Category: TOGAF

Business Principles

Principle 1:

Primacy of Principles

Statement:

These principles of information management apply to all organizations within the enterprise.

Rationale:

The only way we can provide a consistent and measurable level of quality information to decision-makers is if all organizations abide by the principles.

Implications:

• Without this principle, exclusions, favoritism, and inconsistency would rapidly undermine the management of information.
• Information management initiatives will not begin until they are examined for compliance with the principles.
• A conflict with a principle will be resolved by changing the framework of the initiative.

Principle 2:

Maximize Benefit to the Enterprise

Statement:

Information management decisions are made to provide maximum benefit to the enterprise as a whole.

Rationale:

This principle embodies “service above self”. Decisions made from an enterprise-wide perspective have greater long-term value than decisions made from any particular organizational perspective. Maximum return on investment requires information management decisions to adhere to enterprise-wide drivers and priorities. No minority group will detract from the benefit of the whole. However, this principle will not preclude any minority group from getting its job done.

Implications:

• Achieving maximum enterprise-wide benefit will require changes in the way we plan and manage information. Technology alone will not bring about this change.
• Some organizations may have to concede their own preferences for the greater benefit of the entire enterprise.
• Application development priorities must be established by the entire enterprise for the entire enterprise.
• Applications components should be shared across organizational boundaries.
• Information management initiatives should be conducted in accordance with the enterprise plan. Individual organizations should pursue information management initiatives which conform to the blueprints and priorities established by the enterprise. We will change the plan as we need to.
• As needs arise, priorities must be adjusted. A forum with comprehensive enterprise representation should make these decisions.

Principle 3:

Information Management is Everybody’s Business

Statement:

All organizations in the enterprise participate in information management decisions needed to accomplish business objectives.

Rationale:

Information users are the key stakeholders, or customers, in the application of technology to address a business need. In order to ensure information management is aligned with the business, all organizations in the enterprise must be involved in all aspects of the information environment. The business experts from across the enterprise and the technical staff responsible for developing and sustaining the information environment need to come together as a team to jointly define the goals and objectives of IT.

Implications:

• To operate as a team, every stakeholder, or customer, will need to accept responsibility for developing the information environment.
• Commitment of resources will be required to implement this principle.

Principle 4:

Business Continuity

Statement:

Enterprise operations are maintained in spite of system interruptions.

Rationale:

As system operations become more pervasive, we become more dependent on them; therefore, we must consider the reliability of such systems throughout their design and use. Business premises throughout the enterprise must be provided with the capability to continue their business functions regardless of external events. Hardware failure, natural disasters, and data corruption should not be allowed to disrupt or stop enterprise activities. The enterprise business functions must be capable of operating on alternative information delivery mechanisms.

Implications:

• Dependency on shared system applications mandates that the risks of business interruption must be established in advance and managed. Management includes but is not limited to periodic reviews, testing for vulnerability and exposure, or designing mission-critical services to assure business function continuity through redundant or alternative capabilities.
• Recoverability, redundancy, and maintainability should be addressed at the time of design.
• Applications must be assessed for criticality and impact on the enterprise mission, in order to determine what level of continuity is required and what corresponding recovery plan is necessary.

Principle 5:

Common Use Applications

Statement:

Development of applications used across the enterprise is preferred over the development of similar or duplicative applications which are only provided to a particular organization.

Rationale:

Duplicative capability is expensive and proliferates conflicting data.

Implications:

• Organizations which depend on a capability which does not serve the entire enterprise must change over to the replacement enterprise-wide capability. This will require establishment of and adherence to a policy requiring this.
• Organizations will not be allowed to develop capabilities for their own use which are similar/duplicative of enterprise-wide capabilities. In this way, expenditures of scarce resources to develop essentially the same capability in marginally different ways will be reduced.
• Data and information used to support enterprise decision-making will be standardized to a much greater extent than previously. This is because the smaller, organizational capabilities which produced different data (which was not shared among other organizations) will be replaced by enterprise-wide capabilities. The impetus for adding to the set of enterprise-wide capabilities may well come from an organization making a convincing case for the value of the data/information previously produced by its organizational capability, but the resulting capability will become part of the enterprise-wide system, and the data it produces will be shared across the enterprise.

Principle 6:

Compliance with Law

Statement:

Enterprise information management processes comply with all relevant laws, policies, and regulations.

Rationale:

Enterprise policy is to abide by laws, policies, and regulations. This will not preclude business process improvements that lead to changes in policies and regulations.

Implications:

• The enterprise must be mindful to comply with laws, regulations, and external policies regarding the collection, retention, and management of data.
• Education and access to the rules. Efficiency, need, and common sense are not the only drivers. Changes in the law and changes in regulations may drive changes in our processes or applications.

Principle 7:

IT Responsibility

Statement:

The IT organization is responsible for owning and implementing IT processes and infrastructure that enable solutions to meet user-defined requirements for functionality, service levels, cost, and delivery timing.

Rationale:

Effectively align expectations with capabilities and costs so that all projects are cost-effective. Efficient and effective solutions have reasonable costs and clear benefits.

Implications:

• A process must be created to prioritize projects.
• The IT function must define processes to manage business unit expectations.
• Data, application, and technology models must be created to enable integrated quality solutions and to maximize results.

Principle 8:

Protection of Intellectual Property

Statement:

The enterprise’s Intellectual Property (IP) must be protected. This protection must be reflected in the IT architecture, implementation, and governance processes.

Rationale:

A major part of an enterprise’s IP is hosted in the IT domain.

Implications:

• While protection of IP assets is everybody’s business, much of the actual protection is implemented in the IT domain. Even trust in non-IT processes can be managed by IT processes (email, mandatory notes, etc.).
• A security policy, governing human and IT actors, will be required that can substantially improve protection of IP. This must be capable of both avoiding compromises and reducing liabilities.
• Resources on such policies can be found at the SANS Institute (www.sans.org/newlook/home.php).

Data Principles

Principle 9:

Data is an Asset

Statement:

Data is an asset that has value to the enterprise and is managed accordingly.

Rationale:

Data is a valuable corporate resource; it has real, measurable value. In simple terms, the purpose of data is to aid decision-making. Accurate, timely data is critical to accurate, timely decisions. Most corporate assets are carefully managed, and data is no exception. Data is the foundation of our decision-making, so we must also carefully manage data to ensure that we know where it is, can rely upon its accuracy, and can obtain it when and where we need it.

Implications:

• This is one of three closely-related principles regarding data: data is an asset; data is shared; and data is easily accessible. The implication is that there is an education task to ensure that all organizations within the enterprise understand the relationship between value of data, sharing of data, and accessibility to data.
• Stewards must have the authority and means to manage the data for which they are accountable.
• We must make the cultural transition from “data ownership” thinking to “data stewardship” thinking.
• The role of data steward is critical because obsolete, incorrect, or inconsistent data could be passed to enterprise personnel and adversely affect decisions across the enterprise.
• Part of the role of data steward, who manages the data, is to ensure data quality. Procedures must be developed and used to prevent and correct errors in the information and to improve those processes that produce flawed information. Data quality will need to be measured and steps taken to improve data quality – it is probable that policy and procedures will need to be developed for this as well.
• A forum with comprehensive enterprise-wide representation should decide on process changes suggested by the steward.
• Since data is an asset of value to the entire enterprise, data stewards accountable for properly managing the data must be assigned at the enterprise level.

Principle 10:

Data is Shared

Statement:

Users have access to the data necessary to perform their duties; therefore, data is shared across enterprise functions and organizations.

Rationale:

Timely access to accurate data is essential to improving the quality and efficiency of enterprise decision-making. It is less costly to maintain timely, accurate data in a single application, and then share it, than it is to maintain duplicative data in multiple applications. The enterprise holds a wealth of data, but it is stored in hundreds of incompatible stovepipe databases. The speed of data collection, creation, transfer, and assimilation is driven by the ability of the organization to efficiently share these islands of data across the organization.Shared data will result in improved decisions since we will rely on fewer (ultimately one virtual) sources of more accurate and timely managed data for all of our decision-making. Electronically shared data will result in increased efficiency when existing data entities can be used, without re-keying, to create new entities.

