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IT Architect Certification Standards


By SD Times News Team
January 1, 2006 — 
The role of the IT architect has been steadily evolving in the past decade: from a focus on designing applications and then systems, to a role that is much more tightly linked to the success of the business. Like building architects, much of their work is focused on the front end of the solution life cycle: listening to clients, understanding their business requirements and systematically forming incrementally more detailed definitions of the structures of an information technology solution—an architecture.

And while their job scope has evolved, the way their skills are standardized and evaluated hasn’t. IT architecture is not yet recognized as a profession in its own right, but it should be. To that end, the Open Group has launched the ITAC (IT Architect Certification) standard for a complete definition of the rapidly expanding IT architecture profession. Now, IT architects who have real skill and experience-based qualifications can be backed up by a rigorous certification program.

Demand for skills high
IT decision makers say that they need people with more than just knowledge—they need demonstrable practiced skills and a track record. Organizations that provide and train IT architects report that demand is high; however, experienced and skilled practitioners are not receiving the recognition that should be accorded.

IT architects need proven competencies across a variety of disciplines straddling business, strategy and strong understanding of IT. These include basic systems analyses encompassing the scope and migration issues as well as a comprehensive knowledge of the burgeoning legislation in this area, the many technical standards that are being published and the related compliance claims of vendors.

Knowledge of appropriate governance models and of architectural frameworks such as TOGAF and the Rational Unified Process (RUP) adds to the demands on practitioners to the extent that already we are seeing a need for differentiation of roles into areas such as enterprise, information, infrastructure and application architecture. Also essential are people skills to liaise with the business process experts and the technical implementers.

One reason the IT industry faced the dot-bomb was the lack of linkage between business and technology acquisition—or, the general lack of an architectural vision. Many organizations purchased large quantities of IT products without thinking about how the technology would support the business vision or enable business processes—both at enterprise and application architecture levels.

Without support for the development of an enterprise architecture, there was very little direct linkage between business processes and related business applications. For enterprises with multiple systems—which is the case in most companies—this also implies a lack of information architecture vision and an end-to-end systems integration architecture. As a result, many companies have been saddled with a lingering technology hangover.

For many enterprises, the cure has been the effective implementation of enterprise architecture (EA). By linking EA to IT project funding, companies and governments have aligned IT acquisitions to successful IT project implementations.

IT Architects’ Evolution
As early as 10 years ago, most IT architects were solely focused on application-level design and implementation. Recently, organizations have come to realize increased productivity in linking the implementation of IT systems to their mission by enabling the IT architect to better understand the business itself.

The IT architect role and position within many organizations has only recently been formalized by some organizations. This is especially true of the role of the enterprise architect. Because well-implemented IT architecture is crucial to success, the means to identify the appropriate experts becomes equally important.

Meta Group has noted these developments, and in a recent paper has predicted that the demand for IT architects and the introduction of a definitive professional body will be met—by 2007. However, the industry needs more immediate action.

The Path to Certification
IT decision makers brought the issue to their meetings within The Open Group, an international consortium bringing together end users, vendors and other industry experts. The result: the Open Group IT Architect Certification Program (Open Group ITAC), an open standard for accrediting an organization’s IT architect certification program that establishes a baseline for IT architect skills and experience against which individuals are measured.

The standard establishes two paths to certification: either directly through the Open Group, or via an organization, such as the company they work for, that has obtained ITAC accreditation of their internal certification program.

The ITAC is an extensible framework that allows for cultural, industry-specific and proprietary extensions referred to as extended certification requirements. The framework’s flexibility allows for extensibility while ensuring that a certification candidate meets baseline requirements in order to be recognized as certified at one of the three different levels of certification: Certified IT Architect, Master Certified IT Architect and Distinguished Certified IT Architect.

Certification specialization in architecture disciplines will be added to the program over the next year. These include enterprise architecture, information architecture, infrastructure architecture and application architecture.

The Open Group IT Architect Certification program certifies IT architects that meet an open standard for skills and experience. The program includes direct certification of applicants as well as a process and a set of criteria for accrediting an organization’s internal certification programs. By defining criteria for recognizing certified professionals, it also sets the foundation for establishing a recognized IT architect profession.

In their applications for certification, candidates are required to describe their work experience in detail to show they meet the skills and experience requirements defined for the program. Certification boards will consist of Certified IT Architects who will evaluate applications via the documentation candidates provide as well as through board interviews.

The program establishes an industry standard baseline that provides the following benefits:

• A recognized certification standard to help ensure the further development and recognition of the IT architecture profession.

• Measurements against the same baseline criteria throughout the industry thereby establishing a standard for the use of the title Certified IT Architect.

• Certification credentials that are granted to the individual and remain with the individual as long as that individual maintains his or her status as a practicing IT architect.

• Credibility to organizations that accredit their certification program.

• A means for companies to validate certification credentials through the Open Group ITA certification repository.

• Organizations developing safety- and mission-critical applications may require Certified IT Architects to lead the design of important systems. This program provides a means to identify qualified architects.

• Academic institutions can use the skills template defined by the framework to develop curriculum to strengthen IT architect education.

The IT industry has been using the word “architect” in their job titles for decades, but only now do we have an opportunity to add some rigor to this title. We should seize this opportunity and create a profession that people can understand and trust—before legislators decide they know how to do it better.

Andras Szakal is chief architect of IBM’s Federal Software Group. He’s also a Senior Certified IT Architect and member of the Open Group board of directors.


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