Sun Certified Enterprise Architecture for J2EE Technology Study Guide (Sun Microsystems Press) (Paperback)

by Mark Cade (Author), Simon Roberts (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is the first authoritative, authorized study guide for Sun's challenging new Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Technology exams. Written by the exam's lead developer and assessor, it offers start-to-finish guidance and background for designing effective J2EE architectures -- and comprehensive preparation for all three exam elements you need to pass: Sun's multiple-choice exam, architecture/design project, and essay exam. Sun Microsystems Senior Java Architect Mark Cade begins with an overview of system architecture and its goals -- including structure, behavior, usage, functionality, performance, resilience, reuse, and comprehensibility. Cade shows how to document J2EE architectures through visual models and narratives -- creating System Requirements and System Architecture documents that act as blueprints for the entire development process. He introduces each of Sun's most powerful and useful J2EE architecture patterns; walks you through key security and internationalization issues, presents a full chapter on HTTP and other protocols for distributed systems development; and concludes with a start-to-finish case study. From legacy connectivity to messaging, firewall issues to servlets, the book covers every exam objective -- and every skill needed by J2EE enterprise architects.

From the Back Cover

The only study guide written by the lead developers and assessors of the architect exam.

The first officially authorized study guide for the challenging Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition exams. Java platform experts Cade and Roberts provide expert guidance and background for designing effective J2EETM technology architectures—as well as comprehensive preparation for every exam element: multiple-choice exam, assignment, and essay. You'll find start-to-finish coverage of key J2EE platform architectural issues and every exam objective, including:

• Understanding the goals of system architecture
• Creating requirements and architectural documents that serve as blueprints for the entire development process
• Leveraging proven design patterns
• Identifying the right J2EE technologies and APIs for your application
• Maximizing security and accounting for firewalls in enterprise environments
• Providing legacy access: appropriate techniques and errors to avoid
• Using the Enterprise JavaBeansTM architecture Container Model to maximize scalability
• Evaluating the advantages and weaknesses of existing architectures

Endorsed as a study guide for the Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology exam by Sun Educational Services.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; Stg edition (March 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130449164
• ISBN-13: 978-0130449160
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #155,463 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview for Exam For the Experienced, June 24, 2002

By	Nick Van Weerdenburg (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book almost PERFECT for my needs. Short, concise, and focused on the exam. The sample questions were also very reflective of the exam. If you pass the sample questions, you are probably ready for the exam. With what you learn from the sample questions, content as well as question style, you should actually do a bit better on the exam. That was my experience- about 75% on the book questions, 87% (42/48) on the exam, with no extra study after my initial reading.

And considering the purpose of architect certification is to certify someone with 5+ years experience and deep understanding of design and architectural issues, then a more detailed book would be a thick painful experience. Also, a more detailed book would commit the authors to exposing more of the exam content, and devalue it as a fair measure of an architect. The fact that it requires a wide professional background with some core reading is excellent. If you struggle with the exam, enjoy the honest feedback! You have more reading to do, and experience to gain.

With sufficient experience in Java, UML, design patterns, security, general IT and web knowledge, and basic architectural principles, the book more than suffices. Basic EJB knowledge is sufficient since the book doesn't expect a programmer's knowledge of APIs and such.

If you are new to architecture, my recommendations are similar to another reviewers:
UML Distilled, Martin Fowler
Design Patterns, Gamma et al
Mastering Enterprise Java Beans, Roman, Amber, Jewell
EJB Design Patterns, Floyd Marinescu

And if you don't know enough about design patterns and UML to pass those chapters before even reading the chapters, you may be taking the exam a bit prematurely.

I will agree with one statement- the book lacks chapters on some of the objectives. But, considering that they might be considered fair prerequisites for someone qualified to take the exam, I'm not complaining. Though, in looking over my exam results, most of my wrong answers were from the sections without corresponding chapters...common architectures, legacy connectivity, messaging :(. I think my proclivity for screen-scraping did me in.

All-in-all, a masterful book and exam.

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What A Study Guide Should Be, May 9, 2002

By A Customer

I disagree with what some readers feel about the book. This book is just what a study guide should be. Concise and focused on the objectives of the exam. I read the book, took the exam and passed. I had very little time to study and this book, being so concise, definitely helped.

If it had taken 1000 pages to help me prepare for a 48 questions exam, then I would think that the author merely just did a 'cut and paste' from EJB specs and a few other books. Instead, this author bothered to extract the essence of the information required for SCEA and presented it to the reader.

Most of the sections - Security, I18n, Protocols, EJB, and Design Pattern are well written in an easy to understand and concise manner.

Having said all that, I wonder why some objectives are missing. Common Architecture, Legacy Connectivity and Messaging are left out completely. Also, the UML section could have covered a few more notations.

Still a good book for SCEA candidates but take note, it says "Study Guide" not "Idiot's Guide". So don't expect the book to teach you how to write the "Hello World" Bean.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a light, useful overview, but not complete., March 28, 2002

By	ZhongDan LAN (Newark, New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first published book for the SCJEA certification.
Although it's very light (less than 200 pages), it does cover
EJB, UML, Design Patterns, Security, Internationlization, and Protocols. It provides useful information on how to apply your
knowledges on these topics, but you should learn the knowledges
from practice or from other books. It contains some very interesting mock questions, on UML, Security, Internationalization, Protocols, which help you a lot to understand the concept in an architect's way. It provides a case study for part II and part III, although it is a good example, you need to know enterprise java architecting before reading this chapter.

I finally decide to give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of two reasons:
1. There is nothing about messaging. legacy connectivity.
2. They copied the nine sample questions from Sun's site, but gave no more explanation. What's more, in the book, the answer of question 5 is incomplete (it should be A, E, but in the book, the answer is E), and the answer of question 9 does not appear in the book (which is D).

Since it's the only one available, I suggest you buy (or borrow) this book...