Techie Architect: foundation

Showing posts with label foundation. Show all posts

Enterprise Architecture As Strategy - Book Review

I would like to share my experience in reading "Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating A Foundation For Business Execution".

The intention of doing a book review is to provide:

Objective feedback for potential readers.
Constructive feedback for the authors.

( Harvard Business Publishing, Amazon, Oreilly ) - (ISBN: 978-1591398394), below you will find links to my review.

Hope you enjoy it.

Video for the book review
The slides can be viewed/downloaded here

CKAD Part 3: Tips

If you like to view the video version of this blog post, you can click on the video.

Exam Registration

Use only Chrome browser to check exam requirements to be able to access all peripherals including webcam (I used MS Edge and it was giving the test is ok although the webcam test was not performed!!!).

Desk / Computer Setup

If using a laptop, add a new screen but disable the laptop screen monitor (Link to disable main laptop screen on Windows).
Make sure the laptop is fully charged and plugged.
I prefer to use a wired USB keyboard, and mouse, and avoid wireless devices, as you never know the behavior of the new terminal and browser.
Please make sure to have an external good-quality webcam with an autofocus feature, you will be asked to scan the room, under the table, under the keyboard, under the laptop, or behind the monitor, it is better to have movable webcam. Autofocus is required as you will need to scan your id/passport with a clear name displayed. I used Logitech C922.
Make sure the room is well-lit as normally webcam needs good lighting.
You will need to disable the following features/applications (Other software might be listed by the browser before you begin your exam session):

a. Hyper-V
b. VMware
c. Docker
d. Zoom

Exam tips

Open the following help pages to be ready:

Direct Link	Kubernetes documentation navigation
Command line tool (kubectl)	Doc -> Reference -> Command Line tool
Kubectl commands with examples	Doc -> Reference -> Command Line tool -> kubectl Commands
kubectl Cheat Sheet	Doc -> Reference -> Command Line tool -> kubectl Cheat sheet
API doc in one page	Doc -> Reference -> One-Page API Reference for Kubernetes

Make sure to run the context command before answering the question, you should find a red warning on every question with the correct cluster.
Make sure to use the correct namespace while answering the question, after answering, please verify the creation in the correct namespace.
Read the question carefully, some can be tricky to understand.
Partial scoring is supported. The Linux Foundation will calculate a score based on successful subtasks. Also, they will consider if some subtasks are harder than others.
Edit ~/.vimrc to include either the following:

Short form	Long form
:set ai cuc cul	:set autoindent cursorcolumn cusrsorline

Execute the following command to create 20 folders:

mkdir `seq 20`

Every time you want to copy text from Firefox into Terminal it shows a warning “Unsafe Paste”. You can just confirm this. You can also disable this in the Terminal Preferences -> General -> Show unsafe paste dialog.

Time management tips

Use imperative commands as much as possible to get things done quickly, you can add using dry generate the output to yaml file as initial step then you edit the yaml file answering the question requirements:

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --labels="app=hazelcast,env=prod" --dry-run=client –o yaml > pod.yaml

Try to use short names (ns, pv, pvc, cm, cj, hpa, as, svc, quota, deploy) as much as possible.
Don’t wait for a graceful deletion of objects.

kubectl delete pod nginx --force

Consider using replace instead of deleting and then creation or apply.

kubectl replace --force -f pod.yaml

Use the following command to search for fields/specs quickly:

kubectl explain pod.spec --recursive | grep -i -B 30 serviceaccount

My strategy in solving question was to solve easy quick questions first to gain as much as I can quickly as I know some topics will require more time to solve or troubleshooting, so I decided to skip and mark quetions of these topics for review later as usually require lengthy changes or validation: Network Policy, Ingress, Custom Resource Definition (CRD).

I hope this post will help someone out there, see you soon, bye.

CKAD Part 2: Practice, Practice, Practice

If you like to view the video version of this blog post, you can click on the video.

CKAD is an online, proctored, performance-based test consisting of a set of performance-based items (problems) to be solved in a command line within two hours. It is not a multiple-choice exam.

You will be given access from a Ubuntu terminal to 4 clusters (Details), and you will have 15 - 20 questions to be answered with different weights. Partial scoring for each exam is calculated so your sub-tasks to achieve an answer are supported.

