A major and long-awaited new version of the TOGAF Standard (10th Edition) places it still at the ground floor for learning an Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework, as it is very wide-ranging and built in a modular and thus more flexible for future enhancements. The EA course derived from this edition is called TOGAF Enterprise Architecture and it links to about 65% of the overall Standard. Of course, this confuses most people because previous certifications were derived from the entire TOGAF Standard. In the case of what I will informally call “TOGAF 10”, the certification was actually developed separately from the actual TOGAF Standard, even before the Standard was completed and published.
As former Chair of the TOGAF Certification Committee, I found this to be a peculiar way of proceeding by not, for example, placing enough emphasis on the Standard itself being optimized before building an EA Certification Course related to it. What has resulted from this bifurcated path? I suggest it is a sub-optimization of both the Standard and the EA Certification course.
My personal opinion having been noted, the TOGAF EA Certification Course remains the best choice as a baseline orientation to the most widely recognized EA Framework in the world and one that many employers will take note of as evidence of solid EA awareness. If extreme due diligence is done regarding the choice of trainer (the knowledge, skills, and experience of the actual trainer are critically important), as aspiring Master EA should become TOGAF Certified. An expert trainer is more important than ever with the current version of TOGAF because the Practitioner Level (scenario-based) is not something that can be mastered through self-study – there are too many idiosyncrasies that need to be laid out and, by direction of The Open Group, discussed with an expert trainer at an accredited training company to obtain a test voucher from it.
The following is from a recent LinkedIn post on this same topic and makes some excellent points supporting the theme that TOGAF is extremely important for an EA, but it is not enough, by itself, to be successful as an EA:
“ TOGAF was designed in an era when technology played a supporting role rather than being a strategic business driver. With digital transformation, technology and business goals are now intrinsically linked, with each driving and influencing the other. Adapting TOGAF to this new reality can be challenging.
So the TOGAF framework, while comprehensive, isn’t always as usable as it could be. The sheer complexity and learning curve can sometimes be a hurdle for teams that need to move quickly and efficiently.
Despite these challenges, I firmly believe that with the right adjustments, TOGAF can still be valuable in the digital transformation journey. These modifications could include adopting an agile, scaled-down version of TOGAF, or integrating it with more modern frameworks that better accommodate digital transformation – attempting to use the framework in its entirety can be unwieldy and, ultimately, limiting.
The goal isn’t to abandon TOGAF but to adapt and evolve it to meet the current needs of the rapidly changing digital landscape.”
One excellent TOGAF-and-ArchiMate certified alumnus from EA Principals’ courses recently commented to me that he was very disappointed in the latest version of the TOGAF Standard because it is not practical enough, veering off, for the Practitioner level, to a lot of opiniated philosophy (derived almost entirely from the newly added “Practitioner’s Guide to the ADM). Sadly, the philosophy being espoused is very fuzzy.
In my view, this entire guide should be removed from the TOGAF Standard because it adds next to no practical guidance that a practitioner could directly leverage. Instead, for example, it beats the drum loudly that the only true stakeholders for an EA-supported initiative are the business/product owners who have the decision rights about that initiative. In such a narrow definition of a stakeholder, EA Steering Groups would not be considered stakeholders for the portfolio of EA-supported initiatives the organization is working on. Similarly, I would recommend deleting the Leaders Guide to the ADM as it is overly arbitrary and philosophical as well.
Therefore, the approach in the Practitioners Guide is, in my opinion, wrongheaded. However, like so much in TOGAF, it forces more discussion on the topic of stakeholders during the training, which is a critically important discussion to have to already move beyond the overly restricted and arbitrary one in the Standard. In addition, the Guide almost completely ignores the best practices to establish, evolve, and manage an EA practice – this is one of the most essential topics facing most organizations investing in TOGAF Certification training.
Though inadequate in many ways, the Practitioners Guide forms the heart of the Level 2 Practitioner exam. For some reason, The Open Group has latched onto the name of the Guide as if its name justifies a difficult exam on its philosophy in order to be certified as a TOGAF Practitioner.
Linking back to the extended LinkedIn quote above, I suggest a new and laser sharp focus on creating proven and practical guidance with example use cases and worked case studies as support, in a separate part of the TOGAF Standard, replacing the Practitioners and Leaders Guides (which make up almost half of the material used in the TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Certification Course while providing little if any useful content).
In conclusion, although the latest TOGAF Standard and the associated learning points for the TOGAF Practitioner Level exam need to be enhanced in the coming months, do not wait for such adjustments. There is so much to learn from the overall TOGAF Standard that the TOGAF EA Certification Course is the single best springboard to understand EA from its perspective and to engender thoughts about next steps to make the knowledge gained useful building blocks in your EA careers and practices.
But go beyond the starting gate and arrange a customized course for your organization that goes well beyond TOGAF. Consider engaging a specialist company like EA Principals for design help and then in the role of a part-time coach to help realize the resulting blueprint. Without such readily available, expert assistance, most EA practices will not succeed beyond TOGAF Certifications, if that far. What will surprise those who have not considered this option is that it is extremely affordable if you use a boutique organization specializing in such assistance (rather than a large consulting firm). EA Principals would welcome the opportunity to explain more about what should follow well-done TOGAF EA training to work steadily toward EA Mastery.
Authored by Dr. Steve Else, Chief Architect & Principal Instructor