Question for Paul & Joseph: Is OCMJEA relevant?

[Debashish Chakrabarty]

Hi Paul, Joseph: I am really excited to learn that your book is released, I am happy because my employer recently agreed to sponsor the OCMJEA certification and I target to finish it before the end of the year where your book would come handy indeed.

My question is more broad and not exactly on the book. Do you think the OCMJEA certification is relevant in today's scene? My own view is that the exam is testing core system design skills, using UML and therein the ability to understand the requirements well, handle NFRs etc. However, more and more enterprise applications are now moving towards a cloud based architecture, where one needs a broader understanding of PAAS/IAAS in addition to core architecture skills, knowledge about J2EE stack alone won't perhaps suffice here. We have seen new roles of Cloud architects emerging. There are several other pieces of puzzle involved line NoSQL DBs, ESB, Integration frameworks etc. In addition, the development method for such applications has transitioned towards Agile, which poses challenges related to iterative development (where the design may not be created upfront, alike waterfall model) and continuous integration. The Architects are also expected to prepare DevArch related artifacts (example: application development standards, code review checklists etc) and hence are inherently expected to have been coding a while, and are expected to be aware of concepts of DevOps. IMHO the exam doesn't really care about these real-world issues and I am afraid and OCMJEA may still find himself in-adept in dealing with such situations. What are your views about this? And is Oracle contemplating any change in this regard in the exam curriculum?

[Paul Allen]

We believe the core elements of OCMJEA will continue to be relevant in all current and future architectures. Although the current exam does not cover cloud architecture specifically, it's clear that Java EE has to evolve in this space and therefore as it does, so will the associated exam material. We are not privy to Oracle's plans for the future of Java and cannot speculate on a time table, but we do remain very optimistic about the future of Java EE and the OCMJEA exam.