COR
Certification
Two kinds: individual certification, proving an engineer has the corresponding capability, and organisational certification, assessing the whole framework against the maturity model.
Individual Certification
| Grade | Name | Capability | Assessment method |
|---|---|---|---|
| COR-A | Operations Associate | Understands the standards framework and can correctly perform work under existing rules. | Written examination and situational judgement |
| COR-P | Operations Professional | Can write rules and procedures, and design check items and acceptance criteria. | Written examination, practical assessment and document review |
| COR-E | Operations Expert | Can design a whole framework, set the human–machine boundary and decide where gates belong. | Practical assessment, defence of a framework design and peer review |
Domain Endorsements and Validity
Above the three grades sit domain endorsements covering network, telecom, data centre, hosting, platform and systems. An endorsement is not a separate certificate but a marker of specialism on an existing grade — deliberately so, because the Council holds that the core capabilities of operations are common across domains, and that specialism should build on those common capabilities rather than replace them.
Individual certification is valid for three years; renewal requires a specified number of continuing education hours or evidence of contribution in practice. The renewal requirement exists not to charge a fee but because technology and practice in operations move quickly, and a certificate obtained ten years ago and never updated proves nothing about the holder's capability today.
Organisational Certification
This is the COR-MM maturity assessment, with results shown as both an overall level and per-domain levels. A certified organisation may use the corresponding mark for the period of validity and is listed in the Council's public register of certified organisations.
Note: certification proves that the organisation had a framework at that level at the time of assessment. It does not prove that the organisation will not have an incident.
An organisation at any level may suffer a major incident; what differs is whether, afterwards, the cause can be attributed accurately and a recurrence prevented. The Council states this in all its public material, so that certification is not misread as a guarantee of service quality.