Will new architecture association help drive SOA skillsets?

In a post last week -- and other times on this blogsite -- I have discussed the impending skills shortages that may slow SOA development in the years to come. Part of this situation demands a class of "enlightened architects" who understand the advantages of SOA, and can sell SOA to the organization.

Now, the Open Group vendor-led consortium has announced it is launching a professional association for enterprise architects -- the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA). The group's goal is to set and promote professional standards, "much like the fields of law and accounting."

More significantly, the founding of the professional association also signifies a recognition by the industry that people need to be designated to lead the charge to SOA. Read the background statement from Open Group:

"To effectively align IT with business goals, organizations must increasingly adopt a city planner perspective of the enterprise. This has created strong demand for a new class of highly skilled professionals called enterprise architects who can communicate effectively with every level of their organization."