Architecture Forum
Objective of Meeting
The objectives of this meeting of the Architecture Forum were:
- To consider all submissions for inclusion in the next major
revision to TOGAF and agree the forward plan to publication. This
included bringing together a Fast Track submission from Capgemini
with a number of submissions through the Standards Track from other
members of the Architecture Forum.
- To develop an outline plan for the activities of the Forum in
2008.
- To review progress in active working areas of the Forum.
The agenda for the meeting can be found
here.
Summary
There were two major items on the agenda of this
meeting. One complete day was spent developing a forward plan for the
activities of the Forum in 2008. More than one complete day was spent
considering the submissions for inclusion in the next major revision to
TOGAF.
A full report on the meeting will shortly be available
to members of the Forum from the
Architecture Forum Members' web site.
Topics covered during the meeting included:
2008 Revision of TOGAF
At the previous meeting, the Forum set a limit date of
September 14 2007 for submissions of material for potential inclusion
in the next major revision of TOGAF. Major submissions were received
from:
-
Capgemini - A major revision and restructure of
the whole of TOGAF, submitted via the Fast Track process
-
RealIRM - Change to the Preliminary Phase
-
CGI - Changes to Phases E and F
-
Metaplexity - Changes to the Enterprise Continuum
-
Architecting-the-Enterprise - Changes throughout TOGAF to strengthen
Governance and the link to Business
There was considerable discussion about the procedural
implications of Fast Track and Standard Track submissions relating to
the same published specification proceeding concurrently. Divergence of
TOGAF is not acceptable, so a mechanism to integrate the two proposals
to produce a single specification is needed.
The way forward is to consider all of the Standard
Track submissions as change proposals to the Capgemini Fast Track and to
resolve any inconsistencies during the normal resolution process
associated with the review. This is likely to result in significant
changes to the Fast Track submission. To ensure that the changes receive
adequate scrutiny, an issue resolution meeting is to be held in late
November, and then a further recirculation review will take place when a
single integrated document of the merged material is available.
Forward Plan for the Architecture Forum
The Forum spent one day considering its forward work
program. Using as priorities the outcome of the member survey carried
out earlier in the year and recommendations from the
Core Working Group, the Forum decided to support the following
activities in its plan for 2008. Work item leaders were identified for
each item:
In addition, the Forum will provide support for
activities outside of the Architecture Forum as follows:
- Business Architecture
- SOA
The Forum decided not to proceed with any work on a
lightweight version of TOGAF in 2008.
Meeting
Administration
The Forum approved the minutes of meeting held in
Austin in July 2007 and reviewed the action list, issues list, and
consent items list output from that meeting.
New Member/Attendee
Expectations from the Architecture Forum
Two new members of the Forum explained their
motivation for joining the Forum:
-
Q-Tips: We want to share EA experiences and
become involved in the development of an internationally accepted
standard.
-
HSBC: We have done architecture at the
technology level and are now moving to higher levels of business and
information systems. Our initial objective is to align the work os
HSBC with work being done in The Open Group.
Architecture Forum Status Update
Gary Doherty, TOGAF Product Manager, submitted a brief
update of work in the last quarter. Highlights included:
- Submissions for the next major update of TOGAF in
2008, including a Fast Track submission from Capgemini
- Continued work of the Core, Modeling, and
Marketing Groups
- Restart of work of the Certification Working Group
- New White Papers:
- TOGAF/MDA Synergy
- Why Enterprise Architecture Matters
- 156 Members of the Forum on September 30 2007
(net growth of 30 in 2007)
TOGAF Certification
Status Report
Andrew Josey, The Open Group Director, Certification, summarized the status of TOGAF
certification as of October 1 2007:
- 3478 TOGAF 8 certified individuals (growth of around 500 in
three months)
- 97.8% via training; 2.1% via examination
TOGAF Publications Status
Andrew Josey reported than Van Haren
Publishing has been selected as worldwide publishers and distributor for
hardcopy editions of the newly established TOGAF series:
-
TOGAF 2007 Edition, "The Book"
-
TOGAF Version 8.1.1 Enterprise Edition - Study Guide
-
TOGAF Version 8.1.1 Enterprise Edition - A Pocket Guide
Project/Liaison
Reports
The current status of working groups and related Forum activities
was reviewed, including:
- TOGAF/MDA Synergy (Ed Harrington)
- TOGAF and ITIL (Serge Thorn)
Report of the Core
Working Group
Paul van der Merwe, Real IRM, presented the
final recommendations of the Core Working Group relating to
categorization of the content of TOGAF and a model for prioritization of
future work activities. Once these final recommendations have been
documented in a paper, the work of this group is complete.