Implications:

• This is one of three closely-related principles regarding data: data is an asset; data is shared; and data is easily accessible. The implication is that there is an education task to ensure that all organizations within the enterprise understand the relationship between value of data, sharing of data, and accessibility to data.
• To enable data sharing we must develop and abide by a common set of policies, procedures, and standards governing data management and access for both the short and the long term.
• For the short term, to preserve our significant investment in legacy systems, we must invest in software capable of migrating legacy system data into a shared data environment.
• We will also need to develop standard data models, data elements, and other metadata that defines this shared environment and develop a repository system for storing this metadata to make it accessible.
• For the long term, as legacy systems are replaced, we must adopt and enforce common data access policies and guidelines for new application developers to ensure that data in new applications remains available to the shared environment and that data in the shared environment can continue to be used by the new applications.
• For both the short term and the long term we must adopt common methods and tools for creating, maintaining, and accessing the data shared across the enterprise.
• Data sharing will require a significant cultural change.
• This principle of data sharing will continually “bump up against” the principle of data security. Under no circumstances will the data sharing principle cause confidential data to be compromised.
• Data made available for sharing will have to be relied upon by all users to execute their respective tasks. This will ensure that only the most accurate and timely data is relied upon for decision-making. Shared data will become the enterprise-wide “virtual single source” of data.

Principle 11:

Data is Accessible

Statement:

Data is accessible for users to perform their functions.

Rationale:

Wide access to data leads to efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making, and affords timely response to information requests and service delivery. Using information must be considered from an enterprise perspective to allow access by a wide variety of users. Staff time is saved and consistency of data is improved.

Implications:

• This is one of three closely-related principles regarding data: data is an asset; data is shared; and data is easily accessible. The implication is that there is an education task to ensure that all organizations within the enterprise understand the relationship between value of data, sharing of data, and accessibility to data.
• Accessibility involves the ease with which users obtain information.
• The way information is accessed and displayed must be sufficiently adaptable to meet a wide range of enterprise users and their corresponding methods of access.
• Access to data does not constitute understanding of the data. Personnel should take caution not to misinterpret information.
• Access to data does not necessarily grant the user access rights to modify or disclose the data. This will require an education process and a change in the organizational culture, which currently supports a belief in “ownership” of data by functional units.

Principle 12:

Data Trustee

Statement:

Each data element has a trustee accountable for data quality.

Rationale:

One of the benefits of an architected environment is the ability to share data (e.g., text, video, sound, etc.) across the enterprise. As the degree of data sharing grows and business units rely upon common information, it becomes essential that only the data trustee makes decisions about the content of data. Since data can lose its integrity when it is entered multiple times, the data trustee will have sole responsibility for data entry which eliminates redundant human effort and data storage resources.

Note:

A trustee is different than a steward – a trustee is responsible for accuracy and currency of the data, while responsibilities of a steward may be broader and include data standardization and definition tasks.

Implications:

• Real trusteeship dissolves the data “ownership” issues and allows the data to be available to meet all users’ needs. This implies that a cultural change from data “ownership” to data “trusteeship” may be required.
• The data trustee will be responsible for meeting quality requirements levied upon the data for which the trustee is accountable.
• It is essential that the trustee has the ability to provide user confidence in the data based upon attributes such as “data source”.
• It is essential to identify the true source of the data in order that the data authority can be assigned this trustee responsibility. This does not mean that classified sources will be revealed nor does it mean the source will be the trustee.
• Information should be captured electronically once and immediately validated as close to the source as possible. Quality control measures must be implemented to ensure the integrity of the data.
• As a result of sharing data across the enterprise, the trustee is accountable and responsible for the accuracy and currency of their designated data element(s) and, subsequently, must then recognize the importance of this trusteeship responsibility.

Principle 13:

Common Vocabulary and Data Definitions

Statement:

Data is defined consistently throughout the enterprise, and the definitions are understandable and available to all users.

Rationale:

The data that will be used in the development of applications must have a common definition throughout the Headquarters to enable sharing of data. A common vocabulary will facilitate communications and enable dialogue to be effective. In addition, it is required to interface systems and exchange data.

Implications:

• We are lulled into thinking that this issue is adequately addressed because there are people with “data administration” job titles and forums with charters implying responsibility. Significant additional energy and resources must be committed to this task. It is key to the success of efforts to improve the information environment. This is separate from but related to the issue of data element definition, which is addressed by a broad community – this is more like a common vocabulary and definition.
• The enterprise must establish the initial common vocabulary for the business. The definitions will be used uniformly throughout the enterprise.
• Whenever a new data definition is required, the definition effort will be co-ordinated and reconciled with the corporate “glossary” of data descriptions. The enterprise data administrator will provide this co-ordination.
• Ambiguities resulting from multiple parochial definitions of data must give way to accepted enterprise-wide definitions and understanding.
• Multiple data standardization initiatives need to be co-ordinated.
• Functional data administration responsibilities must be assigned.

