Core concept Flashcards
What is an enterprise?
A whole corporation or a division of a corporation
A government agency or a single government department
A chain of geographically distant organizations linked together by common ownership
Groups of countries or governments working together to create common or shareable deliverables or infrastructures
Partnerships and alliances of businesses working together, such as a consortium or supply chain
Why is an Enterprise Architecture needed?
More effective and efficient business operations:
Lower business operation costs
More agile organization
Business capabilities shared across the organization
Lower change management costs
More flexible workforce
Improved business productivity
More effective and efficient Digital Transformation and IT operations:
Extending effective reach of the enterprise through digital capability
Bringing all components of the enterprise into a harmonized environment
Lower software development, support, and maintenance costs
Increased portability of applications
Improved interoperability 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 the business and IT
Maximum return on investment in existing business and IT infrastructure
The flexibility to make, buy, or out-source business and IT solutions
Reduced risk overall in new investments and their cost of 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
The ability to procure heterogeneous, multi-vendor open systems
The ability to secure more economic capabilities
What specifically would prompt the development of an Enterprise Architecture?
Identifying and refining the requirements that the stakeholders have
Developing views of the architecture that show how the concerns and requirements are going to be addressed
Showing the trade-offs that are going to be made in reconciling the potentially conflicting concerns of different stakeholders
What is an architecture framework?
An architecture framework is a foundational structure, or set of structures, which can be used for developing a broad range of different architectures. It should describe a method for designing a target state of the enterprise in terms of a set of building blocks, and for showing how the building blocks fit together. It should contain a set of tools and provide a common vocabulary. It should also include a list of recommended standards and compliant products that can be used to implement the building blocks.
Why use the TOGAF standard as a framework for Enterprise Architecture?
The TOGAF standard has been developed through the collaborative efforts of the whole community. Using the TOGAF standard results in Enterprise Architecture that is consistent, reflects the needs of stakeholders, employs best practice, and gives due consideration both to current requirements and the perceived future needs of the business.
Developing and sustaining an Enterprise Architecture is a technically complex process which involves many stakeholders and decision processes in the organization. The TOGAF standard plays an important role in standardizing and de-risks the architecture development process. The TOGAF standard provides a best practice framework for adding value, and enables the organization to build workable and economic solutions which address their business issues and needs.
Who would benefit from using the TOGAF standard?
Organizations that design and implement Enterprise Architectures using the TOGAF standard are assured of a design and a procurement specification that can facilitate an open systems implementation, thus enabling the benefits of open systems with reduced risk.
2.1 What is the TOGAF Standard?
The TOGAF standard is an architecture framework. It provides the methods and tools for assisting in the acceptance, production, use, and maintenance of an Enterprise Architecture. It is based on an iterative process model supported by best practices and a re-usable set of existing architecture assets.
What is Architecture in the Context of the TOGAF Standard?
The fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.”
The TOGAF standard embraces but does not strictly adhere to ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011 terminology. In addition to the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011 definition of “architecture”, the TOGAF standard defines a second meaning depending upon the context:
“The structure of components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time.”
The TOGAF standard considers the enterprise as a system and endeavors to strike a balance between promoting the concepts and terminology drawn from relevant standards, and commonly accepted terminology that is familiar to the majority of the TOGAF readership
What Kind of Architecture Does the TOGAF Standard Deal With?
The Business Architecture defines the business strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes
The Data Architecture describes the structure of an organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management resources
The Application Architecture provides a blueprint for the individual applications to be deployed, their interactions, and their relationships to the core business processes of the organization
The Technology Architecture 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.
Architecture Development Method
The TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM) provides a tested and repeatable process for developing architectures. The ADM includes establishing an architecture framework, developing architecture content, transitioning, and governing the realization of architectures.
what are Deliverables, Artifacts, and Building Blocks?
Architects executing the ADM will produce a number of outputs as a result of their efforts, such as process flows, architectural requirements, project plans, project compliance assessments, etc. The TOGAF Architecture Content Framework
A deliverable is a work product that is contractually specified and in turn formally reviewed, agreed, and signed off by the stakeholders
Deliverables represent the output of projects and those deliverables that are in documentation form will typically be archived at completion of a project, or transitioned into an Architecture Repository as a reference model, standard, or snapshot of the Architecture Landscape at a point in time.
An artifact is an architectural work product that describes an aspect of the architecture
Artifacts are generally classified as catalogs (lists of things), matrices (showing relationships between things), and diagrams (pictures of things). Examples include a requirements catalog, business interaction matrix, and a use-case diagram. An architectural deliverable may contain many artifacts and artifacts will form the content of the Architecture Repository.
A building block represents a (potentially re-usable) component of enterprise capability that can be combined with other building blocks to deliver architectures and solutions
Building blocks can be defined at various levels of detail, depending on what stage of architecture development has been reached. For instance, at an early stage, a building block can simply consist of a name or an outline description. Later on, a building block may be decomposed into multiple supporting building blocks and may be accompanied by a full specification. Building blocks can relate to “architectures” or “solutions”.
Architecture Building Blocks (ABBs)
ypically describe required capability and shape the specification of Solution Building Blocks (SBBs); for example, a customer services capability may be required within an enterprise, supported by many SBBs, such as processes, data, and application software
Solution Building Blocks (SBBs)
represent components that will be used to implement the required capability; for example, a network is a building block that can be described through complementary artifacts and then put to use to realize solutions for the enterprise
what is Enterprise Continuum?
The Enterprise Continuum is a view of the Architecture Repository that provides methods for classifying architecture and solution artifacts as they evolve from generic Foundation Architectures to Organization-Specific Architectures. The Enterprise Continuum comprises two complementary concepts: the Architecture Continuum and the Solutions Continuum.
what is Architecture Repository?
Supporting the Enterprise Continuum is the concept of an Architecture Repository which can be used to store different classes of architectural output at different levels of abstraction, created by the ADM. In this way, the TOGAF standard facilitates understanding and co-operation between stakeholders and practitioners at different levels.
