The main objective of TOGAF is to establish a link between Business and Information Technologies in firms, providing multiple benefits in both areas.

TOGAF is a methodology (framework) for the creation of an Enterprise Architecture that can be freely used by any firm that so desires. TOGAF is the acronym of The Open Group Architecture Framework, belonging to the Open Group, a consortium of IT sector professionals formed for the purpose of setting guidelines for the IT Architecture world independently of manufacturers.

Created in the mid-1990s, The Open Group has worked tirelessly to define and evolve TOGAF, which now contains not only an architecture framework, but also:

• A development methodology (ADM, Architecture Development Model)
• Enterprise Continuum, which formalizes best practice, approaches and applications suitable for different industries and product types.
• Resource Base, which provides tools, success cases, examples and a range of available tools to simplify the application of TOGAF.

The framework takes in four architecture domains, which are dealt with conjointly in the ADM methodology. These are the:

• Business Architecture, defining business strategy, governance, the organization and the business strategy involved.
• Applications architecture, providing guidelines for the implementation of each of the applications concerned in the project, as well as interactions between systems and business areas / processes.
• Data Architecture, setting out logical and physical data structures, as well as management resources
• Technology Architecture, describing the software infrastructure required to support applications

What is it for?

To put it briefly, TOGAF is used for the creation of an Enterprise Architecture and is normally applied to:

• Create mission critical or core business applications.
• Minimize the risk of mismatches between the Business and the Technology.
• Generate value and discover Business Transformation opportunities.
• Describe, document and continue the systems and applications constructed.

One common problem in the IT industry is understanding the needs raised by business departments (the users of technology platforms) and technical departments (responsible for creating the platforms and providing the services required).

A frequent cause of failure in IT projects is that the difficulty of matching Business and Technology is not just a matter of requirements specifications but also of understanding the solutions and involvement in the project. In the Open Group’s view, Enterprise Architecture serves to establish an atmosphere of barrier-free communication, in which information flows smoothly between the parties involved.

This barrier-free flow is not without its limits, however. The goal is permeability at all levels of definition existing within the firm, in order to represent the information systems architecture in a way that all of the parties involved can understand, thereby facilitating involvement in the project.

The ADM methodology employed in TOGAF is based on descriptive models and an iterative cycle that allows the definition of the architecture from different standpoints, involving the different departments of a client firm in order to achieve an overall understanding of project needs, restrictions and opportunities.

What are the benefits?

The main objective of TOGAF, like other EA frameworks, is to establish a nexus between Business and IT in firms, providing numerous benefits in both areas, as described below.

Cost reduction
Whether in terms of time-to-market of IT projects, to raise quality or to identify opportunities to improve the performance of applications, the effect of applying TOGAF to the Enterprise Architecture represents cost benefits:

• Reduction in project costs, because the lower cost inherent in the solutions provided and enhanced understanding on which they are based require less investment to attain business objectives.
• Improved ROI XGLOSARIOX, since investments in new systems and business transformation are rapidly recovered.
• Justification for investment. The descriptive methodology permits the materialization of the architecture work and dynamic IT investment, actively involving the personal responsible for business operations in projects.

Risk reduction
The management of risk in software projects must consider more than simply the technical risks identified by the software architect. Firms are complex and relations between different departments, systems and individual objectives have an impact on the management of the risks inherent in any project.

TOGAF identifies the Business drivers XGLOSARIOX and objectives, as well as the parties involved in the different architecture domains, thereby facilitating the identification of risks and laying the stress on mitigation:

• Analysis of risks and concerns
• GAP Analysis
• Impact analysis
• Iteration of analyses
• Governance and requirements management to minimize dependency and set-up risks.

Identification of Opportunities
Business or IT opportunities are there to be discovered in every project, and this is explored in TOGAF through ADM phase E. The Enterprise Architecture can and should identify opportunities in each product by means of the different analyses and viewpoints provided by TOGAF.

The following are some examples of the opportunities that can be identified in the course of iterations in projects employing TOGAF:

• Time-to-market. The Gap Analysis and migration / roll-out planning offer a dynamic view of positioning with regard competitors. Various application versions with differing scopes and timing can be used to achieve the desired positioning and to materialize /justify investment.
• Identification of elements. TOGAF takes business processes into account and relates them with the information systems and technology architecture visions. Examples of the kind of inefficiencies or business process improvements identified by EA in projects would include the search for synergies between departments and information systems and cost reduction through the reuse of shared platforms.
• Risk and cost reduction. Maintainability is a key feature of information systems. A large part of corporate IT budgets is spent on supporting developed systems. TOGAF provides an overview of the architectures and identifies high-maintenance cost applications and systems, anticipating investments.

Flexibility and adaptability
The transformation of firms is ever more common and increasingly rapid. The agility required by the business thus exceeds the IT departments ability to respond, making it necessary to design flexible projects to adapt to change.

The management of requirements, which is central to the ADM methodology, is key to ensuring project flexibility without affecting the quality of the architectures designed. TOGAF also allows room to adapt the working framework and ADM methodology to the needs of each project and firm through benchmark cases and adaptation guidelines for different industries and contexts.

The adaptation of processes and project requirements is a key factor in attaining business objectives.

Common language
TOGAF provides a wide range of documents and models (or viewpoints), allowing the vision of a firm to be adapted to the different parties involved in a project. This builds a bridge between the Business and Technology worlds, involving both in the description and construction of the new applications.

The transformation process requires understanding of this kind, and TOGAF ensures that the architecture can be modeled for each area, allowing understanding on the part of all involved.

Our work with TOGAF

At Kynetia we approach software development projects as engineering processes in which it is necessary to correctly design the solutions provided. In order to assure service quality and live up to our clients’ expectations we need to have a clear vision of the four architecture domains TOGAF proposes:

• Business Architecture. Know the client’s business, organization and the motivation for creating or transforming software applications.
• Applications Architecture. Understand the applications involved, existing systems, restrictions and interrelationships and, above, all the relationship with the firm’s business processes and departments.
• Information Architecture. Learn about the information the firm requires and handles, how it is obtained, processed and stored, etc. Locations, data capture processes and operations constitute key information to explore existing capacities and limitations.
• Technology Architecture. The design of solutions must take existing infrastructure into account, as well as the interrelationships with other architecture domains.

In light of the above, we adapt the ADM methodology and the TOGAF framework to the operational needs of our clients in our Software Engineering projects, applying the following criteria:

• ADM-based iterations, modifying the early cycles to stress the domains found to contain the most risk or be least clearly defined. Iteration in the first three phases (Prelim > A > B > C) is a common practice in projects involving numerous participants from different departments and is essential to establish a common language and shared vision of the project.
• Adaptation of artifacts and products from each of the TOGAF phases in order to progress with their refinement and adaptation to the needs of the projects. Time constraints, the knowledge of the parties involved and the nature of the implications all have an impact on the scope of the documentation required.
• Governance: since not two companies are alike, the management and governance of projects varies from case to case. We believe it is critical to learn the degree of involvement, knowledge and responsibility of each person involved in the project in order to adapt Governance practices to the specific context:
  • Requirements management
  • Allocation of roles and responsibilities
  • Definition of acceptance criteria and processes
  • Contracts, service level agreements and commitments
  • Set-up management
  • Project monitoring: measurement, reports, follow-up meetings
• Profiles. Not all projects and firms require the same profiles. Negotiating skills, coordination and follow-up will therefore vary depending on the nature of the project and the involvement or otherwise of the staff involved in business operations.