Have You Mastered ModelOps? Show Off Your Skills with New Certification

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There is no denying it: ModelOps is a hot topic. Gartner recently called out model operationalization as a top trend on their hype cycle and predicts rapid growth and maturity in this area. ModelOps is an enterprise effort for improved decision-making. By adopting a ModelOps process, organizations can reduce the time it takes to put models into production through the implementation of a standardized and governed process. Gartner expects that by 2025, 70% of organizations will have ModelOps architectures due to the rapid maturity of AI orchestration initiatives. As organizations ramp up these initiatives, demand for ModelOps skillsets will increase.

Image from The 4 Trends That Prevail on the Gartner Hype Cycle for AI, 2021

To keep up with industry trends, SAS recently released a certification centered on ModelOps! As I discussed last year, there are numerous reasons why a data scientist would be interested in a professional certification. First, it is a great way to pick up a new skill or even improve an existing skill. Certifications can also help with professional and career development. I recently had the opportunity to earn SAS’s new ModelOps certifications, so in today’s article, I want to share my thoughts around the new certification and point you to resources to help you prepare!

The SAS® Certified ModelOps Specialist is a 65 question exam that covers the entire ModelOps process. The exam covers everything from defining the ModelOps framework, developing the model proposal, model development, model management, model deployment, and model productionalization.  The questions tend to focus on methodologies more than tooling, with questions that range in difficulty.

As you prepare for the exam, I suggest first starting with the free SAS Webinar: How to Prep for the SAS® Certified Specialist: ModelOps Certification. The webinar will provide an overview of the exam and address frequently asked questions. While knowledge of SAS Model Manager is not required, it is helpful. SAS Model Manager helps organizations adopt a mature ModelOps process, so by taking the Managing Models in SAS® Viya® course, you have an opportunity for hands-on ModelOps learning. To accompany the certification exam, SAS has also created a course specifically around ModelOps, titled ModelOps: Governing AI and Machine Learning Models That Drive Your Business with SAS. I highly recommend checking out this course as well. This course covers an Introduction to ModelOps, the Analytics Lifecycle, Model Risk Management, SAS Container Runtime, and Administration. In this course, you will learn how to:

• Distinguish ModelOps from DevOps.
• Use corporate culture as a positive influence on modeling outcomes.
• Control the process of deploying models with the ModelOps approach.
• Recognize the hidden impact of model risk.
• Deploy models in the cloud using SAS Container Runtime.
• Set up administration of the SAS modeling environment.

Now you should have everything you need in your toolkit to become a ModelOps expert and take on the SAS® Certified ModelOps Specialist Certification Exam! You can next take your skills and improve outcomes at your organization through robust analytically driven decisions.

What other resources do you use to stay up-to-date on trends and best practices in ModelOps? Comment below!