Open Group

The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program
Guidance to Candidates
Version 1.0 June 2013
Copyright 2013, The Open Group All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ArchiMate, DirecNet, Jericho Forum, Making Standards Work, OpenPegasus, The Open Group, TOGAF, UNIX, and the X device are registered trademarks and Boundaryless Information Flow, Dependability Through Assuredness, FACE, Platform 3.0, and The Open Group Certification Mark are trademarks of The Open Group. All other brands, company, and product names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks that are the sole property of their respective owners.
The Open Group would like to thank HPs Open CA Certification Board members who have provided much guidance in the creation of this document, and to the members of the Open CA Work Group for their contributions. Thanks also to Len Fehskens for his contribution while working for HP and subsequently in his role of VP Skills & Capabilities at The Open Group.
The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program: Guidance to Candidates
Document Number: X1304
Published by The Open Group, June 2013. Comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to: The Open Group Apex Plaza Forbury Road Reading Berkshire, RG1 1AX United Kingdom or by electronic mail to: ogspecs@opengroup.org
Contents
1.! Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 5! 1.1! Assumptions .......................................................................................................................................... 5! 1.2! Understanding the Open CA Mindset ................................................................................................ 5! General Guidelines ............................................................................................................................................. 6! 2.1! Making it Easier for your Pre-Submission Reviewers .......................................................................... 7! 2.2! Some General Advice ............................................................................................................................ 7! Section-by-Section Advice ................................................................................................................................. 9! 3.1! Core Foundation Skills (CFS) ............................................................................................................. 10! 3.1.1! CFS01: Apply Communication Skills ...................................................................................... 10! 3.1.2! CFS01.1: Demonstrate Written Application of Communication Skills ................................... 10! 3.1.3! CFS01.2: Demonstrate Verbal Application of Communication Skills .................................... 10! 3.1.4! CFS02: Lead Individuals & Teams .......................................................................................... 11! 3.1.5! CFS03: Perform Conflict Resolution ....................................................................................... 11! 3.1.6! CFS04: Manage Architectural Elements of an IT Project Plan ............................................... 12! 3.1.7! CFS05: Understand Business Aspects ..................................................................................... 12! 3.1.8! CFS06: Develop IT Architecture ............................................................................................. 13! 3.1.9! CFS07: Use Modeling Techniques .......................................................................................... 13! 3.1.10! CFS08: Perform Technical Solution Assessments ................................................................... 14! 3.1.11! CFS09: Apply IT Standards ..................................................................................................... 14! 3.1.12! CFS10: Establish Technical Vision.......................................................................................... 14! 3.1.13! CFS11: Use of Techniques ....................................................................................................... 15! 3.1.14! CFS12: Apply Methods ............................................................................................................ 16! 3.1.15! CFS13: Define Solution to Functional and Non-Functional Requirements ............................. 16! 3.1.16! CFS14: Manage Stakeholder Requirements ............................................................................ 17! 3.1.17! CFS15: Establish Architectural Decisions ............................................................................... 17! 3.1.18! CFS16: Validate Conformance of Solution to the Architecture .............................................. 18! 3.1.19! CFS17: Perform as Technology Advisor ................................................................................. 18! 3.2! Experience Criteria (EC) ..................................................................................................................... 19! 3.2.1! EC01: Experience Producing Architectures ............................................................................. 19! 3.2.2! EC02: Breadth of Architectural Experience ............................................................................. 19! 3.2.3! EC03: Experience with Different Types of Technologies and Architectures .......................... 20! 3.2.4! EC04: Application of Methods ................................................................................................ 21! 3.2.5! EC05 ......................................................................................................................................... 21! 3.2.6! EC06: Full Lifecycle Involvement ........................................................................................... 21! 3.2.7! EC07: Industry Knowledge ...................................................................................................... 21! 3.2.8! EC08: Knowledge of IT Trends ............................................................................................... 22! 3.3! Professional Development (PD) .......................................................................................................... 22! 3.3.1! PD01: Training ......................................................................................................................... 22! 3.3.2! PD02: Maintain IT Industry Knowledge .................................................................................. 22! 3.3.3! PD03: Maintain Vertical Industry Knowledge......................................................................... 23! 3.3.4! PD04: Develop Skills and Knowledge in IT Architecture ....................................................... 23! 3.4! Contributions to the IT Architect Community (CC) ........................................................................... 23! 3.4.1! CC01: Contribution to the IT Architecture Profession ............................................................ 23! 3.5! Experience Profiles .............................................................................................................................. 24! 3.5.1! Project Summary (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1) .......................................... 24! 3.5.2! Personal Involvement (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1.4)................................ 24! 3.5.3! Your Role (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1.5) .................................................. 24! 3.5.4! Business Opportunity or Problem (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.2) ................ 24! 3.5.5! Solution (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.3) ........................................................ 24! 3.5.6! Results (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.4) .......................................................... 25!
