
• Information is collected efficiently and
continuously.
• User requirements have been analyzed
properly, and persuasion has been
performed for opposite requirements.
1-2 Determine the • The aims and scope of the systematization
work scope project have been established and agreed
on.
• The criteria for the achieved aims of the
systematization project have been defined.
• The work scope that satisfies the budget,
quality, and delivery date requested by the
user has been identified.
• Resources that satisfy requested details
have been identified.
• Resources can be assured and have been
estimated.
• Risk has been analyzed, and proper
measures against emergency have been
planned.
• The work scope has been documented
Required knowledge
• Knowledge about details of
user jobs and terms
• Knowledge about information
collection methods
• Knowledge about problem
analysis methods
• Knowledge about system
environment
• Knowledge about system
architecture, hardware, and
software
• Knowledge about availability
of system resources and the
project delivery date
• Knowledge about calculating
man-hours
• Knowledge about technical
restrictions
• Knowledge about risk
analysis technology
Required skill
• Ability to identify the major information source
of the user’s needs
• Ability to implement information collection
techniques and sequence
• Ability to determine the required amount of
information to be collected
• Ability to analyze replies from individuals and
groups
• Ability to select and obtain collected
information and to identify needs
• Ability to put together and to summarize
requirement information items
• Ability to let other people discuss important
issues freely and to derive various solutions
• Ability to collect and present cost data
• Ability to document the work scope for user
requirements clearly
• Ability to negotiate with requesting persons
about the achievement criteria for the
systematization project
• Ability to calculate man-hours for each work
items of the systematization project
• Ability to estimate the completion status of
system development
• Ability to survey, analyze, and compare
marketed products and to determine
applicability for systematization
• Ability to create document on technical
restrictions
• Ability to think nonsequentially and globally
19
11. Body of Knowledge

<What is Body of Knowledge?>

・Knowledge which is needed to perform the key activities successfully and to solve
various critical problems happened frequently
・Knowledge is divided into groups according to technical and problem = solving
concepts, and is classified in a hierarchical structure.
・Here, the various critical problems may include quality degradation, cost overrun,
development delay (or schedule overrun), effort overexpenditure, and avoidable
rework.

◆The body of knowledge which XXX engineers must have consists of the
following two kinds :

[1] IT common body of knowledge (IT-BOK)

[2] Practical & core bodies of knowledge (P-BOK & C-BOK)

20
12. ③ IT Common Body of Knowledge

<What is the IT Common Body of Knowledge?>

◆IT-BOK shows structurally the knowledge which is commonly evaluated
in all categories(applicable persons) in ITEE.

◆Reflecting the knowledge shown in the "ITEE : Scope of Examinations,"

this IT-BOK has been produced by extracting and arranging these
elements which are often made use of on the actual jobs in the
development of IS, and which are effective to be taken up as study
items in information processing education & training.

<Structure of IT-BOK>

Knowledge Major Intermediate Major

field(area) classification classification technical item

21
 Table 1: “Examination in the morning: Table of questions classified by examination categories”
Examination category Software Technical engineer Information Fundament
Application design Senior
systems Systems al
systems engineer ＆ systems Systems
Systems security administ information
Project manager develop- Embedded administ auditor
Field Network Database manage- administ- -rator technology
Systems analyst ment systems -rator
ment rator engineer
engineer
Computer science
fundamentals
¡Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ
Computer system ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ
System development and
◎
operation ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ ¡Ⅰ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ
Ⅱ
Network technology ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ
Database technology ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ
Security and
standardization
¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ ¡Ⅲ ¡Ⅰ
Computerization and ◎
management ◎Ⅲ ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅰ ◎Ⅱ ¡Ⅰ
Ⅲ
Audit ¡Ⅱ ◎Ⅲ
Notes:
• A field marked with a circle “¡ ” is included in the scope of the examination in the particular category, and a field
marked with a double circle “◎” is an important field in the scope of the examination.
• Technical levels are marked with Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ. Level Ⅲ is the most advanced and covers level Ⅱ and Ⅰ,
and level Ⅱ covers level Ⅰ.
22
[example] extract from SW IT-BOK
2. IT Common Body of Knowledge (MVS, UNIX, LINUX, Windows, MacOS, and Java are the trademarks of their manufacturers, vendors or organizations.)
Knowledg Major Intermediate
Major technical item
e field classification classification
I. Computer science
fundamentals
1. Basic theories of information
1.1 Numeric conversion Radix conversion,
and data numeric representation (including complement representation and fractional number representation),
representation non-numeric value representation (character representation, voice representation, and image representation),
operation and precision (single precision, double precision, fixed point precision, floating point precision, shift
operation, overflow and underflow)
1.2 Information and logic Logical operation (true, false, logical product, logical sum, negation, exclusive OR, negative AND, and De Morgan
theorem),
proposition logic, logic function,
information logic and coding theory (channel coding, source coding, encryption, decoding, Humming code,
Huffman code, CRC, parity check),
predicate logic (deduction and induction, inference),
automaton (finite automaton, Turing machine, state transition),
formal language (definition, operation, type and grammar, Chomsky’s production rule, BNF, Polish notation,
regular expression , syntax-directed transfer method,
attribute context-free grammar, context-free language),
graph theory (directed/non-directed graph, Eulerian graph), computational c omplexity (large O notation),
information content (entropy),
correctness theory (partial correctness, termination, full correctness)
1.3 Mathematical Numeric calculation (matrix and determinant, approximate solution, and interpolation),
applications probability and statistics (permutation, combination, probability, addition and multiplication theorem,
probability distribution, expectation, Markov process, estimation, testing, regression analysis),
optimization problem (linear programming method, PERT, shortest path problem, and queuing theory)
2. Data structures and algorithm s
2.1 Data structures Arrays (dimension, static arrays and dynamic arrays),
lists (linear list, uni-directional list, bi-directional list, ring list, linked list),
stacks (LIFO, push and pop), queue (FIFO, enqueue and dequeue),
trees (binary tree, balanced tree, ordered tree, multiway tree, search tree, heap),
hash (calculation of storage location, and collision handling)
2.2 Algorithms Various algorithms (searching, sorting, recursive algorithm, genetic algorithm, approximate algorithm, probability
algorithm,
natural language processing algorithm, language processor, linkage editor, memory management,
data compression algorithm,
collation, file processing, character string processing, graph, numeric calculation, and algorithm s related to
diagrams), 23
relationships between algorithm and data structure, algorithm efficiency,
algorithm design method, flowchart, and decision table
13. ④ Practical and Core Body of Knowledge ( P-BOK ),( C-BOK )

