TOGAF, short for The Open Group Architecture Framework, is methodology organizations use to develop their IT architecture. It was first established in 1995 and was derived from the Technical Architecture Framework initially created by the US Department of Defense. The framework is currently maintained by the Open Group Institute.

TOGAF is used to assist organizations in creating an IT infrastructure that fits their specific needs. Trained professionals familiar with TOGAF, work with different department leaders and help develop and execute an IT plan efficiently.

Why Use TOGAF®?

TOGAF is a comprehensive framework that organizations use to plan, design, implement, and manage their Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise Architecture is divided into four distinct areas – data, technology, application, and business – and heavily emphasizes the use of pre-existing and standardized products and technologies.

Companies that are in the process of implementing or planning to implement a wide-ranging technical infrastructure to support core business applications using open systems architecture can benefit from using TOGAF. TOGAF principles help in creating design and procurement specifications that promote open systems implementation while minimizing risk. TOGAF 9 training and certification are also valuable for individuals who want to work on Internet of Things (IoT) projects.

What Do TOGAF® Certified Professionals Do?

By becoming a TOGAF-certified professional, you would be able to simplify complex technical processes. Many developers and technical leads seek TOGAF certification to gain a better understanding of Enterprise Architecture principles and to increase their chances of advancing to architect and senior architect positions in their careers.

Enterprise Architects (EAs) are responsible for creating the company’s long-term IT strategy that aligns with the overall business strategy. They develop the roadmap for technology and applications, guided by the TOGAF standards for technology infrastructure. They make sure that the technology flow is well-defined and that all IT-enabled processes are smooth, from beginning to end.

Enterprise Architects are often working on various transformative programs across multiple portfolios, overseeing multiple meetings and projects, which may include:

• An Architecture strategy encompasses all the elements of IT architecture strategy, including assessing the present state, outlining the steps for transition, and defining the target path for the strategy.
• Architecture Review Boards are recurrent gatherings of stakeholders who review and give their approval to modifications of the existing architecture.
• Portfolio Management is the process of overseeing the overall health and performance of the IT infrastructure.
• Governance Committee is a group of stakeholders that are responsible for making decisions on standards, policies, and protocols, specifically in regard to security and requirements.
• Technology Lifecycles are the methodology used to plan and execute the changes and versioning of the different technologies in use within an organization.

In short, TOGAF-certified professionals make certain that an organization’s ideals and objectives are aligned with aspects of information technology. TOGAF-certified professionals tend to be in strategic management roles and are mostly sought after by big organizations. Moreover, TOGAF training and certification can also be beneficial for those who want to work on Internet of Things (IoT) projects.

Why Get a TOGAF® Certification?

Now let’s look at the reasons why should get TOGAF certification is important. Here are twelve reasons why you should consider getting TOGAF certification:

1. High demand for enterprise architects

   As the integration of IT technology and architecture become increasingly critical for an organization’s success, more and more companies are turning to TOGAF to plan and manage their enterprise architecture in the short term and long term.

2. Understand a common language 

   Individuals who have TOGAF certified share a standardized set of knowledge and expertise that allows them to better understand and fulfill business requirements.

3. Staged approach 

   The TOGAF Enterprise Architecture certification is divided into two levels: Foundation and Certified, which facilitates the learning journey for professionals. They can start by acquiring fundamental knowledge, then proceed to advance their understanding as they become more experienced.

4. TOGAF® is a budget-friendly certification

   The cost for obtaining the certification is relatively low, with the foundation exam being as low as $320, and for both exams, the total costs can be $495. Though if you choose to take training courses, the overall cost might increase, but still getting certified in TOGAF is an investment that can pay off in the long run.

5. Boost your salary and your career: 

   According to PayScale, the average salary for professionals who hold TOGAF certification starts at over $80,000.

6. Explore new Opportunities with a TOGAF® certification:

   Large enterprises place a high value on certifications due to the sense of standardization that it brings. Obtaining certification demonstrates to industries that you have undergone industry-recognized training and testing and are proficient in concepts that are relevant to your field. This trust in certifications can open up opportunities that might otherwise not be available to you. Large organizations like banks, hospitals, and other industries will have confidence in your abilities and consider you to be the right fit to solve their enterprise management issues.

7. Speak a Language Common to all Professionals in your Field: 

   A significant part of working as a TOGAF professional entails effective communication. The role includes designing and implementing an IT environment for an organization, which necessitates interacting with various professionals. Having a certification helps in speaking the same language as your peers in the industry, making it more comfortable to work in collaboration and gaining buy-in for your ideas.

