Iasa – Architect Core

  • Application Deadline:
    19th April 2024
  • Start Date:
    22nd April 2024
  • Duration:
    5 days / 9am-5pm
  • Delivery:
    In-person
  • Subsidised Fees:
    €2,000

Iasa – Architect Core, for Business Technology Architects

The Iasa – Architect Core course develops a clear pathway and defined baseline for successful business technology architects.


This course will prepare you to deal with the most difficult aspects of technology architecture practice. It is not simply foundational, it is core. Even very senior technology architects have benefited from the well researched and proven techniques that have gone into connecting and using these critical elements.

Great architects are founded in three major areas:

Dealing with Business Concepts – This set of competencies deals with understanding how business works and how it impacts architecture. These concepts include business models, customer journeys with personas, capabilities with objectives, value methods, investment planning with some road mapping.

Technology Strategy, Design and Delivery – Technology options analysis and linking back to business objectives,  rigorous decision recording, technology depth, breadth and design are all critical to architecture success. At a minimum an architect should be able to handle design including patterns, the primary requirements / decisions / quality attributes relationships, architecture analysis, deliverables, products / projects, services, and quality assurance.

Dealing with Stakeholders – Often overlooked, always under-trained, and never enough time or techniques, dealing with stakeholders is the hardest part of the job. Humans are mercurial, the lines of decision traceability and influence are blurred, it is effectively chaos in the lifecycle management of companies with lots of petty power plays and even more in terms of financing and final outcomes. But at a minimum, stakeholder, employee culture and mindset, engagement models with deliverables and engagement touchpoints and then a number of competencies tied to those.

 

Delivered in partnership with the Irish chapter of Iasa Global, this 5-day in-person course will prepare you for these 3x aspects of architecture practice, and give you the required knowledge of models and tools for developing business technology architectures that meet the demands of modern business. The Iasa – Architect Core course develops a clear pathway and defined baseline for successful IT architects.

 

This course is suitable for

  • Architects, regardless of your specialisation, that are either new into the role, are somewhere on their career journey or are seasoned architects sharpening or updating their skills or preparing for CITA-P/D certification
  • Experienced IT staff from other roles that are seriously considering the move into Architecture
  • Senior IT leaders that are considering establishing/improving their Architecture practice and career paths for their staff.

 

In order to pass the exam for certification, a thorough and complete understanding of the he Business Technology Architecture Body of Knowledge (BTABoK) is necessary.

 

The course is delivered over 5-days and is structured into lessons that walk through the demand & supply chains of an architect’s engagement with clients, customers and other key stakeholders typical in any business.

The course premise is very much you learn by doing. In each lesson there is a small amount of learning slides to help prepare for the workshop exercises that follow. A case study is used to support the learning outcomes within the course timeframe.

Extensive use of a subset of visual based templates (canvasses/cards) is made, preloaded in a visual tool, to capture important architecture information. This is referred to as the structured canvass approach in the IASA BTABOK.

Students will collaborate in teams using the visual tool, present back to the wider class to be challenged and have open discussion/debate.

On the final day of the course each of the teams will present back to the class reflecting on what they achieved and the interconnected path taken.

With the workshop based approach and careful choice of team makeup by the instructor at the start of the week, team members draw on each others direct and indirect experience for a balanced outcome bringing everyone along regardless of your starting point.

There is an open book exam of multiple choice questions that need to be completed within a certain timeframe of completing the course in order to be awarded the CITA-F certification level. Guidance on the exam and material to study is provided on the final day.

Get ready for an intensive week of knowledge sharing, debate and team work.

 

The course is structured around a 9-module syllabus, designed to provide developing business architects with the knowledge of models and tools that meet the demands of modern business. 

The below curriculum is developed by IT architects for IT architects:

 

Module 1 – Introduction

  • Define personal course objectives 
  • Define customer outcome goals  
  • Describe your customer  
  • Figure out who is going to enter the leaderboard challenge 

 

Module 2 – Business and Customer

  • Define a business model  
  • Understand your clients customer  
  • Define innovation in business 
  • Advise and lead using detailed knowledge of customer’s customer

 

Module 3 – Capabilities and Value

  • Describe your clients capabilities and how they impact services. 
  • Think in terms of client value from capabilities to customers  
  • Describe an innovative business case. 

