CPSA, Certified Professional for Software Architecture, is the iSAQB® certification for people who design software. Here you will find what it is, how the levels work and where to start.
CPSA stands for Certified Professional for Software Architecture: it is the iSAQB® certification programme for people working in software architecture, organised in three levels, Foundation, Advanced and Expert.
From Foundation (CPSA-F): no prerequisites are needed to take the exam. The Advanced level requires the Foundation certification, and Expert requires Advanced.
It attests basic knowledge of software architecture and gives you a common language to design, document and evaluate architectures. It does not guarantee a job, a promotion or the professional title of Software Architect.
iSAQB® certifies software architecture, IREB® requirements and ISTQB® testing. They are three phases of the same project, so they complement each other: the three bodies have collaboration agreements to align terminology and curricula.
They are not alternatives. TOGAF® is about enterprise architecture, i.e. how strategy, processes and information systems fit together in an organisation. iSAQB® is about the architecture of a single software system: structure, decisions, quality and documentation. Whoever designs software usually starts with iSAQB®; whoever works on an organisation's IT strategy also looks at TOGAF®.
It depends on your role: senior developers and tech leads start with iSAQB® CPSA-F, people working on requirements with IREB® CPRE, those in quality and testing with ISTQB® CTFL, and those working on enterprise architecture with TOGAF®. Many professionals combine them over time.
No: today we deliver the iSAQB® CPSA-Foundation preparation courses. For the other certifications we point you to the official bodies in the dedicated section.
Cube Academy has been an iSAQB®-accredited Training Provider since 2024: we deliver the preparation courses, while the exam is taken separately with the certification body. How the exam works.
In the course calendar you will find the next online and in-person editions in Rome, with dates, prices and registration.