How I passed TOGAF 9.2 Part 1
Last year I decided to take the TOGAF exam. I made a plan, I read on reddit and around the Internet how others passed it and then I started learning using the most recommend resource I found out there: the self study pack, which I should had finished in a few weeks, according to a few. But I didn’t. I soon understood TOGAF was not written for my kind of background, a very technical one.
The Background and The Terminology
The problem was that TOGAF (including the self-study pack) is written for people coming from a business background. Mine is very technical, meaning for someone with a similar background, the terms may be hard to grasp and the explanations may make no sense, not enough to build a foundation. Also, the documentation is written in scientific terminology that you may not be familiar with, especially if you come from a slightly different field and if English is not your strongest point. If you find yourself in a similar situation, that’s the time to take a step back and look for other resources.
The Resources I Used
So you need to take a step back and look for other resources, even if not directly related to the subject of your study (TOGAF in this case). You look for resources that fill in the gap between your background and the field you approach. In this case, you look for resources on Enterprise Architecture but explained for technical mindsets and explained in common language. After some reading and watching, I found out a really good video on enterprise architecture. I sincerely recommend it, it is well laid-out and thorough, even though it only takes one hour. This video was enough to understand the basics on Enterprise Architecture and move on to TOGAF.
Once I understood what Enterprise Architecture really means and its building blocks, my next step was to find some other good resources on TOGAF but again, explained in plain English. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much out there of a good quality. The best that I found, although incomplete, is the VisualParadigm series on TOGAF ADM. I recommend you watch these ones as well, before you go through other resources. It does not take a lot more of your time, but it makes it easier to understand the ADM schema and how it works.
After watching all these videos (which is 1 day later), I felt ready for the self-study pack. So I started reading again and I finished the book in only a few days. It wasn’t that difficult after all. You just need to have the right perspective on it before you start reading the books. Then I barely touched the TOGAF document.
The Exam
I did all the example tests I could find online (by doing a simple search), then I scheduled my exam and passed it. Was the exam difficult? Possibly. Was it because of I was anxious? That’s possible as well. And not because I was unprepared, I only scheduled the exam once I was sure I understood each paragraph from the self-study pack resource. But I found the exam very much focused on details and around 30% of the questions felt as they were missing from the self-study pack, which made the exam very stressful. I felt I had plenty of time though, so I just took those questions one by one and decided the best answer to my best ability. In the end, I passed with almost 90%, I got most of them right. But I am confident to say the self-study pack may not be the best place to start learning for this certification and may not be the best place to stop as some information seems to be missing. If I would do it again, I would probably focus more on the TOGAF document itself.
Conclusion
Was it worth going through all of it? Yes, I am confident it did. You do learn a lot about enterprise architecture and even if your job role doesn’t involve this, TOGAF and enterprise architecture in general help you widen your perspective, see the big picture, understand the business processes and how organisations (should) work and they give you a nice, easy to follow structure once you got the right mindset.