IT Architech Certification?

[Chaminda Amarasinghe]

Hi Architects

Is there any one who has done to Open Groups IT Architect Certification or TOGAF?

Comparison on SCEA and above?

Thanks

[Teja Saab]

Chaminda Amarasinghe wrote:Hi Architects

Is there any one who has done to Open Groups IT Architect Certification or TOGAF?

Comparison on SCEA and above?

Thanks

I am planning on taking up TOGAF after SCEA. I think TOGAF is a very good certification and is very much in demand these days in the industry.

Few points about TOGAF vs SCEA.

TOGAF is vendor neutral. You could make the same argument about SCEA since it is not bound to any specific provider's product stack. However, SCEA is still being driven by a for-profit entity (Oracle).

TOGAF is designed to be a cash cow for the Open group. People who get certified in TOGAF need to re-certify themselves every 2 years in order to maintain their certification credential. In the long run, this can poke a hole through your bank account since re-certification prices are likely to increase in the future. SCEA does not require re-certification unless you want to upgrade to a newer version. However, once certified for a particular version, you are always certified for that version.

TOGAF is more about the architecture process and less about technology. It is an architectural methodology certification rather than a technical certification. So it is hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison with SCEA.

One thing that I don't like about the TOGAF certification is that you can become certified by just taking a corporate training session and then taking a simple test at the end (much simpler than the prometric kind). My company routinely used to organize these training sessions. I did not attend those, since I wanted to learn TOGAF and earn the credential rather than buy it.

There are certain aspects of the TOGAF architectural methodology that apply only in a perfect world.

If the main goal is to master an architectural methodology, then TOGAF is a very good credential to have on your resume. Of course, there are many other architectural methodologies that are almost as popular. Examples include DoDAF, FEAF, Zachman etc.

[Chaminda Amarasinghe]

Thanks dude,

For your prompt reply

Best Regards

[Kj Reddy]

I am also looking for some certification related to Architect. After spending some time on analyzing different certifications here is my view on SCEA and TOGAF:

The SCEA is more focused on and around Java & Java EE technologies. Having SCEA shows your strong understanding on how to build a architecture based on Java & J2EE.

The TOGAF certification is more stresses on Enterprise Architecture, not just technology architecture and technology agnostic. It requires significant amount of learning.

[Billy Tsai]

So if one wants to become either a solution or an application architect then SCEA+over 10 years professional experience+bachelor degree are enough?
and if one wants to become an enterprise or a chief architect then SCEA+TOGAF+Zachman+over 10 years professional experience+master(or PhD) degree ?

[Donovan Johnson]

Billy Tsai wrote:So if one wants to become either a solution or an application architect then SCEA+over 10 years professional experience+bachelor degree are enough?
and if one wants to become an enterprise or a chief architect then SCEA+TOGAF+Zachman+over 10 years professional experience+master(or PhD) degree ?

Pretty much. You can get a solution or application architect role with 5-7 years experience in some causes, but that is usually on .NET, not Java. If you pick up another key, new skillset, alot of times you can get in with under 10 years experience now. You will need to show serious leadership and coding capabilities though. And these positions are not common.

Safest Approach: Solution/Application Architect> CIW database specialist [or Oracle], CBAP, OCEB, SCDJWS, SOA, SCEA+TOGAF+Zachman, Project+ or PMP. No one hires you? Start your own IT Consulting firm. You're an SA!


Life will be decent.