As I was doing some market research for my EA's competency driven strategy I ran across an interesting article from late 2012 that validates the importance of a well educated, fully rounded and even certified Enterprise Architect. The article, "23 IT Certifications That Mean Higher Pay" posted on CIO.com in September of 2012, shows that companies value these skills and are willing to pay more.
The data was pulled from the Foote Research Group quarterly 2012 IT Skills Demand and Pay Trends Report and its CEO David Foote spoke with CIO.com about how you can use certifications to get employers to show you the money.
The article separates the list into three tiers of percent added to base pay from the lowest to highest:
- 8% - 13% Added to Base
- 10% - 15% Added to Base
- 12% - 16% Added to Base
In the highest tier of 12% to 16% Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) gets top ranking in Enterprise Architecture certifications for largest percent premium added to your base salary. I received my Open CA certification in 2011 and was nominated to the certification board. It was quite the honor for both.
Afterwards I really wanted top share my experiences and write up a condensed version of what Open CA really was. You can find this information in the post entitled, "The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Program Distilled".
Two things I think this article says about our industry:
- Baseline of Skills and Competencies - Whether it is Open CA or any other EA certification, I believe this shows a natural maturing in the EA discipline. The industry is bringing together a set of common and recognized set of skills and competencies through these certifications. In this case the EA market has recoginized Open CA as the most popular and perhaps the defacto standard for EA skills and competencies.
- Competencies of Skills - I liked seeing Open CA certification on this list rather than TOGAF or a Zachman certification (there are many others besides these two). The reason I prefer Open CA is because it is competency based. Meaning it's about how and what you have done as a practitioner and not about what you know from reading a book or taking a class.
For more information on Open CA: http://www.opengroup.org/openca/cert/
Also of note in that tier with Open CA is the Program Management Professional (PgMP) certification.