This chapter will help you understand the TOGAF Reference Models.
Key Points Explained
This chapter will help you to answer the following questions:
• What is the TOGAF Technical Reference Model?
• What are the characteristics of a Foundation Architecture?
• What are the basic concepts of the Integrated Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM)?
• What is the relationship of the III-RM to the concept of Boundaryless Information Flow?
(Syllabus Reference: Unit 12, Learning Outcome 1: You should be able to explain the role of the TRM as a Foundation Architecture.)
A Foundation Architecture is an architecture of building blocks and corresponding standards that supports all the Common Systems Architectures, and, therefore, the complete computing environment. A Foundation Architecture is positioned at the left-hand side of the Enterprise Continuum.
The TOGAF standard includes the Technical Reference Model (TRM) as its Foundation Architecture. The ADM explains how to develop from this generic foundation architecture to an enterprise-specific one. The TOGAF TRM describes a fundamental architecture upon which other, more specific, architectures can be based.
(Syllabus Reference: Unit 12, Learning Outcome 2: You should be able to describe the characteristics of a Foundation Architecture.)
Major characteristics of a Foundation Architecture include the following:
• It reflects general computing requirements.
• It reflects general building blocks.
• It defines technology standards for implementing these building blocks.
• It provides direction for products and services.
• It reflects the function of a complete, robust computing environment that can be used as a foundation.
• It provides open system standards, directions, and recommendations.
• It reflects directions and strategies.
The TRM has two main components:
1. A taxonomy that defines terminology, and provides a coherent description of the components and conceptual structure of an information system
2. A model, with an associated TRM graphic, that provides a visual representation of the taxonomy, as an aid to understanding
Figure 27 shows the high-level model of the TRM. The three main parts of the TRM (Application Software, Application Platform, and Communications Infrastructure) are connected by two interfaces (Application Platform Interface and Communications Infrastructure Interface).
Figure 27: Technical Reference Model – High-Level Model View
Figure 28 shows the detail of the TRM. This highlights the platform service categories (these are covered in detail in the TOGAF 9 Level 2 syllabus) together with the external environment entities, such as applications and Communications Infrastructure.
Figure 28: Detailed Technical Reference Model (Showing Service Categories)
(Syllabus Reference: Unit 12, Learning Outcome 3: You should be able to briefly explain the basic concepts of the III-RM.)
With the emergence of Internet-based technologies in recent years, for many organizations the main focus of attention, and the main return on investment in architecture effort, has shifted from the Application Platform space, modeled by the TRM, to the Application Software space. In response to this The Open Group developed the Integrated Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM).
The III-RM is a reference model that focuses on the Application Software space, and is a “Common Systems Architecture” in Enterprise Continuum terms. The III-RM is a subset of the TOGAF TRM in terms of its overall scope, but it also expands certain parts of the TRM – in particular, the business applications and infrastructure applications parts – in order to provide help in addressing one of the key challenges facing the enterprise architect today: the need to design an integrated information infrastructure to enable Boundaryless Information Flow. These concepts are explained in detail below.
Like the TOGAF TRM, the III-RM has two main components:
1. A taxonomy, which defines terminology, and provides a coherent description of the components and conceptual structure of an integrated information infrastructure
2. An associated III-RM graphic, which provides a visual representation of the taxonomy, and the inter-relationship of the components, as an aid to understanding
Figure 29: III-RM High-Level View
It is fundamentally an Application Architecture reference model – a model of the application components and application services software essential for an integrated information infrastructure. It includes information provider and consumer applications, as well as brokering applications. Further detail is covered in the TOGAF 9 Certified Syllabus.
III-RM
The Open Group has documented the business scenario that led to the creation of the Integrated Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM) in the Interoperable Enterprise Business Scenario (Doc. No. K022). This is freely available for download from the Business Scenarios section of The Open Group online bookstore at www.opengroup.org/bookstore.
(Syllabus Reference: Unit 12, Learning Outcome 4: You should be able to briefly explain the relationship of the III-RM to the concept of Boundaryless Information Flow.)
The Boundaryless Information Flow problem space is one that is shared by many customer members of The Open Group, and by many similar organizations worldwide. It is essentially the problem of getting information to the right people at the right time in a secure, reliable manner, in order to support the operations that are core to the extended enterprise.
In General Electric, Jack Welch invented the term “the Boundaryless Organization”, not to imply that there are no boundaries, but that they should be made permeable.
Creating organizational structures that enabled each individual department to operate at maximum efficiency was for a long time accepted as the best approach to managing a large enterprise. Among other benefits, this approach fostered the development of specialist skills in staff, who could apply those skills to specific aspects of an overall activity (such as a manufacturing process), in order to accomplish the tasks involved better, faster, and cheaper. As each overall activity progressed through the organization, passing from department to department (for example, from Design to Production to Sales), each department would take inputs from the previous department in the process, apply its own business processes to the activity, and send its output to the next department in line.
