Enterprise Architect Experts NEEDED

Looking for Enterprise Architect Experts

The Sun Microsystems certification team is updating the industry leading
Sun Certified Enterprise Architect exam for the new Java EE 5.0 Platform release.

We are looking for EXPERT participants for the Job Task Analysis(JTA). The SCEA 5.0 exam is for enterprise architects responsible for rchitecting and designing Java EE 5 compliant applications. The JTA is a document that describes the disciplines and activities of the SCEA job role (Java EE Enterprise Architect). At this phase in the JTA, we have identified a broad spectrum of activities such as designing core modules, defining service level agreements (SLAs, such as performance, throughput, availability, and so on), and performing tests to validate the SLAs.

We now need experts in specific areas (security, SLA testing, and tuning) that will help elaborate in these areas. You do not need to be an expert in all of these areas to participate.

If you have the below skills and are interested in participating in this phase, please send an email to [email protected] by October 12, 2007, put in subject: SCEA JTA.

SKILLS NEEDED

Security:
* Java SE/EE security
* network security (intrusion detection/prevention, DMZ configurations)
* OS "hardening" (ideally, Solaris but Linux would also be fine)

Performance testing:
* webapp performance testing
* throughput testing
* scalability testing
* open source testing tools
* test preparation

Tuning:

* JVM tuning for Java EE applications
* Java EE tuning: app server and web server tuning (ideally with
Sun Java Server tool suite, but Jboss would also be fine)
* database tuning (an open source DBMS such as MySQL or PostgreSQL)
* OS and network tuning for web applications

Thank you.

Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer
Java Certification Program Manager

Hi, Evelyn:

When will the SCEA exam be updated with Java EE5?

Thanks

Originally posted by Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer:
Looking for Enterprise Architect Experts

The Sun Microsystems certification team is updating the industry leading
Sun Certified Enterprise Architect exam for the new Java EE 5.0 Platform release.

We are looking for EXPERT participants for the Job Task Analysis(JTA). The SCEA 5.0 exam is for enterprise architects responsible for rchitecting and designing Java EE 5 compliant applications. The JTA is a document that describes the disciplines and activities of the SCEA job role (Java EE Enterprise Architect). At this phase in the JTA, we have identified a broad spectrum of activities such as designing core modules, defining service level agreements (SLAs, such as performance, throughput, availability, and so on), and performing tests to validate the SLAs.

We now need experts in specific areas (security, SLA testing, and tuning) that will help elaborate in these areas. You do not need to be an expert in all of these areas to participate.

If you have the below skills and are interested in participating in this phase, please send an email to [email protected] by October 12, 2007, put in subject: SCEA JTA.

SKILLS NEEDED

Security:
* Java SE/EE security
* network security (intrusion detection/prevention, DMZ configurations)
* OS "hardening" (ideally, Solaris but Linux would also be fine)

Performance testing:
* webapp performance testing
* throughput testing
* scalability testing
* open source testing tools
* test preparation

Tuning:

* JVM tuning for Java EE applications
* Java EE tuning: app server and web server tuning (ideally with
Sun Java Server tool suite, but Jboss would also be fine)
* database tuning (an open source DBMS such as MySQL or PostgreSQL)
* OS and network tuning for web applications

Thank you.

Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer
Java Certification Program Manager

is this a job offer??? :roll:

Originally posted by rathi ji:
is this a job offer??? :roll:

Not one that pays, I strongly suspect. Sun usually requests for experts to help with the design of their exams, from deciding what to concentrate on and ask questions about to vetting those questions before a beta. This seems to me to be the first steps in revising the SCEA exam, and as such is probably just determining what needs to be covered.

And i assume you don't need to have existing SCEA certifcation to be eligible?

I wonder if there will be an easy upgrade path for currently certified architects?

I feel as SCEA is an advanced Java Certification, There should be a prerequisite that an SCEA applicant should have a Foundation level certification (scjp) + a specialty level Certification(scmad/scbcd/scwcd/scjd/scdjws).
That way it would be a true level advanced certification. I would not be surprised that some SCEAs would not be able to pass the scjp. And if an SCEA is suppose to be architecting and directing developers, don't they need to be experts in Java, EJBs as well

Does this mean that the SCEA certificate will not be updated with EJB 3 info till sometime after October 12, 2007? With so much change in EJB 3.0 versus EJB 2.0, the SCEA exam seems to be really out of date with the EJB 1 contents.

