The Enterprise Continuum and Tools Flashcards
Enterprise Continuum
Provides methods for classifying architecture and solution artifacts, both internal and external to the Architecture Repository, as they evolve from generic Foundation Architectures to Organization-Specific Architectures.
Enterprise Continuum consists of three parts
- The Enterprise Continuum. The outermost continuum classifies assets related to the context of the overall Enterprise Architecture
- The Architecture Continuum. Offers a consistent way to define and understand the generic rules, representations, and relationships in architecture, including traceability and derivation relationships. Represents a structuring of Architecture Building Blocks (ABBs) which are re-usable architecture assets.
- The Solutions Continuum. Provides a consistent way to describe and understand the implementation of the assets defined in the Architecture Continuum; defines what is available in the organizational environment as re-usable Solution Building Blocks (SBBs)
The Architecture Continuum
Architectures are developed and evolved across a continuum ranging from Foundation Architectures, through Common Systems Architectures, and Industry Architectures, and to an enterprise’s own Organization-Specific Architectures.
The leftward direction focuses on meeting enterprise needs and business requirements, while the rightward direction focuses on leveraging architectural components and building blocks.
Foundation Architecture
Consists of generic components, inter-relationships, principles, and guidelines that provide a foundation on which more specific architectures can be built.
Common Systems Architectures
Guide the selection and integration of specific services from the Foundation Architecture to create an architecture useful for building common solutions across a wide number of relevant domains.
Examples of Common Systems Architectures
Security Architecture, Management Architecture, Network Architecture, etc.
Industry Architectures
Guide the integration of common systems components with industry-specific components, and guide the creation of industry solutions for specific customer problems within a particular industry.
Examples of Industry Architectures
A data model representing the business functions and processes specific to a particular vertical industry, such as the Retail industry’s “Active Store” architecture, or an Industry Architecture that incorporates the Energistics data model
Organization-Specific Architectures
Describe and guide the final deployment of user-written or third-party components that constitute effective solutions for particular enterprises.
The Solutions Continuum
Represents the implementations of the architectures at the corresponding levels of the Architecture Continuum.
Moving from left to right is focused on providing solution value; that is, foundation solutions provide value in creating common systems solutions. Common systems solutions value is used to create industry solutions, and industry solutions are used to create organization-specific solutions. The right-to-left direction increasingly focuses on addressing enterprise needs.
Foundation Solutions
Highly generic concepts, tools, products, services, and solution components that are the fundamental providers of capabilities.
Examples of Foundation Solutions
Programming languages, operating systems, foundational data structures (such as EDIFACT), generic approaches to organization structuring, foundational structures for organizing IT operations (such as ITIL or the IT4IT Reference Architecture), etc.
Common Systems Solutions
An implementation of a Common Systems Architecture is comprised of a set of products and services; represents collections of common requirements and capabilities, rather than those specific to a particular customer or industry.
Examples of Common Systems Solutions
An enterprise management system product and a security system product.
Industry Solutions
An implementation of an Industry Architecture, which provides re-usable packages of common components and services specific to an industry
Examples Industry Solutions
A physical database schema or an industry-specific point-of-service device.
Organization-Specific Solutions
An implementation of the Organization-Specific Architecture that provides the required business functions.
An Organization-Specific Solution will be structured in order to support specific Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure support of the operational systems at desired service levels.
Other key factors to be defined within an Organization-Specific Solution are the key operating parameters and quality metrics that can be used to monitor and manage the environment.
Enterprise Continuum & ADM
The TOGAF ADM describes the process of developing an enterprise-specific architecture and an enterprise-specific solution that conform to that architecture by adopting and adapting (where appropriate) generic architectures and solutions. In a similar fashion, specific architectures and solutions that prove to be credible and effective will be generalized for reuse.
Classes of architectural information expected to be held within an Architecture Repository
- The Architecture Metamodel
- The Architecture Capability
- The Architecture Landscape
- The Standards Information Base
- The Reference Library
- The Governance Log
- The Architecture Requirements Repository
- The Solutions Landscape
The Architecture Metamodel
Describes the organizationally tailored application of an architecture framework, including a method for architecture development and a metamodel for architecture content
The Architecture Capability
Defines the parameters, structures, and processes that support governance of the Architecture Repository
The Architecture Landscape
Presents an architectural representation of assets in use, or planned, by the enterprise at particular points in time
The Standards Information Base
Captures the standards with which new architectures must comply, which may include industry standards, selected products and services from suppliers, or shared services already deployed within the organization
The Reference Library
Provides guidelines, templates, patterns, and other forms of reference material that can be leveraged in order to accelerate the creation of new architectures for the enterprise
The Governance Log
Provides a record of governance activity across the enterprise
The Architecture Requirements Repository
Provides a view of all authorized architecture requirements which have been agreed with the Architecture Board
The Solutions Landscape
Presents an architectural representation of the SBBs supporting the Architecture Landscape which have been planned or deployed by the enterprise
The Architecture Landscape - Levels of granularity
- Strategic Architectures. Show a long-term summary view of the entire enterprise; provide an organizing framework for operational and change activity and allow for direction setting at an executive level.
- Segment Architectures. Provide more detailed operating models for areas within an enterprise; can be used at the program or portfolio level to organize and operationally align more detailed change activity.
- Capability Architectures. Show in a more detailed fashion how the enterprise can support a particular unit of capability; used to provide an overview of current capability, target capability, and capability increments and allow for individual work packages and projects to be grouped within managed portfolios and programs.
The Standards Information Base
Repository area that holds a record of the set of specifications, to which architectures must conform.
