TOGAF Series #63 | ATL002:63

Key Learning Points

by Roger Evernden

A recent question from a TOGAF The Open Group publishes a detailed guide
student raised some interesting points to the Conformance Requirements needed by
that may not be clear to all TOGAF someone who wants to gain TOGAF certification1.
students, and so I thought it would This documents the body of knowledge that a
candidate must possess to achieve certification.
be useful to explain a bit about Key
If you want the official, definitive list of what you
Learning Points. are expected to know as a TOGAF student this
is the place. On the other hand, there are a lot
more entertaining things to read!
It is the place I go to when I have any doubts
about what The Open Group expects of TOGAF
students. And as a student, you might also find it
useful if you have any doubts about what you are
expected to learn.
Ill give you a quick outline of what you can expect
in this document. It outlines the syllabus for both
levels of certification Level 1, Foundation, and
Level 2, Certified. It tells you the Purpose for
each learning unit in the syllabus, and it lists the
Learning Outcomes. This is the basis for every
official TOGAF training course.
Training providers have a degree of latitude on
how they choose to teach you the syllabus, but
most of them follow a structure that is very like
the one laid out here. And all training providers
must be approved by The Open Group, which
means that their courses are checked to make
sure that they cover the necessary material.

1. https://togaf9-cert.opengroup.org/sites/togaf9-cert.opengroup.org/files/docs/TOGAF9_Conformance_Requirements_pdf/
TOGAF9_Conformance_Requirements.pdf

Copyright 2016 Good e-Learning. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, resold, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Such requests for permission or any
other comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to: marketing@goodelearning.com. Good e-Learning is a trading name used by
Educational Systems Ltd. The Open Group and TOGAF are registered trademarks of the Open Group in the United States and other countries
OK. Now we come to the Key Learning Points
(KLP). A KLP is a self-contained learning object,
typically ranging from 2 to 15 minutes. The
TOGAF Knowledge Base is defined as the sum of
these KLPs. If you like, think of the KLPs as being
one of the most important building blocks of the
TOGAF body of knowledge.
A KLP might be something quite simple, like listing
multiple items; or it can be more difficult, like
explaining which requires a description with a
rationale. For example, list the business benefits
of having an enterprise architecture; or explain
what architecture is in the context of TOGAF.
The TOGAF documentation is very detailed, and
it is difficult, or even impossible, for training
courses to cover everything. As you work through
the training materials it is important to bear in
mind that the definitive source is always the
TOGAF documentation, and this should be used
to supplement the training material that your
trainer provides. If you come across questions
or topics that are not fully explained in the
training, then you need to read the relevant
sections of the TOGAF documentation. I would
always recommend that you take the course and
become familiar with the TOGAF documentation
as two parallel tasks.
Let me conclude with an example
KLP 6.2-1 requires the student to briefly explain
the seven aspects of the approach undertaken
in the Preliminary Phase. Bear in mind that the
TOGAF documentation itself does not always
explain topics very well. The approach section
in the Phases of the ADM is a case in point. To
satisfy this KLP you need to:
Look at Section 6.2 Approach (in Chapter 6
which covers the Preliminary Phase), where you
will find that it lists the seven aspects of the
approach without explaining them.
Copyright 2016 Good e-Learning. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, resold, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Such requests for permission or any
other comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to: marketing@goodelearning.com. Good e-Learning is a trading name used by
Educational Systems Ltd. The Open Group and TOGAF are registered trademarks of the Open Group in the United States and other countries
Read further in this section where it goes on
to discuss some of the key concepts, such
as Enterprise, or Organizational Context.
What you will notice here is that it doesnt give
you a step-by-step guide on how to define
the enterprise, or identify the key drivers and
elements in an organizational context.
Then read the Steps for the Preliminary Phase
and here you will find some additional clues as
to how you define an enterprise. For example,
Step 1, described in Section 6.4.1 Scope the
Enterprise Organizations Impacted, goes part
way to telling you how to define the enterprise.
So, bear in mind that to fully understand the
Approach, you should read the whole of the
Chapter for that Phase.
Finally, bear in mind that there are things which
are difficult to explain without doing them;
some of the KLPs will only make complete
sense as you apply TOGAF in your EA practice.
(And I know that this may only happen after
youve taken the TOGAF exam!)
A final point about an explain type question
is that, to answer it you need to provide a
description with a rationale. but remember that
the TOGAF exam is multiple choice so you will
never have to explain when you take the exam!
In other words, although briefly explaining the
seven aspects of the approach undertaken in
the Preliminary Phase is a Key Learning Point
for conformance requirements in the TOGAF
syllabus, the way that the exam is structured
makes it difficult or impossible to ask a question
that will test your ability to explain it.
The key things to remember are:
That TOGAF training cant cover every single
detail of all the key learning points,
You may need to supplement the course by
reading the relevant TOGAF documentation,
And when it comes to the exam you are only
tested through multiple choice questions.