TOGAF 9.1 QUICK START GUIDE FOR IT ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTS TOGAF 9.1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What is Enterprise Architecture? .............................................. 03 2. What is TOGAF? ............................................................................. 03 3. Benefits of using TOGAF ............................................................ 04 4. TOGAF and IT Strategy ................................................................ 05 5. TOGAF and IT Portfolio Management......................................07 6. TOGAF and Basic Tasks................................................................ 08 7. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 09 www.simplilearn.com 02 TOGAF 9.1 What is ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE? In 2007, the MIT Center for Information Systems and Research (MIT CISR) defined Enterprise Architecture as distinct aspects of a business that are under review: “Enterprise Architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the company’s operating model. The operating model is the desired state of business process integration and business process standardization for delivering goods and services to customers.” It is a blueprint that defines how an organization will be structured and organized. The aim of Enterprise Architecture is to determine how an organization can effectively achieve its present and future goals. The Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge defines Enterprise Architecture as "a practice which analyzes areas of common activity within or between organizations, where information and other resources are exchanged to guide future states from an integrated viewpoint of strategy, business, and technology" What is TOGAF? TOGAF -or The Open Group Architecture Framework- is the most widely-used and popular set of best practices and guidelines for implementation of Enterprise Architecture in an organization. It provides approaches to planning, designing, governing, and implementing Enterprise Information Technology Architecture. TOGAF is maintained by the Open Group, which is an independent industry association. An earlier framework called TAFIM -or the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management- is what TOGAF is built on. The emphasis of TOGAF is upon devising concrete IT architectures. www.simplilearn.com 03 TOGAF 9.1 A high-level approach to design, TOGAF is modeled at four levels: BUSINESS APPLICATION DATA TECHNOLOGY TOGAF relies heavily on the use of standardization and modularization and existing technologies and products. TOGAF 9.1 is an update to the TOGAF, version 9, and contains a set of corrections to address the issues that were raised since the introduction of the TOGAF 9 in 2009. TOGAF 9.1 supersedes TOGAF 9. The chief focus of this change is the quality improvements to ensure the consistent use of terminology. TOGAF 9.1 was launched on December 11th, 2011. Benefits of using TOGAF? Ease Of Implementation The framework offered by the Open Group is an easy to understand, step by step approach to developing Enterprise Architecture and is therefore easy to use, helping organizations and employees save on excessive training costs. Ease Of Use In keeping with point #1, TOGAF is delivered with exhaustive documentation, meaning organizations and IT admins will have little to no trouble keeping the IT architecture in top shape. TOGAF is among the few IT frameworks that can be implemented and maintained by architects at any skill or experience level. Global Standard As the global standard in Enterprise Architecture and the most-popular framework in the world, TOGAF provides a standardized architecture development process and common definitions of components and deliverables making it easier to transfer and apply between and across industries and business units. www.simplilearn.com 04 TOGAF 9.1 Authentic TOGAF framework is a compilation of the efforts from all of TOG’s (The Open Group’s) member organizations and hence offers a well-founded corroborative theoretical framework that supports the complex process of developing and sustaining an Enterprise Architecture. Procedural TOGAF's ADM (Architecture Development Method) or the "framework of frameworks", provides the most comprehensive process for architecture development that isn't overly complex. To know more about the benefits of TOGAF, please read through Simplilearn’s ‘Benefits of TOGAF’ article. TOGAF and IT STRATEGY What is IT strategy? Before we talk about the IT strategy, let us first understand what strategy is. Wikipedia defines strategy as, “a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal”. IT strategy is an exhaustive plan that IT management professionals use to guide the organization. The IT strategy that is created should cover all the aspects of Technology Management, such as Human Capital Management, cost Management, Vendor management, Hardware and Software Management, Risk Management, and other considerations in the IT enterprise environment. An IT strategy has five subsets: 1 APPLICATION STRATEGY An Application Strategy is one that consists of a set of guidelines stating how to deal with the IT application in an organization and how to support the business strategies using the IT applications. www.simplilearn.com 05 TOGAF 9.1 2 3 4 5 INTEGRATION STRATEGY Integration strategy is used when an organization has a major chunk of applications that need to be integrated with each other to be able to perform business processes. INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY Infrastructure Strategy is a crucial element in an organization’s strategy to gain the optimal value from the IT investments. SERVICE STRATEGY A service strategy is one which determines how an organization’s customers will get which services at which service level. SOURCING STRATEGY A sourcing strategy involves an organization deciding what to outsource and what to produce in-house and whether it wants to work together with a single