The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is the most used framework for enterprise architecture as of 2020 [2] that provides an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture. [3] 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.
TOGAF began to be developed in 1995 by The Open Group, based on the United States Department of Defense's TAFIM and Capgemini's Integrated Architecture Framework (IAF). [4] As of 2016, The Open Group claims that TOGAF is employed by 80% of Global 50 companies and 60% of Fortune 500 companies.
An architecture framework is a set of tools that can be used for developing a broad range of different architectures. [5] It should:
The ANSI/IEEE Standard 1471-2000 specification of architecture (of software-intensive systems) may be stated as: "the fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution".
However TOGAF has its own view, which may be specified as either a "formal description of a system, or a detailed plan of the system at component level to guide its implementation", or as "the structure of components, their interrelationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time".
The Architecture Development Method (ADM) is the core of TOGAF which describes a method for developing and managing the life-cycle of enterprise architecture.
TOGAF was initiated in the early 1990s as methodology for the development of technical architecture, and has been developed by The Open Group into an extensive enterprise architecture framework. [7] In 1995, the first version of TOGAF (TOGAF 1.0) was presented. This version was mainly based on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM), development started in the late 1980s by the US Department of Defense.
In December 2001 TOGAF 7, the "Technical Edition", was published. [8] TOGAF 8 ("Enterprise Edition") was first published in December 2002 and republished in updated form as TOGAF 8.1 in December 2003. Around 2005 TOGAF became a registered trademark of The Open Group. [9] In November 2006 the Open Group released TOGAF 8.1.1. According to The Open Group, as of February 2011, over 15,000 individuals are TOGAF Certified. [10] [11] As of April 2018 the official register has over 77,500 certifications. [12]
An evolutionary development from TOGAF 8, TOGAF 9 includes many new features such as: [13] [14]
Additional guidelines and techniques include:[ citation needed ]
The latest version is TOGAF 10, launched on 25 April 2022. [16]
The Open Group provides TOGAF free of charge to organizations for their own internal noncommercial purposes. [17]
TOGAF is based on four interrelated areas of specialization called architecture domains:
The Architecture Development Method (ADM) is applied to develop an enterprise architecture which will meet the business and information technology needs of an organization. It may be tailored to the organization's needs and is then employed to manage the execution of architecture planning activities. [18]
The process is iterative and cyclic. Each step checks with Requirements. Phase C involves some combination of both Data Architecture and Applications Architecture. Additional clarity can be added between steps B and C in order to provide a complete information architecture.
Performance engineering working practices are applied to the Requirements phase, and to the Business Architecture, Information System Architecture, and Technology architecture phases. Within Information System Architecture, it is applied to both the Data Architecture and Application Architecture.
The Enterprise Continuum is a way of classifying solutions and architectures on a continuum that range from generic foundation architectures through to tailored organization-specific both within and outside the Architecture Repository. [19] These include architectural models, architectural patterns, architecture descriptions, and other artifacts. These artifacts may exist within the enterprise and also in the IT industry at large.
The Enterprise Continuum consists of both the Architecture Continuum and the Solutions Continuum. The Architecture Continuum specifies the structuring of reusable architecture assets and includes rules, representations, and relationships of the information systems available to the enterprise. The Solutions Continuum describes the implementation of the Architecture Continuum by defining reusable Solution Building Blocks (SBBs).
TOGAF 9.2 recognizes the following roles:
Whilst also adding "And many others ..." at the end of this list. [20]
TOGAF provides certifications for tools and people.
Certified TOGAF 9 tools are listed in the following table.