On Jun-2022, the testing platform received a massive change in the exam environment, I have collected the most important links to show the changes and new restrictions:

Practice is a must to pass this exam, so the following are the practice resource I have used to pass the exam and my opinion:

1. Dimitris-Ilias Gkanatsios: CKAD exercises: It is free and better to solve once you finish the course.

2. The following are two exam simulators and a comparison between them:

	CKAD Killer.sh	CKAD k8simulator
Exam environment availability	36 hours, so you can check your answers, plus during these hours your environment is evaluated again (Every 7 or 8 minutes) if you make changes, your exam score will change based on your modification.	2 hours (Exam only), I was not able to check my actual answers with the exam answers
Partial scoring supported as a real exam	Yes	No, you may score very low because of this.
Answer Explanation	Provided, and very comprehensive as a learning mode	Provided, and sufficient
Exam sessions	2 Identical	2 Different
Flag questions for review	No	Yes
Difficulty level compared to exam	Longer and more difficult	Similar somehow
Price	Free included when booking the exam	16.99 - 24.00 Euro
Exam coverage	Nearly covering most of the curriculum	Hoping for better coverage for the curriculum
Exam typos or issues	No	Several issues in typos, and character sensitive

To Be Continued ...

CKAD Part 1: Recommended Study Material

If you like to view the video version of this blog post, you can click on the video.

Thanks to Allah; I passed "Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)" on 30-Oct-2022. In this blog post, I’m sharing my experience with the study path/material required for passing the certification.

Target Audience

This certification is targeting developers (No specific programing language) targeting cloud-native development either used on the cloud or on-premise.

Exam Info

Current exam release: Kubernetes v1.25 (Exam env updated: 2022-10-19, Specs: 2022-08-23, as per this tips link alignment with newer k8s versions happens approximately 4 to 8 weeks of K8s new version release date). Kubernetes releases currently happen approximately three times per year.
Exam nature: Performance-based not multiple choice. i.e. You will have scenarios including deployment, rollout, and network service you need to perform, or check the existing environment and do the troubleshooting for issues & resolve them. So, hands-on experience is a must.
The number of questions: (15 - 20 questions)
Exam duration: 2 hrs
Passing score: 66%
Time/question: 6 - 8 mins/question, some are easy, and few are hard.
Validity duration / Expiry: 3 years
Location: Take from home as online proctored.

Pre-requisites / Path to CKAD (Personal opinion)

Officially, there are no pre-requisites for the certification, but I think you need to have a look at the below pre-requisites from my point of view. It is based if you are new in the field, you can skip if you are aware about the content and have hands-on experience. Initially, I selected to go for the online self-paced "Cloud Native Developer Bootcamp" from Linux Foundation (There are always discounts, just you need to subscribe (Free) and you will receive notifications on Sale).

#	Requirements	My selected courses	My opinion / Alternative
1	Good Linux Foundation and hands-on experience focused on Ubuntu distribution	Introduction to Open Source Development, Git, and Linux (LFD201)	Good preparation course, that was supporting multiple distros of Linux, and the instructor is very knowledgeable and very responsive in the forum. / There are several Linux courses in the market, your target should be to be familiar with Linux, Vim, basic bash scripting. Thanks, Jerry Cooperstein for such great course.
2	Docker Knowledge	DevOps and SRE Fundamentals: Implementing Continuous Delivery (LFS261) And Containers for Developers and Quality Assurance (LFD254)	PROS: 1- The instructor is great 2- I learned a lot in DevOps while I was learning Docker, and Docker compose. 3- The course is full of hands-on experience with lots of labs. 4- Many tools (Jenkins, Spinnaker, ...) were used in labs. CONS: 1- I was receiving delays in replies in the forum. 2- I like visual representation in a more structured way as PowerPoint, but the instructor uses hand-drawn diagrams which I don't think are the best in my opinion. Thanks, Gourav Shah for such great courses.
3	YAML Knowledge	Yaml Tutorial \| Learn YAML in 18 mins	It is a short sufficient video to know YAML, there are several videos on the Internet. YAML is quite easy but the troubleshooting sometimes gets tricky. Thanks, Nana Janashia for sharing your knowledge with the world.
4	Kubernetes Knowledge and exam-focused course	Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginners - Hands-on And Kubernetes Certified Application Developer (CKAD) with Tests	I think these two courses are simply the best in the market and you don't need to look for alternatives. For many reasons: 1- The visual presentation is great and easy to understand 2- The courses are full of labs. 3- There are also lab challenges to get you hands-on experience with K8s. 4- There is a lightning-speed test, to get you faster in answering questions. 5- It includes tests for the exam. 6- The instructor is great. You can see a free sample on Youtube for explaining K8s services. Thanks, Mumshad Mannambeth for such great courses.
5	Deep dive in network Policies	Kubernetes Network Policy Recipes	It is free. Although the reference is considered old; I think it is the best out there, it includes link to very good video (I recommend seeing it first before solving questions). Thanks, Ahmet Alp Balkan for such a great video, and GitHub repository.
6	Helm knowledge	Helm: A cheat sheet	Sufficient knowledge in one article to pass the exam. Thanks, Tom Donohue for such an article.

