Defining Requirement – the TOGAF way

Posted by Udayan Banerjee on February 9, 2011 · 3 Comments 

If you are new to TOGAF, you may be wondering how this process is different from what you do in a typical “Requirement Analysis” phase of software development. Once I tell you that the many of the techniques recommended in TOGAF are what you are already using, like UML modeling techniques like Activity Models, Use-Case Models and Class Models, you may think why bother with TOGAF?

What you really do differently in TOGAF is that you take a much wider perspective of the requirement. There are three important things that you need to do:

1. Explicitly document the current state, the expected future state and identify the gap
2. Assess impact of the change on other projects and other organizational initiatives
3. State the change from the perspective (viewpoint) of different stakeholders and get their buy in

While doing this, you need to keep in mind the following:

1. Are you adhering to all the relevant organizational standards & guidelines?
2. Have you made an explicit attempt of reuse?

Steps for Defining the Requirement

We had discussed the following lists (without the 3 steps in “Define Requirement”) in my earlier posts –
What is TOGAF? & Planning a project.

1. Tailor TOGAF to suit your need
   
2. Define scope of work and prepare plan for rollout
   1. Define the scope and get approval from the sponsor
      
   2. Define requirement in terms of how the business process will change, what data, application and technical infrastructure is required for accomplishing the work
      1. What should the new business process be?
         
      2. What application & data do we need to support the changed process?
         
      3. What technology infrastructure do we require to implement the change?
         
   3. Select a suitable solution and make the implementation plan
      
3. Oversee development and implementation
   
4. Manage post-implementation change
   

Here are some of the terminologies used in TOGAF and their meaning as used in TOGAF.

View & Viewpoint

• View = What you see or what a stakeholder sees
• Viewpoint = Model or description of the information contained in a view

Baseline, Target & Gap

• Baseline = Where you are now
• Target = Where you want to be
• Gap = What needs to change

Deliverable & Artifact

• Deliverable = Contractually specified document – formally reviewed, agreed, and signed off by the stakeholders
• Artifact = Architecture from a specific viewpoint – can be a Catalog, a Matrix or a Diagram

What artifacts do you may produce?

	Catalog	Matrix	Diagram
Business Architecture	Organization/Actor catalog Driver/Goal/Objective catalog Role catalog Business Service/Function catalog Location catalog Process/Event/Control/Product catalog Contract/Measure catalog	Business Interaction matrix Actor/Role matrix	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
Data Architecture	Data Entity/Data Component catalog	Data Entity/Business Function matrix System/Data matrix	Class diagram Data Dissemination diagram Data Lifecycle diagram Data Security diagram Data Migration diagram Class Hierarchy diagram
Application Architecture	Application Portfolio catalog Interface catalog	System/Organization matrix Role/System matrix Application Interaction matrix System/Function matrix	Application Communication diagram Application and User Location diagram System Use-Case diagram Enterprise Manageability diagram Process/System Realization diagram Software Engineering diagram Application Migration diagram Software Distribution diagram
Technology Architecture	Technology Standards catalog Technology Portfolio catalog	System/Technology matrix	Environments and Locations diagram Platform Decomposition diagram Processing diagram Networked Computing/Hardware diagram Communications Engineering diagram

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Filed under Architecture, TOGAF · Tagged with Application Architecture, Artifact, Business Architecture, Data Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, NIIT Technologies, Requirement Management, Technology Architecture, TOGAF, Viewpoint