Product Name | Company | First Certified | Renewal | TOGAF Version |
---|---|---|---|---|
ABACUS 6.0 | Avolution | 23-May-2012 | 22-May-2022 | 9.2 |
BiZZdesign Enterprise Studio | BiZZdesign | 18-Jul-2012 | 17-Jul-2020 | 9.2 |
ADOIT | BOC Group | 15-Sep-2017 | 14-Sep-2021 | 9.1 |
HOPEX Enterprise Architecture Suite | MEGA International | 26-May-2015 | 26-May-2021 | 9.1 |
iServer Business and IT Transformation Suite 2015 | Orbus Software | 19-Aug-2013 | 18-Aug-2021 | 9.1 |
Capability and Technology Management | Planview | 03-Apr-2012 | 02-Apr-2022 | 9.1 |
Alfabet | Software AG | 22-Jun-2012 | 21-Jun-2022 | 9.2 |
ARIS 9.0 | Software AG | 19-Nov-2013 | 18-Nov-2021 | 9.1 |
Enterprise Architect 12 | Sparx Systems Pty Ltd. | 06-Feb-2015 | 05-Feb-2021 | 9.1 |
For the latest register of certified tools refer The Open Group register. [21]
The Open Group oversees formal qualifications in TOGAF at two levels, which can be taken following formal training or self-study. [22] Learners can undertake these qualifications through training companies.
(Level I) Ensures that an individual understands Enterprise Architecture along with core concepts and terminology of TOGAF. [22]
(Level II) Further to the Foundation qualification, this establishes that the candidate is able to analyse and apply their knowledge to business problems. [22]
Gaining TOGAF Certified status automatically confers free membership of the Association of Enterprise Architects. [23]
Despite TOGAF being considered as the de facto standard in an EA practice, it is not without its critics:
The Open Group is a global consortium that seeks to "enable the achievement of business objectives" by developing "open, vendor-neutral technology standards and certifications." It has 900+ member organizations and provides a number of services, including strategy, management, innovation and research, standards, certification, and test development. It was established in 1996 when X/Open merged with the Open Software Foundation.
Model-driven architecture (MDA) is a software design approach for the development of software systems. It provides a set of guidelines for the structuring of specifications, which are expressed as models. Model Driven Architecture is a kind of domain engineering, and supports model-driven engineering of software systems. It was launched by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 2001.
The Zachman Framework is an enterprise ontology and is a fundamental structure for enterprise architecture which provides a formal and structured way of viewing and defining an enterprise. The ontology is a two dimensional classification schema that reflects the intersection between two historical classifications. The first are primitive interrogatives: What, How, When, Who, Where, and Why. The second is derived from the philosophical concept of reification, the transformation of an abstract idea into an instantiation. The Zachman Framework reification transformations are: identification, definition, representation, specification, configuration and instantiation.
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviours of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business data. The international definition according to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations is "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."
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.
In the business sector, business architecture is a discipline that "represents holistic, multidimensional business views of: capabilities, end‐to‐end value delivery, information, and organizational structure; and the relationships among these business views and strategies, products, policies, initiatives, and stakeholders."
Business–IT alignment is a process in which a business organization uses information technology (IT) to achieve business objectives, such as improved financial performance or marketplace competitiveness. Some definitions focus more on outcomes that means ; for example,
Alignment is the capacity to demonstrate a positive relationship between information technologies and the accepted financial measures of performance.
In information systems, applications architecture or application architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture (EA).
Solution architecture is a term used in information technology with various definitions, such as "a description of a discrete and focused business operation or activity and how IS/IT supports that operation".
ArchiMate is an open and independent enterprise architecture modeling language to support the description, analysis and visualization of architecture within and across business domains in an unambiguous way.
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 the whole system from the perspective of a related set of concerns.
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).
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.
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.
Enterprise data planning is the starting point for enterprise wide change. It states the destination and describes how you will get there. It defines benefits, costs and potential risks. It provides measures to be used along the way to judge progress and adjust the journey according to changing circumstances.
The Banking Industry Architecture Network e.V. (BIAN) is an independent, member owned, not-for-profit association to establish and promote a common architectural framework for enabling banking interoperability. It was established in 2008.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is a visual modeling and design tool based on the OMG UML. The platform supports: the design and construction of software systems; modeling business processes; and modeling industry based domains. It is used by businesses and organizations to not only model the architecture of their systems, but to process the implementation of these models across the full application development life-cycle.
A data architect is a practitioner of data architecture, a data management discipline concerned with designing, creating, deploying and managing an organization's data architecture. Data architects define how the data will be stored, consumed, integrated and managed by different data entities and IT systems, as well as any applications using or processing that data in some way. It is closely allied with business architecture and is considered to be one of the four domains of enterprise architecture.