To be continued ...

How to pass ArchiMate® Certification

If you like to view the video version of this blog post, you can click on the video.

Thanks to Allah; I have passed ArchiMate Certification on Nov-2021. In this blog post, I’m sharing my experience on how you can achieve this certification.

Target Audience (Personal opinion)

This certification is targeting Enterprise Architects and Domain Architects.

Version releases

The below table lists versions for ArchiMate, listed below as there are several resources on the Internet that are considered old and not matching the current version v3.1.

Version	Release Date
ArchiMate v1.0	Feb-2009
ArchiMate v2.0	Jan-2012
ArchiMate v2.1	Dec-2013
ArchiMate v3.0	Jun-2016
ArchiMate v3.01	Aug-2017
ArchiMate v3.1	Nov-2019

Changes from v2.1 to version 3.1

Exam information

	Foundation	Practitioner
Exam code / name	OGA-031: ArchiMate® 3 Part 1 Exam (English)	OGA-032: ArchiMate® 3 Part 2 Exam (English)
Open Book	No	Yes
Duration	1 hr (ESL: 1 hr, 30 mins)	1 hr, 30 mins (ESL: 2 hrs)
Questions	40 simple single choice questions. 1 (Correct), 0 (Incorrect) point per question	8 Complex gradient scoring. 5 (Best answer), 3 (Second best), 1 (Third best), 0 (Incorrect) points per question
Time / Question	1.5 mins (ESL: 2.25 mins)	11.25 mins (ESL: 15 mins)
Passing score	24/40 (60%)	28/40 (70%)
Individual Cost	360 USD	360 USD
Combined Cost	550 USD
Validity	Indefinite
Exam location	Home (OnVUE Online Proctoring from Pearson VUE) or Testing center.
Retake policy	After 1 month

Note about ESL

When you are booking the exam from one of the ESL countries, you will get approval for extra 30 mins.

Study material

Reference	Cost	Mandatory / Optional	Note
ArchiMate® 3 Certification Self-Study Pack, 3rd Edition (B175)	$49.95	Mandatory (Selected)	Updated to 3.1 specs. Summer, Black Friday, and Christmas sales you can get 50%. I found it contains more examples than the public specs site.
ArchiMate Modeling Language – Youtube playlist	0	Optional	Provide good introduction before you start learning if you are new to the language. Not all videos are required. Voice quality for some videos is not as expected 😌
Archi Five Minute Guides – Youtube channel	0	Optional	Demo for using ArchiMate in Archi.
ArchiMate Cookbook (Patterns & Examples)	0	Optional	The book is usually updated, download from the link. Introduces patterns and examples of what you can do with ArchiMate. Many thanks 🙏 to the author for making such a book free, it is simply a treasure to any Enterprise Architect.
Mastering ArchiMate Edition 3.1	$31.87	Optional	I received two recommendations for this book.
Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modelling, Communication and Analysis (The Enterprise Engineering Series) 4th Edition	$54.22	Optional	Referred as one of the best in presenting ArchiMate. Not exam-focused.

Practice makes perfect

Archi – ArchiMate Modelling (Free Download: Many thanks for the contributors).
ArchiMapp - Free design tool for iPad.
ArchiMate® Tool Certification Register

Study tips

The foundation exam is easy to intermediate but requires memorization (I found it hard to memorize all the meta-models and decided not to do it).
The practitioner exam is tough (I will try to share my tips for this in another post).
Build a study plan (MS Project, MS Excel).

Exam Payment

Purchase “ArchiMate 3 Part 1 and Part 2 Bundle Exam |Voucher (Retail)”
It is mentioned that you will receive vouchers within 3 days, in my case it is 1 day but I didn’t know as I was expecting an email, but it was sent. Just you need to check the website.
Go to The Open Group Shop -> My account
Click “My Order Attachments” from left menu, download two CSV files containing voucher codes (Expiry date after 1 year).

