TOGAF – it’s what I’m doing now

TOGAF – No, it’s not some new Doctor Who villain.  It stands for The Open Group Architecture Framework, and my company is getting up to speed on it in order to determine how to best modify TOGAF for our own needs.

The timing is excellent, because I’ve just moved to a new project for the next couple of years which will be setting the direction for all business, application, data, and technology architecture across the enterprise.  We’ll be working on that for at least two years, as the timelines currently stand.  This is just one of nine tracks running in a program which will retool IT as we know it.  Exciting stuff!

I’ll be the first to admit that the TOGAF materials make for terrible reading.  Imagine the worst documentation you’ve ever run across, and then make it even worse.  I’m absolutely convinced that the 700+ page book could be condensed down to 200-300 pages and be about 10 times more informative.

Still, it’s what I’m doing right now, and because for my new job I will need more than just the basic understanding of TOGAF which would enable me to pass the certification exam on the 31st, I am slogging my way through the book.  My greatest hope is that the terminology will firmly implant itself, and that the patterns of process described in the book will finally be described in such a way that I get that “Aha!” moment which otherwise would be unreachable due to the user-UNfriendly nature of the documentation.

TOGAF.  Have you had yours today?