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Choosing TOGAF® for an Enterprise Architecture Practice

Blog: Good eLearning

You are starting out in a new career as an enterprise architect
and are currently contemplating whether you should study The Open Group
Architecture Framework (TOGAF).

Or maybe you are planning a new major project that will
transform an enterprise, and you’re wondering whether adopting TOGAF will help.

Perhaps you’ve been considering TOGAF for a while, but
you’re still not sure if it’s the right approach for your enterprise
architecture practice.

In every one of these situations, there is a need to assess
TOGAF to see how helpful it will be in your new quest. Now, TOGAF is not the
only approach to enterprise architecture; nor is it ‘complete’, in the sense
that there are plenty of skills and techniques in enterprise architecture that TOGAF
does not yet cover. So, you may want to consider alternative frameworks,
approaches or methodologies in order to find one that best suits your needs.

I’d like to share three criteria that you can use to assess how
helpful TOGAF, or any other EA approach, can be for your career, project, or
practice.

1. Can it help you to be a better enterprise architect?

Being an effective enterprise architect requires a very
special mindset. It requires the ability to understand and reconcile a wide
range of diverse opinions, viewpoints, and concerns. It requires the ability to
think strategically for long-term goals while also delivering short-term
benefits. It requires you to think architecturally: to envision a big picture
that is broad, deep and can encompass all lower-level details and minutiae.

To make it as an enterprise architect, you might need to let go of parts of the mindset that has worked for you in other roles. For example, if your background is in IT, you will need to broaden your horizons to include a business and managerial perspective. If your focus has been on designing a solution for a specific problem, then you will need to expand this narrow focus to include wider, contextual environments and make sure that every component works well with all the other components.

So, there is an element of learning new skills, while at the
same time changing old, inappropriate habits. Ask yourself, does TOGAF
cultivate a sense of what it means to be an enterprise architect? Does it
emphasize the important characteristics, personality and behaviors of a good
enterprise architect?

2. Can it help you to embed an effective EA practice in your organizational culture?

This second question is about how well TOGAF would fit into the culture of your organization or enterprise. Enterprise architecture works best in cultures that are grounded in the present, but also aware of the medium and long-term future; in cultures that accept the interconnections of everything, with leadership that recognizes the need for collaboration, cooperation and compromise.

In other words, with the best will in the world, enterprise
architecture will not work in some organizations because they are just too
short-sighted or narrow-minded to truly benefit from the insights that EA can offer.

So, the second question is: can TOGAF help you to
successfully introduce EA to your enterprise? To some extent, this is an extension
of the topic described in Chapter 26 of TOGAF
– Business Transformation Readiness Assessment. Is your organization ready
to adopt and use enterprise architecture techniques? Will it benefit from
architectural thinking? [[1]]

Will TOGAF help you to establish a successful and effective practice in your enterprise? Do the sections of the Architecture Development Method (ADM), Skills Framework, or Content Framework meet the practical needs of your enterprise?

3. Can it encourage you to think for yourself?

Finally, does TOGAF encourage you to think for yourself? To
a certain extent, we all need some
guidelines and guidance to be able to practice as enterprise architects.

It is very useful when you come across a document or diagram
that explains in just the right way, and with just the right amount of detail,
what you need to know so that you can do it yourself. But when there is not
enough detail, the examples are unclear or the theory isn’t matched with
practical case studies, this might not be enough.

On the other hand, when you get too many step-by-step rules
and procedures, they can sometimes get in the way and make it difficult for you
to adapt things to meet your exact needs. Ready-made answers can also discourage
independent thinking. Remember that every EA project is unique, even when it
has some of the characteristics of similar projects. More importantly, every
enterprise architect is also unique.

Summary

In practice, it is always from life and experience that we
learn the most. TOGAF can only ever be a starting point. There is no single definitive
EA approach, methodology or framework that is always right for everyone. There
are no definitive answers to the three questions that I’ve asked in this blog,
but keeping them in mind will help you pick and choose the most relevant
guidance from TOGAF or elsewhere.

Studying TOGAF

Are you interested in gaining a TOGAF certification? Good e-Learning offers an award-winning portfolio of online TOGAF training courses, helping professionals go from Foundation level all the way through to becoming certified TOGAF practitioners.

Good e-Learning has always focused on one thing:
convenience. All of our courses can be easily accessed on any web-enabled
devices, including mobile phones and tablets. Not only does this enable
studying on the move, but it also makes it simple for professionals to return
to training any time, anywhere, whether or not they have a computer handy!
Better still, each of our courses offers months of access, making it easy for students
to stagger their training around busy schedules.

Our courses are written by in-house experts with a wealth of
industry experience. This allows us to offer top-tier training for less, and
our tutors are also happy to answer student queries 24/7.

Finally, once a student is ready to sit their exam, they can
request a FREE voucher from the Good e-Learning support team.

Want to find out more about our unique approach? Contact Good e-Learning today!

[1] For a free overview of Architectural Thinking see https://enterprise-architecture-courses-online.thinkific.com/courses/architectural-thinking