Register for home online exam

Go to website.
From left menu, click “Take an examination”.
Click “Login”, and use the Open Group credential.
Click “View exams”
Select “OGA-031: Archimate 3 Part 1 Exam (English)” / “OGA-032: Archimate 3 Part 2 Exam (English)”
Click “OnVUE”
Click “Next”, “Next”, “Agree”
Select Exam date and time
Make sure of your information, and click “Proceed to Checkout”
Click “Add Voucher or Promo code”, enter Voucher coder, click “Apply”, you will find the estimated total due is 0
Click “Next”
Click “Submit Order”

Taking exam from home

For a detailed checklist for OnVUE exam preparation, please check this blog post Online Proctored Exams (OnVUE) Checklist

Getting exam results

After the exam was completed and within 15 mins, I received an email with the subject "Score Report Available Notification". You will need to log in to Pearson with credentials of The Open Group, and you will find the link "View score report" and you will see your score and detailed report.

If you didn't receive an email from "The Open Group" having an email with a link to agree on the Trademark License Agreement. You will need to send an email stating your issue to certifications@opengroup.org and it will be looked at only if 6 working days (US, UK timing) has passed. When you agree on the trademark license agreement, you will have your certificate ready as a soft copy and be able to download it.

In the same reply email, you will find that the open badge may take up to 10 business days to get issued in Credly platform. I received mine after around 1 day of accepting the agreement.

References

How to pass Digital Practitioner Certification: DPBoK™ Foundation in less than 1 month?


Youtube video about certification contents	Presentation shared in slideshare

Youtube video how to pass the certification

Thanks to Allah; I have passed Digital Practitioner Certification: DPBoK™ Foundation on 2-Apr-2021. In this blog post, I’m sharing my experience on how you can achieve this certification in less than 1 month.

Target Audience (Personal opinion)

The exam is covering 12 competencies recommended for digital business based on company size.

Company	Number of employees	Capital
Founder	1-3	< $1m
Team	8 - 12	> $1m
Team of teams	40 - 70	> $10m
Enduring Enterprise	350 - 500	> $50m

The exam is covering all company sizes, I think candidates considering the certification should have worked in enterprise to be able to understand the challenges at every company size. A fresh graduate or entry-level computing and digital business professionals might not face such challenges and my recommendation to them will be reading Digital Practitioner Body of Knowledge™ Standard related to their company size and not target the certification.

Exam information

Current code: OGD-001 DPBoK™ Part 1
Current release date: October 2019
Open book: No
The number of questions: 40 (Multiple choice, one correct answer).
Exam duration: 60 mins
Passing score: 26 / 40 (65%) Each correct answer scores a single point, no negative scoring.
Time / question: 1.5 mins
Cost: 360$ (414$ including VAT)
Retake: After 1 month
Exam location: Home (OnVUE Online Proctoring from Pearson VUE) or Testing center.
Validity duration / Expiry: Indefinite, no recertification or renewal requirements.

Note about ESL

When you are booking the exam from one of the ESL countries, you will get approval for 90 mins. But I found the actual exam time is 1 hour only. I opened a case with OnVue and the answer was that 90 mins is covering all duration including tutorials, agreements, ...etc. And this is actually mentioned in the email when I purchased the exam, as copied below:

Your appointment's time extension applies to all information presented on the computer, including any agreements and tutorials, in addition to your actual testing time. The total appointment length noted in this confirmation includes each of these components and is not equal to the actual testing time available to you.

Study material

Purchase The Digital Practitioner Certification Self-Study Pack ($39.95).

Reasonable price: Sometimes discounts reach 50% (Summer, Black Friday, and Christmas sales you can get 50%).
The number of pages: 231.
The number of chapters: 14 chapters.
It includes a pocket guide (I didn’t use it as it was 151 pages, so I thought of reading the study guide again better).
It includes a reference cards summary (I didn't use it as it is considered briefer than the required information about the exam, and a smaller set of figures you need to memorize).
It includes one exam that is good but the actual exam is harder.
PROS: Every chapter ends with questions, answers provided.
PROS: One document has it all, focused target.

Study tips

Exam difficulty: Above intermediate.
Build a study plan (MS Project, MS Excel).
The study guide must be read at least twice.
Understand & memorize all figures in the study guide, you will have lots of questions about them.