8. Meet your Company’s needs better: 

   Organizations are always searching for ways to achieve the most outcomes with minimal resources, this is the core philosophy of TOGAF. TOGAF training imparts knowledge on how to do tasks in an efficient manner, which can lead to cost savings for the company and an increase in profit margins.

9. Work on your Managerial Skills: 

   TOGAF certification combines technical and management aspects of IT, making it an excellent stepping stone for individuals aiming for management positions. TOGAF professionals often handle designing IT infrastructure from an overall perspective, meaning they have to evaluate and balance different viewpoints while implementing a project. This experience gives them an edge when they pursue management roles.

10. Validate your skills: 

    TOGAF is a well-established certification, in the field of enterprise architecture there are not many other certifications that are as well-respected as TOGAF. Holding a TOGAF certification is a symbol of credibility and demonstrates that your skills and knowledge have been validated. Companies have trust in the abilities of those who hold a TOGAF certification.

11. Networking Opportunities: 

    As with any other certification, obtaining TOGAF certification allows you to network with other professionals in the field. You can form professional connections, stay up to date with industry trends, and exchange ideas that can contribute to the advancement of TOGAF principles.

12. No Prerequisites for taking the TOGAF® Certification Course:

    In contrast to other certifications, TOGAF does not have any prerequisites for taking the certification, making it easy for professionals who want to enter the field of IT architecture to get started after certification.

TOGAF® 9 Exam and Certifications Details

• There are no prerequisites to enroll in the TOGAF 9.1 Level 1 (Foundation) course, making it open for anyone to take it.
• To take the TOGAF 9.1 Level 2 exam, one must first complete the Level 1 course as a prerequisite.
• If you don’t pass the exam, you will have to wait 30 days before taking it again. And only 3 attempts per year are allowed.
• TOGAF 9 certification for individuals does not require to be renewed.

 

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What technical and financial analytics from enterprise architects should CIOs and decision-makers anticipate in 2022?

An increase in applications and an acceleration of transformation are currently affecting businesses.

Just looking at the application landscape, we can see that according to industry studies, the typical business uses 500 to 1,295 custom applications in addition to cloud services. According to IDC, the global corporate applications market will reach $241 billion in 2020, expanding 4.1% over the previous year.

Enterprises’ foundational architectures, which are composed of interactions between people, processes, and technology as well as usually physical assets (IoT), are also expanding and changing quickly.

Enterprise architects use IT cost calculations, technical data, and lifecycle analytics to keep CIOs and business units informed.

In addition to projections to help with planning for future business scenarios and digital transformation projects, they usually gave expenses and technical indicators for the current IT ecosystem.

In previous years, common analyses might have included:

• Counts of applications
• The total cost of application ownership (also ROI and NPV)
• Which procedures depend on a specific piece of software or equipment (dependency analysis)
• How long will technology be supported, and when will the business need to change or upgrade?

Although this basic data is helpful, decision-makers might still wish for more analysis or greater detail.

Business units want to know how much enhanced technical metrics (uptime, responsiveness), or improvements to procedures that are crucial for successful customer journeys, will result from revised processes or apps.

Enterprise Architecture Data Analysis in 2022

Data-driven enterprise architecture may now give forecasts more precision and assurance. To create the necessary KPIs on demand, architects and business users must construct calculations that quantitatively aggregate data across the architecture.

Data scientists and numerate business analysts are familiar with using operations like Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Min, Max, Average, and Count. Additionally, you can compute trends, and probabilities, attribute values and measure or predict the effects of business choices by using operations like Power, Log, and Atan.

EAs usually need to be prepared to produce reporting dashboards that incorporate the following in addition to diagrams and roadmaps:

Technology Cost Analysis:

• Cost estimates for outdated technology that are available on demand
• Using the links and interactions in the architecture, the total cost of a particular Business Capability or Process can be determined.
• Costs of the underlying infrastructure or resources used, for example, when estimating software, support, or external service costs based on business function EAs can determine the overall cost of ownership for outdated technologies (available as a pre-built cost simulation in tools such as ABACUS from Avolution)
• Costs of cloud migration
• Metrics for technical debt like the cost of compliance, complexity, and remediation

