TAFIM

Last updated November 11, 2022

Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) was a 1990s reference model for enterprise architecture by and for the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

TAFIM has been developed by the United States Department of Defense from 1986 until 1999. Parallel in 1994 they started the development of the C4ISR Architecture Framework, which evolved into the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) in the new millennium. TAFIM concepts are further developed in TOGAF, which first version in 1995 was based on the TAFIM framework.

Overview

The "Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management" (TAFIM) was described in 1995 as:^[3]

a target common conceptual framework or reference model for an information system infrastructure
and the specific applications that the information system must support.

This architecture, and associated model, is not a specific system design. Rather, it establishes a common vocabulary and defines a set of services and interfaces common to information systems. It identifies standards and guidelines in terms of the architecture services and interfaces.

The architecture serves to facilitate the development of plans that will lead to interoperability between mission area applications, portability across mission areas and cost reductions through the use of common services.^[3]

TAFIM subsumes the widely accepted Open-system environment reference model within the network services and communications area.

History

The development of TAFIM started around 1986 at the US Defense Information Systems Agency/Center for Information Management. The first concept of TAFIM was derived from the NIST Application Portability Profile and the POSIX (or IEEE P1003.00SE) model.^[3]

The first draft of TAFIM was completed in 1991 with the TAFIM Technical Reference Model (TAFIM TRM). Developed by a team led by Burnes St. Patrick Hollyman, James M. Kerr and John Keane, this technical reference model wanted to use open systems and new technologies available in the commercial market, to develop a DoD-wide application.^[4] The TAFIM project has resulted in an eight-volume Information Technology Architecture "how-to" manual, see image. Before being officially published in 1996 by the Department of Defense, the approach was successfully piloted at both the U.S. Marine Corps and the DoD Health Affairs by teams led by Hollyman, Kerr, Keane.

The original development of TOGAF Version 1 in 1995 was based on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. The US Department of Defense gave The Open Group explicit permission and encouragement to create TOGAF by building on the TAFIM, which itself was the result of many years of development effort and many millions of dollars of US Government investment.^[5]

The 1996 US DoD publication on TAFIM was the latest version published.^[6] TAFIM has been cancelled as a stand-alone document in 1999.^[2] In 2000 the whole TAFIM concept and its regulations have been re-evaluated and found inconsistent with the newly developed DoDAF architecture direction. For this reason all references to TAFIM have been removed from DoD documentation since then.^[6]

TAFIM was abruptly cancelled due to the following flaws:^[7]

TAFIM required a large investment of both time and money
The elapsed time required to produce the architecture makes it close to obsolete before completion
Architectures of such complexity required specialized and reasonably uncommon IT expertise to complete. The end result is normally incomprehensible to a business-oriented audience and is harder to trace to the business strategy

TAFIM topics

DoD technical and data standards

Defense’s technical and data standards are designed to enable systems to easily interoperate and transfer information. Its standard definitions for data elements are intended to ensure that users of all Defense systems define the same data in the same way and have a common understanding of their meaning. Defense has developed or is in the process of defining technical standards in the 1990s with the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM), the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA), and the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE).^[8]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is responsible for developing, obtaining from commercial sources, and maintaining the compilation of Defense Information Infrastructure technical standards, and it is responsible for maintaining a Defense data dictionary system as a repository of data requirements and for facilitating the cross-functional coordination and approval of standard formats, definitions, etc. PSAs, the military services, Defense agencies, and Joint Chiefs of Staff are responsible for reaching agreement on the standards and approving them as DOD standard data elements. DISA is then responsible for disseminating the approved standard data elements for use throughout the Department.^[8]

DoD Standards-Based Architecture Planning Process

The Standards-Based Architecture (SBA) planning process. defined by the TAFIM, consists of seven distinct, but interdependent, phases. Each phase of the SBA process is intended to create specific deliverable products and or documents, that guide the subsequent phase. The seven phases are briefly outlined below.^[9]