Register for home online exam

Follow the below steps:

Login to The Open Group Certification website.
From left menu, click “Take an examination”.
Click “Pearson VUE launch page”.
Review personal information that is from the open group profile page that will be used to create or login to Pearson VUE, before clicking “Proceed to Pearson VUE”.
In the dashboard, click “View Exams”.
Select “OGD-001” “DPBoK part 1 Exam”.
Select “Online from my home or office”, click “Next”.
In agree to online exam policies, please read carefully, and mark checkboxes, click “Next”.
Click “Next”
Select a suitable date. Your local time zone will appear, select the best way to view the timing 12/24hr.
Value with estimated tax is $414
Click “Proceed to Checkout”.
Read and agree to policies, click “Accept”. (These important policies will be sent to you by email after completion).
Add card details, click “Next”, then “Submit order”.
ESL will be added after complete exam registration as long as you register from one of the ESL countries. Exam length 90 minutes!!!
Check-in time will be 30 mins earlier.
You will receive an email with details of the invoice, and policies / useful information.
For customer service online chat, use this link.

Taking exam from home

For a detailed checklist for OnVUE exam preparation, please check this blogpost Online Proctored Exams (OnVUE) Checklist

Getting exam results

After the exam completed and within 15 mins, I received an email with the subject "Score Report Available Notification". You will need to login to Pearson with credentials of The Open Group, and you will find the link "View score report" and you will see your score and detailed report.

In the same reply email, you will find that the open badge may take up to 10 business days to get issued in Credly platform. I received mine after around 1 day of accepting the agreement.

References

Official exam site
DPBoK™ Certification: How to Get Started with Individual Certification
DPBoK Twitter account It was showing when there are discounts on self-study packages, they are very responsive.
DPBOK™ PROGRAM CONFIGURATION – X194
DPBOK Foundation Data Sheet
The TOGAF Role Based Badges
Very good Arabic session in DPBoK covering first 2 contexts

ITIL v3 Foundation - Preparation advices & exam tips

ITIL framework has emerged over the years, latest version is v3 since year 2011. I consider it best suited for IT departments in big enterprises (Having IT staff 100+).

I'm not recommending this certification for fresh graduates. I think it is best suited for IT staff with at least 1 year experience working in IT department in an enterprise in-order to understand why you need all of this. Coming from small Software or vendor is not recommended.

Following is sharing my experience in certifying ITIL v3 foundation (Just passed the exam today), it might not be the best, but it achieved the target :)

Preparation advices:

I recommend taking a course with good instructor. If you don't want to pay money for the course especially the exam doesn't require this, you can watch Youtube introductory training material; I recommend this ITIL playlist. There is also very good online free course for ITIL foundation here.
Schedule the exam after 3 - 7 days maximum of finishing your training course.
Knowing the definition & terminology is very important in ITIL (Represents 15 - 20% of the questions).
Exam is easy in general & passing score is 65%, but require knowing the syllabus, topics, terminology used in ITIL, and how they interrelate.
Don't enter exam without answering as much questions you can.
Answer questions based on ITIL concepts not based on your work experience.

Exam advices:

Time is enough for answering having in mind that only 1 answer is valid (1.5 mins per question), rule of elimination incorrect answer is best used practice.
Answer straight forward questions first, and don't waste time for hard questions just mark them for review.

Free exams:

How to schedule exam:

You should have Prometric login or register for a new one.

After sign in; in the "Client and program selection", select "EXIN" in "Client" section, and "EXIN (EX0, EX1)" in "Program" section. Click "Next".
Read important information from EXIN, and click "Next".
In "Exam" section, select "EX0-001 - ITIL Foundation (syllabus 2011)", in "Language" section, select "U.S. ENGLISH", in the currencies, select "USD", you will find the net price updated to 215 USD. Click "Next".
In "AVAILABLE TEST SITES", click "Schedule Appointment" next to the exam center you would like to take your test in, and select date and time for exam, click "Next".
In "PAYMENT INFORMATION" screen, type your email, birthday, training provider if any, complete billing information, and click "Commit Registration".
You will get "THANK YOU FOR REGISTERING WITH PROMETRIC", and you will receive email confirming the date.

Getting your certificate:

After 1 business day, you will receive an email asking for confirming your details in EXIN candidate portal, and another business day for receiving your portal credentials where you can download a softcopy of the certificate; hard copy of your certificate will be issues and emails using standard mail after 2 days of confirming your credentials.

Hope this help someone.