Key Learning Points by Roger Evernden

A recent question from a TOGAF student raised some interesting points that may not be clear to all TOGAF students, and so I thought it would be useful to explain a bit about Key Learning Points.

The Open Group publishes a detailed guide to the Conformance Requirements needed by someone who wants to gain TOGAF certification1.This documents the body of knowledge that a candidate must possess to achieve certification. If you want the official, definitive list of what you 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.

I’ll 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.

TOGAF Series #63 | ATL002:63

© 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

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.

• 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 doesn’t 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 you’ve 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 can’t 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.