1.1 Document a given system architecture by creating UML diagrams for it.
1.2 Explain the main advantages of an object oriented approach to system design including the effect of encapsulation, inheritance, delegation, and the use of interfaces, on architectural characteristics.
1.3 Describe how the principle of "separation of concerns" has been applied to the main system tiers of a Java EE application. Tiers include client (both GUI and web), web (web container), business (EJB container), integration, and resource tiers.
1.4 Describe how the principle of "separation of concerns" has been applied to the layers of a Java EE application. Layers include application, virtual platform (component APIs), application infrastructure (containers), enterprise services (operating system and virtualization), compute and storage, and the networking infrastructure layers.

Section 2:Common Architectures

2.1 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of two tier architectures when examined under the following topics: scalability, maintainability, reliability, availability, extensibility, performance, manageability, and security.
2.2 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of three tier architectures when examined under the following topics: scalability, maintainability, reliability, availability, extensibility, performance, manageability, and security.
2.3 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of multi-tier architectures when examined under the following topics: scalability, maintainability, reliability, availability, extensibility, performance, manageability, and security.
2.4 Explain the benefits and drawbacks of rich clients and browser-based clients as deployed in a typical Java EE application.
2.5 Create a logical and physical model of a system infrastructure architecture.

Section 3: Integration and Messaging

3.1 Explain possible approaches for communicating with an external system from a Java EE-based system given an outline description of those systems and outline the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.
3.2 Explain typical uses of Web Services and XML over HTTP as mechanisms to integrate distinct software components.
3.3 Explain how Java Connector Architecture and JMS are used to integrate distinct software components as part of an overall Java EE application.
3.4 Given a scenario, explain the appropriate messaging strategy to satisfy the requirements.

4.1 Explain and contrast uses for Entity Beans, Entity Classes, Stateful and Stateless Session Beans, and Message Driven Beans and understand the advantages and disadvantages of each type.
4.2 Explain and contrast the following persistence strategies: Container Managed Persistence (CMP) BMP, JDO, JPA, ORM and using DAOs (Data Access Objects) and direct JDBC-based persistence under the following headings: ease of development, performance, scalability, extensibility and security.

5.1 Given a system requirements definition, explain and justify your rationale for choosing a web-centric or EJB-centric implementation to solve the requirements. Web-centric means that you are providing a solution that does not use EJBs. EJB-centric solution will require an application server that supports EJBs.

6.1 Given a specified business problem, design a modular solution implemented using Java EE which solves that business problem.
6.2 Given a specified business problem, identify and prioritize the main technology risk areas that must be addressed by the technical design and architecture.
6.3 Explain how the Java EE platform enables service oriented architecture (SOA) -based applications.
6.4 Identify how the Java SE and Java EE platform supports the internationalization and localization of applications.
6.5 Explain your rationale for choosing build versus buy for a given Java EE component.
6.6 Explain the typical challenges associated with the design and implementation of large scale enterprise software systems and how Java EE technology addresses those challenges.
6.7 Explain how you would design a Java EE application to repeatedly measure critical non-functional requirements and outline a standard process with specific strategies to refactor that application to improve on the results of the measurements.

7.1 From a list, select the most appropriate pattern for a given scenario. Patterns are limited to those documented in the book - Alur, Crupi and Malks (2003). Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies 2nd Edition and named using the names given in that book.
7.2 From a list, select the most appropriate pattern for a given scenario. Patterns are limited to those documented in the book - Gamma, Erich; Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides. (1995). Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software and are named using the names given in that book.
7.3 Select from a list the benefits and drawbacks of a pattern drawn from the book - Gamma, Erich; Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides (1995). Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.
7.4 Select from a list the benefits and drawbacks of a specified Core J2EE pattern drawn from the book - Alur, Crupi and Malks (2003). Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies 2nd Edition.

8.1 Given an architectural system specification, select appropriate locations for implementation of specified security features, and select suitable technologies for implementation of those features.
8.2 Identify and classify potential threats to a system and describe how a given architecture will address the threats.