2.!
3.!
3.5.7! Lessons learned (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.5) ............................................ 25! 3.5.8! References (Certification Package Template Section 7) .......................................................... 25! 4.! Summary ........................................................................................................................................................... 26!
1.
Introduction
The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) program is the premire architect certification. Many problems with Open CA program candidate submissions can be avoided by simply following the instructions. This Guide is based on the experience of working within The Open Group to develop the Open CA program, sitting on Open CA Certification Boards, and reviewing Certification Packages prior to submission to The Open Group, as well as candidates experience. It provides simple advice, intended for architects preparing Open CA Certification Packages or those reviewing such Packages before submission to The Open Group, on what it means to follow the instructions.
1.1
Assumptions
This Guide assumes that the reader is already familiar with the Open CA program and has read through the program documents found at the Open CA website.
1.2
Understanding the Open CA Mindset
The Open Group has a long history of certification activities. Until the TOGAF Standard, and more recently the Open CA program, these certifications were for products and services, rather than individuals. The Open Group experience in certifying software implementations against standards has strongly influenced the way it approaches certification of individuals, and you are more likely to be successfully certified if you understand this heritage. The primary concern of The Open Group is that certifications are demonstrably objective. Regardless of the individuals carrying out the certification, the results must be the same, and it must be possible to audit a certification to confirm that this is the case. Thus, even if an Open CA Certification Board has an intuitive feeling that you deserve to be certified, you will not be certified unless that Board can clearly cite unambiguous evidence that you satisfy the certification criteria. However, it is up to you to provide that evidence, and thus it is up to you to provide the kind of evidence that an Open CA Certification Board will be looking for. The required kind of evidence is spelled out as specifically as possible in two documents the Conformance Requirements document and the Certification Package template. The more work you make your Open CA Certification Board do to find the kind of evidence they need to objectively justify your certification, the less likely you are to be certified. The more completely and explicitly you provide the necessary evidence, the less inference and reading between the lines your Certification Board will have to do, and the more likely they will approve your Certification Package if you do indeed deserve to be certified. The examples and discussions here focus on the Level 2 (Master) Conformance Requirements as shown in Revision 2.2.2 of the Certification Package template, but are just as applicable to Level 1 and Level 3.
2.
General Guidelines
Most issues with Open CA certification submissions share the same root cause failure to be responsive to what is requested in the Conformance Requirements and especially the Certification Package template. To avoid such issues, provide the information the template asks for, in as obvious a format as possible. This is the single most important piece of advice: read the question and answer it in a concise and unambiguous manner. Provide only the information asked for. Do not make it a novel! If your skill and experience are such that you cannot provide the requested evidence, dont try to hide that in a cloud of obfuscation. It wont work; wait until your skills and experience are such that you can clearly and honestly provide evidence that satisfies the Conformance Requirements. It is currently a requirement that your Certification Package is written in English. This will change when The Open Group has certified enough individuals that the pool of qualified Certification Board members includes people who can read languages other than English. Certification Board members are not reviewing your written English language skills and so will be accommodating if English is not your native language; however, they cannot certify you if they cannot understand you. Candidates are often tempted to write at great length about the technical content of the architectures they are citing as evidence. Open CA Certification Boards are, in general, less interested in the specifics of the architectures you have developed than they are in how you developed those architectures. They are looking for evidence of architectural thinking that your accomplishments are repeatable and not just a fluke or obvious responses to simple problems. The Certification Package template asks for specific kinds of evidence of the skills and experience upon which certification is based. Dont make the Certification Board work to find that evidence. Be explicitly responsive to what the template asks for. Express your evidence in a concise and focused manner. Avoid the temptation to address several sections by pasting the same text into the template. Sometimes the template seems to be asking for the same things in different ways, but each section is looking for something different. Repeating the same text in multiple responses may imply to your Certification Board two things you are lazy and prone to cutting corners, or you are a one trick pony and tend to provide the same answer regardless of the question. Be responsive to each section of the template. Be careful about claiming expert skill level. Read the definitions of the skill levels and interpret them literally: Applied: able to practice with supervision Deep: able to practice autonomously Expert: advances the state-of-the-art
If you claim expert skill, you will almost certainly be challenged, and asked what specifically you have done to advance the state-of-the-art. You gain nothing by asserting expert level skill (it is not required for any of the Core Foundation Skills), and you may come across as having an unduly grand opinion of yourself. Your Certification Package must include three Experience Profiles, which will give you the opportunity to provide more details about what you have accomplished. Again, be responsive to each section of the template; provide what it asks for. If you cite an Experience Profile as evidence in the Core Foundation Skills sections, dont just say see Experience Profile <n>. Cite the Experience Profile by name and
