One of the goals of The Open Group's Architecture Forum is to provide a forum within which both customer and vendor organizations can exchange feedback and experience in the use of TOGAF.
All of this feedback is considered in the on-going evolution of TOGAF within the Architecture Forum, and indeed much of it has already been incorporated in this current version of TOGAF.
It is important to emphasise that no case study can provide a complete blueprint for how another organization should go about using TOGAF. All organizations are different, and each organization should understand what TOGAF has to offer, and adopt and adapt the parts that are useful for its needs.
Nevertheless, over the years of its existence as an architectural framework, TOGAF has been used by a variety organizations around the world in major architecture developments, both in its entirety, and in an adapted form.
It is hoped that the case studies presented here will provide useful guidance to organizations intending to use TOGAF or considering using it to develop an enterprise IT architecture.
The formats of the case studies vary, between normal descriptive text, through presentations, and in some cases video.
The following case studies show TOGAF in use in a variety of situations.
The Dairy Farm Group case study illustrates extensive use of TOGAF as the basis of an enterprise-wide IT architecture to integrate many disparate business units.
The Dairy Farm Group (DFG) is a holding company in the Retail sector. It has a very strong presence in the Asia / Pacific region, and is the 71st largest retailing company world wide.
DFG has a corporate goal to be the largest, most successful retailer in Asia / Pacific in its chosen markets. To support this goal, DFG has restructured from a federation to a unified group of companies, with a single corporate purpose business focus, and a single IT infrastructure.
The DFG Technical Program Architecture Group (TAPG) was chartered to develop a Technical Architecture for DFG, and chose TOGAF and its supporting methodology as the basis. Using TOGAF, the TAPG was able, in a very short period of time, from July through October 1998, to develop a world class technical architecture.
It was particularly helpful to be able to point key suppliers to a published version of TOGAF, so that they could see an explanation of the methodology and refer to the TOGAF Standards Information Base.
Formats:
An more recent update (2001) is also available.
The UK Department of Social Security (DSS) is responsible for the development, maintenance and delivery of the United Kingdom's social security programme. It utilises the largest civilian computer operation in Europe.
The DSS case study illustrates the use of TOGAF, both as the basis of a new architectural framework, and as a key tool in managing the outsourcing of service delivery, in that vendors and integrators were required to use TOGAF as the basis for their tenders, and to use it subsequently in the on-going management of the IT architecture.
Litton PRC chose the TOGAF Architecture Development Method as a basis for its revamped internal Architecture Design Process. The Litton PRC case study (PDF) reviews the use of TOGAF within Litton PRC, and explains why TOGAF was chosen.
Also, the JEDMICS case study illustrates the early stages of the Architecture Development Method in use on a specific project.
The UK Ministry of Defence in its case study shows how the Architecture Development Methodology can be used to develop an organization-specific architectural framework, allowing independent operating divisions to develop their own architectures while ensuring that they share a common core operating environment.
The UK National Health Service is testing TOGAF for use as a standard framework for IT architectures.
It is hoped to provide a formal case study in the near future, explaining the use of TOGAF in the NHS. In the interim, contact information can be found on the NHS IM&T web site.
NATO's ACEACCIS example illustrates the use of architecture views in architecture development.
The UK Police IT Organization (PITO) used TOGAF as the basis for the Technical Architecture for its National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS).
The NSPIS case study includes a comprehensive approach to architecture views, and a methodology for ensuring interoperability between the building blocks of the final architecture.
QA Consulting are a UK consultancy and training company whose mission is to improves IT effectiveness within large organisations. The company's focus is on enhancing the skills of people - optimising human capital investment, and providing IT expertise that complements in-house skills. The company is the UK’s No.1 IT Trainer, with 400+ Courses, both Instructor-lead and Internet-based, covering both technical and business skills.
The QA case study explains the company's apporach to using TOGAF, and gives an example of a recent client engagement in the Travel industry using TOGAF.
Statskonsult is the Department of IT Planning & Co-ordination, in the Directorate for Public Management, within the Norwegian Government. It used parts of the TOGAF Architecture Development Method to develop an architecture for an IT infrastructure for the public sector in Norway.
Formats:
Westpac is a major Australian bank who have used TOGAF in collaboration with IBM, in much the same way as the UK Department of Social Security - i.e., as the basis of managing the technology components of a major outsourcing relationship.
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