How to begin with togaf

How to begin with TOGAF – 1 A set of articles to guide you in how to get started with Enterprise Architecture using TOGAF. But please note the content in these posts are coming from personal experience of using TOGAF. I have been using TOGAF for over 10 years and have implemented TOGAF across many different enterprise architecture departments within organization of both private and public sector.

These articles are aimed at organizations that are adopting the TOGAF enterprise architecture framework.

Before jumping into the first steps there is one import thing to consider is what kind of enterprise architecture software are you intending to use to manage all of your architecture outputs and artifacts. Some of the bigger tools will be expensive, difficult to use and might make your starting with TOGAF more difficult. We have developed www.eacomposer.com especially with this in mind: make it easier to apply TOGAF while offering a fully featured EA tool.

Now that you have become certified one of the most often received question I hear is “how do we start doing TOGAF�. As per TOGAF definition the first step is tailoring of TOGAF to your organization. TOGAF is a comprehensive framework supporting different industries and different size technology strategies: large business transformations or smaller capability level technology roadmaps.

As part of tailoring of TOGAF there are several steps we need to cover. I will focus on the first steps in this article. Based on my experience I recommend doing two things:

1. Review TOGAF and for each of the TOGAF ADM phases & artifacts decide what kind of architecture outputs you want to produce during your projects. Avoid starting with a large set of outputs & artifacts but keep it relatively small. An artifact is intended to provide a specific architectural insight. Common first step artifacts may include a capabilities model (also known as functional decomposition in TOGAF lingo :). Capabilities are at the center of TOGAF especially since version 9.1. Other artifacts typically include application, information and infrastructure related artifacts and viewpoints. The goal is to define the ADM process that you will use for your enterprise architecture projects.

2. As a second step I recommend to review the TOGAF Metamodel and define the architecture objects you want to design, manage and architect. This would be your ABB and SBB's in TOGAF lingo. As with step 1 of getting started with TOGAF, recommendation is to start relatively small and augment as you become more mature.

However don’t start too small because you want to make sure you will be able to produce new and or improved insights. Start with Capabilities, Applications, Platforms and maybe a couple of others. Once you settled on your initial scope you need to create a baseline of your current state for these objects.

Want to keep the articles short & direct. In my next article we will continue on how to get started with TOGAF. Thanks, Daniel Dekkers Founder WhiteCloud Software, creator of www.eacomposer.com

Source: http://eacomposer.blogspot.in/2016/03/how-to-begin-with-togaf-1.html