Certification Programs Arrive For IT ArchitectsCertification Programs Arrive For IT Architects

Open Group's certification is available to architects who have a more academic role such as establishing best practices and methodologies at a company, things a chief enterprise architect might be responsible for. By contrast, Microsoft's program is aimed more at the hands-on, practicing architect.

And while the availability of two certifications might confuse professionals about which one to pursue, they could prove complementary. "There's no weakness in having two approaches--between the two, you'll get it right," says David Foote, president of IT management consulting firm Foote Partners. "You need people up in the clouds as well as in the trenches. You need gurus to do both."

In general, architects are often the people who end up defining new sets of skills, Foote says. "At the enterprise level, architects just don't have technical skills; they also need communication and teamwork skills," he says. "They're abstract designers, like a conductor in a orchestra inspiring a violinist how to play the notes."

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Certification programs will add specificity and depth to what IT architects already know, says Ben Weiner, a systems architect at TIAA-CREF, an organization that provides financial retirement services to people in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields. The new programs are similar to the IT Infrastructure Library, a framework for the management and delivery of IT services developed by the British government, Weiner says. "The No. 1 benefit of these types of frameworks is the common language it creates for IT professionals," he says.

It's not easy or inexpensive to get certified. Candidates for the Microsoft Certified Architect program pay $10,000 and can face a review board that might spend two or more hours asking questions to evaluate the individual's understanding of technology.

Weiner doesn't have immediate plans to enroll in a program but says he would expect his employer to cover the costs if he did. HP will pick up the tab for its architects to be certified. "It's the cost of doing business," Redmond says.

Certification programs for tech architects are where project management credentials were 10 years ago. And since project management credentials have become valuable, they've helped those pros demand higher salaries. Architect certifications likely will carry the same weight in the job market in five or 10 years.

Yet certification may not directly translate to cold, hard cash. Just 5% of respondents to information's survey say they received cash bonuses for getting any type of certification. It ranks a distant fourth after personal performance, company profit sharing, and completion of a project milestone.

Still, a tech architect certification will benefit those who get it by providing a benchmark for all those companies handing out six-figure salaries for the job title.