TOGAF
The ADM as a checklist, tailored rather than followed literally.
3 to work through
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beginner
A team is told to build against a target architecture that was approved 20 months ago, in what the EA function called Phase C. Nobody has revised the document since, and two of its nine named products have been discontinued by their vendors. The Open Group's ADM runs a Preliminary phase and Phases A to H with Requirements Management at the centre. Which phase do organisations actually skip, and what does skipping it cost?
3 min answer -
intermediate
An organisation adopts a formal EA framework and produces extensive deliverables while decisions remain slow. How should such a framework be used?
2 min answer -
intermediate
How would you use an enterprise architecture framework without producing shelfware?
2 min answer
2 terms in this topic
Architecture Development Method
TOGAF's iterative cycle for developing enterprise architecture, which is valuable as a checklist of concerns and harmful when followed literally.
practiceTOGAF in Practice
The most widely adopted enterprise architecture framework — useful as a checklist and vocabulary, harmful when followed as a process.
Neighbouring topics
Enterprise Architecture
General material on architecture at portfolio and estate scale.
EA Domains
Business, application, data and technology architecture as viewpoints.
Application Architecture
The application estate as a designed portfolio rather than an accumulation.
Technology Architecture
Platforms, runtimes and infrastructure standards across the estate.
Capability Maps in EA
The stable frame for hanging investment, ownership and health off.
Application Portfolio Management
Inventory, ownership, cost and health for every application.
Application Rationalisation
Retire, consolidate, replatform — and why retirement is under-applied.
Technology Standards
Guidance that teams follow because it helps, not because it is mandated.
Technology Radar
Adopt, trial, assess and hold — with movement, dates and owners.
Reference Architectures
Pre-approved templates for recurring solution shapes.
Architecture Governance
Preventive, automated controls rather than review meetings.
Architecture Review Boards
Thresholds, early engagement and a real route to accept deviation.
Enterprise Integration
Estate-wide integration strategy, standards and shared infrastructure.
EA Frameworks
Zachman, FEAF and others — vocabulary rather than method.
Architecture Roadmaps
Sequencing change across an estate with dependencies and funding.
Paved Roads
Making the supported path the easiest path, with a way to leave it.
Platform Teams
Reducing other teams' cognitive load, measured by adoption.
InnerSource
Open-source collaboration practices applied inside an organisation.
EA Metrics
Measuring whether architecture work changed anything.