How do you find a good TOGAF training course

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

During my vacation, I spent about 2 hours everyday reading the TOGAF study guide. Everything made perfect sense, but at the same time, nothing fits in my head. It seems like if there was a case study that demonstrated how TOGAF is applied, it would be much easier to learn TOGAF

So, does anyone know how I can find a good TOGAF course that does case studies?. I would prefer weekends or online. I don't think my employer is going to give me training time to take a weekday course

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

The Open Group (which owns TOGAF) provides a list of accredited courses online. Presumably they have standards for accrediting them. They do list some online ones. There is also one listed as being two weekends in Washington DC. (I think I remember reading you live around there.) I also see one in NY listed as being one weekend to cover the same material. Don't do that - your head will explode.

I really like the two weekend option. That's something I didn't like about the class. That my brain didn't have time to catch up. Having 5 days in between would really help with that problem!

And I agree with you that the best part of the course was developing a mental model of TOGAF and the case studies.

[Kj Reddy]

The below 1.5 hours video by Craig Martin gives overview about TOGAF:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M4NKwoaLk4&list=UUUJHo7-smMvjvSZISunuoRA&index=11&feature=plcp

I could able to get most of the content from TOGAF Study guide after watching above video.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

Thanks Jeanne. I did register for the 2 weekend course in Spet-Oct. Now, to convince my employer to pay :p

Thanks for the link to crash course Kj Reddy. Hopefully it will give me more clarity

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Jayesh A Lalwani wrote:Thanks Jeanne. I did register for the 2 weekend course in Spet-Oct. Now, to convince my employer to pay :p

You have a good starting point - you aren't asking for time off!

Please do post back how the course went. It'd be interesting to know how they split it up across the two weekends.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

I just finished the course. It was originally scheduled for last weekend and the next weekend, but they rescheduled it for this weekend. The material is very dense and at times it felt that we were being hit by a barrage of information. It's easier to relate to if you have done the kind of work. For example, when the trainer started out wth the enterprise continuum, it was very easy for me to understand, because as part of my job I am thinking about building blocks in abstract fashion, and then jumping down to concrete solutions. However, another participant who is a business analyst, and doesn't think like that from day to day, she was overwhelmed. Then when we got into parts that I've never dealt with, like risk and capability assessment, I was overwhelmed.

So. First 3 days it was mostly covering the material, and all of us were overwhelmed. The biggest complaint I have is that most of the material was not relatable, and he was just going through the whole thng. As homework after the 2nd day we had to do a practice test of level 1 and I got 27/40. The 4th day we did a case study and some exercises. I think the case study might have gone better if everyone was better prepared and there was better teamwork. But I got the idea of how togaf is applied. Then we did a practice level 2 test, and surprisingly everyone did better than expected.


I think the course could have been better if the entire life cycle was taught in an applied manner: take a case study and spend 2 days going through all the phases. However, I do have a better idea of the material before I did he course. More study is required to have everything sink in. So, mission accomplished I guess. IMO. The course will get you to the point where you can pass the exam. You will have to do some study, and how much depends on what experience you are coming with into the course. If you are already an enterprise architect, you can probably use common sense to pass the exam.

The course and the certification itself won't make you an architect though. It gives you the vocabulary and gives you a better appreciation of what architects do.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

"If you are already an enterprise architect, you can probably use common sense to pass the exam. " - no. Some of the questions and expected answers go against common sense. Be careful with this when you take the exam. You are looking for the answer that best matches TOGAF, not necessarily what would be the best thing to do.

And thanks for posting back about the course.