Bill Estrem, Metaplexity, presented the status
of work of the group that is tasked with development of a meta-model for
TOGAF. The work will continue.
Report of the Certification
Standing Committee
Terry Blevins, Mitre, presented a report
covering the activities of the Certification Standing Committee, which
is currently focused on considering whether any change to TOGAF
certification is needed when the next major version is published.
TOGAF Defect Reports
A small number of relatively minor defect reports
relating to the TOGAF 8.1.1 specification were considered. All were
resolved.
New Work Item Proposals
Architecture Description
Language
Henry Franken, BIZZdesign, presented
an overview of the work of the Archimate Foundation. This collaborative
project has produced a specification of an Architecture Definition
Language which could meet a long-standing requirement of the
Architecture Forum.
Judith Jones,
Architecting-the-Enterprise, proposed a new project to review the
Archimate standard with a view towards publication by The Open Group in
2008. Before this can proceed, IPR issues need to be examined.
Localization
Judith Jones,
Architecting-the-Enterprise, outlined experience of using TOGAF in
Poland, where only a small proportion of architects are able to use a
version in English and proposed the development framework for
localization to enable the development of local language variants (and
suggested that local chapters of AOGEA be used to provide the overall
quality control).
Architecture Management
Judith Jones,
Architecting-the-Enterprise, proposed the development of a new
Architecture Management specification, to exploit work done by the TOGAF
Development Team and not included in plans for the next version of
TOGAF. This will be brought forward for approval as a White Paper in
2008.
Information
Quality/Information Architecture
Adrian Seccombe, Eli Lilly and Ron Schuldt, Lockheed Martin, presented complementary
presentations calling for additional work on Information Quality and the
definition of a true Information Architecture.
Outputs
Specific outputs from this meeting included:
- A forward plan for the development of the next major revision to
TOGAF, involving the merger of all submissions, followed by a review
of the merged document
- Agreed work plan for the Architecture Forum for 2008
- Reports from Working Group and Standing Committees:
- Core Working Group
- Modeling Working Group
- Certification Standing Committee
- Proposals for new work items:
- ADML
- Architecture Management
- Information Management
- Localization
- Resolution of all outstanding defect reports against version
8.1.1 of TOGAF
Next Steps
TOGAF development:
- By November 2, members of The Open Group will provide change
proposals on the Capgemini Fast Track.
- By November 8, Capgemini will formulate their response to
comments, to include the addition of submissions from other members.
- Between November 9 and 16, Architecture Forum members will
vote on the proposed responses.
- There will be a working meeting in Reading on November 27-29
to agree resolutions on all unresolved change proposals (including
the merger of additional materials into the Capgemini Fast Track).
- Following this meeting, The Open Group staff will prepare a
revised draft for submission to a recirculation review.
Work items for 2008:
- By the end of November, statements of work will be produced for
all agreed 2008 work items.
ADML:
- Before the next meeting of the Forum in January 2008, The Open
Group staff will report on any IPR issues associated with the
submission of the Archimate specification into The Open Group.
TOGAF/MDA Synergy:
- Immediately, the final project report will be submitted for
approval as a White Paper.
Architecture Management:
- Before the next meeting of the Forum in January 2008, a draft
document will be produced for consideration as a White Paper.
Working Groups:
- The Core Working Group will produce a final report.
- Other working groups will continue operation as planned:
- Certification Standing Committee
- Modeling Working Group
- Case Studies
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