◆Practical Body of Knowledge ( P-BOK )

A. External design : Have sufficient knowledge on requirements for
external design, artifacts to be produced, and activities to be performed
; correctly understand contents of external-design documents.

B. Internal design & C. Program design : SW should show their

competency most in areas B and C

◆Core Body of Knowledge ( C-BOK )

D. Software engineering : The knowledge area is where SW need to have
the most technical excellence.

E. Object-oriented development (OOD) : The adoption of OOD is

expected to expand comprehensively in the near future, with the
consequence that the radical paradigm may be shifted to object
orientation
24
[example] extract from SW IT-PBOK A
[Practical body of knowledge and core body of knowledge for design and development engineers]

Knowledge field Major classification Intermediate classification Minor classification

A. External design
1 External design process
1.1 Preparing for system development
1.1.1 Determining a life cycle model for development work
1.1.2 Preparing the development environment
1.1.3 Preparing a plan for executing the development process
1.2 External design activities
1.2.1 Understanding system requirements definitions
1.2.2 Designing system functions
1.2.3 Designing data models
1.2.4 Preparing external design documents
1.2.5 Design review
2 Designing system functions
2.1 Selecting a system structure (architecture)
2.1.1 Hardware configuration
2.1.2 Software configuration
2.1.3 Application packages
2.1.4 Scope of systematization
2.1.5 Architecture candidates
2.2 Designing subsystem functional specifications and interfaces
2.2.1 Decomposition into subsystems
2.2.2 Defining subsystem functional of specifications
2.2.3 Defining subsystem interfaces
2.3 Designing security
2.3.1 Security policy
2.3.2 Security requirements
2.3.3 Security implementation method
2.4 Designing job models
2.4.1 Preparing detailed job flow
2.4.2 Preparing detailed data flow

25
[example] extract from SW IT-CBOK D
Knowledge field Major classification Intermediate classification Minor classification
D. Software engineering
1 Outline of software engineering
1.1 Origin of software engineering
1.1.1 Software crisis
1.2 Definition of software engineering
1.2.1 Software production
1.2.2 Industrializing management process
1.3 Outcome of software engineering
1.3.1 Methodologies
1.3.2 Techniques
1.3.3 Logic-oriented paradigm
1.3.4 Function-oriented paradigm
1.3.5 Object-oriented paradigms
1.3.6 Agent-oriented
2 Software process and cost models
2.1 Software process models
2.1.1 Waterfall model
2.1.2 Spiral model
2.1.3 Prototyping model
2.2 Software cost models
2.2.1 Halstead model
2.2.2 Function point (FP) model
2.2.3 Constructive cost model (COCOMO)
3 Defining software requirements
3.1 Software requirements
3.1.1 Aims of systematization
3.1.2 Configuration
3.1.3 Functions
3.1.4 Performance
3.1.5 Restrictions
3.2 Analyzing software requirements
3.2.1 Kawakita Jiro (KJ) method
3.2.2 Analyzing functions
3.2.3 Analyzing responses to events
3.2.4 Analyzing structure
26