Principle 14:

Data Security

Statement:

Data is protected from unauthorized use and disclosure. In addition to the traditional aspects of national security classification, this includes, but is not limited to, protection of pre-decisional, sensitive, source selection-sensitive, and proprietary information.

Rationale:

Open sharing of information and the release of information via relevant legislation must be balanced against the need to restrict the availability of classified, proprietary, and sensitive information.Existing laws and regulations require the safeguarding of national security and the privacy of data, while permitting free and open access. Pre-decisional (work-in-progress, not yet authorized for release) information must be protected to avoid unwarranted speculation, misinterpretation, and inappropriate use.

Implications:

• Aggregation of data, both classified and not, will create a large target requiring review and de-classification procedures to maintain appropriate control. Data owners and/or functional users must determine whether the aggregation results in an increased classification level. We will need appropriate policy and procedures to handle this review and de-classification. Access to information based on a need-to-know policy will force regular reviews of the body of information.
• The current practice of having separate systems to contain different classifications needs to be rethought. Is there a software solution to separating classified and unclassified data? The current hardware solution is unwieldy, inefficient, and costly. It is more expensive to manage unclassified data on a classified system. Currently, the only way to combine the two is to place the unclassified data on the classified system, where it must remain.
• In order to adequately provide access to open information while maintaining secure information, security needs must be identified and developed at the data level, not the application level.
• Data security safeguards can be put in place to restrict access to “view only”, or “never see”. Sensitivity labeling for access to pre-decisional, decisional, classified, sensitive, or proprietary information must be determined.
• Security must be designed into data elements from the beginning; it cannot be added later. Systems, data, and technologies must be protected from unauthorized access and manipulation. Headquarters information must be safeguarded against inadvertent or unauthorized alteration, sabotage, disaster, or disclosure.
• Need new policies on managing duration of protection for pre-decisional information and other works-in-progress, in consideration of content freshness.

Application Principles

Principle 15:

Technology Independence

Statement:

Applications are independent of specific technology choices and therefore can operate on a variety of technology platforms.

Rationale:

Independence of applications from the underlying technology allows applications to be developed, upgraded, and operated in the most cost-effective and timely way. Otherwise technology, which is subject to continual obsolescence and vendor dependence, becomes the driver rather than the user requirements themselves.Realizing that every decision made with respect to IT makes us dependent on that technology, the intent of this principle is to ensure that Application Software is not dependent on specific hardware and operating systems software.

Implications:

• This principle will require standards which support portability.
• For Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and Government Off-The-Shelf (GOTS) applications, there may be limited current choices, as many of these applications are technology and platform-dependent.
• Application Program Interfaces (APIs) will need to be developed to enable legacy applications to interoperate with applications and operating environments developed under the enterprise architecture.
• Middleware should be used to decouple applications from specific software solutions.
• As an example, this principle could lead to use of Java, and future Java-like protocols, which give a high degree of priority to platform-independence.

Principle 16:

Ease-of-Use

Statement:

Applications are easy to use. The underlying technology is transparent to users, so they can concentrate on tasks at hand.

Rationale:

The more a user has to understand the underlying technology, the less productive that user is. Ease-of-use is a positive incentive for use of applications. It encourages users to work within the integrated information environment instead of developing isolated systems to accomplish the task outside of the enterprise’s integrated information environment. Most of the knowledge required to operate one system will be similar to others. Training is kept to a minimum, and the risk of using a system improperly is low.Using an application should be as intuitive as driving a different car.

Implications:

• Applications will be required to have a common “look and feel” and support ergonomic requirements. Hence, the common look and feel standard must be designed and usability test criteria must be developed.
• Guidelines for user interfaces should not be constrained by narrow assumptions about user location, language, systems training, or physical capability. Factors such as linguistics, customer physical infirmities (visual acuity, ability to use keyboard/mouse), and proficiency in the use of technology have broad ramifications in determining the ease-of-use of an application.

Technology Principles

Principle 17:

Requirements-Based Change

Statement:

Only in response to business needs are changes to applications and technology made.

