Whatever the value the CITP has had as a marketing tool, its importance as a certification has always been undermined by the lack of a test. It is testing to assure that candidates have mastered a body of knowledge that makes any credential worthwhile. Think about what the CPA title would be without an examination.

For a few years, the only person I knew that had passed the exam was not a CPA and took it as an experiment. Everyone qualified based on experience. And that underscores another problem the CITP credential had which was that it showed the holder had technology skill, but not in a way that only a CPA could qualify. That has been remedied as the skills needed do apply to CPAs and not technologists in general have been worked into the program.

We need to thank members of the CITP committee, including last year's chairman Jim Bourke, and this year's committee head, Joel Lanz, for finally setting this program on the course to legitimacy. Well, with the American Institute of CPAs giving members a final chance to get the CITP without a test, we will not be there until July.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind