The Open Group Architecture Framework [TOGAF]

The Open Group Architecture Framework is best known by its acronym, TOGAF. TOGAF is owned by The Open Group. The role of the IT architect is to be able to understand the business problem and the business domain and explain it to the technical people, and to be able to understand the technology domains and explain the technical possibilities to business people.


TOGAF divides the enterprise architecture into four categories. These are the pillars of TOGAF and are known as architecture domains.

• Business architecture—Describes the processes the business uses to meet its goals
• Application architecture—Describes how specific applications are designed and how they interact with each other
• Data architecture—Describes how the enterprise data stores are organized and accessed
• Technical architecture—Describes the hardware and software infrastructure that supports applications and their interactions

TOGAF can be viewed as an architecture process instead as an architecture framework. Architecture Development Method (ADM) is the main part of TOGAF. TOGAF views the world of enterprise architecture as a continuum of architectures, ranging from highly generic to highly specific. It calls this continuum the Enterprise Continuum. The enterprise continuum has different levels, those levels are

• Foundation architecture: This is the most basic architecture and this can be used by any IT organization in the world.
• Common system architecture: This is next level of architecture. This will be common among many organizations. But this cannot be used by all organizations as it is. Among a group of organizations this is common, but the architecture for another group might be different from architecture of another set of organizations
• Industry Architecture: This level of architecture represents architecture applicable for an industry. This can be used by a set of enterprises in same domain.
• Organizational architecture: This is the most specific level of architecture. These are the architectures that are specific to a given enterprise.

TOGAF 8.1 has two categories in enterprise continuum. The first one is architecture continuum which is same the continuum explained already in this paper. The second one is known as solution/product continuum. The different levels in this are similar to corresponding levels in architecture continuum. The different levels in solution/ product continuum are

• Products and services
• System solutions
• Industry solutions
• Organization solutions

Architecture Development Method (ADM) has the following nine basic phases:

• Preliminary phase: Framework and principles. Get everyone on board with the plan.
• Phase A: Architecture vision. Define your scope and vision and map your overall strategy.
• Phase B: Business architecture. Describe your current and target business architectures and determine the gap between them.
• Phase C: Information system architectures. Develop target architectures for your data and applications.
• Phase D: Technology architecture. Create the overall target architecture that you will implement in future phases.
• Phase E: Opportunities and solutions. Develop the overall strategy, determining what you will buy, build or reuse, and how you will implement the architecture described in phase D.
• Phase F: Migration planning. Prioritize projects and develop the migration plan.
• Phase G: Implementation governance. Determine how you will provide oversight to the implementation.
• Phase H: Architecture change management. Monitor the running system for necessary changes and determine whether to start a new cycle, looping back to the preliminary phase.

These phases provide a standardized way of analyzing the enterprise and planning and managing the actual implementation. The advantages of using the TOGAF approach are that it provides:

• A process for designing an information system in terms of a set of building blocks.
• Details of how these building blocks interact and fit together.
• Establishes a common vocabulary for use in the design, implementation and governance, etc. of enterprise architecture.
• Includes a list of recommended standards to use with the organization’s enterprise architecture.
• Contains a set of structured and rigorous methods for the implementation and governance of enterprise architecture.
• It can be easily mapped to other tools like Zachman framework, DODAF, COBIT4, ITIL touch points, MDA modeling standards etc.

TOGAF is important for the enterprise IT architects for one simple reason: It's needed. Large organizations can no longer afford to create isolated applications that perform single functions and don't communicate with other applications. Nor can they ignore the effect that actual business conditions have on their technology requirements. Enterprise architecture is stepping in to provide the link between a business and its technology infrastructure, and TOGAF provides a standard way, using best practices, to enable that link. Architects and developers who want to be architects can leverage TOGAF now, making themselves more effective and more useful in industry both today and in the future.

More on TOGAF is available at

 http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8-doc/arch/