number, and cite the specific section in the profile where the evidence will be found. The recommended format for such a citation is See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>. If the citation does not respond completely to the requirement, complement it with a direct response to the missing areas. Again, do not make the Certification Board members read between the lines or search for your response to that requirement. There is a 50-page limit on the size of the completed Certification Package. The Open Group will not accept attachments or additional documents; your Certification Package must be a single document. This applies in particular to your letters of reference. An inserted .JPG of a scan will be accepted, but an included .PDF will not. Avoid naming individuals unless they are your references. The Open Group considers your Certification Package to constitute privileged information, and your Certification Board reviewers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement. Be that as it may, The Open Group discourages the use of sensitive information (either from your company or a third party) as evidence of your skills or experience; your Certification Board reviewers may be employed by competitors of your company or third parties.
2.1
Making it Easier for your Pre-Submission Reviewers
It is strongly recommended that you have someone who has been through the certification process, especially someone who has served on a Certification Board, review your Certification Package before your submission. Your first draft for review prior to submission should be as complete as possible. Include your name (at least your family name, not just a string of initials) and a version number in the file name of your Certification Package. Ask your reviewer to make comments using the insert comment feature of Microsoft Word. Enable change tracking when you respond to suggestions or address omissions and leave your reviewers comments in place. This enables the reviewer to re-read his or her particular comment on the next round of review and see how you responded to it. When satisfied, the reviewer can remove the comment from the document. In subsequent revisions, accept previous changes you made so change tracking shows what has changed from the previously reviewed revision. Try to make each review/revise cycle as effective as possible so there are as few cycles as possible.
2.2
Some General Advice
When answering the questions in the Certification Package template, keep the following points in mind for all answers: Be brief, but answer all parts of the question. Dont obfuscate. Use the bold highlighted keywords in the next sections as the topics you should address. Most questions ask for concrete examples from your experience and how you handled it in this particular case. Never does it ask for generic approaches; i.e., methodologies that you applied in general. Be specific on what you did. If your explanation sounds like a textbook paragraph, you probably didnt answer the question. Answers must ensure that it was you who did that work or were in the lead. If you were just a member of a group, then look for other examples.
Explain acronyms. Some acronyms are obvious to you, but not all Certification Board members or reviewers share the same background. So you may want to explain what, for example, SPOF, SPOCS, SME, PKI, and other acronyms stand for. However, you dont need to provide an extensive explanation of what it is. The standard font size of the Certification Package text is Verdana 10 points and for table columns 8 points. Do not reduce these to smaller print in an attempt to squeeze in your text that would otherwise exceed the 50-page limit. Follow the guidance of one of our mentors: Everything you need, nothing you dont. That should help to stay within the 50-page limit.
3.
Section-by-Section Advice
For each requirement in the following sections of the Certification Package template: Core Foundation Skills (CFS01 through CFS17) Experience Requirements (EC01 through EC08) Professional Development (PD01 through PD03) Contributions to the IT Architect Community (CC01)
there are three cues as to what is being looked for, as follows: 1. The identifier and name of the requirement. 2. The skill description (i.e., the text in the shaded table header), which reproduces the description from the corresponding section of the Conformance Requirements document. This is referred to below as CR . 3. The Certification Package template requirement (the text in the shaded table row). This is referred to below as TR . Generally, the CR describes the required skill, experience, activity, or contribution, and the TR describes the evidence requested to demonstrate mastery of the required skill, possession of the experience, or performance of the activity. An example requirement is shown in Figure 1.
CFS01 Apply Communication Skills Demonstrate good written communications, including the use of proper grammar, spelling, document organization, clarity, and use of 2 content appropriate for the audience. Demonstrate good verbal communications, including strong eye contact (where culturally appropriate), responsiveness to questions, ability to stay on subject, use of good feedback, and follow-up questions, etc., so that effective two-way communications is demonstrated. Skill level you claim: List three or more documents that you wrote and that were published or provided to clients and which demonstrate your 3 decisions and ability to effectively communicate architectural designs. Provide the name of the document, a short description of its purpose, and your role in its creation.
Figure 1: A Sample Requirement from the Certification Package Template
Skill level required: Deep CFS01.1 From (mm/yy) To (mm/yy)
Demonstrate written application of communication skills Project or Major Activity
Generally, the way to be responsive in a concise and focused manner is to identify the keywords in the CR and TR and structure your response around them. In the material below we have boldfaced these keywords, and provided a list of Questions that you should answer clearly and succinctly in your responses, or Advice on completing the section. Some requirement descriptions seem to be puzzling to some candidates. In those cases additional comments are made to explain what the question wants to know from you.
3.1
Core Foundation Skills (CFS)
Many of the CFS sections state: Only provide examples where your role in the effort was as the Lead Architect of the project or a significant subsystem or component. Your evidence should make it clear that you acted in the lead role.
3.1.1 CFS01: Apply Communication Skills
CR Demonstrate good written communications, including the use of proper grammar, spelling, document organization, clarity, and use of content appropriate for the audience. Demonstrate good verbal communications, including strong eye contact (where culturally appropriate), responsiveness to questions, ability to stay on subject, use of good feedback, and follow-up questions, etc., so that effective two-way communications is demonstrated. Do not include documents or presentations cited in this section as part of your Certification Package. If you include a URL for online material, it must be generally accessible (not protected).
3.1.2 CFS01.1: Demonstrate Written Application of Communication Skills
TR List three or more documents that were published or provided to clients that demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate architectural decisions and designs. TR Provide the name of the document and a short description of the purpose of the document.
Questions