provider or multiple providers. How You Apply TOGAF To IT strategy Although TOGAF ADM treats Business Strategy and IT strategy as being outside of its framework, TOGAF proposes a capability analysis. It also suggests getting business drivers before starting an architecture project. IT Maxims from Business Maxims Broadbent and Kitzis describe the Maxim Process as a pragmatic way to extract information for a good IT strategy while avoiding the investment of more than a day's workshop with the senior management. The CIO organizes a day's workshop with CXOs that lead to the documentation of two kinds of Maxims: The Business Maxims is the "creation of synergies in the back office and service functions wherever brand identity is not compromised". IT Maxims are defined as “standard architectures and platforms that are used by all companies in order to leverage synergies and reduce IT costs. Maxims are compact principles used to document strategic direction of an enterprise. www.simplilearn.com 06 TOGAF 9.1 Re-engineering the business strategy If the management in an organization does not wish to spend time in discussing Business and It strategies, then it is time to re-engineer strategies or find business maxims by applying analogies with known strategy patterns. TOGAF and IT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT What is IT Portfolio Management? To understand the concept of Portfolio Management, let us first begin with what a portfolio is. A Portfolio is essentially a collection of investments that is held by any organization, or institution, or a private individual. IT Portfolio Management is defined as “the application of systematic management techniques to the investments, projects, and activities of Enterprise Information Technology (IT departments)" Examples of IT Portfolios include planned initiatives, projects, and ongoing IT services. There are three types of IT Portfolio Management - two of which are relevant to Enterprise Architects (Application and Infrastructure Portfolio Management), and one of which is present in the office of the CIO, thus making it important for Enterprise Architects to at least have a fair level of competence and high degree of proficiency in Project Portfolio Management. What is Application Portfolio Management? Application portfolio management is a framework that is used for managing enterprise IT software-based services and software-based applications, which includes SaaS (software As A Service). APM provides managers and administrators with an inventory of a company's software metrics and applications to illustrate the business benefits of each of these applications. www.simplilearn.com 07 TOGAF 9.1 What is Infrastructure Portfolio Management? Just like managing applications, infrastructure components can also be managed. The infrastructure components mainly comprise Network infrastructures like WANs, LANs, and other network components All kinds of infrastructure services. Servers What do you find about Application Portfolio Management in TOGAF? Application Portfolio Management does not appear in TOGAF. TOGAF is not intended to help with strategic IT management, and therefore is not a primary source to turn to if one needs to learn something about strategic IT management. What do you find about Infrastructure Portfolio Management in TOGAF? When it comes to a management aspect, there is nothing about TOGAF to be found in Infrastructure Portfolio Management. The TOGAF terminology, however, can be used in infrastructure, as described in the Technical Reference Model. This gives terms and taxonomy of classes of infrastructure and also infrastructure service. TOGAF and BASIC TASKS As an architect sooner or later one will want to store acquired information in some form of an automatic database, instead of depending solely upon Excel sheets and PowerPoint presentations. For this one might need either a software tool or a Meta model. TOGAF and finding the right Meta Model for your needs In Enterprise IT Architecture Management, there will come a point when it is necessary to possess a database for the IT Portfolio and the IT assets to perform management on the sets of real world items that have been modeled in the Enterprise Architecture Database. www.simplilearn.com 08 TOGAF 9.1 Meta-models sized between 50 Meta entities, which is somewhat limited , up to well over 500 Meta entities, which would be a bit too complex if not covered by a well-integrated user interface of an EAM tool, can be used. In many cases, one will not try to answer all the possible questions in the EAM at a time. It is more likely that management has its interests focused on certain points like cost management for the infrastructure. In such cases, it is necessary to begin with a small solution that is driven by a question that needs to be answered, without having to deal with the full complexity of a 500+ item meta-model. The TOGAF architecture capability framework offers a Metamodel that is split into smaller areas of interest. If one is interested in a certain area, that person needs only to read that respective area and draw up a list of pre-defined TOGAF Meta objects. CONCLUSION This eBook has demonstrated that TOGAF is a useful collection of various methods and tools that an Enterprise Architect may need for his work. Nevertheless, it is also seen that more than being an integrated piece of work, it is also a collection of useful items, planned in advance on a drawing board. There is now a tendency to mention the TOGAF certification whenever the need of an Enterprise Architect is brought up. TOGAF also stands tall when it comes to project architectures of all scales and a few tasks of the Strategic Enterprise IT Architecture Management. Simplilearn offers a TOGAF 9.1 certification training course accredited by the Open Group, with 32 hours of instructor-led training, downloadable eBooks, chapter-end quizzes, and reference cards to make study sessions easier. GOOD LUCK For more information on our TOGAF 9.1 offerings, please visit our course page here