iSAQB CPSA-A COSMO

Descripción

Attending the iSAQB® CPSA-A Collaborative Software Modelling (COSMO) course gives participants 10 Methodological Competence (MC) points and 20 Communicative Competence (CC) points towards the 70 points required for eligibility for the iSAQB CPSA-A exam with Brightest. It is important to remember that, as part of the 70 points required to take the iSAQB CPSA-A exam with Brightest, you will need at least ten competence points in each of the following areas: 

• Technical Competence (TC)
• Methodological Competence (MC)
• Communicative Competence (CC)

Accredited iSAQB® COSMO - Collaborative Software Modelling (CPSA-A) training is based on the current iSAQB® curriculum:

Part 1 - Software Development as a Social System

• Understand software development and architecture work as part of a sociotechnical system
• Understand how organisational structures, people, technical systems, and processes influence one another
• Recognise how architectural decisions affect the wider sociotechnical system
• Understand the individual and shared motivations behind human collaboration
• Identify factors that encourage or hinder people’s willingness to collaborate
• Understand the importance of trust, psychological safety, transparency, and shared goals
• Recognise that collaboration must be actively fostered and continuously maintained
• Identify relevant participants in collaborative modelling, including development teams, stakeholders, management, and users
• Understand the different perspectives and interests involved in architecture work
• Recognise that collaborative modelling benefits from diverse roles and viewpoints and is not limited to software architects

Part 2 - Fundamentals of Collaborative Modelling

• Recognise situations in which collaborative architecture work can improve collaboration, decision-making, and architectural quality
• Assess when collaborative modelling is appropriate for complex problems, distributed knowledge, or coordination across multiple stakeholders
• Identify symptoms such as knowledge silos, misunderstandings, coordination problems, and decision bottlenecks
• Experience collaborative modelling through practical participation in a modelling session
• Understand the role and responsibilities of a facilitator
• Prepare, facilitate, follow up, and review a collaborative modelling session
• Arrange suitable physical or virtual environments, tools, and schedules
• Manage time, collect feedback, and ensure that outcomes are captured
• Document session results and make them available for subsequent work
• Reflect on personal performance and identify opportunities for improving future sessions
• Integrate collaborative modelling into your own professional toolkit

Part 3 - Advanced Collaborative Modelling

• Select appropriate analogue and digital tools for collaborative modelling sessions
• Use whiteboards, pens, paper, sticky notes, digital whiteboards, and community templates effectively
• Evaluate the strengths, limitations, and typical applications of different modelling tools
• Identify the skills, responsibilities, and participants required for a collaborative session
• Distinguish between facilitating a session and contributing to architecture or design decisions
• Assess the implications of acting as both facilitator and active designer
• Capture information through active listening, questioning, and visualisation
• Transform discussions into models that the group can understand and develop together
• Use visualisation to involve less experienced participants and establish a shared understanding
• Compare the strengths and limitations of in-person and remote sessions
• Select an appropriate session format based on group dynamics, interaction needs, and organisational context
• Understand the importance of shared terminology and a deliberately developed common language
• Recognise when a shared language is missing and refine terminology continuously

Part 4 - Succeeding with Collaborative Modelling

• Understand how organisational culture and constraints influence collaborative architecture work
• Identify conditions that support or hinder effective collaboration
• Assess and strengthen stakeholder buy-in for collaborative architecture work
• Evaluate the impact of collaborative sessions on existing plans, designs, and development initiatives
• Understand how timing, scope, and participant selection affect the energy and outcome of a session
• Assess the initial situation of a sociotechnical system in terms of people, organisation, collaboration, and constraints
• Identify relevant knowledge sources, interests, perspectives, and knowledge gaps
• Prepare and visualise the initial situation and validate it with participants
• Turn spontaneous architecture discussions into structured collaborative modelling sessions
• Clarify objectives, questions, available time, participants, and expected outcomes
• Use simple facilitation and questioning techniques to structure unplanned discussions
• Recognise behavioural patterns and cultural characteristics that support or hinder collaboration
• Identify power imbalances, dominant participants, dissenting opinions, and other potential disruptions
• Understand how breaks, energy levels, session rhythm, working environments, and informal interaction influence collaboration
• Recognise inclusion and diversity as success factors for collaborative architecture work
• Design collaborative formats that give different perspectives an equal opportunity to contribute

Part 5 - Creating Impact as a Facilitator

• Apply fundamental facilitation techniques when designing collaborative workshops
• Communicate clearly and listen actively
• Create a psychologically safe environment for collaborative work
• Understand linear, interactive, and transactional communication models
• Relate different forms of communication to meetings, design workshops, and pair programming
• Maintain a neutral stance when facilitating collaborative sessions
• Recognise how conflicts of interest can reduce a facilitator’s effectiveness
• Select facilitation skills appropriate to different collaborative practices
• Understand disagreement as a normal part of collaborative architecture work
• Make different assumptions and mental models visible
• Guide groups towards a shared understanding of the design task
• Support ownership and consensus-building without overlooking or prematurely resolving technical differences

Part 6 - Overview of Collaborative Techniques

• Understand collaborative modelling approaches for domain exploration and discovery
• Know collaborative techniques for software design and requirements clarification
• Apply collaborative approaches to organisational and strategic questions
• Select suitable techniques for different architecture and modelling scenarios
• Prepare, facilitate, and follow up on the collaborative practices covered during the training
• Select collaborative formats based on the specific situation and organisational context
• Understand the characteristics and success factors of different collaborative methods
• Combine collaborative modelling techniques where appropriate
• Adapt collaborative approaches to organisational conditions and expectations
• Assess the requirements of each approach regarding the facilitator, location, working environment, and participant group