Rationale:

This principle will foster an atmosphere where the information environment changes in response to the needs of the business, rather than having the business change in response to IT changes. This is to ensure that the purpose of the information support – the transaction of business – is the basis for any proposed change. Unintended effects on business due to IT changes will be minimized. A change in technology may provide an opportunity to improve the business process and, hence, change business needs.

Implications:

• Changes in implementation will follow full examination of the proposed changes using the enterprise architecture.
• We don’t fund a technical improvement or system development unless a documented business need exists.
• Change management processes conforming to this principle will be developed and implemented.
• This principle may bump up against the responsive change principle. We must ensure the requirements documentation process does not hinder responsive change to meet legitimate business needs. The purpose of this principle is to keep us focused on business, not technology needs – responsive change is also a business need.

Principle 18:

Responsive Change Management

Statement:

Changes to the enterprise information environment are implemented in a timely manner.

Rationale:

If people are to be expected to work within the enterprise information environment, that information environment must be responsive to their needs.

Implications:

• We have to develop processes for managing and implementing change that do not create delays.
• A user who feels a need for change will need to connect with a “business expert” to facilitate explanation and implementation of that need.
• If we are going to make changes, we must keep the architectures updated.
• Adopting this principle might require additional resources.
• This will conflict with other principles (e.g., maximum enterprise-wide benefit, enterprise-wide applications, etc.).

Principle 19:

Control Technical Diversity

Statement:

Technological diversity is controlled to minimize the non-trivial cost of maintaining expertise in and connectivity between multiple processing environments.

Rationale:

There is a real, non-trivial cost of infrastructure required to support alternative technologies for processing environments. There are further infrastructure costs incurred to keep multiple processor constructs interconnected and maintained.Limiting the number of supported components will simplify maintainability and reduce costs.

The business advantages of minimum technical diversity include: standard packaging of components; predictable implementation impact; predictable valuations and returns; redefined testing; utility status; and increased flexibility to accommodate technological advancements. Common technology across the enterprise brings the benefits of economies of scale to the enterprise. Technical administration and support costs are better controlled when limited resources can focus on this shared set of technology.

Implications:

• Policies, standards, and procedures that govern acquisition of technology must be tied directly to this principle.
• Technology choices will be constrained by the choices available within the technology blueprint. Procedures for augmenting the acceptable technology set to meet evolving requirements will have to be developed and emplaced.
• We are not freezing our technology baseline. We welcome technology advances and will change the technology blueprint when compatibility with the current infrastructure, improvement in operational efficiency, or a required capability has been demonstrated.

Principle 20:

Interoperability

Statement:

Software and hardware should conform to defined standards that promote interoperability for data, applications, and technology.

Rationale:

Standards help ensure consistency, thus improving the ability to manage systems and improve user satisfaction, and protect existing IT investments, thus maximizing return on investment and reducing costs. Standards for interoperability additionally help ensure support from multiple vendors for their products, and facilitate supply chain integration.

Implications:

• Interoperability standards and industry standards will be followed unless there is a compelling business reason to implement a non-standard solution.
• A process for setting standards, reviewing and revising them periodically, and granting exceptions must be established.
• The existing IT platforms must be identified and documented.

 

TOGAF 9 can be a great starting point to increase the awareness within an organization and to more explicitly acknowledge the need for enterprise-wide investments in architecture. There are, however, also pitfalls to be aware of. Three important pitfalls to avoid stepping in are:

• Keep TOGAF in the ivory tower. When reading TOGAF and following it to the letter, it is certainly possible, maybe even tempting, to just execute every phase, deliver each artifact and create all repositories. This in itself does not have to be wrong, but please note that TOGAF also emphasizes, albeit in between the lines, that making selections, and tailoring the framework to the context at hand (which includes the business) is key. This prevents that TOGAF will just keeps a bunch of expensive architects busy for several months or years, without generating real business value.
• Exclude development processes from the scope of architecture. TOGAF’s architecture development method (ADM) reasons solely from the perspective of the architect. Actual software development takes place somewhere during or after the Implementation governance phase of the ADM, but no concrete guidance is offered on how architects should guarantee that the right software (solution building blocks in TOGAF) is developed. This is probably a gap in TOGAF that you should be aware of. Fortunately, there is plenty of good software architecture literature written that does focus around this intricate relationship with requirements engineering, design, and implementation.
• Make the tools, artifacts and languages leading. When reading TOGAF one often get the feeling that it is very technical-minded, focused on deliverable (which almost all have quite fancy names in the TOGAF world) and rather model-driven. Although architects need models, technology, instruments, languages, and deliverable, to effectively communicate with stakeholders, one should be aware that using them should never become a goal in itself. The Architecture Content Framework (ACF) in TOGAF 9, including the core meta model, and its extensions, is a helpful start to think of a common frame of reference to use in your organization, but please adapt your tone and language to your stakeholders and their interests and concerns. Many of TOGAF’s artifacts are borrowed from UML and this will definitely help in communicating about architecture to developers and other technical stakeholders.