Lifecycles & Trends in Metrics

• Costs associated with applications and technology-related risks and vulnerabilities
• Information summaries for the technology and vendor lifecycles, such as the number of years till technology is retired
• Applications and technologies are analyzed for their business and technical fit in application portfolio assessments. For instance, do our applications use recognized technologies, and is the vendor still providing support for those technologies? (Resources like Technopedia can be used to get the fundamental data for this research.)
• Technical KPIs such as Resource Utilizations, Availability, and Response Time
• Trends in measurements like the rate of cost growth, the rate of increase in availability, or the rate of increase in reliability
• Predictions based on machine learning, such as using lists of apps, lifecycles, financial information, and other architectural content For instance, ABACUS from Avolution’s machine learning engine offers a quantitative forecast of the values that should go in any vacant cells. Machine learning will offer a TIME (Tolerate-Invest-Migrate-Eliminate) proposal for an “empty cell” application, which the architects might decide to accept, in exchange for a more comprehensive dataset.

Adding KPIs to Diagram-based Enterprise Architecture

• The future state and existing state are contrasted. Architects can use these and associated metrics to track transformation initiatives by using dashboard side-by-side comparisons of information or technical architectural designs and related catalogs.
• Risks related to particular processes (security ratings and risk ratings can be rolled up from technologies and applications to the processes they support)
• Connecting processes or tasks to capacities to compare tasks. For instance, architects can compute expenses or technical KPIs on processes as part of consolidation during a merger or acquisition to determine the efficiency of the two versions of the process.
• Process dependence analysis: highlighting areas of dependency on outmoded technology utilizing diagrams and Graph Views to see relationships.
• Displaying systems, interfaces, and APIs in process diagrams

Analysis by Architects of data from APIs

Architects can also provide stakeholder dashboards with data retrieved from CMBDs or other corporate data sources (through API queries). Compared to lists of facts, charts and interactive visualizations are usually clearer and simpler to understand.

• Architects can use applications like Postman to do API inquiries.
• Technopedia, a variety of CMDBs, and VMware products are examples of common API integrations.

 

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Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

How do you approach data integration?

According to a recent survey of enterprise and solution architects conducted by The Open Group, 62% of organizations are currently using or intend to use a particular data integration approach like data virtualization, data fabric, or data mesh. However, this is usually done on a case-by-case basis. How would you choose the best strategy for your company?

It’s not ideal to respond to questions like this “off the top of your head.” You want to know how the different strategies would function in your unique case. You wish to read case studies and explanations for them. You should speak with others who are experiencing the same issues to learn what they are doing or have done and how it relates to what you wish to do. You want to be able to keep to best practices and standards.

We have a clear understanding of the state of data integration in businesses today, as well as the challenges encountered by enterprise and solution architects, thanks to the Open Group survey. It serves as a foundation for the creation of best practices and standards that will direct architects in the future.

Data Integration’s Current Situation

Initially, a few members of The Open Group Architecture Forum filled out the survey. Members of the Association of Enterprise Architects then finished it after making slight changes in response to comments. There were almost 600 answers in all.

Many of the characteristics of the picture painted by the survey will likely be familiar to you. The majority of business leaders see data as a strategic corporate asset, yet business unit usage of data is usually specialized. Some data is on-premises and some are on the cloud. Overall, there are varying degrees of great, poor, and average data quality. There are usually “quality” data islands with varying management practices.

Respondents identified several improvement points:

• Governance and Stewardship (47%)
• Accelerating speed of discovery and delivery of data – e.g. DataOps (20%)
• Creating a data platform (18%)
• Self Service (7%)
• Systematically protecting data (3%)
• Culture, data and content modelling, silos, technical capabilities, and understanding value were also mentioned.

The data that needs to be merged originates from corporate departments and business lines. Most of it is in databases, but it’s also frequently in electronic documents and occasionally comes from real-time sensors or social media. The chief information officer (CIO) and business analysts, sometimes business departments, define the information requirements. Some data have quality qualities indicated, but not all of them. The information could include personally identifying data (PII).

17% of respondents had point-to-point interfaces between applications and services internally and externally, 16% had a line of business data silos, and 36% had a mix of these. About 29% of respondents had a corporate integrated information-sharing environment, such as data warehouses, data lakes, or archives. However, 62% of those respondents worked for companies that were already employing or intended to utilize a specific method of data integration, such as data virtualization (37%), data fabric (27%), or data mesh (23%).

Pain points

One open-ended question in the poll asked participants to list their top issues and concerns with data integration. The responses can be divided into five categories.

