Oracle Certified Enterprise Architect - JEE 6 refresh update

The JEE 6 SCEA exam / certification

Following on from my earlier post requesting input into my next post, here's an often-requested update: what's happening with the Oracle Certified Master, Java EE 5 Enterprise Architect exam / certification update to JEE 6 standard?

In a nutshell, here's where it is (covering each of the three parts in turn):

Parts two and three of the exam (the practical elements) will remain very similar to how they operate today - these elements test your ability to design and document (part two) a solution to a well-defined business problem using the JEE platform and then challenge you (part three) to self-critique and justify key design decisions taken, especially on how non-functional requirements will be adequately satisfied. Parts two and three are pretty much independent of the current JEE revision, because the candidate is given a good degree of latitude in how you use JEE to solve the problem. Were you to use J2EE 1.4 features let's say, then the examiner is going to question the logic of that decision closely, but that's about it. Writing Ruby code and then having it compile to Java bytecodes at runtime using JRuby is also not recommended (don't laugh, someone did ask..)!

Part one of the exam (the multiple-choice exam) **will** change for JEE 6 - it has to because part one is more tightly coupled to a specific JEE revision - currently JEE 5 (with ~5% of J2EE 1.4 content).

The last time we revised part one, ~ten architects got together in Broomfield, CO for a week to design and critique the corpus of questions used. After that, Sun Microsystems (as they were then), brought in some external testing folks to benchmark the exam and to critique the overall marking strategy we intended to employ. That was an intense week and overall a fairly involved process, because you want to write difficult, tricky questions that will challenge an architect but at the same time, be fair. Part one of the architect exam is also not allowed to test your ability to memorize APIs or specifications - that is the primary task for the lower certifications. You very quickly find that a lot of difficult / tricky questions in JEE revolve around the APIs and specifications!

I think with the benefit of hindsight we erred on the side of fairness over toughness. I think we'll look to toughen up the questions for JEE 6.

I don't expect Oracle to reconvene the team of architects to do this refresh - the last refresh of the exam was a major refresh whereas we would consider this refresh to be more minor. Therefore the time taken to update should be shorter. Once the part one refresh is scheduled in, I'll post again on this topic. For now, the JEE 5 architect exam remains the most current and up to date architect exam you can take.

Effect of the SCEA study guide on the exam

The SCEA study guide book - especially chapter nine - is already having an effect on the exam. And that effect is interesting, mostly positive but with some negatives as well.

In general, it is fair to say that the overall standard of submissions has improved, and a lot of submissions clearly contain cues from chapter nine of the book - naming conventions, diagram layout, adoption of the server A and B spec approach for the deployment diagram - it's all there in a lot of submissions.

The book has made some of the submissions more anodyne / bland / standardized, which in turn makes me a little sentimental for the past. There's nothing like trying to traverse a crazy class diagram late at night for keeping your brain sharp!

In my opinion, a small but not insignificant percentage of candidates (a bit less than 10%) actually end up submitting a **worse** assignment under the influence of the book, and for a very interesting reason. If you buy the book and read it and aren't an architect, then you will have an incomplete understanding of the concepts covered within it. By extension, when you apply the book material to your submission, there is a very good chance that you will make mistakes that are pretty glaring. So the book will make your submission worse, not better.

As a corollary, if you buy the book and really get the material, your application of that new-found material on top of your already substantial knowledge and skills will result in a strong submission.

In summary then, the book is not a magic book.

The interesting medium / long-term question is whether or not the exam should always have a pass rate of X% and a fail rate of Y% or if it is acceptable to have X approach 100% as a result of the book (that's not happening but clearly it could).