Individual Certifications for TOGAF™ 9 Surpass 2,000 in Record Time
Individual certifications for TOGAF™ version 9, The Open Group’s standard method for enterprise architecture, have surpassed 2,000 since the latest version was released last year.
LONDON, May 25th, 2010 – Individual certifications for TOGAF™ version 9, The Open Group’s standard method for enterprise architecture, have surpassed 2,000 since the latest version was released last year. Developed and endorsed by members of The Open Group’s Architecture Forum, TOGAF 9 is an Open Group standard and business tool that improves business efficiency by providing organisations the same enterprise architecture methodology and framework used by the world’s leading finance and government organisations.
To date, more than 83,000 copies of the TOGAF 9 framework have been downloaded from The Open Group’s website and more than 23,000 hard copies of the TOGAF 9 book have been sold.
According to Allen Brown, president and CEO of The Open Group, the fast adoption of TOGAF 9 and demand for its certification program by architecture professionals and their employers is indicative of the value to be gained from trusted, globally accepted standards.
“The tremendous adoption of TOGAF 9 over the past year is in direct response to market demand for certified practitioners that know how to create business-oriented architectures based on industry standards,” said Brown. “This milestone also showcases the significant efforts of our members, our partners and industry advocates in helping to drive adoption of TOGAF 9 globally.”
Since being created in the early 90s, more than 80 percent of the Global Fortune Top 50 have used the TOGAF standard to develop enterprise architectures. Enterprises worldwide look to adopt TOGAF because it allows business and IT leaders within organisations to speak the same language about technology infrastructures. This allows for faster and safer implementation processes, consistent levels of delivery, improved decision making and less investment in training overall. Because TOGAF also leverages work, contributions and expertise from these top global organisations, users of the standard receive a proven methodology that provides minimal risk and saves their organisations time and money.
Designed to help improve business agility by closely aligning the goals of the IT department with those of the overall business, TOGAF 9 featured several enhancements that are driving its widespread adoption. These include: an enhanced Architecture Development Method (ADM) for applying to specific situations such as service-oriented architecture (SOA) or security architecture; an Architecture Content Framework containing detailed content meta-models for formalising definitions of enterprise architecture and establishing links between business and IT objects; and a revised modular structure for simplified consideration of specific aspects of an architecture’s core capabilities.
According to Garry Doherty, TOGAF product manager at The Open Group, TOGAF 9 certification programs enable organisations to standardise on an open method for enterprise architecture and avoid vendor lock-in to proprietary methods. Certification programs are currently available for individuals, trainers and professional services. Certification for TOGAF-based enterprise architecture tool kits is expected to be available in the latter half of 2010.
Doherty noted that certifications for both versions 8 and 9 of TOGAF are taking off on a global basis. According to Doherty, approximately 34 percent of TOGAF certified individuals are from the Asia-Pacific region, with 25 percent coming from the Americas and 15 percent from Europe.
The standard is also growing in Africa (15 percent) and in the Middle East (8 percent). There are also more than 20 TOGAF 9 training partners worldwide and 22 accredited TOGAF 9 courses. The entire 700-plus page framework is currently available in English, Chinese and Japanese, with a pocket guide also available in French.
“We’re very grateful to everyone whose continued efforts and support of the standard has made TOGAF 9 such a success,” Brown said.