Architect Consultant blog

The previous two weeks I had two days of training on ArchiMate 2.0 from BizzDesign  and today I had my exam. I passed and it is a good addition to my knowledge as a Solution Architect. Exam The exam and the notation itself is not very difficult, especially when you already know UML. When you study the materials of BizzDesign, this should be enough. Go using it ... Now starts the harder part: actually using the language. There are a lot of tools that support the ArchiMate language. One of the free tools is Archi . Depending on you stakeholders you can design your vieuws and tell your architecture story.

I am a proud man ! Today i received my Cordys Solution Architect Certification. I am the first Certified Solution Architect and thats why what makes it so special. I started the certification program back in 2012 with the Cordys Solution Architect program. It was a three days course on several aspects of the Cordys BOP produkt. After that I got myself three certificates: * Cordys Fundamentals * Cordys BPMS * Cordys Solution Architect For each certification you had to go through three phases: theoretical exam, practical exam and an interview where you have to defend your practical solution. More can be read here:  https://wiki.cordys.com/display/cordyscert/Home

Friday i received my official Cordys BPMS Certification. With proud i present you: Next goal is the Cordys Solution Architect Certification ....

Tomorrow i have my first theoretical exam of the Cordys Solution Architect Certification . For this theoretical part you have to know: SOA CAF CWS Security parts I did not have much time to prepare the exam, so i am curious tomorrow.... The next part of this certification is a handson that takes 15 calendar days. The third part is that you give a presentation of a business case where you took part of as a Solution Architect. The fourth part is that you publish a new article, solution pattern, or best practice on the community. So a lot to go for, ....

This month i started the BPMS Certification of Cordys. I already have my Fundamentals Certification. My final goal is to get the Solution Architect Certification. The certification has three parts: Theoretical exam Handson exam Interview Within the theoretical exam you are supposed to answer 60 questions within 1 hour. The questions can be made online and are quite detailed. You really have to know your stuff. In fact in my first attempt i only got 71% and you have to get 75%. So i took it too lightly. The handson is one big case that you have to work out. It is also bigger (of course) than the exercises you get with the Fundamentals. You have 10 working days for the handson. After the handson you get an interview. In this interview you have to explain your solution and you get answers about the handson. Some tips: Really dive into the learning path. You do not really have to follow a training course, you can do it self paced.  Also install the Cordy...

Previous week I got my Cordys Fundamentals Certification and I will explain how to prepare for this exam. Of course it depends on the number of years/months experience you already have with the produkt. In my case i have done several projects already and i have almost three years experience. The certification has three parts: Multiple choice questions Handson Interview The most difficult part is the Multiple choice questions. This requires some study and this can be found on the Wiki. This gives a good overview of the questions you can expect. In the handson part you get a couple of questions which you must make. You have 5 days for the questions and these are relatively easy. I suggest you do the Fundamentals training online which is available on the Wiki. In case you already have project experience then even this is not needed. Within the interview you need to explain your solution of the handson and this is also easy if you made the questions yourself of course. Th...

Today I had my SOASchool.com Module 8 exam for the SOA Certified Architect certification. Suggested preparation: You have to follow a course or buy the selfstudy kit Read the chapters of the SOA Design Patterns book Read the reader of the selfstudy kit You really need to understand the Patterns and also the use of the patterns in relation to each other Questions The questions are the same as the other exams Select All That Apply are the difficult ones and there were quite a lot Next is the final Module 9  for me, and this is the Lab. The Certification is valuable, because it shows that you know and understand the terms and challenges you face when working within a Service Oriented Architecture. Or trying to work towards a SOA. The nice thing about this certification is that it is Vendor Neutral. It does not mention a particular platform. It does however address the SOA standards out there and that is a good thing of course. The customers will also recognize this kind...

Just like the SOA Suite specialization path, Oracle is working on a BPM specialization path for certification. Note: For the links used in this Blog item you need to have an Oracle Partner Account. The following information was already made available for Partners: BPM knowledge zone , in which you can become a member of Oracle Mix which is a Social Network to share ideas and to ask questions. You can become a member of Oracle BPM Suite and Oracle BPA Suite. There is also a BPM Bootcamp , just like the SOA Suite 11g Bootcamp. This is a 4-day bootcamp and as a prerequisite follow 4 webcasts. BPM Sales Guidebook which can be used by the sales persons and contains some management summaries. The implementation Certification is not ready yet but there are some assessments available for PreSales Consultant  and  Sales . You can test your knowledge after the BPM bootcamp here  with an online assessment.

The Oracle Middleware Fusion 11g stack has a certification path for SOA: 1Z0-451 Oracle SOA Foundation Practitioner . When you pass this exam you may call yourself: Oracle Service Oriented Architecture Infrastructure Implementation Certified Expert. Today I passed the exam with 81% but I must say the questions were pretty detailed. So you really must have practical experience with the Oracle SOA Suite 11g, but this is a good thing because that is where Certification is for. Suggested preparation: * Follow a SOA Suite 11g Bootcamp (or follow the book: Getting Started with Oracle SOA Suite 11gR1 ) * Play with the product at home * Follow the recommended learning path as mentioned here (for this you must be a registered Partner) The questions are of high level and detailed level, with Choose Applicable, True/False, and Select Correct type of questions. A CIBER colleague of mine also passed this exam: Michel Christianen . 

Friday I had my 3rd exam SOA Design & Architecture . In this exam you also get 50 questions and you need to have 80% right. This exam is about understanding the 8 principles of Service Orientation. It has strong resemblance with the first module, but this exam was more detailed. Up to module 8 of my SOA Architect Certification.

I am currently following the SOA Certified Architect traject at SOASchool and have finished my first module (jippie). For me the reason to be certified are: It gives you a good basis to understand what SOA is all about This way you can put this into better perspective when using or selecting SOA tools like ESB and BPM. I always compare it with learning first Object Orientation before diving into C++ or Java. This way I truely believe you get better (reusable, maintainable) code.   Just that little more focus on the content then by just reading a good SOA book It forces you to really study the material. It helps when planning an architecture roadmap I know that you always get presented the ideal SOA picture, but at least it helps you when you have to define a SOA roadmap. It also helps you where to give attention and what kind of discussions you have to do. This way it will help to change the mindset of developers/designers/architects/business. However the question remai...

I am currently studying for the first module of the 5 module certification traject for becoming a SOA Certified Architect . What I like about the traject is that you have the option to go to workshops or order self study kits . The workshops can be followed also at the SOA Symposium in Rotterdam in october 2009. Furthermore the exams are based on the books of Thomas Erl a respected author in the SOA field. I have ordered the self study kit and it took a couple of weeks to arrive. It contains two reading materials, one handout of the presentation (fortunately with an audio CD) and one what to study and example questions (unfortunately just three). The audio CDs are a pain to listen to. It looks like generated from text with hardly any tonations. The best way for me was to read the SOA Principles of Service Design book. Tomorrow (4 sept 2009) is my exam for this first module. Keep you up-to-date about the level required. What I am curious about though is how this certification is seen...