Enterprise Architecture
What an enterprise architect actually does, how the TOGAF® Standard is built, and how to certify in it
Enterprise Architecture is the business function that looks after the structures and behaviours of an organisation as a whole — the business roles and processes that create and consume its data, and how the technology underneath supports them. Its defining characteristic is scope: where a solutions architect is accountable for one solution, an enterprise architect is accountable for the coherence of the whole, and usually works across several solutions architects and business functions at once.
This page is the entry point to the Enterprise Architecture section: what the discipline covers, how the TOGAF® Standard, 10th Edition is organised, and which certification path applies to you.
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What the discipline covers
Enterprise Architecture is often mistaken for a purely technical activity. It is not. It starts from business roles and processes and from the data those processes create and use; technology enters as a consequence of those decisions, not before them. The work is about making the parts of an organisation fit together deliberately rather than by accident, and about being able to explain why they fit that way to people who will have to fund or live with the answer.
That is why the discipline needs a shared method: without one, every architect describes the organisation in their own notation, and the descriptions cannot be compared, reused or handed over.
Enterprise architect and solutions architect
| Solutions architect | Enterprise architect | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One solution, one problem. | The organisation as a whole. |
| Question answered | How do we build this well? | Should this exist, and how does it fit everything else? |
| Horizon | The life of the project. | Several planning cycles. |
| Typical position | Inside a delivery team. | Above several teams and business functions. |
The two roles are not a hierarchy of skill but of scope, and they need each other: an enterprise architecture that never touches a real solution becomes a document, and a solution designed with no view of the whole becomes the next thing to be untangled.
The TOGAF® Standard and how it is structured
The TOGAF® Standard is the most widely used framework for this work. It is used by commercial businesses of every size, by government departments, by non-governmental public bodies and by defence agencies. The 10th Edition was reorganised specifically to make adoption easier: it separates the concepts and practices that endure from the guidance that is expected to evolve, so an organisation can adopt the stable core and add the parts that suit its own context — including Agile enterprises and digital transformation work.
The Standard comes in two parts: the TOGAF® Fundamental Content and the TOGAF® Series Guides. The Fundamental Content is organised into six documents:
| Document | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Introduction and Core Concepts | An executive overview, the shape of the documentation set, the core concepts and the common definitions used throughout. |
| Architecture Development Method (ADM) | The iterative method at the heart of the Standard, used to develop an Enterprise Architecture. |
| ADM Techniques | A collection of techniques for applying the TOGAF approach and the ADM in practice. |
| Applying the ADM | Guidelines for adapting the ADM to the particular style of architecture a real context requires. |
| Architecture Content | The Content Framework and a structured metamodel for architectural artefacts, with an overview of the typical deliverables. |
| Enterprise Architecture Capability and Governance | How to establish and run the architecture function itself, rather than any single architecture. |
The Series Guides sit alongside the Fundamental Content and carry the more specific, faster-moving guidance. The breakdown is set out in Structure of TOGAF®, and the rationale for the 10th Edition in About TOGAF®.
Certification: Foundation and Practitioner
TOGAF® EA Foundation
The vocabulary and the concepts: what the Standard says, how the ADM is shaped, what the artefacts are. The level to hold if you work alongside architects and need to follow the conversation.
Course · Mock exam
TOGAF® EA Practitioner
Applying and adapting the method in a real organisation, rather than reciting it. The level for people who will actually run architecture work.
Course
If you already hold a certification from an earlier edition, the question is what carries across and what has to be retaken: see Migration to TOGAF® EA certification. Current dates and formats are on the TOGAF course page.
Read next in this section
- About TOGAF® — what the 10th Edition changed, and who uses the Standard.
- Structure of TOGAF® — Fundamental Content and Series Guides, document by document.
- Migration to TOGAF® EA certification — moving from an earlier certification.
Frequently asked questions
Is Enterprise Architecture an IT role?
It usually sits near IT, but the object of the work is the business: roles, processes and the data they produce and consume. An enterprise architect who cannot discuss the business in its own terms will not be able to influence the decisions that matter.
Do I need to be an architect to take the Foundation certification?
No. Foundation is aimed at anyone who needs to understand the Standard and speak the language — project managers, analysts, solution architects, and managers who commission architecture work. The course page states the current prerequisites, which are set by the certification body.
Is TOGAF® only for large organisations?
No. It is used by small and medium businesses as well as large ones and by public bodies. What changes with size is how much of it you adopt: the Standard is designed to be configured to a context, not applied whole.
Does TOGAF® work with Agile?
The 10th Edition explicitly addresses agile enterprises and digital transformation among its use cases. The two operate at different altitudes: architecture sets the direction and the constraints, agile delivery moves inside them.
I certified on an earlier edition — do I have to start again?
Not necessarily. There is a defined migration route, and what it requires depends on which certification you already hold. The migration page covers it; the certification body’s own rules are the authority and can change.
Not sure whether Foundation or Practitioner is the right level, or whether your existing certification still counts? Tell us where you are and we will tell you the shortest honest route. Contact us.
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