3.1.3
What was the name of the document? What was the documents purpose? Who was the intended audience? What were the architectural decisions or designs it communicated?
CFS01.2: Demonstrate Verbal Application of Communication Skills
TR List three or more formal presentations that were published and presented by you verbally to stakeholders, and which demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate architectural decisions and designs. TR Provide the name of the document, a short description of its purpose, and your role in its creation and presentation.
Questions
What was the name of the presentation? What was its purpose? Who was the intended audience?
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Advice
What were the architectural decisions or designs it communicated?
Obviously, your Certification Board will not be able to judge your communication skills from the names and descriptions of presentations and documents. They will judge your written communication skill by the writing in your Certification Package, and your verbal communication skill by your interview. Take care in drafting your Certification Package, and present yourself professionally during your interview.
3.1.4 CFS02: Lead Individuals & Teams
CR Given a scope of architectural work to be accomplished, plan the work, form a team to perform the work, and guide the team in performing the work to completion. TR Provide three instances where you led a team to perform a specific work effort and were recognized as the driving force to perform and accomplish the task. TR Describe the project or major activity in which you were the recognized leader. Provide a short description of the leadership skills that you used to accomplish this task.
Questions

3.1.5
What was the team? What was the project or major activity? What leadership skills did you use to accomplish this?
CFS03: Perform Conflict Resolution
CR Mediate opposing viewpoints and negotiate equitable solutions to ensure successful and stable outcomes. TR Document three situations where you helped to mediate opposing technical/architectural viewpoints and successfully negotiated an equitable solution to ensure the successful outcome of an IT project or architectural task.
Questions

Advice
What were the conflicting viewpoints? How did you mediate and negotiate amongst them? What was the equitable solution? How did you ensure commitment to this solution?
Give an example of conflicting viewpoints and how you negotiated within one of your projects. The Certification Board looks for skills you have applied in this situation it is not looking for general processes of escalation, but specific instances of conflict resolution and how you went about it.
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3.1.6
CFS04: Manage Architectural Elements of an IT Project Plan
CR Given a project plan, identify those elements of the plan that put the integrity of the architectural elements at risk and manage those elements through to the agreement by the client/project manager that the project has been successfully completed. TR Document 3-5 examples where you worked closely with the client/project manager to identify and address elements of the project plan that put the architectural integrity of the project plan/timeline at risk show how you mitigated the risk to both the architecture and the project milestones.
Questions

Advice
What was at risk (what aspects of architectural integrity or what project milestones)? Why? How did you collaborate with the project manager? How did you mitigate the risk? If you avoided all risks during the project, how did you do so?
Avoid describing general processes employed to make decisions. The question asks for real examples of specific situations in which the project plan posed a threat to the architecture. In those examples, what did you do to mitigate the risk to both architecture and project plan? How did you handle the contrasting needs (which ones? examples!) of the project manager (on time, budget, etc.) with that of the architecture (agreed functionality, business, and stakeholder value)?
3.1.7 CFS05: Understand Business Aspects
CR Understand the stakeholders business needs, and how they relate to their business and mission. TR Provide three examples where you have demonstrated your understanding of the stakeholders business needs, and how these needs relate to the wider context of the business and mission. TR Examples must show how you made an explicit linkage between the technical architecture and business need, and how you expressed the architectural value proposition in business language.
Questions
Who were the stakeholders? What was their business need? What was the larger business context and mission? How did you explicitly link the architecture to the business need? How did you express that linkage in business language? What was the architectural value proposition? How did you express it in business language?
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Advice
Like the previous question, examples of actual situations are asked for and how in those cases you made the link between the business needs on one hand and the proposed architecture on the other. Do not dwell on generic approaches or methodologies that ensure alignment.
3.1.8 CFS06: Develop IT Architecture
CR Given one or more business requirements, create the structures of a solution that can be validated to meet those requirements. TR Document 3 to 5 instances where you created the structures of a solution represented as architectural artifacts (for example, with UML or with another modeling notation) that satisfied the functional and non-functional business requirements. The architectural solution was communicated to the development team and reviewed/validated by the client.
Questions

3.1.9
What was the solution? What was its structure? What were the business requirements? How did this solution structure satisfy the business requirements? How did you communicate this solution to the development team? How was the solution reviewed or validated by the client?
CFS07: Use Modeling Techniques
CR Use modeling techniques such as use-case scenario modeling, prototyping, benchmarking, and performance modeling to describe the problem space, to size the solution, and to validate that the proposed architecture addresses the business requirements. TR Provide three examples where you employed accepted modeling techniques for different purposes. Identify the purpose of each model and how that purpose was achieved.
Questions

Advice
What was the modeling technique? What was the purpose of the model? How did you use the modeling technique to achieve that purpose?
Be open minded about what constitutes modeling. Boxes and arrows is an acceptable modeling technique. Excel is an acceptable modeling tool. The intent of this question is to find out what you did that would allow you to get some sense early on of whether the proposed solution would in fact workably address the business need (the alternative being to build the whole thing and hope it works).
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3.1.10
CFS08: Perform Technical Solution Assessments
CR Given a technical solution and the underlying business requirements that drove its development, assess the technical integrity and risks inherent in that solution in such a way that the recommendations and findings are appropriate and implementable. TR Provide three examples where you evaluated, for different purposes. a solution in the context of the business requirements. TR Identify the purpose of each assessment and how that purpose was achieved; for example, risk assessment, security assessment, agility assessment, and capacity assessment.
Questions

3.1.11
What was the solution? What was being assessed? What business requirements drove that assessment? What was the purpose of the assessment? How did you achieve that purpose?
CFS09: Apply IT Standards
CR Given project requirements that call for or would benefit from the use of standards, establish, implement, and enforce appropriate standards in the creation and implementation of the solution to meet those requirements. TR Provide three examples where you effectively integrated open IT standards, industry IT standards, or your companys/client IT standards into the solution design in order to meet project/business requirements. You may also use examples where you created a new standard that was necessary in order to meet the project requirements.
Questions

