News

IBM Launches Federal SOA Cert Program

• By Kurt Mackie
• August 24, 2007

The free 12-week Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) certification program is scheduled to start on Sept. 12. It requires no prerequisites and is aimed at "helping U.S. federal agencies adopt and benefit from SOA initiatives," according to an e-mail from an IBM Software Group Communications representative.

For the program, IBM is providing online, self-paced course materials, which require about five hours per week of the student's time. In addition, there's a one-hour-per-week training and mentoring session, which is "conducted either in-person or via remote conferencing," according to the IBM rep. There will be three personal meetings throughout the fall, which will take place at the IBM Federal SOA Institute in Washington, D.C.

The program offers certifications at the end of the curriculum, and there currently are two course tracks. The entry-level track, which is designed for novices, leads to an SOA Associate certificate. The advanced curriculum is designed for senior IT professionals and leads to a SOA Solution Designer certificate.

A third party will administer the certification exams. Each exam requires a $150 fee.

In its announcement, IBM listed some of the topics planned for the program:

• The value of SOA;
• Determining return on investment;
• Bridging the gap between technical and business teams;
• Basic architecture;
• Preparing for governance issues; and
• Effective deployment and management, among others.

People can register and get curriculum details by sending an e-mail to fedsoa@us.ibm.com. Event listings associated with the SOA certification program can also be found at IBM's government solutions page.

A second IBM SOA program series is planned for the spring of 2008.