It’s been a while since I received the most anticipated e-mail starting with: “Congratulations! You passed! …Your VCDX number is 291.”
It’s still the best e-mail I received so far in my life.
In the meantime, the community gained nine individuals, finally breaching the magic number of 300 VCDXs worldwide. I am extremely proud to see that the community is growing. Especially as I’ve been helping and mentoring a few of these candidates that have passed recently, giving back to the community what it gave to me when I was on the other side.
But let’s focus on the main question first – How being a VCDX has changed my life?
If you are an aspiring VCDX candidate, I know you would probably like to hear I’ve earned so much money that I’m already retired. The only thing I do right now is to drive my brand-new Ferrari, drinking coffee in fancy restaurants, traveling across the globe.
Unfortunately, I need to disappoint you, as none of these are true. Actually, the coffee is. I still drink a lot of coffee! But anyway, doing nothing would be boring, wouldn’t it?
Joking apart, I still work, and yes, I got promoted in the meantime. But that wasn’t the reason I decided to become a VCDX.
The benefits of becoming a VCDX
So, what did becoming a VCDX give me apart from spending hundreds of hours for document preparation and then even more for defenses? Time, honestly, I would have preferred to spend doing much more exciting activities or enjoying time with family.
But here is the thing – these hundreds of hours weren’t lost; that was an investment. Everything that I learned has helped me to be a better architect.
The exam to become a VCDX is not an exam where you just need to study for a specific topic, answer questions, and forget what you’ve learned even faster. The subject matter isn’t something that you can recall from your school or university days.
VCDX is about a journey, a long one, with many bends and ups and downs, but a valuable and extremely self-developing journey.
It’s a time investment that will pay off very quickly – again not necessarily in a financial way. The methodology you will define for yourself as an Architect will be used on daily basis; I can guarantee it. How to lead the conversations with customers, how to gather the required information, and deal with associated risks is something I’m using in every project.
You will ask – what about documents, especially if you are working on a fictional or semi-fictional project – isn’t that a waste of time? I’d say definitely not! In my case, I’ve used a real project that required some adjustments to align with the blueprint, and now I’m using it as a framework for other projects. Diagrams I’ve made in Visio for my VCDX project have already been used multiple times for real projects. I stand by the statement I made earlier – it’s an investment: a time investment that will pay off.
Another huge benefit of becoming a VCDX that has changed my life is that I have developed a higher level of self-confidence. Let’s be honest the process, and especially the defense(s), are very stressful. The panelists are great, they are nice and helpful, but it’s still a very stressful experience. Once you go through it any meeting, even with the toughest customers, will be a piece of cake.
In the end, just because you passed means something. You are a great architect. You should feel proud to be a part of the very elite group of 300 VCDXs worldwide – an instant confidence booster!
Dealing with the challenge of remote defenses
You need to know that the program is evolving and changing. It also has been quite a long time since we entered the new reality in the VCDX world, switching from in-person defenses to remote ones.
I had the pleasure and challenge to be part of the early defenses in the “covid era” made via Zoom.
The most challenging part was adapting to the new situation and finding the right tool set to be comfortable with. Fortunately for me, working over Zoom wasn’t completely new. I used to do workshops for various customers via Webex and then Zoom. Nevertheless, a remote defense was a completely new thing. Everything I was preparing was for an in-person one!
If your entire professional life you’ve been standing in front of a real whiteboard, it’s tough to switch to this new virtual reality. The network connection might be a problem, some interference could occur when a panelist tries to speak same time as you, the virtual whiteboard might be not something you got used to, etc. All these factors may make your defense harder than initially expected, I know it was for me.
The VCDX mindset
But now, we have all become used to it. This is the same for the VCDX program, which is constantly evolving as the technology and processes are! Therefore, the toolset and defense approach might need some adoption as well. In this article, I’ve described my approach to remote defense, which was mostly mirrored version of a traditional whiteboard. Simply because when you attend a customer’s meeting, that’s the only thing you have (sometimes there is even no whiteboard).
Let’s look at this example of an online application where I prepared a template.
This is something I’ve seen recently during mock defenses with candidates. They had a pre-organized template in the online app of choice with a predefined structure that they have built during the preparation ready to use or quickly drop in during the mock/defense.
In the beginning, I thought – it’s not allowed, it’s not right. But then I realized – why not? We are working over Zoom/Teams doing workshops and design meetings with customers using various tools. And indeed, when I’ve got a workshop scheduled with a customer, I usually have something similar prepared to not waste time during the meeting. With the physical whiteboard that’s not possible obviously, but as we already work remotely why should we ignore the advancements in technology and tools making our life harder?
That’s a big part of the VCDX mindset. Where you constantly must think not only about technology, but also about people and processes. Optimizing and improving your design approach is part of it and in my opinion, that’s the right way to go. I hesitate to mention this obvious fact, but, yes, the template must be empty, with no pre-existing questions or information on it. Anything filled in would be cheating!
Keep in mind that whatever you decide to use, it must be still something you feel comfortable with. The last piece of advice I have for potential candidates is – make your own way, don’t try to get into someone’s else shoes. It’s like with best practices – just because it’s the best option for most of the environments and customers it doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for your project!
Ready to become a VCDX?
I wish you all the best of luck on your VCDX adventure. Will you be the next to join the exclusive rank of VCDX? VMware has four distinct areas just for you – check them out!
