Certification Review: BICSI Outside Plant (OSP) Designer

Note

Originally published on October 19, 2022 on Medium, now updated and hosted here.

Introduction

The BICSI Outside Plant (OSP) Designer certification was developed to help OSP engineers design and build outside plant facilities on either private property or the public Right of Way (ROW). On August 5th, 2021, I passed the BICSI OSP exam and earned my first major telecommunications certification.

Early in my career I was thrown into the world of OSP, but I didn’t actually know the best way to get started. Compared to network engineering, OSP is not a very popular trade that technical people consider when looking for career options in telecommunications engineering.

As a result, you can’t walk into a bookstore and buy a reference manual or training guide like you can for the Cisco CCNA. You won’t find extensive tutorials or videos online like you would for routing and switching content (but I hope to change that). When I did fortunately find the OSP Designer resources, I wished I had it much earlier in the process of getting oriented in OSP.

Realizing that challenge is part of what motivated me to start Telecom Craft and promote the resources and materials to help bring more people into the telecommunications engineering field and give them a path forward. So let’s start with a review of the BICSI OSP Designer certification, including what it is, where to find the related resources, who should pursue it, and how to pass.

What is the BICSI OSP Designer Certification?

According to BISCI, the OSP Designer certification covers the methodologies involved in:

OSP Design, including planning, development and documentation of workable and/or buildable OSP cabling systems, and
OSP Installation, including procurement, deployment, and verification of an OSP design.

Candidates for the credential will need to practice and demonstrate their abilities in the following areas as part of the exam:

Pre-Design Preparation
Perform Site Survey
Select Media, Platform, and Cables
Design Underground Platform and Spaces
Design Buried Platform and Spaces
Design Aerial Platform and Spaces
Prepare Design
Quality Control Process
Professional Responsibilities

As you’ll hear me say for nearly any certification, the first resource you should get is the certification guide/exam objectives document, which covers the prerequisites, training/exam materials, exam rules, and other critical information. BICSI calls them certification handbooks, and you can get the OSP Certification Handbook here.

The main study material is the BICSI OSP Design Reference Manual (OSPDRM), currently in it’s sixth edition. At 960 pages, it’s a long and intense read, but it’s packed with critical information that’s aligned with the exam objectives. From what I was told, the OSPDRM began as an OSP manual for customer-owned premises in 1999, and has evolved to a more all-inclusive reference.

In addition to the OSPDRM, there are several training courses you can take to further your knowledge. OSP 101: Introduction to Outside Plant Design is for OSP people that are new to the field and need to learn the basics. It’s designed as a self-paced online course. For more advanced training, there’s OSP 102: Applied Outside Plant Design. This is a live (in-person or virtual) five day intensive training that reviews all the concepts in the OSPDRM and then applies them in practical design exercises that each build on the next. Although I was new to OSP when I found these resources, I went with OSP 102 to quickly immerse myself and increase my understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed the training.

There are some official OSP flash cards included in the OSP 102 course, but they are not available as a standalone purchase as they are with the DCDC or included in the RCDD Exam Prep Course. As a result, you are on your own in assessing and developing your study materials from the OSPDRM and available courses. I’ll discuss studying strategies more below.

I want to note that I generally focus on official materials for these reviews, being either directly produced by the issuer of the credential or formally recognized third parties. In addition to BICSI, there are multiple third party training organizations that have excellent courses and materials. I haven’t personally used any for my OSP Designer certification, but I will update this article if I find anything that seems particularly helpful.

Should You Pursue this Certification?

If your role is to design and build OSP facilities, whether on private property or in the public ROW, I believe this is an incredibly valuable, if not essential certification to acquire. There are other OSP trainings and certifications available, which I plan to cover, but in my opinion, the BICSI OSP Designer certification is the most comprehensive and well-recognized one.

If you focus on campus or building premises systems, or are more of a telecom generalist, the BICSI Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) may be a better fit. If you instead primarily focus on data center designs and operation, the BICSI Data Center Design Consultant (DCDC) is for you.

Once you decide to pursue the OSP, the next step is to review the requirements to sit for the exam. According to the OSP Certification Handbook, you’ll qualify through one of three ways:

Option #1: Hold a current RCDD credential.
Option #2: Two years of verifiable full-time equivalent field experience in OSP design and/or installation AND a minimum of 32 hours of documented continuing education in OSP design and/or installation which may include training provided by BICSI, manufacturer training, college courses, industry training, and/or vendor training.
Option #3: Applicants must have 2 years of verifiable full-time equivalent field experience in OSP design and/or installation AND hold a current BICSI Technician certification, DCDC or RTPM.

I qualified via Option #2; the combination of my four years field experience and attending the OSP 102 class for 35 continuing education credits (CECs) gave me what I needed to proceed. The thing to remember here is you don’t have to wait for when you qualify for the exam to get started! You can begin by studying the OSPDRM, complete some coursework, and build up your field experience in the meantime. The BICSI exams are well-known for their difficulty, so take your time!

How Can You Pass this Certification?

Finally, let’s talk about getting through the exam. Assuming you’ve now met the qualifications above, it’s time to consult the OSP Certification Handbook again. Make sure you’re familiar with the exam objectives, and feel comfortable answering questions about any of the topics. The handbook has a great outline of all “areas of expertise” and the specific topics you’ll be asked about. Use this as a framework for tracking your comfort level on each topic.

The handbook goes on to even provide a “suggested study” plan:

Outside Plant Design Reference Manual (OSPDRM) 6th Edition
OSP101: Introduction to Outside Plant Design
OSP102: Applied Outside Plant Design
100 hours of independent study

Note the “100 hours of independent study,” as this is the minimum you should plan for to be successful. The exam itself is 100 questions, consisting of “multiple choice questions with one correct answer and multi-selection multiple choice questions with two correct answers,” and you’ll have two hours to complete it. The tests are administered by Pearson VUE, so all of the usual recommendations for scheduling and preparing for exam day apply. Be sure to follow all instructions carefully!

Beyond the technicalities of applying and sitting for the exam, there are no easy ways to ensure you pass. One of the most helpful things I was told is to be careful not to think about the questions from your experience in the field; give the answer BICSI expects, instead. The longer you work in the field, the more you’ll rely on your opinions and experience that you’ve earned in the field, but this can conflict with what certifying bodies want to hear.

The surefire way to pass, however, is to upgrade your learning tools, techniques, and habits. I created an ICT study guide that I’ve used to successfully pass a large number of certifications myself, and I’m confident it will work for you, too. Good luck, and let me know how you do!