1. Lack of commitment from business units – The refusal of departments to disclose their data. They are unaware of the benefits to business from doing so. Finding the necessary data is challenging, and getting subject-matter specialists to explain it is challenging as well.
2.  Lack of commitment at corporate level – Enterprise data integration is not seen as an investment-worthy business project.
3. Different sources and toolboxes – Different data platforms, web services with various languages and operating systems, SaaS providers with different interfaces, and described as parts with different processing requirements all exist.
4. Conflicting data models – Enterprise data models are usually absent. The information is not uniform. Data from both old and new systems are included. It incorporates outside data that is either at odds with internal data or ontologically and taxonomically non-normalized.
5. There is no data management culture – There is usually no data governance task group and no data-specific policies. There are problems with data quality, such as duplicate records and conflicting data from several sources.

 

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The statement that the world runs on open standards of some description is not debatable. Every day, we interact with them, whether it be by using a kettle to boil water (electrical voltage standards first appeared in the early 20th century), reading a PDF document (an open standard made by Adobe® in 2008), using the World Wide Web (an open standard managed by the W3C® since 1994), or even holding a piece of US letter format paper (an ANSI® standard) or A4 paper (an international standard paper size since 1975).

We rely on well-known and widely accepted standards to make the different factors of our life work together, both in the physical world and the digital world. The increasing complexity of computer technology and the expectation that these technologies will interact with one another securely and predictably in the digital world, however, make standardization vital.

The unexpectedly short history of open standards

In essence, standards are necessary for the globe to address commercial issues. Solutions become more usable and easier to deploy through the process of creating a set of standards that benefit both users and providers.

One of the best examples of an open standard is the Single UNIX® Specification, although it wasn’t always that way. When a technology initially appears and is in its innovative and formative stage, there used to be a wide range of UNIX operating systems based on the original AT&T code base. This process is known as the emergence of different types.

UNIX technology, which was initially created at Bell Laboratories beginning in 1969, was rapidly embraced by corporations in the late 1970s to take advantage of the more strong and reasonably priced computing systems that were entering the market.

As a result, other vendors developed their own versions of the UNIX operating system, which sometimes became incompatible with one another. These differences caused unnecessary obstacles to the transfer of data and applications between systems.

Several businesses joined forces to unify the UNIX community by recognizing the importance of the UNIX platform and, more importantly, the requirement that all UNIX technology implementations be interoperable and compatible to support the massive ecosystem that has been built on top of UNIX systems.

Following an open and inclusive collaboration, the Single UNIX Specification—now the industry standard for UNIX systems—was produced. The Single UNIX Specification, a set of agreed-upon API definitions for the UNIX system, has been kept in the trust of the industry by The Open Group since 1994.

To maintain and advance the standard, The Open Group now works closely with the UNIX community. The standard documentation must be made available online for free, test tools must be provided, the UNIX and POSIX™ certification programs must be managed, and the standard documentation must be made available for reuse in open source projects.

Open standards’ enduring future

It’s important to remember the value of open standards for the industry, the progress we’ve made toward interoperability of the systems we rely on, and how far we still have to go after more than 25 years since the Single UNIX Specification was created.

The 28-year history of the UNIX operating system seems to be the best proof of the effectiveness and power of standards. The UNIX platform serves as an example of the benefits of transparency because, as a truly open standard, it enables everyone to concentrate on fostering innovation inside the platform’s ecosystem rather than dealing with competing at the level of the core operating system.

The open standard facilitates software portability, gives integrators options for solution building blocks, and frees up customers to concentrate on business concerns rather than integration challenges.

Open standards free up businesses from having to fight with competition about how systems should function, providing them more time and space to concentrate on creating and developing the systems as they are.

The main advantages, however, come after the vendors: open standards allow for efficient internal and external corporate communication and collaboration. They imply that a professional’s accumulated knowledge can be applied to any industry or area in which they choose to operate. They imply that organizations are not prevented from moving toward better, more effective working practices by a lack of information resources.

To even begin the meaningful work of delivering value from that technology, companies would continuously need to negotiate between the walled gardens of various technology providers, reskilling and rehiring staff members as they went.

It’s a situation we should never find ourselves in, and the more complicated the world is and the more difficult it is to conduct business, the more important it is to avoid it.

