iSAQB® Certified Professional for Software Architecture - Foundation (CPSA-F)®
This accredited iSAQB® CPSA‑F® training course prepares you for the iSAQB® Foundation Level exam.
Architectural Thinking is accredited by the International Software Architecture Qualification Board (iSAQB®). This course is aimed at preparing candidates for the iSAQB® CPSA‑F® certification.
Today's software systems are becoming increasingly complex, and are developed under intense cost and time pressure. The iSAQB® Certified Professional for Software Architecture (CPSA) certification is a globally recognized qualification that validates expertise in designing and documenting the architecture of software systems.
Why this course?
Software architecture is the backbone of successful digital solutions: being certified as a software architect demonstrates a recognised level of expertise and professionalism in architecting software systems. In this training, you will learn how to create a fit for purpose software architecture that withstand unexpected stressors and adapt to change.
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Advance your career into a software architect or technical lead role.
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Help your team deliver high-quality software for your customers, meeting both functional needs and quality requirements.
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Gives ability and confidence to make high quality architectural decisions aligned with business and stakeholders' goals.
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Learn (theory & practical techniques) and receive direct feedback from an expert practitioner with 30+ hands-on years experience in the industry.
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Gain the internationally recognized iSAQB® CPSA-F® certification to position yourself as a trusted authority in software architecture with stakeholders and colleagues.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, candidates will be able to:
Independently carry out the essential steps in designing architectures for software systems, including the explicit elicitation of quality trees and concrete quality scenarios.
Apply methods and principles for design, documentation and evaluation of software architectures, independent of specific development processes.
Coordinate essential software architecture decisions with other project participants from the fields of requirements management, project management, testing, and development.
Apply industry-proven design principles, patterns, and best practices.
Evaluate and assess the quality of the software architecture.
Document and communicate software architectures, including architectural decisions, interfaces, and cross-cutting concerns.
Learn all you need to pass the iSAQB® CPSA-F® exam.
Content
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A Brief History of Software Architecture
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Why is Software Architecture important?
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iSAQB® and CPSA® Certification
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Training Course Contents and Structure
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iSAQB® CPSA®-Foundation: Examination Procedure
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Definitions, Goals and Benefits of Architecture and Architecting
This module introduces students to several fundamental terms and concepts to ensure that students share the same basic understanding of these concepts before presenting them in more detail in upcoming Modules-
What is Software Architecture?
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Goals and Benefits
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Role and Skills of Architects
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Architectural Domains (Business, Application, Information, Data, Technical, Software)
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Definitions
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Architecture Formation
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Organize Results of Architectural Work
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Covers the core deliverables that are expected from an architect
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Expected Output and Results
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Tasks of Software Architects
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Distribution of Architecture Tasks
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Discusses the criticality of stakeholders in architecting, enabling participants to take architectural decisions in a way that fits context and fulfils stakeholder needs and concerns
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Key Terms: Stakeholder and Stakeholder Concern
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Impact of Stakeholders
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Uncovering Hidden Requirements
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Relate the Role of the Architects to other Stakeholders
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Short- and Long-Term Goals
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This module is about the major factors that possibly shape and constrain architectural relevant requirements.
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Requirements
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Constraints
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System Context
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Influencing Factors
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Uncertainty and Risks
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This module equips architects with the skills and knowledge needed to elicit effective requirements, with sufficient details to start architecting
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Requirements on Qualities
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Specifying Qualities (e.g., Security, Scalability)
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Quality Models (e.g., ISO25010:2023)
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Use Quality Trees and concrete Quality Scenarios to formulate requirements on qualities
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Correlations and Trade-Offs
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Dealing with conflicting concerns
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From WHAT to HOW: Fulfilling Requirements through Architecture
This module covers the transition from requirements and stakeholder concerns to architectural design decisions.-
The Architect’s “Toolbox”
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System decomposition, Building Blocks and Interfaces
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Modularity, Decoupling, Cohesion, and Dependencies
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Managing Dependencies
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Architectural Heuristics: overview of Architectural Styles & Design Principles
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Purpose of Design Principles
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Information Hiding
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Separation of Concerns and Modularity
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As Simple as Possible – KISS & YAGNI
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Don‘t Repeat Yourself - DRY
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Expect Errors and Postel‘s Law
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Abstraction and Conceptual Integrity
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Single Responsibility and Open-Closed
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Dependency Inversion
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Architectural Heuristics: overview of Architectural & Design Patterns.
This chapter is focused on patterns that apply to concrete problems or use them to achieve architectural goals.
The curriculum contains the few "must know" patterns, with others covered on demand.-
Patterns: What and Why?
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Fundamental Architectural Patterns
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Architectural Relevant Design Patterns
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This module bridges theoretical concepts from previous chapters with practical approaches to architecture development. Having established quality requirements, structural concepts, principles, and patterns, this module focuses on methodologies for developing architectures that fulfil these requirements.
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Agile Architecting through Iterative and Incremental Design
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Top-Down and Bottom-Up
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Practical Decomposition Decisions
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View-Based Architecture Development
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Domain Driven Design
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Quality Driven Software Architecture
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Strategies and Tactics
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Evolutionary Architecture
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Decision-Centric Architecting
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Architecting with AI
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Designing Interfaces
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Cross-cutting Concerns and Concepts
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Distributed Systems
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Trade-offs
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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
― George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic
This module covers the essential requirements for documentation, using appropriate models and notations to describe architectures, and applying key architectural views-
Goals, Benefits and Quality of Documentation
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Template Based Documentation and arc42
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Document Types and Diagram Types
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Use Views to Separate Architectural Concerns
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Notations & Models to Describe Software Architecture
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Diagrams as Code
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Architecture as Code
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Documenting Cross Cutting Concerns and Interfaces
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Documenting Architectural Decisions
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Best Practices
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Architecture Description Frameworks
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In this module students learn goals of architecture evaluation, and how to achieve them. The module equips students with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively evaluate architectures.
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Goals of Architecture Evaluation
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Quabtitative vs. Qualitative Evauations
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Approaches and Types of Assessment
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Scenario Based Evaluation and ATAM
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Evaluate Conformance to Architectural Decisions
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Stakeholder Engagement and Prototypes
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Hands-on Learning with real-world examples and case study:
Throughout the course, the content is supported and complemented by real-world examples, engaging & interactive discussions and hands-on activities based on a case study. The course blends theory with practical scenarios to help participants apply foundational architectural thinking in real-world contexts
Target Audience
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This course is primarily aimed at people who actively develop or design software.
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Software Engineers
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Software Architects
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This course can be useful for anyone working in software development:
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Product owners
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Business Analysts
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Requirements Engineers
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QA Specialists
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Anyone seeing to pass the iSAQB CPSA-Foundation certification exam
Prerequisites
There are no formal prerequisites, although basic knowledge of software engineering would be beneficial:
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Practical experience with software development, gained through team-based development of several systems outside of formal education
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Basic knowledge of modelling, abstraction, algorithms and data structures
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Knowledge of and practical experience with at least one higher programming language
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Basic knowledge of approaches to testing of software (e.g. unit- and acceptance testing)
iSAQB Certification and other information
Pricing & Schedule
This course requires 22 hours of live lessons and hands-on learning activities, and can be delivered over three consecutive days or six half days over three weeks.
Group Discount Eligible: Got colleagues or friends who'd love this course? Share and save together!
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2 Participants: 15% Discount
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3 Participants: 20% Discount
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4+ Participants: 25% Discount
If you're interested in getting your team CPSA-F certified as part of a private cohort, please enquire using the form below to request a quote.
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