Key takeaways
- G governs implementation and its changes.
- A contract establishes verifiable commitments.
- Compliance is assessed through results rather than statements of intent alone.
Commitments suited to context
Phase G, Implementation Governance, checks that implementation remains consistent with architecture and organizes change decisions. An Architecture Contract states commitments between relevant parties: responsibilities, expected quality, constraints, criteria, and monitoring arrangements. Contracts may concern architecture development or implementation; their content depends on context and the parties involved.
The Statement of Architecture Work commits architecture work from Phase A. During implementation, contracts, requirements, and approved descriptions establish the conditions to satisfy. Governance does not mean that architects personally perform every technical implementation task.
Check and address deviations
An Architecture Compliance Review examines conformance; a Compliance Assessment records findings and consequences. Reviews may consider hardware, software, data, security, operations, and implementation practices. Evidence should be proportionate to risk. In agile delivery, understandable guardrails and regular exchanges help prevent controls from being postponed until the project ends.
- Make criteria and responsibilities explicit.
- Identify deviations and change requests.
- Preserve decisions and compliance evidence within governance information.
TERMS TO KNOW
The terms, in context.
- Architecture Contract
- Formal commitments between parties involved in architecture work or implementation.
- Compliance Assessment
- Evaluation of conformance to architecture requirements.