Originally posted by Abiodun Oyesiji:
I feel as SCEA is an advanced Java Certification, There should be a prerequisite that an SCEA applicant should have a Foundation level certification (scjp) + a specialty level Certification(scmad/scbcd/scwcd/scjd/scdjws).
That way it would be a true level advanced certification. I would not be surprised that some SCEAs would not be able to pass the scjp. And if an SCEA is suppose to be architecting and directing developers, don't they need to be experts in Java, EJBs as well

Except that you're not looking at the 'role' thing as Sun does. SCJP and the lot are programmer exams - they concentrate on the APIs and the details of implementing the objects needed to develop software. The SCEA concentrates on design and the concepts involved. As such, it's not something that makes sense, requiring an architect (who may not be a programmer or have Java programming experience) to have passed the programming exams.

I'll admit that I happen to have both the programming and (current) architect certs - I've transitioned over the years from pure coding to about half-and-half with designing the applications we build. The level of what I needed to know for each exam is wholly different - one's the 100 foot view, and the other is the 30,000 foot view.

But yes, I do think myself that the Part I exam needs to be updated to include the newer technologies, as a reasonable architect should have some concept of what pieces of the modern Java EE toolkit are available for solving a problem. And I believe that's the purpose of the current request.

And, to answer Xixi Wang - I suspect that was a typo, since October 12th is next week in '06.

I'm also curious, are they updating part 1, or the whole exam? For part 2 I'm planning on using EJB 3.0 with JPA. It can't be more up to date than that. My guess is that part 2 submittions have been updated as the Java EE stack has evolved...?

I think that it will not be necessary to update part 2, only to specify that part 2 use JEE 5 api's.

I assume that only part 1 will be updated and that current SCEA's will only need to retake part 1 to update their certification.

Hopefully... I don't think I could manage doing the assignment again!

Hello,

I'm Bryan Basham, the person Sun has contracted to complete the JTA for the SCEA exam. I would like to respond to a few of your questions.

First, I cannot give you specific details about the changes in the new SCEA exam. Specifically, I cannot tell you whether there will be an "Upgrade" exam like Sun has done with other exams, such as the SCWCD.

However, I can tell you that the new SCEA will be updated for Java EE 5 along with EJB3. I can also tell you that Sun is evaluating updating all parts of the exam, including the assignment (part 2). However, no final decision on this has been made. The results of the JTA effort will guide Sun to make these decisions.

There is a debate about what "career path" leads to the architect role. Some argue that you do not need to be a programmer in the path to becomming an architect. I fervently disagree. While the role does concentrate on the design aspects, I feel it is only through programming experience (this worked, that didn't work) that one discovers good design; just as design patterns are discovered more than they are invented.

Someone asked if this was a "job offer". No, the request is for volunteers. The time commitment is not very heavy: could be 2-5 hour per week for a few weeks. This all depends upon the JTA topic that is assigned and how much work needs to be done to complete that topic.

Lastly, you do not need to have completed the previous SCEA exam to volunteer to help with the JTA. However, you do need to be an expert in the topic you choose to participate in.

Best regards,
Bryan
[ October 11, 2006: Message edited by: Bryan Basham ]

When will this task be completed and new exam will be open?
Should we wait for new exam to come or take the existing exam ?
Also recently I have bought vouchers for the SCEA I & III parts.
It says that it can be used for any exam starting with 310.
Will it be valid for new exam ?
[ October 12, 2006: Message edited by: Rahul Sonawale ]

I'm sorry, Rahul, but I don't know the answer to these questions.

Sorry,
Bryan

Bryan,
How the JTA works? Did you get some kind of assignment or survey?
[]s
Fabiano G. Souza

Does anyone have new information regarding the new SCEA exam (JEE 5 platform)? Thanks

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give an update. And answer Fabiano and Kha's questions.

To Fabiano... First a little history. I used to be a course developer for Sun Microsystems; and developed several cert exams for Sun: SCWCD and the recent SCJP for Java SE 5. I started working on the SCEA JTA in April of 2006. But in July of that year, I left Sun for a software company in Colorado. Then in October Evelyn asked me to subcontract with Sun to finish the work. What I have been doing over the past four months is an extension (a finishing) of the work I began in April.

Essentially, the SCEA JTA is an analysis of specific activities (also called major responsibilities, MR) of specific disciplines of the overall software development process (which was based loosely upon the Unified Process, UP). In the first phases of the JTA (in Apirl/May time frame), my SMEs and I described roughly 20 disciplines (from project mgmt to requirements analysis to design to four types of architecture to programming to deployment specialists and so on) and over 90 activites.

