Articles Tagged with: Enterprise Architecture

There is certainly value in studying TOGAF, but what about passing the exams? How can one become a TOGAF practitioner, and what does the TOGAF certification path look like?

The current version of TOGAF, TOGAF 9.2, was released back in 2018. Since then, the Open Group has made several updates to the TOGAF Library and has even addressed popular topics like digital transformation.

IT4IT and TOGAF are both highly prominent names in IT and business management. However, it is important to realize that they perform distinct functions and work on different scales.

Combining TOGAF and ArchiMate is an excellent way to create a fully optimized EA practice. The comprehensive and flexible approach of TOGAF can create architectures perfectly suited to your business, while the clarity of ArchiMate will make architectural changes much easier to communicate and facilitate.

Businesses are highly complex in terms of structure, and an enterprise architect needs to be able to read them like a book. They must be aware of elements to do with corporate strategy, technology, communications, outsourced services, stakeholder priorities, and more, not just for a business’s current ‘architecture’, but also for the state the business wants to reach in the future.

Enterprise architects are highly qualified individuals with in-depth knowledge of several topics. They conceptualize and clarify ideas, advising teams, departments, executives, and senior stakeholders in a way that corresponds with each group’s unique concerns, priorities, and level of knowledge. They will also utilize various methodologies and tools to make the overall enterprise architecture (EA) process as efficient and effective as possible, with their understanding of how to adapt and apply said methodologies usually being tempered by several years of experience.

A TOGAF Architecture Roadmap is a list of individual packages of incremental change that, collectively, help EA teams to transition a ‘Baseline Architecture’ to an established ‘Target Architecture’.

...despite the differences between these two enterprise architectural methodologies, they do not actually negate or conflict with each other. In fact, they are quite complementary and can even help teams and departments implement other frameworks such as PRINCE2, COBIT 2019, and ITIL 4.

“There is no single definitive EA approach, methodology or framework that is always right for everyone.”

“Enterprise architecture is a discipline; achieving a TOGAF certification will simply be the first step in a lifelong process of becoming an enterprise architect.”