The Four Week Plan for TOGAF Foundation

At times it might seem like an impossible task to study TOGAF. The spec is 650 pages long. How could you possibly memorize it all?

Well the good news is that you don’t have to memorize it. Here’s a four-week plan for studying for the Part 1 test. You can “tailor” this to your needs, if you think you need more or less time for each step.

1) Set a date within the next 4 weeks to book the test. Do what you need to do to lock that date as THE date that you will take it. Write it down in your calendar or wherever you keep appointments.

2) Set reminders for yourself between now and then. So if you booked the test for 4 weeks from today, set 3 reminders for yourself in that same calendar (a week from today, two weeks from today, three weeks from today) to highlight where you should be at in your studies. These are often called milestones, and you can judge your study progress against where you expected yourself to be with course milestones.

3) By a week from today, you should understand ADM at a high level. You should know what the phases are by memory (“what is Phase E called?”). You should know what activities happen in each phase. No need to memorize the exact steps or the artifacts yet. Just know the ADM this week.

4) Two weeks from today, you should get deeper into it. Watch the lessons on from Lesson 44 to Lesson 124 on each of the phases and each of the steps. Get a sense for what order things are done in, and why. ASK QUESTIONS in the discussion board to get my and other students opinions on it. (“Why is a high level migration plan during Opportunities and Solutions?”)

5) Three weeks from today, learn the other important parts of TOGAF. Now you find out about content metamodel, architecture repository and enterprise continuum, and other things. You can take a sample test this week if you wish.

4) Week four is review. Take other sample tests, and ensure that your knowledge is evenly spread in all needed areas. Get lots of rest before the test, and be relaxed and organized on the day of the test.

There. You can do this, and there’s a plan.