 

Module 4 – Roadmaps and Architecture

  • Get involved in the organisation’s investment roadmap to make recommendations.  
  • Get buy off on new ideas as a trusted advisor  
  • Develop, track and communicate benefits realisation and measurement  
  • Define and develop and architecture description with the client  

 

Module 5 – Stories and Options

  • When Architects talk to other Architects and get challenged (eg. competitive, on features, etc), challenge back by asking thought provoking questions. 
  • Define and describe architecturally significant requirements. Be able to defend and describe the impact of the requirements and how it shapes the solution.  
  • Understand the current architecture landscape, evaluation of options and the development of a context and benefits realisation view.  
  • Describe and define the relationship between options, decisions and requirements.  

 

Module  6 – Structure and Assessment

  • Describe an architecture using multiple viewpoints to define its total shape and impacts in both functional and quality attributes.  
  • Facilitate a design thinking session and mentor the customer through more holistic design methods  
  • Use both formal and informal methods to analyse a peer and a customer architecture description.  

 

Module 7 – Agile, Roles and Stakeholders

  • Define an agile team structure which optimises a client engagement 
  • When engaged in stakeholder interactions the architect should have a leadership persona and engage based on a deep understanding of stakeholder needs.  
  • Define Stakeholders using multiple tools to better define a stakeholder management plan 
  • Actively define architecture team roles, the extended team impacts and related activities.  

 

Module 8 – Deliverables and Engagement

  • Describe an architecture team’s deliverables for an end to end process as a trusted advisor to business and leaders of execution.  
  • Describe critical processes for the architecture team at an organisation.  
  • Describe common elements of an engagement model for a client and how adaptations might impact their progress. 

 

Module 9 –  Putting It All Together

  • Define your customer outcomes and describe your wins and losses  
  • Demonstrate changes in your behaviour towards customers and businesses 
  • Compile your team engagement model  

 

On the final day of the 5-day course, candidates must undertake an open book exam featuring multiple-choice questions within a specified time frame to earn the CITA-F certification level. Comprehensive guidance on exam preparation and recommended study materials are provided to participants. 

Upon completing the course, participants will receive CITA-F industry certification from IASA Ireland, validating their expertise in the field. This certification is recognised by industry professionals and signifies proficiency in relevant skills and knowledge essential for success in the field of architecture. The CITA-F credential is awarded by achieving a 70% or higher on the CITA-F examination.

 

At the end of this course you will understand the fundamental role of an architect and the integrated architecture practice, the business and its stakeholders. You will be able to think about your technology solutions and communicate them with an entirely new level of stakeholder. You will be able to describe the way your company is positioned within the enterprise and devise methods for making that position stronger.

These will form a reference point of what it means to be a successful business technology architect and how to behave. You can take these learnings and tools into your organisation, along with a wealth of further material provided in the IASA body of knowledge (BTABOK).

Ultimately this course, and the CITA-F certification, will set you up for success in the business technology architect profession, knowing what’s core to making you a better architect that adds value to your organisation.

 

Fees

Full Course fee – €2,500
Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet grant – €500
Subsidised fee – €2,000

Part-funded fees are only available to eligible applicants*.

 

*Funding Eligibility

Applicants must be working in a private or commercial semi-state organisation registered in the Republic of Ireland (Business, Consultant, Freelancer) to avail of the grant-aided fees. As a government-funded training network, we can only support those meeting these criteria.

Candidates not eligible for part funded fees, can pay the full course fee by registering with IASA.

 

If you have any questions for our programme team, please use the ‘Make An Enquiry’ form.

If you would like to confirm your place on the next course, please use the ‘Book Now’ form.

 

“One of the best hybrid courses I’ve attended. The instructor had his head in both the physical and digital world. 10/10.”

 

“This is a good solid baseline course that makes sure you can identify gaps in your knowledge and work on them moving forward. It also helps test your mindset by challenging you to look at BT architecture from all angles.”

 

“I was looking for tools and means to further extend my skills within IT-architecture and I think this course fitted me very well.”

 

“It’s apparent that the instructor is very experienced in both the profession and the course material. He is good at tying real life situations to the concepts in the material.”

 

“Very skilled and dedicated trainer, interesting subject, and perfect content. I will have good use of this in my daily work.”