Why?

[Vikram Ranade]

I have been closely watching this forum since my programmer certification. I don't know the reason why so many people are interested in Developer certification and so few in the Architect, particularly now that SUN has completely changed the Architect exam.
Even SUN is trying to get more people to attend to its costly architect training program. They are holding it so close to their chest that they don't even want to recommend a few good books.
I understand that architect certification is broader in scope, but there has to be some bounds as to which books one should refer.
Just expressing my thoughts aloud...
I really want to thank Erich for his participation in this forum. It has been a great help.

Vikram

[Bidyut Padhi]

As per my view and knowledge the present corporate is moving towards Enterprise Arch.And the industry study done by Sun Microsystem shows that there is need of enterprise computing professionals at the levels defined in the exam objective like EJB.... So they changed the old exam.
As per Java Developer(SCJD) is concerned it has its own value at its own level.So One has to decide what technologies he is working and what he will be going to work tommorrow.
As per the Books concerned Sun Recomended a few books which U can find out in this forum most probably in Arun's Mail.

I just given my view point.
Regards
Bidyut

[John Wetherbie]

One reason that there may be fewer people pursuing the SCEA is that there are fewer people who want to be architects. I'm an architect and I get a fair amount of "I wouldn't want to do that job" or "I just want to write code" from people here, and at other companies I have been at.
I don't think the people here think they are missing anything anyway because we are a J2EE shop. The developers spend their days doing design, writing EJBs, JSPs, and other J2EE stuff.
So I think it depends on what you are doing and where you want to go.
As a note, I have the SCJP and plan on getting the Architect and Developer certifications. I think it will be interesting to compare what they emphasize.
John

[John Svazic]

One thing that I have noticed about these certifications is that they each emphasise a different thing. I have the programmer and developer certifications, and I'm working through the architect right now.
The programmer certification shows that you have a general understanding of the Java language, and can use it effectively.
The developer certification shows that you are able to take instructions and translate them into well tested code, with a lot of documentation that will make your application easy to maintain.
The architect certification shows you are capable of developing enterprise framewords for long term system design.
I think that John has a point in that a lot of developers do not want to do architecture full time. Most people want to stay in the code, etc., etc. While this is all well and good, I personally believe that a good developer is someone who is well rounded, and can both develop a strong architecture as well as program one. Besides, I have worked with some architects that haven't had the most stable architecture, and it definitely helps if you can understand how they are designing the application and spot any potential problems.
I think that the reason that people aren't as interested in the architect certification is because it has recently been changed, and the core of the first part of the exam is on J2EE design, which not many people have experience in. I've developed a few J2EE based solutions, and when I was looking for a new job I had to fend off the recruiters with a stick! The problem is that the J2EE platform is not trivial and it takes experience to understand how it works, plus a lot of very big books. :-)
The programmer certification has a load of books available, and the developer also has a few "prep" books. However, the architect doesn't have any, and most people will be intimidated by that. Well, that's my $0.02 on the matter.
John

[Vikram Ranade]

Thanks Bidyut, John and John for your reply.
Currently I am reading the two standard EJB books. As I understand, EJB is the biggest component of J2EE.
Thanks,
Vikram

[SRINI VASAN]

Hai guys,
I am also in similar confusion to take up SCEA or SCJD. I am working in EJB now & i have six months of experience in that. Well! How long generally it takes to do it .. i no longer wanna code.. Will taking from india be a problem .. Also i would like to know the demand for the SCEA ..
i would be thankful if u throw light on this...
Regards,
srini

[John Wetherbie]

I don't know anyone personally who has completed all three parts but I would expect (and am planning) it to take three months total. If I was able to devote full time to it I'm sure you could cut this down significantly.
If you don't want to code then going for the SCEA would probably be preferred to the SCJD.
I wouldn't expect there to be a problem in doing this certification in India. Any folks from India want to handle this question?
Are Java architects in demand? Yes! Are people with the SCEA in demand? Maybe. It might help decide between one person and the other if their experience and talent are very similar. It can't hurt if you already have experience as an architect but it probably won't help much if you don't.
What do other folks pursuing the SCEA think?
John

[erich brant]

Rmi , corba and ejbs are used far more ( more then 55% )
then com+/dcom/ mts/activex . according to forrester research.
Java is the most popular lang. with fortune 1000 companies.
Java books outsell vb books and C++ and c books ( comparing
languages individually ). That info was from oreilly.com
from what i remember.

[erich brant]

I new java architech/enterprise certification is so new ,
and because it is only a few months old ( since aug/sept 2000
from what I remember ) It needs time to become known.
Also enterprise java is very new ! I did not know or hear
of enterprise java until 1999. When servlet books started
hitting the shelves.

It took java a few years to build up , from 1995 to 1998 which
was a turning point for java. with java 1.2 and swing and improved rmi/serialization, threads etc...

So just give enterprise java a few years and it should become
far more popular. !