Why is TOGAF Used?

With the advancement of business, the IT systems that serve these firms have also become more complicated. With increasing size and complexity, architecture planning and design have become critical to delivering value.

Your ability to achieve your company objectives is determined by how you design and implement your enterprise architecture. Practical frameworks make the architecture design process for your infrastructure easier to use and less complicated.

TOGAF, a comprehensive and industry-leading framework, has enabled EAs (Enterprise Architects) to improve business efficiency through superior architectural framework attributes.

TOGAF certified Enterprise architects may create open systems-based solutions that are tailored to your specific strategic business requirements and objectives.

Unfortunately, Enterprise architecture is such a niche field not so many users understand the importance of TOGAF. Let ’s define the TOGAF framework and discuss how it benefits architects and organizations.

What is TOGAF?

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is an enterprise architecture methodology that offers a high-level framework for enterprise software development. TOGAF helps organize the development process through a systematic approach aimed at reducing errors, maintaining timelines, staying on budget and aligning IT with business units to produce quality results.

The Open Group developed the framework in 1995, and it offers it to organizations to use it free internally. This global consortium also provides certified tools and courses that businesses can use to implement TOGAF.

TOGAF also features Architecture Development Method (ADM) and Enterprise Continuum. The TOGAF ADM is the result of continuous contributions from a large number of architecture practitioners. It describes a method for developing enterprise architecture and forms the core of TOGAF. It integrates elements of TOGAF as well as other available architectural assets, to meet the business and IT needs of an organization.

To achieve the desired profitability and excellence, businesses need to work with trained and certified professionals. Such professionals communicate with the various department heads to ensure a seamless design process. They also design and implement a strategy that best suits your business needs.

Why Does an Organization Need TOGAF?

Organizations are increasingly becoming aware of the need to adopt and implement Enterprise architecture changes. The number of IT systems are getting complex and with multiple departments involved, there is very less overall visibility of the systems.

Making any kind of major changes to a large organization can quickly become a nightmare both from a logistical aspect as well as on overall organizational point. With many different factors to juggle, creating a comprehensive plan and actually sticking to it, can turn into a long-drawn affair. Decisions take time, targets are not met, people involved change and managers struggle to tackle issues in a way that contributes to wider business goals.

TOGAF-certified professionals are trained and understand how to trim the fat by establishing a clear set of ROIs and helping to decide how the different elements of a business can contribute towards them. This reduces unnecessary expenditure, boosts efficiency. Many a time the process creates a development framework which can be refined and reused again in the future.

How Can TOGAF Benefit my Business?

The TOGAF process is the industry de facto standard for Enterprise Architecture and hence is one of the most structured Frameworks.

TOGAF process starts with helping Organizations to enlist and understand the architecture that they already have. The next step involves the creation of accurate and refined development goals.

TOGAF also provides a clear methodology, the ‘Architecture Development Method (ADM)’, to help organizations plan the optimum route to reach their goals. The ADM process takes into account the needs of different departments and how they interact into account and can highlight potential risk factors in advance. The methodology is robustly designed to incorporate all of the unique elements of an enterprise, including separate architectures like ITIL and COBIT 5.

How Does TOGAF Certified Architects Help an Organization

1. Reusable architecture

TOGAF architectures can be continuously refined and reused. Once an organization has had its architects design an architecture, they could go back and refer to the same down the line for additional changes. TOGAF architecture also can accommodate new departments and changes.

The TOGAF core has not changed since the start, although they have had many revisions. They have added many tools and updates, however keeping the core the same has ensured that TOGAF architects are never outdated and could still be highly effective.

2. TOGAF is more efficient

A company’s ‘architecture’ is but a blueprint of how it works. Taking multiple elements into account, such as IT infrastructure, stakeholders and how different departments are organized.

Company architecture cannot remain static. With increasing competition and rapid changes to both IT, business models and regulatory compliance, an organization needs to make constant changes to how it is structured and how processes interact with each other.  

Each business is different which means that designing the Enterprise architecture needs time, expertise and experience. TOGAF provides the framework for a structured process-focused approach to designing the architecture.

TOGAF practitioners are specialists who help in creating clear strategies which can be implemented quickly and efficiently as possible. This is important as it reduces time and risks thereby ensuring major savings.

3. TOGAF is flexible

TOGAF as a framework is very flexible. It provides the tools and methods required by an organization to create an enterprise architecture. More often than not, an organization looks at architecture after a few years in operation, which means that the architect needs to look at retrospective changes and work with a lot of legacy apps and network. TOGAF provides a degree of fluidity and flexibility that allows development and implementations to proceed at their own pace.

TOGAF has provisions to incorporate additional frameworks. For example, if your company already uses COBIT 5 or ITIL, it can continue to do so without disruption.

4. TOGAF provides common terminology

TOGAF with its clear and well-developed terminology has made deep inroads in multiple industries. Certified TOGAF professionals speak the same language enabling clear and effective communication. This provides for continuity and makes the process people independent.  This can be hugely beneficial within a company, as well as ease collaboration between enterprises or even across different industries. One of the most important advantages of this being that it helps professionals to focus and work together on company-wide issues.

5. The costs of becoming TOGAF-certified are low

The long-run benefit of TOGAF certification is huge compared to the initial investment. Consultancies could leverage the knowledge gained from the certification and gain more projects.

For organizations looking to streamline their architecture, they could make their systems more efficient and make their business more profitable.

‍