This is another post about TOGAF. Check other posts in the series.

Objectives

Technology architecture is a description of the structure and interaction of the platform services, and logical and physical technology components. This phase is mostly familiar to Infrastructure Architects, like me, where I am providing high level and low level designs with hardware components, network and communications diagrams, etc. It is always worth to remember that technology is just an enabler for the data and application components developed in Phase C, which in turn enable the business components. It may seem tempting to start your whole design with technology, as we all are tech geeks. Unfortunately, it leads you into a trap, that is really easy to fall in – technology driven development, where the business value is left behind.

As with the other architecture development phases, Phase D identifies candidate Architecture Roadmap components to make the transition from Baseline to Target. The steps in Phase D are almost identical to the steps in Phases B and C – the main difference is that the focus is now on technology. This includes criteria or measurements – such as performance, maintainability, location and latency, or availability.

Approach

The steps for Technology Architecture are very similar to phase B and C – selecting reference models, viewpoints and tools, developing a baseline and then target architecture description, performing gap analysis and defining candidate roadmap components. After conducting a formal stakeholder review the architecture is finalized, and the Architecture Definition Document created.

Techniques

• Catalogs:
  • Technology Standards catalog.
  • Technology Portfolio catalog.
• Matrices:
  • Application/Technology matrix.
• Diagrams:
  • Environments and Locations diagram.
  • Platform Decomposition diagram.
  • Processing diagram.
  • Networked Computing/Hardware diagram.
  • Network and Communications diagram.

Inputs

As always, inputs comes from previous phases:

• Technology principles.
• Request for Architecture Work.
• Statement of Architecture Work.
• Architecture Vision.
• Relevant technical requirements from previous phases.
• Gap analysis results (from Data and Applications Architectures).
• Baseline Business, Data and Applications Architectures.
• Target Business, Data and Applications Architectures.
• Re-usable building blocks, from organization’s Enterprise Continuum.

Outputs

The main outputs are as follows:

• Baseline Technology Architecture.
• Target Technology Architecture.
• Technology Architecture components of an Architecture Roadmap.
• Viewpoints addressing key stakeholder concerns.

Reference Materials

Technology Architecture Documentation