Advice
What was the standard? What were the applicable requirements? How did this standard address the requirements?
In your answer, give an example of a requirement in your project and what standard you applied or defined for it. Explain the meaning, implication, and effect of that standard. Do not give generic process answers.
3.1.12 CFS10: Establish Technical Vision
CR Given requirements and a list of stakeholders, identify approaches, tools, techniques, and technologies to meet the requirements, and explain the present and future rationale so that stakeholders accept the choices and agree with the rationale.
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TR Provide three examples where, given the functional and non-functional principles of the project and a list of stakeholders, you identified different approaches, tools, and techniques that could be used to successfully implement the project. Briefly describe the rationale used to obtain consensus from the stakeholders (developers, project management, client team, etc.) to accept your architectural decisions. TR Only provide examples where your role in the effort was as the Lead Architect of the project or a significant subsystem or component. Each example must demonstrate the connection between business and technical architectural decisions.
Questions

Advice
Who were the stakeholders? What were the relevant principles? What were the approaches, tools, or techniques you chose? Why? What were the decisions you made using these approaches, tools, or techniques? How did you get the stakeholders to accept these decisions? How did you link these decisions to the business context?
This question asks about various solutions you see that comply with the (non)-functional principles and what customer-convincing criteria were used to select one as the best fitting to the architecture.
3.1.13 CFS11: Use of Techniques
CR Given an architectural question, use and apply various techniques, such as data collection, data analysis, hypothesis, and solution formulation, to produce a supportable answer to the question. TR Provide three examples where given an architectural question, you used and applied various techniques; for example, data collection, data analysis, hypothesis, force field analysis, functional decomposition, joint application design, or solution formulation, to produce a supportable answer to the question.
Questions

Advice
What was the architectural question? What was the technique you used to answer the question? What was the supportable answer? How did the chosen technique support the answer?
This is about a situation where an architecture is in place or under development, and a question has arisen due to progressive insight, best practices, or encountered problems that needs to be resolved within
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the architecture. How did you evaluate the question? What techniques did you apply to gather information and weigh possible solutions in order to arrive at a resolution to the question that fits in or modifies the architecture at hand?
3.1.14 CFS12: Apply Methods
CR Given a work effort, select a method that meets the method recognition criteria in Section 6 of the Conformance Requirements. Adapt, apply, and enforce the use of that method to successfully guide the creation of work products that meet the requirements of the work effort. TR Provide three examples where, given a work effort, you selected a method that met the recognition requirements, and adapted, applied, and enforced the use of that method to successfully guide the creation of architectural work products that met the requirements of the work effort.
Questions

Advice
What was the method? How and why did you select it? How did you adapt, apply, and enforce its use? What architectural work products were produced using it? How did you use the method to ensure these work products met the requirements?
Look at the list of recognized architecture methods at The Open Group web site. You can provide examples using this method in various situations, such as workshops (in any flavor fully fledged or in part, in groups or in one-on-ones), desk analysis of customer documents, replies to RFPs, etc..
Notes
EC04: Application of Methods was consolidated into CFS12, as they seemed almost identical. While the CFSs are about skills, and the ECs are about experience, an example of your mastery of a skill will necessarily cite your experience. The Open CA certification views discipline and repeatability as essential to the architecture profession, hence the emphasis on methods, and in particular well-defined methods that satisfy explicit criteria for recognition by the Open CA program as a legitimate architectural methodology. You can cite the same Open CA recognized method multiple times; for example, the TOGAF ADM. For example, as a long-time employee of a company that uses a recognized method, you will likely cite it many times. If you do not have experience with any Open CA recognized method, you might be able to find an appropriate method that have you used and get it recognized. This is a very important criterion for certification, and if you lack it you will not be certified until you have acquired this experience.
3.1.15 CFS13: Define Solution to Functional and Non-Functional Requirements
CR Given the functional and non-functional requirements, define a solution that meets the stated requirements using the organizations and industry standard procedures and tools.
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TR Provide three examples where, given the functional and non-functional requirements, you defined a solution that met the stated requirements using the organizations and industry standard procedures and tools.
Questions

Advice
What was the requirement? What was the solution? What standard procedures and tools did you use? Why?
Provide some real (examples are asked for!) (non)-functional requirements from your project and show how the solution you defined addresses these requirements and how you stayed within applicable standard procedures and tools (and what were they?).
3.1.16 CFS14: Manage Stakeholder Requirements
CR Given approved business goals, objectives, and constraints, document, clarify, refine, detail, and prioritize functional and non-functional requirements. TR Provide three examples where, given approved business goals, objectives, and constraints, you documented, clarified, refined, detailed, and prioritized functional and non-functional requirements.
Questions

Advice
What was the business goal, objective, or constraint? What was the requirement? How did you manage (document, clarify, refine, detail, prioritize) the requirement? If this was the responsibility of a project manager, how did you collaborate with the project manager to ensure that the architecture and the requirements remained consistent?
The question looks at how you relate specific (examples are asked for!) stakeholder requirements to the business goals set. Does the requirement contribute? If so, how much and how is it made part of the architecture? If not, how do you handle this and communicate this to the stakeholder?
3.1.17 CFS15: Establish Architectural Decisions
CR Determine, document, and communicate architectural decisions to support and rationalize the design of the solution. TR Provide three examples where you established, documented, and communicated architectural decisions that supported and rationalized the design of the solution.
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Questions