Phase 1, Initiation and Architecture Framework : The methodology begins with a proper initiation of the process within the host organization. This involves developing a set of strategic drivers for the organization. Further, a business model is reviewed or built to establish a strategic target operation model.^[9]
Phase 2. Baseline Characterization : This grounding phase intends to determine the organization's current architecture. It is an assessment of the current environment, which results in a characterization in four key dimensions or views: work, information, application and technology.^[9]
Phase 3. Target Architecture : The various views of the framework are modeled in terms of a desirable target architecture, usually 3 to 5 years in the future.^[9]
Phase 4. Opportunity Identification : Step from the conceptual reflection to practical realities and implementation, with determination of development projects needed.^[9]
Phase 5. Migration Options : Links the reality of the present with the desirability of the target architecture by establishing one or more plateaus representing practical migration stages.^[9]
Phase 6. Implementation Planning : Phase results in a detailed implementation plan for the first plateau of the migration effort.^[9]
Phase 7. Institutionalizing the ITA Process : This phase is intended to keep the architecture alive and well by continuously improving it.^[9]

Integrated Model of Architectural Views

The "Integrated Model of Four Architectural Views" is part of the target architecture, defined in the TAFIM. It gives a vision on the organization in all of its architectural views, especially the work architecture. The model, see figure, depicts an overall framework to develop the target architecture deliverable. Each view of the target architecture has some overlap with aspects of the other views. This overlap supports the argument that the model depicts the developing of a single, integrated architecture.^[9]

The entire enterprise, as defined, includes Work organization, Information, Application, and Technology. This leads to the four different views:^[9]

Work Organization View : The work view of architecture is developed by identifying specific classes of users within the business environment (e.g. executives, planners, administrators, engineers, recruiters), business location (e.g. headquarters, sales office, plant, warehouse); and the logical representation of the business functions that are required to deliver products and services.
Information Management View : The information architecture of the enterprise will contain three levels of detail, subject areas, data groups, and data attributes.
Application View : This view focuses on the opportunities to autonomate aspects of work and or the access to information needed to perform work.
Technology Infrastructure View : This areas of architecture uses specific component-level models to provide the basic for linking the technology view of the architecture to the work, information, and application views. The linchpin is the generic application environment.

Work Organization View of the Architecture
Information Management View of the Architecture
Application View of the Architecture.
Technology Infrastructure View.

This gallery with the four views shows the interrelationship between the four views as mentioned earlier. In the view models of later Enterprise Architecture frameworks, such as the DoDAF the views are presented in layers and no longer interconnected.

Related Research Articles

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviors of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business data. By international consensus, Enterprise Architecture has been defined as "a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes."

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is the most used framework for enterprise architecture as of 2020 that provides an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture. TOGAF is a high-level approach to design. It is typically modeled at four levels: Business, Application, Data, and Technology. It relies heavily on modularization, standardization, and already existing, proven technologies and products.

The Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) is an architecture framework for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) that provides visualization infrastructure for specific stakeholders concerns through viewpoints organized by various views. These views are artifacts for visualizing, understanding, and assimilating the broad scope and complexities of an architecture description through tabular, structural, behavioral, ontological, pictorial, temporal, graphical, probabilistic, or alternative conceptual means. The current release is DoDAF 2.02.

A federal enterprise architecture framework (FEAF) is the U.S. reference enterprise architecture of a federal government. It provides a common approach for the integration of strategic, business and technology management as part of organization design and performance improvement.

Unicom System Architect is an enterprise architecture tool that is used by the business and technology departments of corporations and government agencies to model their business operations and the systems, applications, and databases that support them. System Architect is used to build architectures using various frameworks including TOGAF, ArchiMate, DoDAF, MODAF, NAF and standard method notations such as sysML, UML, BPMN, and relational data modeling. System Architect is developed by UNICOM Systems, a division of UNICOM Global, a United States-based company.

Data architecture consist of models, policies, rules, and standards that govern which data is collected and how it is stored, arranged, integrated, and put to use in data systems and in organizations. Data is usually one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture.

An enterprise architecture framework defines how to create and use an enterprise architecture. An architecture framework provides principles and practices for creating and using the architecture description of a system. It structures architects' thinking by dividing the architecture description into domains, layers, or views, and offers models - typically matrices and diagrams - for documenting each view. This allows for making systemic design decisions on all the components of the system and making long-term decisions around new design requirements, sustainability, and support.

A reference model—in systems, enterprise, and software engineering—is an abstract framework or domain-specific ontology consisting of an interlinked set of clearly defined concepts produced by an expert or body of experts to encourage clear communication. A reference model can represent the component parts of any consistent idea, from business functions to system components, as long as it represents a complete set. This frame of reference can then be used to communicate ideas clearly among members of the same community.

