Your point is well taken. They appear to imply a sequence in the JCert RoadMap. I took my tests out of sequence and still achieved Certified Solution Developer is my point. I understood the sequence as saying that in order for you to get final Certification you needed all of the proceeding work done. I was allowed to take the tests even though I had not completed the ones before them in the sequence. Some people started out getting the IBM 157
test just to get a Specialist for Websphere Studio Application Developer (Which is a IBM Certification in and of itself) and then decided later to persue the Solution Developer. It would not make sense to say that he/she could not do that because he/she would break the sequence. Or worse yet that he would have to go back and take the SCJP2, IBM 486 and then retake the Websphere Studio Application Developer exam. I hope I don't sound like I am rambling.
I want to go for SCWCD pretty soon. I was not aware of plans that it would be a part of the JCert.
You need the Solution Developer to get the Enterprise Developer. I do not have any market data behind me to indicate how market sees these tests. I know that a lot of companies have stayed away from
EJB's because of expense. The skills that match the Solution Developer and the SCWCD are what is really needed out there right now in my humble opinion.
The Solution Developer does not deal with EJB's, RMI, Corba, JNDI etc. It is pretty much dealing with working with core Java in a IDE as well as good Analysis and Design skills. The Websphere Studio Application Developer version of Solution Developer needs background in
JSP as well. That was not a part of the VisualAge for Java version that I took. I think that the Solution Developer is a tremendous foundation to build from.
The Enterprise Developer is getting into the upper end of the J2EE. It gets into EJB's etc as listed above. It also gets into working with the Applications Servers.
I think that both the Solution Developer and the Enterprise Developer are important. The skills in both areas will be important. I would be hard pressed to rate one over the other.
Garth
SCJP2, IBMVAJ, IBMSD
[ July 18, 2002: Message edited by: garth schneider ]