Andras Szakal is Distinguished Engineer and Chief Architect of the IBM Federal Software Group. His responsibilities include developing e-Government software architectures using IBM middleware and managing the IBM federal government software IT architect team.

Andrasl holds undergraduate degrees in Biology and Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from James Madison University.

IBM has repeatedly recognized him for his role in building the IBM federal government software business.Andras has been a driving force behind IBM's adoption of federal government IT standards and is a member of the IBM Software Group Strategy Team. He and his architect team have been responsible for helping the federal government move e-Government into the On-Demand era. His team has been directly involved with multiple high profile successful government software and services engagements based on open standards and open source. These engagements include the following programs: US Air Force GCSS-IF, Department of Education Office of Student Financial Aid Modernization, FBI Trilogy, IRS Modernization, Customs Modernization, SSA Modernization and the e-filing initiatives at the USDA.

Andras is a proponent of service oriented and web services based enterprise architectures and participates in open standards and open source product development initiatives within IBM.

Presentation
Current Developments in the IT Architect Certification (ITAC) Program

The Open Group continues to lead the way in the IT industry by establishing a profession based board level program to certify the skills and experience levels of IT Architects. The IT Architect is someone who defines - "architects" - solutions to client business problems through the reasoned application of information technology. Those solutions are manifested as architectures, and may involve the application and integration of a broad variety of products, technologies and services, various systems and applications architectures, and diverse hardware and software components.

Currently there are over 2,000 board certified ITAC professionals certified through The Open Group. Andras Szakal, the chair of the ITAC working group will explain the structure of the ITAC program and the reason for it's success.

Andras will also discuss the work on ITAC Level 3 - Distinguished IT Architect Cerrtification. In ITAC Level 3, the concept of the Career Path Category is introduced into the program. Currently 3 CPCs are defined - Chief/Lead IT Architect, IT Architectt Profession Executive >and Enterprise Architect. Andras will explain the evolving criteria for each of the CPSs and how it tracks with the career path of an IT Architect.

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