This document is a guide for Examiners
within the S/MIME Secure Messaging Certification program.
Examiners must be designated contacts for an organization that
is certified against the S/MIME Secure Messaging Services
Product Standard.
Examiners have the capability to request a batch of examination
papers and answers, and to
register individuals for certification who have passed
the examination.
Each examination paper has a unique
ID and can only be assigned to a single candidate.
Examiners are required to use the Web certification system to
manage their examination paper IDs and to track status of
individual certifications that they submit.
Registration
Prerequisites
Accessing the Web Certification System
The Certification Authority provides a web based certification system through which products, services or individuals can be submitted for certification.
The entry point to this is at http://www.opengroup.org/ssm/cert/.
The first step is to select "Enter", which then gives you an
intermediate screen with various help information, from which you
can then proceed to access the secure web server. You should
login using the account information obtained when registering your
organization for the S/MIME Secure Messaging Services Product Standard.
Accessing the Login Page
When you login you have a number of quick links available
to allow you to start a new registration, view your renewals
due, manage examination papers,
or go to a home page with all certification activity.
You should select "Manage Examination Papers" from the Quick Links
or your company Home Page in order to proceed with exam paper
management.
The Manage Exam Papers screen allows you to apply for
a batch of papers and then to manage those papers and their
associated candidates within the web certification system.
Requesting a Batch of Examination Papers
You can apply to The Open Group for a batch of examination
papers. Each request for batch of papers
has a unique Certification ID (CID) within the web certification
system. Each examination paper also has a unique candidate ID.
Payment must be received in advance prior to issuing examination
papers.
The process for requesting a batch follows, the Batches of Exam IDs pane
allows a purchase of papers, and also records previous purchases.
An example screen is shown below to illustrate:
You should enter the number of exam ids you wish to purchase
and submit.
After you submit you are then presented with the Examiners Agreement, which must
be accepted in order to proceed with this application. The Examiners
Agreement details your obligations as an Examiner within the
S/MIME Secure Messaging certification program.
The next screen presented allows you to pay.
Payment
Payment is required to complete a submission for a batch of examination papers.
Payment may be either by credit card at the time of
registration, or by purchase order, check or wire transfer received by the
Certification Authority in advance of the papers being issued.
Registering Individuals as an Examiner for the S/MIME Secure Messaging Certified Product Standard
Once you have purchased some exam papers, you can use the
following pane within the Exam Management screen to manage those
papers.
To commence uploading of results for an exam paper, selecting the
Unused papers above will display a table as follows:
Selecting an individal Exam Id then gives an intermediate screen
where you should enter the email address of the candidate. This is used
to see if we have any existing contact details in our database
Assuming we do not have the candidate details a screen is then
display for inputting contact data and the examination result.
The completed examination paper must be submitted with the result and
a pass date selected. If a failure has a occurred, a comments file which must be a text file (notepad for Windows users) must be uploaded. This will be
passed back to the candidate.
When the details are submitted the following screen is displayed and then
the final actions are on the CA to audit the submission and notify the
candidate directly.
Completion of Certification
You can check on the status of an individual certification by selecting
Show them All for the used Exam IDs. This provides a
screen showing all the candidates submitted:
Selecting the individual will show you summary status:
Selecting the NEXT link in the top right of the screen
will also display status.
Usually certification will occur within 6 business days.
If for any reason the submission was not complete, you will be notified so that
any corrections can be made and resubmitted.
The initial fee covers one set of corrective actions.
The details of the certification will then be put on the Certification Register, which is a public document and the candidate notified directly.
The Candidates can obtain their certificates from the public register.
You should note that certification is valid for a defined period as stated in Section 9.1, Duration of Certification of
the Certification Policy. At the end of that period, if applicable,
if the individuals wish to renew they can do so. They will
be contacted by the Certification Authority at the time with more
information.
Appeals Process
You may appeal decisions made by The Open Group Certification Authority as stated in Section 11, Appeals Process of the
Certification Policy. Any request for appeal should be sent by electronic mail to ssm-cert@opengroup.org . Receipt of such
a request will be acknowledged within 6 working days by the Certification Authority and the appeals process invoked.
