The Architecture Forum’s San Diego meeting comprised two sessions: a one-hour teleconference on Wednesday January 26, 2011, and a full day face-to-face meeting on Thursday February 10, 2011. During the week commencing February 7 in San Diego, a number of Working Groups and Standing Committees also met. (Minutes from those meetings are available in the Architecture Forum member’s site under the Meeting Minutes category.)
The January 26 teleconference addressed administrative matters for the Forum, including quarterly reports for the Standing Committees and Working Groups. The most significant consent item was approval of the current work programs to continue.
The February 10 meeting was held in conjunction with the San Diego Open Group Conference and Members' Meetings. There were 16 voting members present. As this was insufficient for a quorum, a two week consensus check on the decisions made will occur after the meeting.
The Forum Chair gave an update on the status of how the Forum Strategy is being actioned and the areas we are currently most active in (TOGAF, Extended Focus, EA Profession). The current Roadmap was confirmed. This shows how the current threads of activity are being brought together (maintenance, modeling, survey, people certification, and extensions) . The long-term goal continues to be the development of an “easier to consume” version of TOGAF which would be modular, extensible, toolable, profilable, and internally consistent. The first step will be a release of TOGAF in 2011 addressing known defects, followed later by the formal model of TOGAF, then extensions and other significant changes. The Forum approved that the first stage, the development of a Technical Corrigendum for TOGAF 9, proceed to company review during the next quarter. The Forum also considered the next steps necessary to switch the development method to be driven from the formal model. An opportunity to switch to the model would be after the maintenance update due in 2011. It was agreed that the Forum needs to define a list of acceptance criteria for this activity.
The Forum approved the proposal to establish a new Working Group to define the curriculum for a Practicing Architect Certification program, intended to certify aspiring architects. This will be facilitated by Garry Doherty. A charter will be brought forward for approval in the next quarter.
The Forum reviewed a proposal from the ArchiMate® Forum on improving alignment of ArchiMate and TOGAF. It was agreed that this is an activity that the Forum should support, and a working group will be started up. This will be facilitated by Peter Haviland. A charter will be brought forward for approval in the next quarter.
The Forum reviewed the status of the TOGAF Management Standing Committee. It was agreed that the Standing Committee be suspended, and that management for TOGAF be passed back to the Forum. The Forum expressed its appreciation to Thomas Obitz.
The Forum reviewed the opportunities for 2011 and took input from those present on areas they would like to see introduced or changed in TOGAF. It was agreed that in London a one-day session will be held to identify core concepts in TOGAF.
The Forum discussed the publication cycle for TOGAF, including the pros and cons of various length cycles (annual, bi-annual, five-year, etc). It was agreed that we should aim for a four-year cycle, so a target for the next major revision would be two years from this meeting.
The meeting also included a number of informational updates on the Standing Committees and Working Groups that had met during the conference and not reported in other slots:
- Jason Uppal reported on the Certification Standing Committee.
- Serge Thorn reported on the Localization Standing Committee.
- Bob Weisman reported on the Information Architecture Working Group.
- Arnold van Overeem reported on the Interoperability Working Group.
- Mick Adams reported on the Value Realization Working Group.
