ArchiMate Certification
Enterprise Architecture is a crucial discipline, helping organizations of all sizes plan and drive business transformation and ongoing optimization with optimal clarity and effectiveness. An enterprise architect can help stakeholders understand the benefits and risks of different choices, as well as improve the relationships between different areas of a company. As more and more businesses pursue digital transformation, solid enterprise architecture skills are becoming increasingly valuable.
However, EA is an extremely comprehensive topic. There are several layers to a typical organizational architecture, to say nothing of the links between them or how they relate to long-term strategy. Architects must also be capable of communicating this to a variety of audiences with enough clarity and guidance to facilitate critical EA work.
One way to overcome the limits of high-level EA language is to invest in additional communication methods and tools. This is where the ArchiMate language comes in.
What is ArchiMate?
ArchiMate 3.1 is an open and independent enterprise architecture modeling language created by The Open Group. It is designed for describing, visualizing, and analyzing architectures, with the language itself being flexible enough to suit different organizations, audiences, and levels of complexity. It uses clear concepts to represent EA domains and the relationships between them and can also describe business processes, organizational structures, information flows, IT systems, and more. As ArchiMate is vendor-independent, it also works well with other EA frameworks and languages.
Studying ArchiMate can be highly valuable for communicating and facilitating enterprise architecture work. Still, is it a requirement? ArchiMate is hardly as large a name in EA as other examples like TOGAF or Zachman, so is it really worth studying?
Let’s take a look at whether ArchiMate certification is worth the cost.
The ArchiMate Certification Path
Potential students will be happy to know that the ArchiMate certification path is extremely simple!
Candidates start with ArchiMate 3 Foundation. This syllabus covers the basic elements of the language, such as structure, relationships, layers, and the generic ArchiMate metamodel. Passing the Foundation exam is also a prerequisite for continuing to the next level.
The ArchiMate 3 Practitioner exam requires an understanding of the relationships between the layers of the ArchiMate language. It also goes into more detail on physical elements of EA, stakeholder interaction, and so on.
While the certification paths are not connected, some candidates choose to study ArchiMate alongside TOGAF. The reason is that both frameworks were created by The Open Group and work extremely well together.
What is the Value of Getting Certified in ArchiMate?
It is worth noting that, as useful as ArchiMate is, it is not quite equivalent to major EA frameworks like TOGAF and Zachman. That is to say, it will not teach you how to build and manage enterprise architectures.
Instead, ArchiMate is a tool for facilitating and supporting EA processes. It greatly helps with clarity and collaboration, especially when it comes to dealing with stakeholders and high-level managers. The clarity it offers also helps organizations to enjoy the full benefits of enterprise architecture initiatives by facilitating communication and collaboration.
With this in mind, studying ArchiMate can be a great way for candidates to enjoy high-level positions in enterprise architecture.
According to Payscale, enterprise architects can earn:
- US: $95,000 to over $197,000
- UK: £51,000 to over £113,000
Remember, reaching high-level positions requires sufficient experience as well as knowledge and training.
