I have been a habitual visitor to this site, and its been ages since I have posted here. Nevertheless, just wanted to let you know that I have cleared TOGAF 9 (Levels 1 & 2) today (20th November 2013) , with a cumulative percentage of 83.75 (TOGAF Part 1: 82.5% and TOGAF Part 2: 85%).
I have close to 13 years of experience in
Java, having played various roles(Developer, Onsite Co-ordinator (in the USA), Team Lead, Project Lead, Technical Specialist), and possesing a TOGAF certification was on my TO-DO List for quite some time. Having got some free time , I signed up for a 4-day training course (to be immediately followed by the examination), with one of the Open Group Accredited Training Providers, SNA Technolgies, at Hyderabad India. At INR 67415(inclusive of the exam fees of USD 495), this training cum certification program is expensive compared to other certifications, and I had to be absolutely sure that I would pass this examination.
The 4-day course can be quite hectic, with lots of new topics like the ADM, Enterprise Continuum, Architecture Framework Capability and Content Meta Model being thrown in. What I felt challenging, was to recollect the steps to be followed across the Preliminary Phase, and the 8 phases (Vision, Business Architecture, Information Systems Architecture, Technology Architecture, Opportunities & Solutions, Migration Planning, Implementation Governance, Architecture Change Management and Requirements Management as well). And the case scenarios that are given in Part 2 require some very carefull reading, to pick out the best possible answer.
The allocated time of an hour for Part 1 is adequate enough, and I could actually complete the 40 questions in about 45 minutes, and spent the remaining time revisiting my answers. The 90 minutes allocated to Part 2, was more than enough, and I could complete the 8 questions (42 to 49) in about an hour.
Now with the certification under my belt, its time to scout the market to get into a EA team, to put this knowledge into practice - and thats going to be more challenging for me, than the exam I guess!!
Regards
Praveen
