Key takeaways
- Purpose: develop the Enterprise Architecture Capability.
- Two objectives: determine the desired capability, then establish it.
- The maturity target serves determination; tools, governance, and principles serve establishment.
- Architecture Principles are defined here, then confirmed in Phase A.
- Key outputs: organizational model, tailored framework, Request for Architecture Work.
Purpose: a capability, not a target
The purpose of the Preliminary Phase is to develop the Enterprise Architecture Capability. Here the ADM is used to architect the architecture practice itself, exactly as it would be used to architect a finance capability, a portfolio, or an organizational strategy.
The Study Guide summarizes its key activities, which cover context, objectives, governance, fit with what already exists, and team organization.
- Setting the context and business objectives of the architecture capability
- Establishing Architecture Governance
- Aligning with the other frameworks in place
- Customizing architecture content and the metamodel
- Establishing the team’s organization model and the process model
- Creating the capability roadmap, then establishing and evolving it
First objective: determine the desired capability
Before building anything, the organization clarifies what it expects from its architecture practice. Four activities serve this objective.
- Reviewing the organizational context for architecture
- Identifying and scoping the affected enterprise organizations
- Identifying established frameworks, methods, and processes that intersect the capability
- Setting a maturity target for the capability
Second objective: establish the capability
Once the desired capability is known, it must be put in place concretely, with people, processes, tools, and rules.
- Defining and setting up the organizational model for architecture
- Defining the detailed process and resources for governance
- Selecting and deploying tools that support the capability
- Defining the Architecture Principles
Inputs, steps, and outputs
FURTHER STUDY · APPLICATION DETAILS
The phase draws on the TOGAF Library and other frameworks, business strategies and plans, business principles, goals, and drivers, portfolio and project management frameworks, governance and legal frameworks, and any existing architecture capability or repository.
Its steps: scope the organizations concerned, confirm governance and support frameworks, define and establish the architecture team, identify and establish principles, tailor TOGAF and the other chosen frameworks, then plan tools and techniques. It produces the following outputs.
- Organizational Model for Enterprise Architecture
- Tailored Architecture Framework, with method, content, tools, and principles
- Initial Architecture Repository and governance framework
- Restatement of business principles, goals, and drivers
- Request for Architecture Work, which may trigger a cycle
TERMS TO KNOW
The terms, in context.
- Enterprise Architecture Capability
- The organization’s ability to run and sustain an enterprise architecture practice.
- Organizational Model for Enterprise Architecture
- Description of the roles, responsibilities, and scope of the architecture team.
- Tailored Architecture Framework
- Version of TOGAF adapted to the organization: method, content, tools, principles.
- Capability maturity target
- Maturity level targeted for the architecture capability.
- Architecture Principles
- General rules guiding architecture work, defined in the Preliminary Phase.