Referred from: Rick Farenhorst blog

Define current enterprise systems inventory. 
The first step is to identify the systems you have in place, which can be difficult to do if you are a larger or more complex organization. Companies that have grown quickly and/or acquired one or more other companies are more likely to have a hodgepodge of ERP systems, spreadsheets, and other business software to run their operations. We often see companies with several hundred enterprise systems running their business, including a number of unauthorized “black market” systems that your IT department isn’t even aware of. It is hard to determine a logical path forward without first understanding where you’re starting.
Rationalize current systems. 
Once the systems have been inventoried, attention then needs to turn to which ones are core to the business or are providing competitive advantage to the organization. It is also important to assess each system’s maintenance costs, pain points, flexibility, and scalability for future growth. It is also important to evaluate the opportunity costs associated with business benefits that are lost due to poor systems. Once the systems have been evaluated using these and other key criteria, you can then move on to identifying what to do with each of them.
Identify low-hanging fruit. 
This is where the real fun begins. Once you have the quantitative assessment of each of the IT systems in your portfolio, you can then start prioritizing which systems can or should be consolidated, upgraded, or replaced. Typically there is significant “low hanging fruit,” or systems that can have an immediate and measurable impact by improving or replacing them. In addition to identifying the projects that may have immediate value, you will also want to prioritize the non-low-hanging-fruit.
Identify your applications strategy. 
Once you have your priorities in place, your attention should then turn to your overall applications strategy. Based on your priorities, you will want to consider whether to pursue a single, consolidated ERP system, a best-of-breed solution, or a hybrid of both. This applications strategy should take not only your highest and most immediate priorities into consideration, but also the more intermediate and long-term priorities as well. Another key consideration is your hosting strategy: will you pursue Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud solutions, on-premise software, or a combination of both? Single or multiple instance?
Develop an IT strategy road-map. 
The above four steps will be crucial to developing your overall IT strategy road-map. These inputs will help you identify a three- to five-year plan for improving your enterprise systems infrastructure. In most cases, the plan will entail evaluation of potential ERP systems or other enterprise applications. In addition, the plan should identify how new systems will integrate to legacy systems, data consolidation and strategy, infrastructure upgrade requirements to support the new strategy, and organizational change management activities to support the new plan forward.

What is TOGAF?

TOGAF is The Open Group Architecture Framework. It is a popular framework for developing and managing enterprise architecture.

 

What is Enterprise Architecture?

Enterprise Architecture is a method of envisioning (a) an organization as it exists in its present state, (b) that same organization as it would be in a future (better) state, and (c) a road map to enable the organization to progress from current (as-is) state to future (to-be) state. Enterprise Architecture’s greatest value lies in its ability to help the organization align its business framework with the data/information needed to conduct business, and the technology needed to process the data/information. This results in lowered systems costs, reduced redundancy, and enhanced systems efficiency and effectiveness.

 

Why Do I need a framework for enterprise architecture?

Using an architecture framework will speed up and simplify architecture development, ensure more complete coverage of the designed solution, and make certain that the architecture selected allows for future growth in response to the needs of the business.

Architecture design is a technically complex process, and the design of heterogeneous, multi-vendor architectures is particularly complex. TOGAF plays an important role in helping to “de-mystify” the architecture development process, enabling to build genuinely open systems-based solutions for business requirements.

 

Why do I need enterprise architecture?

The primary reason for developing enterprise architecture is to support the business by providing the fundamental technology and process structure for an IT strategy. This in turn makes IT a responsive asset for a successful modern business strategy.

