The big problem I have with The Open Group’s approach – it is expensive to be certified and in my experience EA certification is never mentioned when applying for EA jobs. In fact I have deleted the qualifications section of my CV two years ago and no one has ever asked for that information.
Exposure to and/or training in multiple methods is the better then relying on one – DODAF, Zachman, TOGAF, EA3, Agile EA, etc and take the best of each and work out how to apply it is a better practice that certifying in one. If interviewing an architect now I would ask for strengths and weaknesses of each and expect an educated and informed answer. I would not look for certification - it is an expensive myth.
The biggest challenge in finding someone who stands out from the crowd is someone who can really make EA work. So many practitioners I meet are theorists and are significantly challenged to deliver EA successfully in an organisation. Is this because they try and follow a method blindly?...... Sometimes. Is it because they lack the skills to deliver EA?...... Sometimes. Is it because they dwell on the noun – creating THE enterprise architecture rather than the verb – doing future state planning and seeing it executed in projects?….. Often.
Mostly it is because they lack leadership. No matter what you are doing in the EA space you need excellent leadership skills to make it successful. Something as simple as making a stand of a target state for a technology domain requires: 1) Bravery – putting yourself out there and risking getting shot down, stepping on all the toes of people who wanted blue boxes not red boxes because they are better etc. 2) Facilitation – bringing together all the views and challenges and directing that energy toward a final solution – that is hard work. 3) Collaboration – involving people and building relationships. 4) Negotiation – hearing and absorbing people’s views and opinions (not just listening but really hearing) and finding common ground. These are all leadership skills and no EA training will give you these.
I would rather send my architects on a leadership course and coach them in good leadership then get them certified in an EA framework. I would also expose them to as many EA approaches as possible and get them thinking about action - doing EA (i.e. future state -> current state -> close the gap…. one strategy/issue at a time) not creating things.