Advice
What was the architectural decision? How did you determine, document, and communicate it? How did you support and rationalize the decision?
The answers must reflect that you communicated your decisions (which ones? example!) and provided the reasons for the decision. Did you dictate that decision or was a consensus process used? The decisions can apply to a new architecture being developed as well as an existing architecture that requires modification due to new insights or changed business needs.
3.1.18 CFS16: Validate Conformance of Solution to the Architecture
CR Given a set of requirements, define and execute strategies and plans for ensuring and demonstrating that the solution satisfies the documented architecture. TR Provide three examples where, given a set of requirements, you defined and executed strategies and plans for ensuring and demonstrating that the solution satisfied the documented architecture.
Questions

Advice
What were the requirements? What were the strategies or plans you developed to demonstrate conformance to the architecture?
The question looks for initiatives and findings that prove that the proposed solution does meet the given architecture or, when under development, sticks to the architecture. Strategies can include proof-ofconcept, use of templates, peer reviews, regular architectural/development meetings, and others.
3.1.19 CFS17: Perform as Technology Advisor
CR Maintain IT industry knowledge to advise on technical trends and techniques and apply them to the development of solution designs. TR Provide three examples where you have advised on IT industry technical trends and techniques and applied your knowledge of them to the development of solution designs.
Questions
What was the trend or technique? What advice did you provide to whom and what was the motivation of doing so? What result or impact did your advice have? How did you apply your knowledge?
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3.2
3.2.1
Experience Criteria (EC)

EC01: Experience Producing Architectures
CR You must have at least three (3) years of experience producing IT architectures. CR Guidance to Candidates: The Open CA program is intended to recognize those individuals that possess both the required skills and a level of experience that demonstrates that they have mastered the ability to successfully produce IT architectures. CR Candidates for Level 2 Certification (Master Certified IT Architect) are expected to have taken responsibility for producing successful IT architectures with occasional assistance from less experienced IT architects where appropriate. TR Description of at least 36 months of full-time equivalent engagement with, and accountability for, the architectural aspects of one or more projects or engagements. Reference may be made to the Experience Profiles in Section 6.
Advice
The Open Group looks for three years (3 x 12 months) of work you performed as an architect. This question does not look for a duration (period) in which you did architecture work, but for actual days of work as an architect. Your list of experiences therefore must add up to more than 36 man-months worth of work. If you did a half-year project in 2003 and another half-year project in 2006, this adds up to only one year of experience, despite the fact that the time span is three years. In-between-project time does not count towards your years of experience. Nor do other activities in such periods that cannot be vouched for by references that also need to be mentioned at the end of the question. It is best to compile a list of all projects you did within the allowed time span of 8 years and pick out all of those that together make up for 3 years of experience with references to match. Also be advised that The Open Group counts periods as started at to up to, not up to and including. As an example: a project running from 2006/01 to 2006/09 is supposed to run for 8 months: January (01) up to and including August (08). September (09) is not considered part of this period. If it should be, the period quoted should read 2006/01 to 2006/10. Here, make sure you have a reference (an individual who can vouch for the experience you cite) for each experience. If you cite an Experience Profile, do so explicitly: See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>, and provide a brief response summary so that the reviewer doesnt have to flip back and forth through the document.
3.2.2 EC02: Breadth of Architectural Experience
CR You must have experience architecting IT solutions which: Involve the application and integration of a broad variety of products, technologies, and services from either the enterprise or solution perspective Encompass both functional and non-functional components across multiple elements of IT architecture in each project (Business, Application, Infrastructure, Information)
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CR Guidance to Candidates: A Master Certified IT Architect has experience integrating multiple elements of IT architecture to enable the development of correct and complete solutions to business problems. TR Description of three qualifying experiences. Reference may be made to specific sections within the Experience Profiles, or Candidates may provide detailed descriptions of work efforts that demonstrate compliance with this criterion.
Advice
If you cite an Experience Profile, use the format: See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>. If not, you must provide the same level of detail here that is asked for in the Experience Profile. Remember that managing the real estate in your Certification Package is your responsibility. Architects are expected be able to do this. The Certification Board will use this to help get a sense of how skillful you are in addressing requirements and focusing on essentials. The answers should include various technologies that were part of the IT solution and that you selected as part of the architecture and of which you have a working knowledge such as DCE, LDAP, EDI, XML, J2EE, .NET, C#, C++, Java, PKI, etc.
3.2.3 EC03: Experience with Different Types of Technologies and Architectures
CR You must have experience with multiple types of systems and applications architectures, and multiple hardware and software platforms. CR Guidance to Candidates: A Master Certified IT Architect has had exposure working with different systems and application architectures. Through this experience, a Master Certified IT Architect can effectively make the decisions that most appropriately satisfy requirements and mitigate or otherwise manage risk to the project. TR Description of one or more qualifying experiences. Reference may be made to specific sections within the Experience Profiles, or Candidates may provide detailed descriptions of work efforts that demonstrate compliance with this criterion.
Advice
If you cite an Experience Profile, use the format: See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>. If not, you must provide the same level of detail here that is asked for in the Experience Profile. Note that the second column here asks for the type of systems, applications, hardware, and software platforms you have worked with, rather than the project or major activity. The answer should include operating systems or application platforms such as Windows, Linux, UNIX, SAP, Websphere, WebLogic, Apache, DSpace, Siebel, Tibco, and others. The difference between EC02 and EC03 is that in the EC03 black box (even if customizable) platforms are used with specific functionality, whereas in EC03 technologies are looked for that are used to create functionality.
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3.2.4
EC04: Application of Methods
EC04: Application of Methods was consolidated into CFS12 (see Section 3.1.14 above).
3.2.5 EC05
Intentionally left blank.

