Key takeaways
- The ADM combines framework, content, transition, and governance in an iterative cycle.
- Ten elements: Preliminary, Phases A to H, and Requirements Management at the center.
- Phase C groups two architectures: Data and Application.
- The graphic is a reference model, not an imposed order or a waterfall.
- The Standard says “what”; the TOGAF Series Guides explain “how”.
- PreliminaryPrepare the capability
- AScope and approve the vision
- B · C · DDescribe the four domains and their gaps
- E · FPrepare and finalize the transformation
- G · HGovern implementation and manage change
Requirements Management supports every phase. This thread explains their roles: iteration allows the work to be revisited.
What the ADM covers
The ADM is TOGAF’s proven and repeatable method for developing architectures. It is used to derive an Enterprise Architecture specific to the organization, starting from its business needs rather than from technology.
It is not limited to producing models: it brings together four families of activity, carried out in an iterative cycle that continuously alternates definition and realization. This cycle lets the enterprise transform itself in a controlled way, in step with its goals and the opportunities that arise.
- Establishing an architecture framework suited to the organization
- Developing architecture content
- Organizing the transition to the target
- Governing the realization of architectures
Ten elements, ten purposes
The ADM graphic includes the Preliminary Phase, eight phases named A to H and, at the center, requirements management. Each has a specific purpose that you must be able to match with its name: an essential reflex for the exam.
- Preliminary Phase: prepare and initiate the architecture capability, tailor the framework, define Architecture Principles
- Phase A, Architecture Vision: scope the initiative, identify stakeholders, build the vision, and get the go-ahead
- Phases B, C, and D: develop the Business, Data and Application (Phase C), then Technology architectures
- Phase E, Opportunities and Solutions: plan implementation and identify delivery vehicles
- Phase F, Migration Planning: finalize a detailed plan to move from Baseline to Target
- Phase G, Implementation Governance: oversee implementation from an architecture standpoint
- Phase H, Architecture Change Management: define how changes to the new architecture are managed
- Requirements Management: continuously manage requirements and route their changes through governance
Reading the graphic as a reference model
The circle of phases suggests a sequence, but the Standard is explicit: the ADM imposes no execution order for the phases and prescribes no waterfall approach. The graphic shows what has to be done to deliver architected solutions and which components interact, in the manner of a reference model.
The Standard’s phase descriptions mainly say what to do. To learn how to do it, practitioners turn to the TOGAF Series Guides. Finally, TOGAF recommends adapting the ADM to the enterprise’s needs and to different architecture styles, instead of applying it mechanically.
TERMS TO KNOW
The terms, in context.
- Architecture Development Method (ADM)
- TOGAF’s proven, repeatable method for developing and evolving an Enterprise Architecture.
- Requirements Management
- Continuous process, at the center of the cycle, that manages architecture requirements across all phases.
- Information Systems Architectures
- Name of Phase C, which covers Data Architecture and Application Architecture.
- TOGAF Series Guides
- Companion guides to the Standard that detail how to carry out the activities described.
- Reference model
- Model stating what must be done and which elements interact, without fixing a sequence.