At least three views of business architecture (TOGAF)

In a previous post, I looked at the five viewpoints of business architecture according to the OMG. In this post, I shall look at the architectural modelling viewpoints indicated in TOGAF 9.1. (Section 8.2). In TOGAF, these viewpoints are presented more as suggestions rather than as a recommended set.

1	Hierarchical Activity Models (also called Business Process Models)	Functions, data/information exchanges, activities, inputs, controls, outputs, mechanisms/resources, business rules	General
2	Use Case Models	Business processes, system functions, use case, actor,	General
3	Business Class Models	Information (entities and implementation classes, attributes and relationships), information behaviours	General
4	Node Connectivity Diagram	Nodes (role, org unit, location, facility), information transfer/flow	Defence sector
5	Information Exchange Matrix	Information Exchange	Defence sector
6	Resource-Event-Agent Model	Resources (goods, services or money), Event (transactions and agreements), Agent (people and organizations)	Accounting domain

According to TOGAF, "a variety of modeling tools and techniques may be employed, if deemed appropriate". Items 1-3 are offered as general examples.

Items 4 and 5 are described as follows. "Although originally developed for use in the Defense sector, these models are finding increasing use in other sectors of government, and may also be considered for use in non-government environments."

Item 6 is included in a list of "business models relevant to common high-level business domains". Whereas the other members of the list are specific industry models, the Resource-Event-Agent (REA) Model appears to be a modelling viewpoint - indeed Wikipedia calls it an ontology. TOGAF asserts that the REA model "has proved so useful for better understanding of business processes that it has become one of the major modeling frameworks for both traditional enterprises and e-Commerce systems", but this assertion is contradicted by Wikipedia which suggests that its main influence has been in the classroom and in the development of such standards as ebXML.

Wikipedia: Resources, events, agents (accounting model)


TOGAF's set of viewpoints strongly emphasizes the information processing and information exchange elements of business architecture, while neglecting a number of other elements that are included in the OMG five viewpoints or my own six viewpoints.

TOGAF lists a number of additional outputs from the business architecture work, which go beyond the modelling viewpoints it has specified. These are as follows.

Catalogs

Organization/Actor catalog, Driver/Goal/Objective catalog, Role catalog, Business Service/Function catalog, Location catalog, Process/Event/Control/Product catalog, Contract/Measure catalog

Matrixes

Business Interaction matrix, Actor/Role matrix

Diagrams 

Business Footprint diagram, Business Service/Information diagram, Functional Decomposition diagram, Product Lifecycle diagram, Goal/Objective/Service diagram, Use-case diagram, Organization Decomposition diagram, Process Flow diagram, Event diagram

Finally, TOGAF includes Business Scenarios, but I think this probably counts more as a requirements gathering technique than an architectural viewpoint.

I should welcome comments, especially from people who are familiar with TOGAF in practice.