3.2.6 EC06: Full Lifecycle Involvement
CR You must have been responsible for the architecture definition activity of a project or engagement across the full lifecycle appropriate to that project or engagement, and must have been involved as an IT architect, or in some other capacity working with others, to ensure the architecture has been realized. CR Participation in each phase of the lifecycle need not be as Lead IT Architect. CR Guidance to Candidates: A Master Certified IT Architect is expected to have had full lifecycle experience. TR Description of qualifying experience. You must identify at least one project or work effort in which you have performed architectural work across the full lifecycle from inception through to deployment. Reference may be made to Experience Profiles, or Candidates may provide a detailed description of a work effort that demonstrates compliance with this criterion. If none of your Experience Profiles demonstrate full lifecycle, be prepared for detailed questioning about your full lifecycle experience. TR Experience Profiles in which you claim full lifecycle involvement must be listed here.
Advice
The Certification Board is looking for evidence that you have lived with the consequences of your architectural decisions, and understand what it means for an architecture to be realizable. For very senior architects, who in the latter parts of their careers tend to be more involved in the early phases of projects and hand off delivery and deployment responsibility, it may be difficult to cite such experience that falls within the 8-year window. In this case, it may suffice for you to explain how you have remained in touch with the project during its implementation, deployment, and operation, and explain during your interview how you acquired full lifecycle experience earlier in your career. This is an important certification criterion, intended as a litmus test to weed out ivory tower architects whose work is not strongly connected to the real world.
3.2.7 EC07: Industry Knowledge
CR You must have demonstrated expertise in one or more industry sectors, including the business, legal, and regulatory context. CR Guidance to Candidates: Master Certified IT Architects need to have broad, up-to-date, and relevant expertise in the industry sectors in which they work, and must have applied that knowledge. TR Description of at least three activities through which you have acquired your industry sector knowledge. Reference may be made to specific sections within the Experience Profiles, or you may provide detailed descriptions of work efforts that demonstrate compliance with this criterion.
The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program: Guidance to Candidates 21
Advice
If you cite an Experience Profile, use the format: See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>. If not, you must provide the same level of detail here that is asked for in the Experience Profile. Most candidates acquire this knowledge on the job; it is OK to say so, but it helps if you did a little active research into the industry.
3.2.8 EC08: Knowledge of IT Trends
CR You must have demonstrated knowledge of the significant trends in the IT domain. CR Guidance to Candidates: Master Certified IT Architects need to be aware of current significant market and technology trends and possess the ability to apply trends to architectural decisions. TR Description of at least three activities through which you have acquired your knowledge of IT market and technology trends. Reference may be made to specific sections within the Experience Profiles, or you may provide detailed descriptions of work efforts that demonstrate compliance with this criterion.
Advice
If you cite an Experience Profile, use the format: See Experience Profile <n>, <Name of Profile>, Section <6.n>. If not, you must provide the same level of detail here that is asked for in the Experience Profile. Most candidates acquire this kind of knowledge on the job; it is OK to say so, but it helps if you did a little active research into the technologies you used.
3.3
3.3.1
Professional Development (PD)

PD01: Training
CR During the last five years you must have completed training in the design and engineering of IT architectures either through attendance at a taught course, or through self-study. TR Description of qualifying course or self-study program or material. Provide the date and name of the course or self-study program or material, along with a description of the course or self-study objectives and content.
Advice
This training can be company internal training and can include architecture webinars.
3.3.2 PD02: Maintain IT Industry Knowledge
CR Candidates must provide a written description of the activities they have undertaken to maintain their knowledge of the technology, trends, and techniques in the IT industry.
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TR Please list the activities in which you have participated in the last three years. Activity is required in at least 2 of the categories in the table below.
Advice
Formal education means successful completion of coursework offered by an accredited educational institution. Training courses means successful completion of coursework offered by the company you work for, or a third party. Unlike PD01, the subject matter is IT in general, not just IT architecture. Dont overlook personal reading which can include journals as well as books.
3.3.3 PD03: Maintain Vertical Industry Knowledge
CR Candidates must provide a written description of the activities they have undertaken to maintain an understanding of the client's business as it pertains to the client's vertical industry (e.g., telecoms, financial, etc.). Candidates should be aware of the latest trends and techniques that may influence IT architectures for their customers within industry verticals. Candidates should endeavor to sustain this learning process during the time they are engaged with a client or produce architectures that are industryspecific. TR Please list the activities in which you have participated in the last three years. Activity is required in at least 2 of the categories in the table below.
Advice
Formal education means successful completion of coursework offered by an accredited educational institution. Training courses means successful completion of coursework offered by the company you work for, or a third party.
3.3.4 PD04: Develop Skills and Knowledge in IT Architecture
CR Candidates are expected to continually develop their skills and knowledge in IT architecture. TR Please list the activities in which you have participated in the last three years. Activity is required in at least 3 of the categories in the table below.
Advice
Formal education means successful completion of coursework offered by an accredited educational institution. Training courses means successful completion of coursework offered by the company you work for, or a third party.
3.4
3.4.1
Contributions to the IT Architect Community (CC)

CC01: Contribution to the IT Architecture Profession
CR Candidates must make contributions to the architecture profession; for example, mentoring, publications, teaching, research collaboration, or participation in professional organizations.
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TR Please list activities in which you have participated in the last three years. Contribution is required in at least 3 of the categories in the table below.
Advice
You can cite the same professional memberships here that you did in PD02, PD03, and PD04. You can cite contributions to the profession internally at your employer as well as externally.
3.5
Experience Profiles
Each of the subsection headings in the Experience Profile template is fairly explicit about what it is asking for. Be responsive. Provide the information asked for, clearly and concisely. Remember: everything you need and nothing you dont. Apply this to each section of the Experience Profile template.
3.5.1 Project Summary (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1)
This section should be self-explanatory.