For the SCEA JTA we choose to focus on the following disciplines and activities:

Requirements gathering (discipline)

MR-34 identify the business rules of the SuD (System under Discussion)

MR-35 identify system context of the SuD

MR-36 identify the systemic qualities (and SLAs) of the SuD

Application architecting (discipline)

MR-61 create initial architecture

MR-63 identify the architecturall-significant requirements

MR-64 identify project (technical) risks

MR-65 create risk mitigation plans

MR-66 decompose SuD into modules (web and EJB components, plus more)

MR-67 design services for modules (design of EJB interfaces)

MR-68 evaluate the buy versus build decision for SuD components

Infrastructure architecting (discipline)

MR-70 plan the system capacity for the SuD

MR-71 design the deployment environment to satisfy SLAs

Security architecting (discipline)

MR-72 identify threats to the SuD

MR-73 create a solution to these threats

SLA testing (discipline)

MR-59 create test suites to validate SLAs

MR-60 perform SLA test suites

Tuning (discipline)

MR-86 tune the SuD to satisfy the SLAs

OK, that is the "what" of the JTA. The "how" is a little more difficult to explain. But essentially, this is the algorithm:

1. Identify disciplines of the "Entperprise Architect" role
2. Identify the activities of these desciplines that are relevant
3. For each activity (MR) do:
3.1 Find qualified SMEs by having volunteers write an essay on the MR of their choice
3.2 I select the SMEs that write good eassys to answer the JTA questions for that topic:
-- What is the purpose of this activity?
-- What knowledge is requied to do this activity?
-- What are the inputs to this activity?
-- What are the steps of this activity?
-- What are the outputs to this activity?
-- How do you validate that you have done this activity well?
3.3 Each SME (I choose three for each MR), write the JTA answers
3.4 I review each SME answers and ask clarifying questions
3.5 Each SME provides feedback to my questions
3.6 I combine the raw "content" from each SME into a single form
3.7 I send this "combined content" to three different SMEs for tech review
3.8 Each review SME provides feedback on the combined content
3.9 I perform the final edit on each MR based on the tech review findings

The JTA effort is nearing completion. We are on steps 3.8 and 3.9 for the 17 MRs in the SCEA JTA. "Yeah, it'll be here soon..." you say?!?!

However... the JTA is really just the first step in the update to the SCEA. Next, Sun will identify which of these MRs will affect the three different parts of the SCEA exam. Once these decisions are made, then the "item writing" workshop can occur. This is a little different with the SCEA exam because part 1 is the only multiple-choice exam, but this portion of the exam is relatively small (relative to say SCJP or SCWCD). Part 2 is an actual design assignment (and the part 3 verification). It's part 2 that requires significant effort.

Once the exam is created then it moves pretty quickly to getting it out "to the field." And while I cannot give you dates (only Sun can do that), I can tell you that we are a lot closer to the SCEA update than ever before. I'm sorry that it has taken so long for this to come to fruition. I can only hope that the new exam becomes a rich experience for the test taker; and a worthy measure of an architect's skill to employers.

Thank you all for being patient and please stay tuned to this forum for more news from Sun about the future of this exam. I know that I'm excited by the work that has gone into this updated exam. I hope you will be too.

BTW, I rarely read the SCEA forum myself (I'm usually on SCWCD, when I'm on), so I probably won't respond to this thread very often (read: less than twice a year). However, if you have additional questions, please feel free to contact me at: [email protected]

Warm regards,
Bryan
[ March 02, 2007: Message edited by: Bryan Basham ]

Bryan,
I have cleared the SCEA part 1. So in your opinion should I wait for the exam to upgrade as it would always be preferable to give the upgraded exam?
Also will I be able to give the upgraded exam for Part 2 and 3 as I have not given the upgraded Part 1 exam?
Regards,
Vivek

Bryan,

thanks a lot for these superb words and insights .

Regards,
Darya

FYI,

I e-mailed about this a few days ago and they're done.

They're done?!

Have they updated the Sun Education site? Are the new requirements posted anywhere?

Are you sure this isn't an early April fool's joke?

OK, I've calmed down a bit and answered one of my own questions. As of when I'm writing this, Sun's certification page still shows the "old" requirements.
Dang.
[ March 30, 2007: Message edited by: Burk Hufnagel ]

Can you be more specific? Does this mean the exam for jee 5 is ready? Thanks

Can you be more specific? Does this mean the exam for jee 5 is ready?

Its far from being ready

Hmm... That makes more sense.

I sort of expect that Sun will run a beta through this forum (they've done something similar with the SCJD exam, I believe) before they actually introduce a new exam to the coderanch.

I suspect this, why official mail Id is not used insted of [email protected]

Are you sure that this offer is from SUN?
If not then then pls clarify.


Thanks
Manoj Dixit

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your interest. This phase is now done and closed.

Thank you.

Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer
Java Certification Program Manager

"This phase is now done and closed."

What does this mean? Does it mean the test upgrade will be available in the near future? Thanks

It must mean they have collected the people they need with the required skills. Now they prepare some questions, test it, beat test it here and then launch it afterward. Just a hunch