Effective management and exploitation of information through IT is the key to business success, and the indispensable means to achieving competitive advantage. Enterprise architecture addresses this need, by providing a strategic context for the evolution of the IT system in response to the constantly changing needs of the business environment.

Furthermore, good enterprise architecture enables you to achieve the right balance between IT efficiency and business innovation. It allows individual business units to innovate safely in their pursuit of competitive advantage. At the same time, it assures the needs of the organization for an integrated IT strategy, permitting the closest possible synergy across the extended enterprise. The technical advantages that result from a good enterprise architecture bring important business benefits, which are clearly visible in the bottom line:

A more efficient IT operation:

• Lower software development, support, and maintenance costs
• Increased portability of applications
• Improved inter-operability and easier system and network management
• Improved ability to address critical enterprise-wide issues like security
• Easier upgrade and exchange of system components

Better return on existing investment, reduced risk for future investment:

• Reduced complexity in IT infrastructure
• Maximum return on investment in existing IT infrastructure
• The flexibility to make, buy, or out-source IT solutions
• Reduced risk overall in new investment, and the costs of IT ownership

Faster, simpler, and cheaper procurement:

• Buying decisions are simpler, because the information governing procurement is readily available in a coherent plan.
• The procurement process is faster – maximizing procurement speed and flexibility without sacrificing architectural coherence.

Why is this important?

Customers who do not invest in enterprise architecture typically find themselves pushed inexorably to single-supplier solutions in order to ensure an integrated solution. At that point, no matter how ostensibly “open” any single supplier’s products may be in terms of adherence to standards, the customer will be unable to realize the potential benefits of truly heterogeneous, multi-vendor open systems.

 

What specifically would prompt me to develop architecture?

Typically, architecture is developed because key people have concerns that need to be addressed by the IT systems within the organization. Such people are commonly referred to as the “stakeholders” in the system. The role of the architect is to address these concerns, by identifying and refining the requirements that the stakeholders have, developing views of the architecture that show how the concerns and the requirements are going to be addressed, and by showing the trade-offs that are going to be made in reconciling the potentially conflicting concerns of different stakeholders.

Without the architecture, it is highly unlikely that all the concerns and requirements will be considered and met.

 

What kind of architecture does TOGAF deal with?

There are four types of architecture that are commonly accepted as subsets of overall enterprise architecture, all of which TOGAF is designed to support:

A Business (or Business Process) Architecture – this defines the business strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes.
A Data Architecture – this describes the structure of an organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management resources.
An Applications Architecture – this kind of architecture provides a blueprint for the individual application systems to be deployed, their interactions, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization.
A Technology Architecture – this describes the logical software and hardware capabilities that are required to support the deployment of business, data, and application services. This includes IT infrastructure, middleware, networks, communications, processing, standards, etc.

 

Who would benefit from using TOGAF?

Any organization undertaking, or planning to undertake, the design and implementation of enterprise architecture for the support of mission-critical business applications, using open systems building blocks.

Customers who design and implement enterprise architectures using TOGAF are ensured of a design and a procurement specification that will greatly facilitate open systems implementation, and will enable the benefits of open systems to accrue to their organizations with reduced risk.

 

What is The Open Group?

The Open Group is the organization that designed and manages TOGAF, periodically reviews and revises TOGAF, accredits TOGAF training sources, and certifies TOGAF enterprise architects.

 

Do I need to pay for a license to use TOGAF?

No. There is no cost associated with using TOGAF.

 

Do I need to join The Open Group to use TOGAF?

No. Joining The Open Group is totally voluntary and in no way affects your ability to use TOGAF in your organization.

 

I already use another EA framework. Why should I switch to TOGAF?

TOGAF has several advantages over other architecture frameworks. For example, the TOGAF Architecture Development Method provides a robust, step-by-step approach to developing enterprise architecture to align an organization’s business, data/information, and technology. Other components of TOGAF (e.g., the repositories, metamodels, etc.) can enhance the organization’s Knowledge Management, Project/Program/Portfolio Management, and other processes. TOGAF also aligns and integrates with organizational management, assessment, and improvement models such as the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, and organizational change models like Kotter’s eight-step process. That said, TOGAF can be used in concert with other architecture frameworks, so there is no need for an across-the-board changeover to TOGAF.

 

What are the benefits of using TOGAF?

