New Agile Level B Certified’s Thoughts, Lihua Ying-Aho

We got a new IPMA® Agile certified when Lihua Ying-Aho from TietoEVRY got certified in June as IPMA Level B Certified Senior Agile Leader. She has previously gained her Level C certificate in 2013 and thought now was the time to step up one level and try for the Level B. With this she has joined the prestige group of higher level IPMA Agile certified people in Finland. Project Professionals Finland congratulate Ying-Aho!

Lihua Ying-Aho works as a senior consultant in the Enterprise Content Management department in TietoEVRY. However, in their organisation employees are not limited to the work scope defined by their title, which means that Ying-Aho wears different “hats” in her day-to-day work depending on the task ahead. She tells about her versatile role:

- Therefore, I often work as a subject matter expert providing consultancy services; as a project manager leading complex international projects; as a pre-sales personal to help to win the business deal, and as a business developer to grow our offerings. There are plenty of areas that I can contribute on a day-to-day basis.

To put it simply, she says her job is to “help our customers and generate value for the company”.

But why apply for IPMA Level B Certification? The main driving force for Ying-Aho was the principle of “Lifelong learning and continuous personal growth”. For her, motivation comes from people around her – for example, her 15-year-old daughter and a close friend.

- One of my close friends just finished the Aalto University EMBA Programme, the positive impact on her is noticeable. I am inspired by them (my daughter and friend). In my view, everyone should set personal growth goals throughout their own life. A learning or growth goal can be anything.

TietoEVRY as an employer supports its employees in accelerating their personal and professional growth and in 2021 they introduced the MyGrowth program to promote this. With the support from her manager, Ying-Aho made obtaining the IPMA Level B Certification as her growth goal for Q2 (in 2021). Luckily, she has now achieved it!

Certification Process Is Time-Consuming but Rewarding

Lihua Ying-Aho summarises the level B certification process simply into three phases:
-    Prepare the application required documentation
-    Compose the project report
-    Conduct oral exam and interview

In all its simplicity, the process is, however, time-consuming. Ying-Aho found the preparing of the needed documentation for the first two phases especially time-consuming. The competence evaluation and history project complexity form were particularly challenging.

- I had to get familiar with the IPMA ICB 4.0 framework from a theoretical point of view. Then I tried to assess myself against the framework. I did not want to simply provide a grade. Instead, I made many self-reflection comments carefully.

Luckily for Ying-Aho, she had already completed her Level C Certification. And since similar documentation was also required for Level C Renewal Process, she could reuse some of the data. However, her Level C certificate used the older IPMA ICB 3.0 framework.

She did not know what to expect for the oral exam, therefore she took few nights to review the IPMA ICB 4.0. And tried her best to get prepared.

She also found challenging to work with the Excel template needed for the application since it only allows 15 projects. She had to exclude few projects from the experience form. The templates are protected, so you cannot insert new rows to it. You can, however, combine similar projects if needed. This also highlights the importance of reviewing one’s work history in the certification process. And challenges the candidate to think which are those projects one wants to use as a reference.

Even though the process itself can be time-consuming and challenging, Ying-Aho says she would definitely recommend IPMA Agile Level B Certification to others.

- You would be motivated when there is a concrete goal in front of you. When you have achieved the goal, you feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

She continues:

- A certificate may be considered as a small achievement. Adding all the small achievements together, when you look back, you know that you are continuously growing. I am on the way seeking the next goal.

We at Project Professionals Finland congratulate Lihua Ying-Aho for this accomplishment! If you are interested in getting certified as an IPMA Certified Agile Leader, visit our certification webpage here.


Text: Else Halttunen, PRY
Photos: Lihua Ying-Aho

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