The Open Group, for instance, is no longer only the keeper of the UNIX platform. The Open Process Automation™ Forum and the Open Footprint™ Forum are two of the initiatives managed by The Open Group that are creating standard methods for gathering and evaluating environmental data, such as emissions, and automating manufacturing, respectively.

In other words, the open standards community will be at the front of collaboration for innovation as we address the big concerns of the future, such as AI and climate change.

 

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Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

TOGAF, or The Open Group Architecture Framework, is a brand name in corporate architecture, as well as business and digital transformation. As the world’s most common enterprise architectural framework, it has been used to enable strategic transformation and optimization across a wide range of sectors, industries, and locations. As more organizations explore digitization, the clarity and guidance afforded by TOGAF architectures have proven useful.

TOGAF 10 is the most recent version of the framework. With TOGAF 9.2 launched in 2018 and 9.1 released nine years prior, many practitioners were hoping for a significant improvement. However, changes surrounding the framework, as well as EA in general, were frequently debated in The Open Group Architectural Forum during this time. As such, TOGAF 10 is the sum of several years of expertise, conversation, and first-hand experience from businesses and practitioners at the forefront of EA.

“The next decade of technology and commercial challenges will need businesses to be more agile, robust, and adaptable than ever, and that will make a clear approach to architecture more vital than ever,” said Steve Nunn, President, and CEO of The Open Group. “I am proud of what The Open Group Architecture Forum has accomplished for this release, which makes the TOGAF framework substantially more accessible by even more enterprises while keeping the framework’s key goals of consistency, openness, and efficiency.”

The Open Group outlined numerous essential goals in more depth about the framework, including:

• Easier navigation
• More straightforward implementation
• Simpler customization for individual organizations
• Greater alignment with Agile

So, what precisely has changed in TOGAF 10? In this article, we answer the most common questions about the next phase in EA.

Is the Core Framework Different?

The TOGAF ADM, or ‘Architectural Development Method,’ is at the heart of the system. This is the foundation of TOGAF, and it has not changed with the updated framework.

TOGAF 10 differs from previous versions in that it is divided into two sections: TOGAF Fundamental Content and TOGAF Series Guides.

What is TOGAF Basic Content?

The TOGAF Fundamental Content serves as the framework’s skeleton. It comprises an introduction and implementation tips, as well as specifics on:

• The Architectural Development Method
• ADM techniques
• Applying the ADM
• Architecture content
• EA capability and governance

Those who have studied and used TOGAF 9.2 will recognize this section of the framework.

What are the TOGAF Series Guides?

The guides enhance the core framework by delving into more particular elements of architecture, such as:

• Business architecture
• Security architecture
• Information  architecture
• Enterprise architecture
• Technology architecture
• Digital architecture

Other tutorials cover subjects such as Agile, how to adapt the ADM, MSA, and SOA designs, and more.

This format, most importantly, gives a new level of versatility to TOGAF. Practitioners can refer to and apply the Series Guides as needed based on elements such as organizational structure, goals, and settings.

The Open Group has also stated that it will create and update guidelines in the future, thereby growing the TOGAF body of knowledge and making the framework more useful and adaptable.

Is TOGAF 10 Simple to Use?

The notion of deploying TOGAF for the first time can be intimidating given the scope of corporate architecture. Because of this complexity, it can be difficult to gain support for EA, particularly from stakeholders and managers who are unfamiliar with the concept. Making TOGAF 10 easy to use and implement was one of The Open Group’s top aims during its development. This is true not only for practicing architects, but also for organizations of different sizes from various industries, locations, and sectors.

This was accomplished through the modular nature of the new framework. This makes it easier to navigate the TOGAF Library and obtain information on how to implement and alter the framework. Even the Series Guides include modular lists that outline what they cover in detail.

The Open Group has also simplified the framework by deleting a significant amount of unnecessary content. Importantly, TOGAF’s How-To documentation has been enhanced, with a stronger emphasis on implementation.

Is TOGAF 10 Agile?

Agile approaches and styles of working have grown in popularity in recent years. Given the importance of the relationship between enterprise architects and technological or information technology managers, understanding Agile can be important for EA. This information is becoming increasingly important for TOGAF users and practitioner organizations since Agile methods of working are now being applied to project management, strategy, organizational structure, and other aspects of the business.

As a result, how integrating corporate architecture with TOGAF became a primary priority during the development of TOGAF 10. The Series Guides provide distinct and clear instructions on how to work in Agile environments and discuss Agile flexibility with technical leads.

TOGAF 10: How Does It Help Digital Transformation?