3.5.2 Personal Involvement (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1.4)
It is not a requirement, but it would help to strengthen your Certification Package if in at least one of the three experiences you include one where your participation was through the full lifecycle of the project. To a Certification Board member, this would mean that one of the projects that you chose to showcase your architecture experience was also one where your participation/leadership went across all phases, and your responses to the conformance criteria/questions would show it. For these Experience Profile(s) you would reply with Yes in the Completion column next to the statement I was involved in the full lifecycle of this solution.
3.5.3 Your Role (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.1.5)
Leave the tables untouched. Simply put an X in the left-most column to indicate you were the Lead IT Architect or for any other role you played.
3.5.4 Business Opportunity or Problem (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.2)
The three sections in this part ask for a concise description of the business opportunity or problem that the customer faced. Indicate what the scope of the problem is and what complexity is involved to address the problem. As architect you are involved with client personnel to define the architecture. Indicate with what type of stakeholders you communicated and how this communication was carried out (frequency and type of content/decisions for meetings, presentations, written communication, etc.).
3.5.5 Solution (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.3)
This section should briefly outline the overall proposed and implemented solution. Do not go into any depth as the Certification Package (and this section) is about your experience and conduct as an architect much more than the technical accuracy of the particular solution. Certification Board members are more interested in how you made your decisions, what reasoning you applied to make them, and how you
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handled possible consequences of these decisions. The technical details are of less interest. Certification Board members may not be experts on this solution subject but if they do want to know more about the technicalities, they will ask for it during the interview. Use diagrams sparingly if needed. Do not include lots of Microsoft Office PowerPoint or other illustrations and do not include them if they are not referenced and do not support the answer you give. If diagrams are used, do not reduce them in size to the point that they are no longer readable. This is especially true for diagrams that use small print. In Section 6.n.3.2 a list of architectural decisions is asked for and reasons why you made them. A bulleted list works best. Be succinct. Do not make this a historical novel of what you did. As an architect you must have made important decisions regarding the architecture and the solution(s) that followed from it. In Section 6.n.3.4 a list of tools you used in your architectural work is asked for. These can include PowerPoint, MooD, Visio, Excel, ProVision, Rational Rose, Select Enterprise, or any other tool you used. Explain briefly for what purpose you used them, and the rationale for your selection. In Section 6.n.3.5 a list of architectural deliverables is asked for. List documents, models, prototypes, frameworks, and other deliverables that are pivotal to the development of the solution, and for each of them describe the reason for inclusion as a deliverable.
3.5.6 Results (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.4)
This section is one of the more important ones of the Experience Profiles. Highlight how well the architecture designed stood up to the realization. Was it used, modified, or discarded? Where did it succeed and where did it fall short? Was the final result to the satisfaction of the customer and did it address the business problems it was supposed to solve? Where you want to mention budgets, try to avoid actual numbers (confidentiality) but rather within budget, 1.5 times the projected budget, or such phrase.
3.5.7 Lessons learned (Certification Package Template Section 6.n.5)
Another important section. An architect learns from his/her mistakes and from what went well. Itemize key lessons learned you had in this experience, including where things did not go as you had hoped. What, in retrospect, would you do differently? This will indicate your continuous learning and understanding of the field of business and its problems.
3.5.8 References (Certification Package Template Section 7)
The experiences must be verifiable by references people that will vouch for you and the role you claim you played. The best references are from actual customer representatives such as their architects, business manager, and others with whom or for whom you worked. The reference would mention the specific projects (hopefully with the same name as you used in the Experience Profile), your role in them (if you were the Lead Architect, it would be best if mentioned explicitly), approximate time of your involvement, and in general describe your accomplishments (which should be compatible with those you mention in the Certification Package). Each experience must have a reference. Second choice would be from the companies you worked for internal references from account managers, project managers, and others. These are likely to be less impartial to one of their own colleagues like yourself.
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4.
Summary
Many problems with The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) program submissions can be avoided by simply following the instructions. Read the Open CA documentation carefully and provide what it asks for. Have someone who has been through the certification process, especially someone who has served on a Certification Board, review your Certification Package before your submission.
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The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program

Document Number: X1304

Understanding the Open CA Mindset

Making it Easier for your Pre-Submission Reviewers

Some General Advice

Skill level required: Deep CFS01.1 From (mm/yy) To (mm/yy)

Demonstrate written application of communication skills Project or Major Activity

Core Foundation Skills (CFS)

What were the architectural decisions or designs it communicated?

CFS04: Manage Architectural Elements of an IT Project Plan

CFS08: Perform Technical Solution Assessments

Experience Criteria (EC)

EC04: Application of Methods

Intentionally left blank.

Professional Development (PD)

Contributions to the IT Architect Community (CC)

This section should be self-explanatory.

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