The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program Distilled

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In my last post I announced that I received my Open CA certification with a brief description on it, along with the differentiation between Open CA and TOGAF certification. This post actually sprung a series of questions from folks wanting…

How to Build a Successful Application Portfolio Management Solution

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In many organizations if an application is needed to solve a specific business problem, it is purchased or built. However, more often than not, these purchases happen in an ad-hoc manner within a specific department or business unit, resulting in a business owning hundreds (maybe even thousands) of redundant, overlapping, and ultimately, outdated applications. Maintaining […]

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… so you should do a SOA Certification! But which one? And how?

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After a near death experience SOA is alive and well. After mixed early learning experiences, most enterprises are seeing SOA in a fresh light. Just the other day one company was discussing with me their “SOA Reboot” project! They are in good company.
I observe widespread activity that is based on doing SOA properly a second time around, including portfolio planning, shared services, good governance and not least education and certification of in-house practitioners and service providers’ personnel.
There are several sources of SOA education and certification including ZapThink, SOA School and Everware-CBDI plus several of the larger vendors. At Everware-CBDI we have approached the certification process as a result of our extensive model based practitioner experience and the creation of a comprehensive methodology and approach documented in the CBDI-SAE Knowledgebase. Our customers who have subscribed to the CBDI Journal over 14 years acknowledge us as an authoritative source of in-depth practice guidance for business driven architecture, specification, design, management and governance.
Our approach has been rather different to the other vendors.
1. We realize that while certification is important, it is critical to minimize the cost and particularly the time involved in obtaining a quality certification.
2. We have prioritized making the entire process online from start to finish.
3. Time and cost optimization is particularly important for service providers who are driven by high utilization targets. Equally end user enterprises and government departments are also under pressure and appreciate sharp focus.
4. We don’t re-label videos of Face to Face classes as eLearning; we create short, narrow focused, fully scripted elearning modules that are purpose designed.
5. We organize the modules into syllabuses for different roles. Of course SOA is about architecture, but we package the learning for architects, designers and project managers to make it as efficient as possible.
6. We believe education and certification is part of continuous learning and skills development. That’s why our certification is backed up with the CBDI-SAE Knowledgebase containing detailed meta models, profiles, process descriptions, patterns, task and technique descriptions, together with deliverable templates and other useful tools, plus a vast inventory of guidance. All cross referenced and consistent with the eLearning. A practitioner’s toolkit!
The table below attempts to compare the options available for education and certification. E&OE.

CBDI ZapThink SOA “Schools” Vendor Training
Online Learning and Certification ☑ ☑ ☒ ☒
Online Price $1200 or $399 per syllabus $1995 ☒ ☒
Integrated Best Practices, Guidance and Resources ☑ ☒ ☒ ☒
Syllabuses for Architecture PLUS other roles ☑ ☒ ☑ ☒
Self Study Resources Bundled ☒ $1596 or 50% discount with F2F course ☒
Certification and Exam Cost Bundled Bundled Bundled $200 – 300
In house Corporate or individual use. Volume discounts ☑ ? ? ?
SCORM compliant for enterprise LMS integration ☑ ☒ ☒ ☒
Vendor Independent ☑ ☑ ☑ ☒
Deployed online by world leading service providers and enterprises ☑ ? ? ?

Try the sample CBDI eLearning and Certification Modules (no charge registration required)

Anti-clients, kurtosis-risks and public riots

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In quite a few of my posts on enterprise-architecture, you may have seen two unfamiliar terms: anti-client, and kurtosis-risk. To see these two concepts in real-world action, and to get some understanding of how important they are in enterprise-architecture practice, you need look no further than the rioting that’s been taking place in London and […]

The Cost of Rockets Built by NASA: Waterfall Process vs Short-cycle and Agile Processes

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ShortcomingsThis post is really not about the shortcomings of NASA, it’s more about the inevitability poor, high cost deliverables when a) an organization looses its focus because of a constantly changing Vision and Mission; b) a development process fo…

Guess I could do with some help here…

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In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been kinda pouring out the posts on enterprise-architecture and the like, over the past few weeks or so… (A few people have complained about the overload, and probably with good reason, too! Oh well. My apologies, anyway.) What’s happening for me is that it seems all of the work […]

PODCAST: How the role of certification impacts professionalization of IT and skills management

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Listen to our recorded podcast on certification and its impact on the professionalization of IT and skills management, or read the transcript. This podcast was recorded by Dana Gardner of Interarbor Solutions in conjunction with The Open Group Conferen…

Learning by Doing with Labs

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Every summer, I spend a week camping with my kids’ Boy Scout troop.  This year, we had the opportunity to camp, hike and fish in the Colorado Rockies near Pike’s Peak. A by-product of a week away from constant email, phone calls and meetings is time to think. A few summers ago, one of these thoughts was how to apply first aid lessons to better project management. This summer’s camp was alongside the South Platte […]

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