Enterprise architecture has long been seen as a valuable instrument for digital transformation. Qualified and experienced individuals may design architectures that clearly show how an organization must change to accomplish strategic goals. This is especially true for digital transformation efforts, and both the TOGAF 9.2 framework and The Open Group Architecture Forum provide extensive resources to assist with this.

TOGAF 10 will surely be a significant advancement for businesses engaged in enterprise digital transformation. It places a major emphasis on digital components such as technological and digital architecture. Because many businesses must still handle legacy systems and other issues that can hamper digitization, the variability in its approach also facilitates slow and hybrid changes. The documentation for TOGAF has also been revised to incorporate digital features of domains such as Security Architecture.

Another important aspect is the framework’s emphasis on Agile. Agile methods of working have grown in favor, particularly in the digital and IT sectors. Not only can TOGAF 10 practitioners confidently communicate with managers in these domains, but they can also accommodate and even benefit from Agile environments.

Those who are already enabling digital transformation with TOGAF 9.2 will not need to disrupt their efforts because the core of TOGAF 10 is similar to the previous framework. However, the most recent TOGAF 10 recommended practices will definitely be valuable in assisting with digitalization.

Getting Certified in TOGAF 10

The Open Group has not yet given information on how to get TOGAF 10 certified. There is no indication that the current certification method will alter, nor that existing TOGAF certifications would become invalid.

Of course, this brings up the question of what is the best way to learn TOGAF.

TOGAF 9.2 is recommended for newcomers to study first. The current TOGAF 10 material may not be user-friendly for newbies, but because the underlying foundation is mostly the same, transitioning, later on, will be simple. There are also numerous free TOGAF tools available to help practitioners comprehend the new framework.

Existing practitioners will not need to change their EA techniques now that TOGAF 10 is available. In reality, by familiarizing themselves with the TOGAF Series Guides, they should find it simple to use the new framework. The Open Group presently has no information about bridging certification.

Studying TOGAF with CourseMonster

CourseMonster is a TOGAF online training provider. Our in-house e-learning professionals collaborate with business architecture experts to deliver courses that prepare candidates to pass their tests and become competent TOGAF practitioners.

Our courses include a variety of interesting online training elements, such as instructor-led videos, gamified quizzes, and free TOGAF whitepapers. Our support staff is available to walk candidates through course material, which may be accessed at any time and from any web-enabled device.

 

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Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com

IT departments are in great demand today. Businesses in the digital world have become dependent on IT to be competitive. Traditional IT departments, on the other hand, have their roots in skills such as development or operations and are not equipped to deal with a business and technology environment that is attempting to fast adapt to a continuously changing marketplace. As a result, many IT departments today may be on the point of collapse.

IT departments used to be in charge of technology adoption in support of the business. When a new technology, such as departmental servers, was developed, it took a long time for enterprises to adopt it, and even longer for them to become reliant on it. However, once a company adopted the technology, it became subject to business rules—expectations and parameters for reliability, maintenance, and upgrades that kept the technology updated and allowed the business it supported to be competitive.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as IT became increasingly established in enterprises, IT systems grew in size and complexity as technology companies raced to stay up with market forces. IT’s purpose at major enterprises, in particular, became to maintain large infrastructures, which required small armies of IT employees to maintain.

A variety of factors have come together to change that. Most businesses now conduct their business operations digitally, which Constellation Research analyst Andy Mulholland refers to as “Front Office Digital Business.” Technology-as-a-service models have changed how technologies and applications are delivered and supported, with support and upgrades provided by outsourced vendors rather than in-house staff. An IT department may not even be required with Cloud models. With the swipe of a credit card, entrepreneurs can launch a firm and have all of the technology they require at their fingertips, hosted remotely on the Cloud.

The Gap Between IT and Business

Although the distance between IT and business is narrowing, there is still a divide in how IT is managed. Most IT departments nowadays are structured in a way that keeps them connected to their technological roots. This is due, in part, to the fact that IT departments are still led by technologists and engineers whose core skills are in the challenge (and excitement) of developing new technologies. Not every skilled engineer makes a successful businessperson, yet in most businesses, employees who are good at their jobs are typically promoted to management, whether or not they are ready. The Peter Principle is an issue that affects many businesses, not just IT.