In today’s world where speed, flexibility, and responsiveness to changing markets make the difference between success and failure, this method of working is no longer appropriate. Organizations have been trying for some time to overcome the limitations imposed by traditional organization structures. Many business process re-engineering efforts have been undertaken and abandoned because they were too ambitious, while others cost far more in both time and money than originally intended.
However, organizations today recognize that they need not abandon functional or departmental organization altogether. They can enable the right people to come together in cross-functional teams so that all the skills, knowledge, and expertise can be brought to bear on any specific problem or business opportunity.
But this in turn poses its own challenges. CIOs are under enormous pressure to provide access to information to each cross-functional team on an as-required basis, and yet the sources of this data can be numerous and the volumes huge.
Even worse, the IT systems, which have been built over a period of 20 or 30 years at a cost of many billions of dollars, and are not about to be thrown out or replaced wholesale, were built for each functional department. So although it may be possible to get people to work together effectively (no minor achievement in itself), the IT systems they use are designed to support the old-style thinking. The IT systems in place today do not allow for information to flow in support of the boundaryless organization. When they do, then we will have Boundaryless Information Flow.
The Open Group’s Interoperable Enterprise Business Scenario, originally published in 2001, crystallizes this need for Boundaryless Information Flow and describes the way in which this need drives IT customers’ deployment of their information infrastructure.
In this scenario, the customer’s problem statement says that the customer enterprise could gain significant operational efficiencies and improve the many different business processes of the enterprise – both internal processes, and those spanning the key interactions with suppliers, customers, and partners – if only it could provide staff with:
• Integrated information so that different and potentially conflicting pieces of information are not distributed throughout different systems
• Integrated access to that information so that staff can access all the information they need and have a right to, through one convenient interface
The infrastructure that enables this vision is termed the “integrated information infrastructure”.
One of the key challenges for the architect in today’s enterprise is to work out, and then communicate to senior management, how far technologies such as web services, application integration services, etc. can go toward achieving an integrated information infrastructure, and realizing the vision of Boundaryless Information Flow, in the enterprise concerned.
The Open Group’s follow-up analysis of the Interoperable Enterprise Business Scenario has resulted in the development of an integrated information infrastructure model (the III-RM), which depicts the major components required to address the Boundaryless Information Flow problem space, and can help the architect in this task.
The III-RM thus provides insights related to customer needs for Boundaryless Information Flow in enterprise environments. The model also points to rules and standards to assist in leveraging solutions and products within the value chain.
Boundaryless Information Flow
1. A trademark of The Open Group.
2. A shorthand representation of “access to integrated information to support business process improvements” representing a desired state of an enterprise’s infrastructure specific to the business needs of the organization. An infrastructure that provides Boundaryless Information Flow has open standard components that provide services in a customer’s extended enterprise that:
• Combine multiple sources of information
• Securely deliver the information whenever and wherever it is needed, in the right context for the people or systems using that information
[Source: TOGAF 9 Part I: Introduction, Chapter 3 (Definitions)]
The TOGAF Technical Reference Model provides a model and core taxonomy of generic platform services. In summary:
• It is a Foundation Architecture.
• It can be used to build any system architecture.
• A taxonomy defines consistent terminology.
The III-RM is a model of the key components for developing, managing, and operating an integrated information infrastructure. In summary:
• It is an example of a Common Systems Architecture.
• The focus is on applications rather than the platform.
• It has two main components: a taxonomy and an associated graphic.
• A key driver for development of the model is the need for Boundaryless Information Flow; getting information to the right people at the right time in a secure, reliable, and timely manner.
Q1: Which of the following is not a characteristic of the TOGAF Foundation Architecture?
A. It reflects general building blocks.
B. It defines open standards for building blocks implementation.
C. It provides open systems standards.
D. It provides guidelines for testing collections of systems.
E. It reflects general computing requirements.
Q2: Which of the following best describes the purpose of the TRM?
A. To provide a framework for IT governance
B. To provide a visual model, terminology, and coherent description of components and structure of an information system
C. To provide a method for architecture development
D. To provide a system engineering viewpoint on a possible solution
Q3: Where is the TOGAF Technical Reference Model positioned in terms of the Enterprise Continuum?
A. The left-hand side of the Architecture Continuum
B. The right-hand side of the Architecture Continuum
C. The left-hand side of the Solutions Continuum
D. The right-hand side of the Solutions Continuum
Q4: Which of the following architecture domains does the III-RM describe?
A. Business
B. Data
C. Application
D. Technology
Q5: How is the III-RM classified in terms of the Enterprise Continuum?
A. Industry Solution
B. Foundation Architecture
C. Common Systems Architecture
D. Common Systems Solution
Q6: Which of the following was a key driver for the development of the III-RM?
A. Boundaryless Information Flow
B. Clinger-Cohen
C. PRINCE2
D. Sarbanes-Oxley
The following are recommended sources of further information for this chapter:
• TOGAF 9 Part VI: TOGAF Reference Models
