Professional Architect

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is a framework for enterprise architecture. It provides a comprehensive approach to the design, planning, implementation, and governance of an enterprise architecture.

TOGAF models the enterprise at four levels: Business, Application, Data, and Technology.

TOGAF includes a methodology for defining IT in terms of a set of building blocks. It also contains a set of tools, a vocabulary, recommended standards and list of TOGAF compliant tools.

TOGAF includes a iterative process for enterprise architecture called Architecture Development Method (ADM).

This is becoming an increasingly asked for qualification.

I recommend anyone in the architecture profession become LEED Accredited. At best it will help your career and open doors, at worst you will learn a new skill and not look uninformed when it comes up in a meeting.

You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.

This is a dangerous question. You certainly don’t want to mention something you will be expected to do nor do you want to speak poorly of your previous company.

Try to keep it somewhat vague:

“Often with a large team there can be overlaps with work, so the same work may end up being done twice. This is obviously a waste of time. So it is important that everyone on the team is communicating”

This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.

Don’t be afraid to brag about yourself, for example:

"My time management skills are excellent and I’m organized, efficient, and take pride in my work. I am very familiar with the processes and procedures of taking large projects from conceptual design to construction administration.

I have a strong attention to detail and bring a rigorous design ethic to all the projects I work on. I am also very skilled in the use of 2D and 3D computer software for both drafting and rendering for presentation materials and detailed construction documents."

This isn’t an opportunity to share your online gaming skills.

Keep it relevant to the role you are applying or use it to bring up a qualification such as:

“Completing my architecture license was my greatest accomplishment, it was the culmination of years of education, work experience and 30+ hours of exams.”

First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up: Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.

Having better service capacity with high availability and low latency is mission critical for almost all businesses.

Availability means the ability of the application user to access the system, If a user cannot access the application, it is assumed unavailable. High Availability means the application will be available, without interruption.

Achieving high availability for a application is not always a easy task. Using redundant server nodes with clustering is a common way to achieve higher level of availability in web applications.

Availability is commonly expressed as a percentage of uptime in a given year.

Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.

Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.

It is important to engage projects during the initiation phase to ensure that architecture compliance processes are included in the project planning.

Once the solution architecture has been defined a compliance assessment should be performed. The compliance assessment ensures the project conforms to the defined Enterprise Architecture. It is also an opportunity to engage project members and get feedback for the Enterprise Architecture.

The compliance assessment includes checklists for hardware, software, applications, information, security, system management and methods and tools. It also documents an overview of the project architecture / design.

An Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a collection of strategic information that describes a business and the information and technologies necessary to operate the business. This includes descriptions of goals, business processes, roles, organizational structures, information, applications and systems.

Enterprise Architecture encapsulates the information necessary to implement new technologies in response to the changing needs of the business.

EA is often broken down into four domains: business, application, data and technology architecture.

Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.

You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag, just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.

Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I’d like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.

Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific statement or a paraphrase will work. Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith Company, always said I was the hardest workers she had ever known. It is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.