Enterprise information security architecture (ZBI) is a part of enterprise architecture focusing on information security throughout the enterprise. The name implies a difference that may not exist between small/medium-sized businesses and larger organizations.

Enterprise modelling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization.

In information systems, applications architecture or application architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture (EA).

A view model or viewpoints framework in systems engineering, software engineering, and enterprise engineering is a framework which defines a coherent set of views to be used in the construction of a system architecture, software architecture, or enterprise architecture. A view is a representation of a whole system from the perspective of a related set of concerns.

Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF) was an enterprise architecture framework for treasury, based on the Zachman Framework. It was developed by the US Department of the Treasury and published in July 2000. May 2012 this framework has been subsumed by evolving Federal Enterprise Architecture Policy as documented in "The Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture".

Core architecture data model (CADM) in enterprise architecture is a logical data model of information used to describe and build architectures.

Open-system environment (OSE) reference model (RM) or OSE reference model (OSE/RM) is a 1990 reference model for enterprise architecture. It provides a framework for describing open system concepts and defining a lexicon of terms, that can be agreed upon generally by all interested parties.

NIST Enterprise Architecture Model is a late-1980s reference model for enterprise architecture. It defines an enterprise architecture by the interrelationship between an enterprise's business, information, and technology environments.

The Treasury Information System Architecture Framework (TISAF) is an early 1990s Enterprise Architecture framework to assist US Treasury Bureaus to develop their Enterprise Information System Architectures (EISAs).

Enterprise interoperability is the ability of an enterprise—a company or other large organization—to functionally link activities, such as product design, supply chains, manufacturing, in an efficient and competitive way.

Jaap Schekkerman is a Dutch computer scientist and founder of the Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD) in the Netherlands. He is particularly known for his 2003 book How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture in which he compared 14 Enterprise Architecture Frameworks.

The Application Portability Profile (APP) is a 1990s framework for Open-System Environment designed by the NIST for use by the U.S. Government. It contains a selected suite of specifications that defines the interfaces, services, protocols, and data formats for a particular class or domain of applications.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army .

1 2 Department of Defense (1996). Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. Vol. 1. April 1996
1 2 NHSITRC (2005). Consolidated References Archived 2009-01-09 at the Wayback Machine IT Planning and Management Guides, List of Resources. Last Updated: May 4, 2005. Accessed 12 Dec 2008.
1 2 3 Constance Golden (1995). A STANDARD SATELLITE CONTROL REFERENCE MODEL. NASA.
↑ Patricia A. Oberndorf and Anthony Earl (1998). Department of Veterans Affairs Reference Models ^{[ permanent dead link ]}. SEI Carnegie Mellon University.
↑ Welcome to TOGAF Version 9 -- The Open Group Architecture Framework Accessed 03 Feb 2009.
1 2 Jaap Schekkerman (2003). How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks. p.173.
↑ Perks, C., and Beveridge, T. (2003). Guide to Enterprise IT Architecture. New York, NY: Springer.
1 2 GAO (1998) DEFENSE IRM United States General Accounting Office.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Department of Defense (1996). Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. Vol. 4. April 1996

External links

TAFIM website, 1997 at archive.org

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[DoD96V1-1] 1 2 Department of Defense (1996). Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. Vol. 1. April 1996

[HHS05-2] 1 2 NHSITRC (2005). Consolidated References Archived 2009-01-09 at the Wayback Machine IT Planning and Management Guides, List of Resources. Last Updated: May 4, 2005. Accessed 12 Dec 2008.

[Gol95-3] 1 2 3 Constance Golden (1995). A STANDARD SATELLITE CONTROL REFERENCE MODEL. NASA.

[4] Patricia A. Oberndorf and Anthony Earl (1998). Department of Veterans Affairs Reference Models ^{[ permanent dead link ]}. SEI Carnegie Mellon University.

[5] Welcome to TOGAF Version 9 -- The Open Group Architecture Framework Accessed 03 Feb 2009.

[Sch03-6] 1 2 Jaap Schekkerman (2003). How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks. p.173.

[7] Perks, C., and Beveridge, T. (2003). Guide to Enterprise IT Architecture. New York, NY: Springer.

[GAO98-8] 1 2 GAO (1998) DEFENSE IRM United States General Accounting Office.

[DoD96V4-9] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Department of Defense (1996). Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. Vol. 4. April 1996

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]