The primary benefit of using TOGAF is that it enables an organization to build an architecture that aligns and integrates business concerns (people, processes, technologies, and infrastructures), information systems architectures (data and applications), and information technology architecture in an elegant, robust manner. TOGAF provides a step-by-step approach to doing this. Also, TOGAF can be tailored to address the unique needs of specific organizations. Finally, TOGAF can be used in conjunction with other architecture frameworks, standards, and management approaches.

 

What are the drawbacks of using TOGAF?

TOGAF can be difficult to learn and apply in a vacuum. TOGAF should be learned in a training course conducted by an organization that has been accredited by The Open Group.

 

Can I use TOGAF with my current EA framework without going through a wholesale changeover to TOGAF?

Yes. TOGAF can be used in conjunction with other architecture frameworks.

 

TOGAF looks very complex. Do I have to use all features?

No. The complexity of TOGAF allows it to be implemented and used within large, complex organizations. Smaller, less complex enterprises use only those parts of TOGAF that create or add immediate value to the organization.

 

Can I tailor TOGAF to meet the needs of my unique [small] organization?

Yes. TOGAF can be used in its entirety, or various components may be used alone, depending on the unique needs of the specific organization.

 

How can I learn about TOGAF?

The best way to learn TOGAF is by taking a TOGAF training course conducted by a training organization that has been accredited by The Open Group.

 

What will I learn?

Depending on the training you attend (level 1, Level 2, or Consolidated Level 1 and Level 2), you will learn either the foundational concepts of TOGAF (Level 1), detailed material regarding the concepts of TOGAF (Level 2), or both (Consolidated Level 1 and Level 2).

 

What do “Level 1” and “Level 2” mean?

Level 1 and Level 2 refer to the two certification levels of TOGAF.. Level 1 is also known as the “Foundation” Level; Level 2 is also known as the “Certified” Level. When used in connection with a TOGAF training course, Level 1 and Level 2 refer to the focus of the training.

 

Who conducts the training?

TOGAF training courses are conducted world-wide by a number of training organizations. Search on internet for traning providers in your area.

 

How much does TOGAF training cost?

The basic cost for the four-days or five days training program at Level 1 and Level 2 varies from country to country.

 

Will I receive a certification?

Upon request, everyone attending the training can be issued a Course Completion Certificate. You will not receive a TOGAF certification by simply attending a TOGAF training course. To achieve certification, you must purchase an examination voucher, schedule the examination at a local examination center, and pass the examination. You must do this for each Level for which you seek certification.

 

What are the available certifications?

TOGAF 9 Foundation (Level 1) – to provide validation that the candidate has gained knowledge of the terminology and basic concepts of TOGAF 9 and Understands the core principles of Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF. TOGAF 9 Certified (Level 2) – to provide validation that in addition to knowledge and comprehension, the candidate is able to analyze and apply knowledge of TOGAF.

 

What is the retake policy if I fail an examination?

Candidates who fail an examination are not allowed to re-set ANY TOGAF examination again for a period of one (1) month. A result received before one month will be VOID.

 

What are the four types of TOGAF examinations?

TOGAF 9 Part 1 – Pass mark 55% (22 or more points out of a maximum of 40)
This exam comprises 40 questions in simple multiple choice format, covering the Level 1 learning outcomes. Each correct answer scores a single point.

TOGAF 9 Part 2 – Pass mark 60% (24 or more points out of a maximum of 40)

This exam comprises 8 complex scenario questions, with gradient scoring. This exam is open book and covers the complete Level 2 learning outcomes. The correct answer scores 5 points, the second best answer 3 points, the third best answer 1 point. The distracter scores zero points.

TOGAF 9 Combined Part 1 and 2 – This is a combined TOGAF 9 Part 1 and Part 2 examination for candidates who want to achieve Level 2 certification directly in a single examination. It consists of two sections, with pass marks as per the TOGAF 9 Part 1 and 2 examinations described above. Each section must be passed in order to obtain an overall pass mark. If you fail a section then no certification is awarded, however you only need retake the Examination(s) corresponding to the failed section(s).

TOGAF 8 – 9 Advanced Bridge – Two sections, each with a pass mark 60%, and each has to be passed in order to obtain an overall pass. The first section is 20 simple multiple choice questions covering the Level 1 learning outcomes. To obtain a pass for this section requires 12 or more points out of a maximum of 20.