cleared TOGAF Part I with 77% today

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Dear Ranchers:

I cleared my TOGAF Part I today with 77%. The pass mark was 55%.

My sincere thanks to everyone on this forum who helped me get there. I'll be getting ready for Part II in 1-2 month's timeframe. The following are my Part I experiences.

Preparation material - Purchased TOGAF 9.1 study guide from official website

Practice Exams - http://theopenarch.com/81-tests/72-togaf-9-exam-tests.html, 2 exams given as part of study guide purchase, Questions at the end of each of the 13 chapters in the study guide

How to assess whether we are ready or not - I got around 50% scores on my first attempt. I've adopted iterative approach and repeated my attempts after going through the study material again. I finally ended up getting around 90% right. I preferred this approach as the depth of comprehension increases on multiple passes IMHO.

I prepared some 12 page handy notes that i made out of the study guide and tricky questions in the practice exams.

About 15-20 questions in the real exam are very similar to the practice exams mentioned above. The trick lies in getting the other 20-25 questions right.

All the best for future TOGAF aspirtants. I feel that this knowledge will be very useful in the longer run.

Thanks.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Congrats! This is without the in person class right? (I ask because that is helpful info for future readers of this thread)

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Thanks Jeanne. Yes, I didn't go for in-person training. Most of the concepts are very well articulated in the OpenGroup study guide. I spent around 10 hours understanding the study guide contents and around 20-25 hours practicing the exams and then re-visiting the concepts in the guide.

My suggestion is never attempt to understand or digest everything in a single go. Keep iterating like a bar code scanner repeatedly. One more important point that I observed is that there are negative questions like "What is NOT applicable in this situation", etc. While we understand the NOT part via elimination or whatever mechanism, its important to note down what is not the NOT part , i.e., what is true for that scenario, for better understanding.

I guess Part II will be even more interesting and enjoyable for two reasons - we don't need to memorize much (open book exam) and we need to apply whatever we learn. For Part I, memorizing what should be done in each phase is very important.

As many other folks mentioned before, some of the right answers(per TOGAF) are counter-intuitive . Also, time shouldn't be a factor as all the questions are simple one-line statements.

Thanks.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

Wow, congrats. No in-person training? That's impressive

I found the second part to be easier than the first part, mainly because the second part is a little more intuitive. Many times, it's clear that you can eliminate 2 of the 4 choices. The question passage mentioned a specific concern and there's nothing in those 2 answers about that concern. For example it will say something like "The CEO is particularly concerned about the security of the application". Out of the 4 answers 2 will not have anything related to security, so you can kick them out right there. SInce it is open book, you can quickly look up things you are not sure about. Out of the 2 remaining, pick the one that sounds more complete, and you are likely to get the best answer.

ANyways, the way scoring works, getting the second best answer on all questions guarantees a pass. So, really, you need to be good at eliminating the 2 bad answers and you are in the home stretch.

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Thanks Jayesh. I seem to have got 31/40 correct.

Appreciate the tips for Part II. I think understanding and practicing more scenarios is the key to success. I will get back to you with more specific questions when I start doing it.

Also, please let me know what certificate we would be getting from OpenGroup on this certification. I just got a score sheet from the exam center guys via email which doesn't have the section-wise score breakdown.

Regards.

[Joe Harry]

Congratulations! How long did it take for you to complete the preparation for the exam? I have been pondering to do this one for quite some time. I might do it this year!

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

I spent around 10 hours understanding the study guide contents and around 20-25 hours practicing the exams and then re-visiting the concepts in the guide.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

Jayadev,

I trying to remember what I got from OpenGroup after I passed, so I might be a little wrong here. I don't recall getting a physical certificate. I think they emailed me a certificate. And I think they add you to their online registry so anyone can go to their website and verify that you have passed the exam

Joe,

Regarding how long it might take you to prepare, keep in mind that it depends a lot on where you are coming from. It's easier to understand ADM if you have already done it before. And almost everyone has done it, atleast parts of it, and maybe not in the right order. The thing is the parts that you have already done will be easy for you to grasp. Like for example, my background is that I'm an doing application architecture. For me, understanding the BDAT architecture phases was very easy.. because I'm already doing it, or atelast I'm involved in parts of it. But, I had difficutly understanding the governance models and capability models. Someone with a deeper QA/requirements background might find governance models easier because they are dealing with governance every day. Someone with a PM background might find capability models easy.

Take the time estimates with a grain of salt. If you are doing it on your own, you might need longer in some areas and shorter than others. If you take the class, it is about 32 hours of class and 8 hours of homework, and this covers both part I and part II, and the guy guarantees that if you pay attention in class, you will get around 70%, no matter what your background. If you are doing it on your own, I would expect that you will typically take more than that. However, it all depends on what experience you are bringing in.

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

I agree with Jayesh's observations above. It is context sensitive based on your background, etc. In my case, I have close to 17 years of industry exposure and decent knowledge on TOGAF related things based on my past brushes.

Regards.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Jayesh A Lalwani wrote:I trying to remember what I got from OpenGroup after I passed, so I might be a little wrong here. I don't recall getting a physical certificate. I think they emailed me a certificate. And I think they add you to their online registry so anyone can go to their website and verify that you have passed the exam

I don't recall getting a physical certificate either. They ask you whether you want it to be visible publicly in their registry that you passed.

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Yup. I too got an email talking about online register details. No physical certificate.

On Part II scenarios, I've figured the following sources for collating 76 scenarios (need to check that there is no duplication !!).

1. Togaf Study guide material from OpenGroup website - 12 scenarios
2. OpenArch 2 exams - 16 scenarios
3. free-online-exams practice questions - 48 scenarios

I'll keep posting more sources when I find them.

Regards.

[Joe Harry]

Did you use the study material from TOGAF? I mean the TOGAF 9 third edition?

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Yes. TOGAF® 9 Foundation 3rd Edition and TOGAF® 9 Certified 3rd Edition Prepared by Rachel Harrison of Oxford Brookes University.

I recommend that you purchase that study guide from the official OpenGroup website to ensure that you get the latest material.

[Joe Harry]

Jayadev Pulaparty wrote:Yes. TOGAF® 9 Foundation 3rd Edition and TOGAF® 9 Certified 3rd Edition Prepared by Rachel Harrison of Oxford Brookes University.

I recommend that you purchase that study guide from the official OpenGroup website to ensure that you get the latest material.

I was actually considering that. I will now buy them!

[Jayadev Pulaparty]

Do we have any videos on the web that explain the iterative approach of TOGAF ADM process? I tried searching unsuccessfully.

[Jayesh A Lalwani]

In this thread, Kj Reddy posted a link to some videos of a training course. I watched one of them, and the videos clarified a lot of things. I didn't go through the whole series because I took a course.