{"id":4219,"date":"2012-08-10T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4219"},"modified":"2012-08-09T22:26:24","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T21:26:24","slug":"getting-my-head-around-enterprise-architecture-specifically-togaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/08\/getting-my-head-around-enterprise-architecture-specifically-togaf.htm","title":{"rendered":"Getting my head around Enterprise Architecture (specifically TOGAF)"},"content":{"rendered":"

After many years designing and implementing technology infrastructure, I’ve been trying to move \u201cup the stack\u201d out of the (multiple) domain architect space, towards solutions architecture and onwards to develop as an enterprise architect. That involves a mindset change to progress from the role of a designer to that of an architect but I’m on my way\u2026 and I currently manage roadmaps, portfolios (standards) and reference architectures (amongst other duties), so it might be useful to know a bit about Enterprise Architecture\u2026<\/p>\n

I thought it might help to get certified in The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)<\/a> and I spent a week on a TOGAF 9 training course last year following which I received a voucher to sit the combined part 1 and 2 exam<\/a>. At the time of writing I don\u2019t know how successful I’ve been \u2013 in fact, this post is timed to go live at the moment when I\u2019ll be sitting at a Prometric testing station, no doubt getting frustrated with a single monitor and limited screen resolution as I try to search a PDF of the TOGAF manual at the same time as answering questions\u2026 but, even so, I thought I\u2019d share my revision experience for the benefit of others.<\/p>\n

For reasons that I won\u2019t go into here, there was a gap between my course and my exam voucher being released so I wasn’t able to take it whilst the content was still fresh in my mind. Several months later, I set aside a week to spend four days revising the content, and reading around the topic, before taking the exam at the end of the week but I found it hard to revise \u2013 my main strategy was to going over the course content again, along with a variety of other resources \u2013 all of which were highly textual (even the diagrams are unattractive) and, above all, excruciatingly dull.<\/p>\n

I decided I needed some visual content \u2013 not just diagrams but some animated content describing key TOGAF concepts would have been fantastic. I didn\u2019t find anything like that, but I did find a series of videos recorded by Craig Martin<\/a>, from Knotion Consulting<\/a> in South Africa (thanks to Sunil Babu for his blog post that provided the tip<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The first and last two minutes are, understandably, an advert for the training that Knotion provides but then Craig gets into a really easy to understand overview of TOGAF and broader enterprise architecture concepts, even diving into service oriented architecture (SOA) at one point. \u00a0These are freely available on YouTube but, based on watching them, I would suggest that Craig could package up some training content for remote delivery and it would be a worthwhile investment for people in the same situation as me. In fairness, I did start to get lost towards the end, and the overview doesn’t seem to strictly follow the TOGAF materials (that may be seen as a good thing!) but the first hour was really useful – there is definitely a market for high quality subscription-based training in this space. Remote delivery ought to drive down the costs and it would certainly be better than the Architecting \u00a0The Enterprise<\/a> course that I attended (of course, that\u2019s a personal view and your mileage may vary \u2013 I\u2019m sure many people enjoy hours and hours of very dull PowerPoint content mixed with some group exercises and squeezed into 4 days when 5 would be more appropriate\u2026).<\/p>\n

Of course, Craig\u2019s 90 minute introduction isn\u2019t everything I need to pass the exam but it has helped to cement a lot of concepts in my mind. After watching the videos, I stopped working through the course materials in detail, and concentrated on a more general understanding of the\u00a0Architecture\u00a0Development Model (ADM) and the related TOGAF concepts. The TOGAF Version 9 Pocket Guide<\/a>\"\" (which was provided on my training course) helped here, as did the Practice Test Papers (also from the course but available online for a fee<\/a>). \u00a0Other potentially useful resources include:<\/p>\n