Microsoft have introduced a few new certifications. They are outlined at the certification page. The Microsoft Certified Architect one looks quite rigorous. There are currently 2 tracks; Solutions Architect, which looks developer orientated, and Infrastructure Architect, which looks to be more more platform focused on servers, networks and delivery. it also looks like these new certifications will be hard to get. Good. The last thing we need is another raft of certifications that give us architectural equivalents of the famous paper MCSE’s.
The Q&A section at the Microsoft Certified Architect certification website is interesting reading. Looks like only about 25% of the required knowledge will be based on Microsoft technologies. From the web site:
Q. Does the certification cover only Microsoft Technologies?
Q. What competencies will the program address?
A. t the present time, it is expected that only about a quarter of the emphasis of a candidate’s knowledge will be on Microsoft-related architecture technologies; the rest will relate to general architecture principles and best practices that aren’t Microsoft specific. A candidate for the program will have to have a broad-based knowledge that extends well beyond Microsoft technologies. In addition, the non-technical skills domain that candidates will face throughout the process will be broad, including such knowledge areas as project management, decision-making, strategic thinking, and oral and verbal communication.
That looks very encouraging. Hopefully this’ll be a worthwhile programme that helps raise the level of professionalism in the IT industry.
