TOGAF 9

Released this week in San Diego, the long-awaited new version of TOGAF 9 - the Enterprise Architecture framework from the Open Group.

My first question was the extent to which TOGAF 9 addresses some of the SOA issues that have been overshadowing TOGAF 8 for over five years. I was particularly pleased to see the emphasis on Business-Led SOA (section 22.3).

In addition, there are some new or enhanced areas that look exciting.

• Architectural Partitioning- this abstracts away from the specific rows and columns of the Zachman matrix, while retaining the underlying principle of articulating different architectural views and domains in a systematic manner
  

• Business Capability Management - following the lead taken by the architectural frameworks of the defence world (DoDAF and MODAF), but applying a high-level concept of business capability to the civilian world. For example, the TOGAF guide points to the relevance of concept for governments in planning horizontal interoperability and shared services. Excellent.
  

• Content Framework. A generic reference framework for architectural deliverables.
  

• Enterprise Continuum. This concept was already present in TOGAF 8.1, but is now much clearer, for example in the way it talks about the general and the specific.
  

• Holistic Enterprise Change. This is mentioned as one of the benefits of TOGAF 9, but there is (as yet) little substance behind this. Clearly an area for further work.

This is clearly an enormous leap forward from TOGAF 8.1, but I haven't analyzed all the detail yet. Watch this space.

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Early Commentary

Industry Analysts

• Beth Gold-Bernstein
  
• Sandy Kemsley
• Brenda Michelson

Vendors

• Wayne Horkan (Sun)
• Nick Malik (Microsoft)
• Ron Tolido (CapGemini)
  
• Mike Walker (Microsoft)