Sunday, June 21, 2009

Sample SCEA book chapter for download - web tier

In anticipation of the full book going up on Rough Cuts any day now, I wanted to share one of the chapters to get early feedback on it. The chapter I'm sharing is the third chapter focusing on the web tier portion of the exam and is still in draft status, but with the exception of the graphics needed, is more complete than not. All feedback appreciated. Link to chapter.

Friday, June 19, 2009

SCEA study guide book update

Just a short update on the book for all of the comments asking for an update. I put the content on the Pearson FTP server for peer review and editing the Saturday before JavaOne. Unfortunately it's taking longer than expected to get it pushed through that review process - I'm asking pretty regularly and I'll keep asking on your behalf. As soon as it goes up on Rough Cuts I'll let you guys know.. thanks for the continued interest in the book!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Slides from JavaOne BOF on the SCEA exam

I've posted the slides for my BOF talk at JavaOne - enjoy! (including the obvious typo on slide 16).

Sample assignment for the SCEA exam - part two

So, as a follow-up to part one of this little series, below is the exact list of deliverables that you are required to develop for part two of the exam.

It is your task to create an architecture and design for the System under Discussion (SuD) with the given business domain model, information provided above and requirements in the use cases. The architecture must be built using the JEE platform. All deliverables will be accepted as HTML only and each diagram must be UML compliant.

1.Create a class diagram for the SuD. Public method names referenced in other UML diagrams (e.g. sequence diagrams) should be provided.

2.Create a Component diagram for the SuD showing the components used in the system and their interaction. Examples of components are EJBs, Servlets, JSPs, major POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects) and important Managers / Controllers / Design Pattern implementations.

3.Create a Deployment diagram that describes the proposed physical layout of the major tiers of the SuD.

4.Create either a Sequence or Collaboration diagram for each use case provided.

In addition to these UML deliverables, the exam requires you to:

1.List the top three risks and identify a mitigation strategy for each risk.

2.List any assumptions made during the process of coming up with the architecture and design.

Your architecture and design will be graded on how well it supports the requirements detailed in this document and on the clarity of all information provided in both textual and diagrammatic form.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Sample assignment for the SCEA exam - part one

Following up on last week's BOF at JavaOne, I promised to put the slides online as well as the expanded version of a sample scenario for part two of the exam. The slides are coming later, and here is the expanded version of the JustBuildIt scenario. As per the talk, the goal here is to expand on this scenario over time and create a fully-worked solution from it. In subsequent posts, I'll be posting the domain model, deliverables and use case diagrams so that you can see the full complexity of a scenario that I believe is of the same complexity as an actual scenario in the architect's exam today.

Enjoy!


You are the architect for JustBuildIt Corporation, an international, vertically-integrated construction company with significant operations in the US and Canada, Europe and the Pacific Rim. JustBuildIt operates its own forests, quarries and steel foundries to supply its own building sites with wood, concrete and steel. This end to end style of operation has helped JustBuildIt to keep its costs of raw material down in an era of soaring commodity prices. The management team has recently concluded a business-wide review from leaves to roots of the entire company and one fact is apparent – JustBuildIt pays a lot of money moving raw materials to construction sites, even when there are materials just as suitable nearby.

JustBuildIt has decided to build a building commodities exchange to allow it and some of its competitors to pool excess capacity in a co-opetition model. In the future, raw materials for a construction site will be sourced through the exchange, rather than exclusively from JustBuildIt inventory.

Based on the management’s report and also interviews with key senior staff, you know the following:

• JustBuildIt have recently invested in an inventory and order management system which tracks capacity of their production facilities and also individual orders coming in from construction sites around the world. This system is accessed via a JMS Queue;

• JustBuildIt have decided to expose the interface to their exchange as a web services API;

• In order to counter accusations of unfairness, JustBuildIt has agreed with all participants that 95% of all transactions to and from the exchange will execute in 5 seconds or less, with the remaining 5% executing in 10 seconds or less;

• The system has an uptime requirement during core working hours (GMT -8 to GMT +8) of 99.99%; and

• The actual placement of orders into the exchange is a manual process – JustBuildIt site foremen place orders daily based on individual construction site requirements.