The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)

TOGAF

TOGAF is a framework for the design, planning, implementation, and governing of enterprise architecture. It is made up of a number of standards, which are maintained by The Open Group – which also maintains the related ArchiMate notation – and at the centre of which is the Architecture Development Method (ADM), a process lifecycle for creating and managing architectures within an enterprise.

TOGAF was first published in 1995 and drew on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) developed by the US Department of Defense. The Open Group has revised it repeatedly since, with TOGAF 9 (2009) consolidating the ADM and the surrounding guidance, and TOGAF 9.2 (2018) being the last of the single-volume editions. The TOGAF Standard, 10th Edition, released in 2022, restructured the material into a modular set: the Fundamental Content holds the stable core of the framework, while a growing collection of Series Guides covers specific topics in more depth. The restructuring was partly a response to long-standing criticism that earlier editions were monolithic and hard to apply selectively.

Architecture Development Method

The ADM is the heart of TOGAF. It is a cyclic, iterative method for developing and governing an enterprise architecture, organized into phases that an architect works through, revisits, and repeats as the architecture and the business it supports evolve.

  • Preliminary. Prepare the organization, tailor the ADM to the enterprise, and establish the architecture capability.
  • A – Architecture Vision. Define the scope, stakeholders, and business drivers, and secure sponsorship for the work.
  • B – Business Architecture. Model the business processes, roles, and functions the enterprise performs.
  • C – Information Systems Architecture. Cover the data and application architectures – the information the enterprise uses and the portfolio of applications that support the business.
  • D – Technology Architecture. Define the infrastructure – servers, networks, storage, and platforms – on which applications run.
  • E – Opportunities and Solutions. Identify candidate projects and work packages that deliver the target architecture.
  • F – Migration Planning. Sequence those work packages into a credible, prioritized roadmap.
  • G – Implementation Governance. Oversee the delivery of individual projects so that what is built conforms to the architecture.
  • H – Architecture Change Management. Monitor change, assess its impact on the architecture, and feed back into a new cycle.

A Requirements Management activity runs across all phases, capturing, traceable requirements and routing them into whichever phase needs them. The phases are deliberately not a strict waterfall: each can be revisited as gaps appear, and the whole cycle is meant to repeat as the enterprise changes.

The ADM’s phases align with the four architecture domains that TOGAF names – business, data, application, and technology (often abbreviated BDAT). Business is addressed in Phase B, data and application in Phase C, and technology in Phase D.

Content metamodel

A content metamodel defines a formal structure for the architecture artifacts the ADM produces. It specifies the entities, relationships, and metadata that artifacts carry, so that inputs, outputs, and the steps that connect them are consistent across phases and tooling. The metamodel is what makes the ADM’s outputs shareable and machine-processable rather than a collection of ad hoc diagrams.

Enterprise Continuum and Architecture Repository

TOGAF encourages reuse through two related ideas.

The Enterprise Continuum classifies architecture assets along a spectrum from generic to organization-specific. The Architecture Continuum runs from Foundation Architectures (broadly applicable building blocks such as reference models) through Common Systems Architectures and Industry Architectures to Organization-Specific Architectures. A parallel Solutions Continuum does the same for solution building blocks. The continuum is not a process but a way of thinking about where an asset sits and how it can be adapted, so that an architect can reach for a generic pattern and specialize it rather than start from scratch.

The Architecture Repository is the structured store in which those assets are held. It typically includes an architecture landscape of current and target architectures, a standards information base of approved technologies, a reference library of patterns and models, and a governance log of decisions and compliance. The repository is the practical mechanism by which the ADM’s outputs accumulate into a reusable asset base – the connective tissue between iterations of the cycle, and between the framework and architectural knowledge management more broadly.

Certification and adoption

The Open Group runs a TOGAF certification program with Foundation and Certified levels, supported by accredited training courses. The program has been a major driver of adoption – many enterprise architect roles list TOGAF certification as a requirement – and of a consultancy and training industry around it. The flip side is that certification can become an end in itself, divorced from the practice the framework describes.

Criticisms

TOGAF has long attracted criticism. The framework is large and prescriptive, and the sheer volume of material encourages a checkbox approach in which an organization adopts the form of the ADM without its substance. The phased structure of the ADM reads as waterfall even though TOGAF explicitly calls for iteration, and the framework has been slow to engage with agile and continuous delivery practices – the TOGAF 10 restructuring and the Series Guides on agile and digital architecture are partly a response to that gap. Critics also note that much of the value attributed to TOGAF in practice comes from the shared vocabulary and the discipline of producing artifacts, rather than from the framework itself.

See also

References