What has happened is that traditionally, IT departments have not been run as businesses. Despite IT’s involvement in how the rest of the organization is conducted, good business models for how IT should be run have been patchy or slow to evolve. Although some standards have been developed as guides for how different parts of IT should be run (for example, COBIT for governance, ITIL for service management, and TOGAF®, an Open Group standard, for architecture), no overarching standard has been developed that encompasses how to holistically manage all of IT, from systems administration to development to management through governance, and, of course, staffing. Despite its advancements, information technology has yet to become a well-oiled business machine.

Today’s business—and technological—climate is not the same as it was when companies required three years to replace their software. In today’s world, everything happens almost instantly. Cloud computing, Big Data, social media, smartphones, and the Internet of Things are transforming the IT world. Every day, new technical talents and approaches emerge. Although Java and C remain the most popular programming languages, new languages such as Pig and Hive develop daily, as do new development methodologies such as Scrum, Agile, and DevOps.

The Risks of IT Business as Usual

With these different pressures affecting IT, departments will either need to change and adopt a more effective IT management strategy, or they will face some approaching chaos that will delay their businesses.

Companies will be unable to mobilize fast for the digital age unless they have an effective IT management approach. Even a basic inability to use data can lead to problems such as investing in a product prototype that customers aren’t interested in. These are errors that most businesses cannot afford to make these days.

Having a broader understanding of what IT performs assists the department to make better decisions. How can you know what will match your organization’s business goals with technology and development trends shifting so quickly? You want to capitalize on trends or technologies that are beneficial to the organization while ignoring those that are not.

One of the basic concepts of DevOps, for example, is to match the development phase with the release and operation of the software. To assess whether or not this technique will work for your company, you must first understand its operational model. Having a sense of that also allows IT to decide whether it is worthwhile to invest in training, hiring employees trained in those procedures, or purchasing new technologies that will allow you to adopt the model.

Companies that lack that management perspective may be vulnerable to the vagaries of technical advancement as well as current IT fads. If you don’t know what’s valuable to your company, you risk pursuing every new craze that appears. There’s nothing worse for an IT guy than showing up to the management meeting every month and saying you’re trying yet another fresh way to solve an issue that never seems to get solved. People in business will not respond to it, and they will wonder if you know what you’re doing. IT must be decisive and make sound decisions.

These difficulties affect not only the IT department but also company operations. Inefficient IT departments will not know whether to invest in the right technology, and they may miss out on working with new technologies that could help the company. Without a framework to design how technology integrates into the business, you could wind up with outstanding IT bows and arrows but be machine-gunned when you walk out into the competitive world.

The other side of the issue is cost and efficiency—if the entire IT department isn’t functioning well, you’ll end up spending too much money on problems, which will divert funds away from other elements of the business that can keep the organization competitive. Failure to manage IT can result in competitive loss across multiple aspects of a business.

A Brand-New Business Model

To assist prevent the implications of not running IT more like a business, industry experts such as Accenture, Achmea, AT&T, HP IT, ING Bank, Munich RE, PwC, Royal Dutch Shell, and the University of South Florida recently created a collaboration to explore how to better run IT as a company. With billions of dollars invested in IT each year, these organizations knew that to compete, their expenditures had to be done prudently and show measurable outcomes.

The Open Group IT4IT™ Forum, which issued a Snapshot of its proposed Reference Architecture for running IT more like a business in November, is the outcome of their efforts. The Reference Architecture is intended to act as an IT operational model, addressing the “missing link” that earlier IT-function-specific models failed to address. The paradigm enables IT to attain the same business, discipline, predictability, and efficiency levels as other business activities.

The Snapshot comprises a four-phase Value Chain for IT, which serves as an operational model for an IT business as well as a description of how value may be added at each stage of the IT process. The Snapshot contains technical models for IT tools that businesses can use, whether for systems monitoring, release monitoring, or IT point solutions, in addition to suggested best practices for delivery. Giving IT tools advice will allow them to become more interoperable, allowing them to communicate information at the appropriate place and right time. Also, it will enable greater control of information flow across various sectors of the business via the IT shop, saving IT departments the time and effort of aggregating tools or cobbling together their own tools and solutions. The Reference Architecture also includes staffing guideline models.

Why is IT4IT important now? Digitalization cannot be slowed, especially in an era of cloud computing, big data, and the inevitable Internet of Things. An IT4IT Reference Architecture provides more than simply best practices for IT; it places IT within the framework of a business model that allows IT to be a contributing component of an enterprise, giving a path for digital enterprises to compete and thrive in the years ahead.

 

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