Certified Architect Program Launched

The new Microsoft Certified Architect program establishes a new standard at the high end of Microsoft’s certification program. Aimed at experienced IT personnel responsible for the overall design of software or systems, the certification is not based on tests, but requires candidates to be approved by a board of current architects. Although the certification focuses on a significant need-planning critical service-oriented architectures with multivendor systems that offer numerous opportunities for failure-it will take some time to establish its value. Among other limiting factors are an emphasis on hard-to-measure “soft skills” and the certification’s association with one vendor.

Role of the Software or Systems Architect

Although some individuals have been working as architects since the IT industry began, efforts to formalize the term are new and definitions vary. Furthermore, the architect community is subdividing itself into IT or systems architects (who focus primarily on infrastructure, such as network design), and software architects, responsible for the high-level design of specific applications. Some groups add a higher layer for enterprise architects, who combine those roles, and a lower one for associate architects, people who typically have strong technical and IT design skills but have yet to prove themselves on other dimensions of architecture, such as project management, communications, or budgeting.