This guest post comes courtesy of Andrew Josey, Director of standards within The Open Group.
By Andrew Josey
Last Wednesday represented an important milestone for the TOGAF 9 The Open Group certification program. In case of already had not seen on our website, Twitter or LinkedIn, the number of TOGAF 9 individuals certificates has exceeded the equivalent brand of 25,000, an increase of nearly 8,500 new certifications in the 12 month period.
For those of you who are not familiar with the name, TOGAF, an open Group standard, is a proven enterprise architecture methodology and framework used by major organizations of the world to improve the efficiency of the business.
Certification is available for individuals who want to demonstrate that they have attained the required knowledge and understanding of the current standard, and reach 25,000 brand is of course an incredible for TOGAF milestone. [Disclosure: The Open Group is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]
However, milestone on Wednesday is not the only positive reflection of adoption, TOGAF in recent times. Just a few weeks ago, the latest report Foote placed TOGAF skills and open AC superior (Open Group) certification of the 340 higher paying non-certified and 289 more high certified it skills, respectively.
Treport, based on data from the United States and Canada, stated that: "independent provider organizations such as The Open Group have far fewer resources to promote their programs, but what they have is certifications of superb architecture that employers needed and highly valued and see their certifications by holding its value if not gaining ground".
There is no doubt that the success of both can be partially attributed to a huge increase in the popularity of open standards in recent years - including TOGAF and open AC.
The economic crisis has its role, of course. Open since the financial crisis began, standards have helped provide a framework that enables Enterprise Architects save their companies money, maintain and increase business efficiency, profitability and unit. And professional-level certification has helped Enterprise Architects to differentiate themselves, better job prospects and safety through testing of delivery times.
However, the worst of the financial crisis a time behind us, the rate of certifications shows little signs of slowing down. The following chart describes the increase in the number of certifications for TOGAF 9 from March 2009:
As you can see in the graphic, there are two levels defined for TOGAF 9 "certification of people", and these are known as TOGAF 9 Foundation and TOGAF 9 certified, respectively.
To provide you with a brief overview of these, TOGAF 9 Foundation certification demonstrates that the candidate has acquired knowledge of the terminology, structure and basic concepts of TOGAF 9 and also understands the basic principles of the TOGAF standard and enterprise architecture.
Certified TOGAF 9 certification provides validation as well as knowledge and comprehension in TOGAF 9 Foundation, the candidate is able to analyse and apply this knowledge.
In H, while 9 training partners there are 50 TOGAF now through the world and 58 TOGAF 9 accredited courses to choose from, more and more of these certifications are self-taught. At the last count we had sold more than 7,700 electronic self-study packages for TOGAF 9 certification, making it the bestselling number one in our e-commerce store. These have proven to be particularly popular in small markets where classroom training courses can be expensive or less accessible.
Of course, as we celebrate a major milestone in its evolution, credit must go to the many people who have helped to develop and continue to help develop the TOGAF standard, in particular the members of the Group of architecture open forum. Today's milestone is not only a testament to the value placed on trust, globally accepted standards supported by certification, but to their endeavors.
Trademark was not for so long that we announced in this blog that TOGAF had become a brand globally recognized. Now, just a few months later, we celebrate another important milestone in the evolution of TOGAF. How long they can continue this evolution (and milestones).
More information about the Certified TOGAF 9, including the directory of professionals certified and accredited official training course calendar, can be obtained in the Open Group website here: http://www.opengroup.org/togaf9/cert/
This guest post comes courtesy of Andrew Josey, Director of standards within The Open Group.
